The movement for gay equality in America has come in four basic stages. Each of these stages made a distinct contribution. Each was marked by its own missteps. Each provoked stiff resistance. Each suffered stinging defeats. But each ultimately advanced the cause and prepared the way for the next stage. With the recognition of same-sex marriages in Massachusetts - the first time a state has done so - we have entered the final stage of the gay rights movement.
Stage 1: Emergence
The first stage of the movement covered roughly the middle of the twentieth century up to the time of the Stonewall riot in New York in June, 1969. We might call this stage "Emergence," since it's when homosexuals began to emerge from the closet and to organize politically for the first time.
The atmosphere in the country during the Emergence period was harshly repressive. Homosexuality was considered not just sinful, but a mental disorder. All 50 states had sodomy laws directed and enforced primarily against gay sex. Raids on gay bars were common. Known homosexuals were forbidden in many states to obtain professional and business licenses. Same-sex marriage was unthinkable.
In the face of repression, a few extraordinarily courageous individuals declared that homosexuals were perfectly normal. They formed the first gay political and educational groups like the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis. It was during this period that the American Law Institute recommended eliminating sodomy laws, and Illinois became the first state to do so, in 1961.
Stage 2: Liberation
Stonewall marked a new and more radical stage in the gay rights movement. We might call this stage "Liberation," since the gay movement appropriated the rhetoric and methods of other "liberation" movements for women and racial minorities. Liberation is also an appropriate moniker for this second stage because the movement emphasized separation from mainstream American society and institutions through unbridled sexual freedom and revolutionary critiques of existing customs and ways of living. For many activists of this period, fighting for marriage would have seemed like a surrender to heterosexual norms.
During the Liberation period, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders, many more states eliminated their sodomy laws, gay publications and organizations mushroomed, the first openly gay officials were elected, and a few localities banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Yet this second stage engendered a ferocious backlash, led by a newly self-conscious movement of social conservatives now known as the religious right. Anita Bryant infamously led successful drives to repeal gay rights ordinances in places like Miami and St. Paul.
Stage 3: Tolerance
The heady and optimistic second stage of the gay rights movement ended with the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s. AIDS soon sapped almost the entire energy of the movement. Gay advocates shifted from emphasizing freedom and separation to emphasizing caring, responsibility, community, and commitment - the preconditions for the development of a marriage ethic. At the same time, the brutal process of dying from a disease identified almost entirely with gay men brought many homosexuals out of the closet for the first time. The protest group ACT-UP, whose antics were sometimes childish and counter-productive, transformed the American medical establishment to be more responsive to patients' needs for care and life-saving drugs.
While some Americans responded to AIDS by calling for quarantines, the predominant reaction was one of sympathy and support. We could call the third stage of the gay-rights movement "Tolerance," since Americans now opposed many forms of discrimination yet a majority remained convinced that homosexuality was morally wrong.
During the Tolerance period, many more civil rights laws were passed, corporate America led the way to the equal treatment of gay couples, and sodomy laws were finally vanquished. Gay couples began to demand benefits, leading to the creation of private and public domestic partnerships and, toward the end of the third stage, civil unions in Vermont. Still, there were reverses, including the codification of the military's gay ban and a federal ban on recognizing gay marriages.
Stage 4: Acceptance?
On May 17, 2004, the day Massachusetts began recognizing same-sex marriages, we entered what I expect will be the end stage of the gay rights movement.
As in each stage of the gay rights movement before this one, gay advocates will be guilty of excesses and will suffer serious setbacks. Beginning this November, we are going to be plastered in a series of anti-gay-marriage initiatives on state ballots around the country. Gay marriage will temporarily win a battle here and there in a few courts, but will overwhelmingly lose. For a time, legislatures will bottle-up or defeat gay marriage bills even in gay-friendly states, like California.
Gay marriage may even lose its toehold in Massachusetts come November 2006, when citizens there may vote on a state constitutional amendment. But I doubt it, and even if we lose in Massachusetts gay marriage will resurface somewhere before long. Having seen that gay marriage causes no harm and brings much joy, Americans will allow it, by fits and starts, to sweep the country.
By the time that happens, perhaps 30 years from now, the need for an organized gay rights movement in this country will be gone. There will still be bigotry and ignorance to fight, in America and around the world, but the heavy political and legal lifting will have been done.
History can't be written before it happens, and there is nothing inevitable about progress. But, if it turns out as I expect, this final phase should be called "Acceptance," since it will end in gays' full inclusion in the nation's legal and social life.