Gay Rights History

Thirty six years ago this morning, riots between police and patrons of the New York City gay bar, The Stonewall Inn, sparked what many consider as the birth of the gay rights movement. Yet some are beginning to draw attention to protests that happened four years earlier; when men and women took to the streets of Philadelphia, risking their careers and their privacy by coming out and protesting for equal rights. Since then a lot of progress has been made yet many in the Gay and Lesbian community say that there is still much to do. Today on the Exchange we look at the history of the Gay rights movement from Harry Hay to the Daughters of Bilitis to Civil Unions. Laura's guests are Jonathan Ned Katz, Executive Coordinator of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University and founder of the first Gay and Lesbian Studies program at the City College of San Francisco. Marla Brettschneider, Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at the University of New Hampshire and coordinator of UNH's Queer Studies Program and Frank Kameny, Long time gay activist, organizer of some of the first gay demonstrations and protests in 1965 at the White House and at Philadelphia's Independence Hall. He coined the expression "Gay is Good" in 1968.