homophobia

The Pendulum of Queer History

by Samuel Huneke

As the Republican Party embraces aggressive transphobia as a political wedge issue, there is historical reason to believe that the strategy will provoke organizing, reform, or even revolution for queer liberation. 

If it's Ineffective and Harmful, Why is Gay Conversion Therapy Still Around?

by Andrea Ens

Conversion therapies endure because their purpose is political, not therapeutic. They seek and symbolize the eradication of LGBTQ people from society and are promoted by groups who want that eradication to happen. 

The Role of US Evangelicals in Radicalizing Ugandans Against LGBTQ Rights

While the accusation that LGBTQ adults are a risk to the safety of children has recently reemerged in American politics, US evangelical groups have been encouraging it in Africa for years. 

Reactionary Media are Fueling Anti-LGBTQ Violence

by Ben Miller

When the media give a platform to the idea that trans people living in public inherently encourages sexual abuse, violence aimed at removing them from the public will follow. The media need to take responsibility for Colorado Springs and call out icitement to violence. 

Forget Apology, the Right is Doubling Down on Inciting Violence Against LGBTQ Americans

by Thomas Lecaque

The campaign of encouraging stochastic terror against LGBTQ communities won't be deterred by a tragedy like the Colorado Springs killings. 

How to Be an Honest Historian

by Imani Perry

"At this historic juncture, teaching history through the study of human relationships is paramount. But that requires all of us, even people who are politically strident—as I admit myself to be—to engage in an earnest and open dialogue about what constitutes a good society and fair treatment. And it also means stomaching some disturbing thoughts."

"Patriot Front" Plan to Attack Pride Shows Connections of White Supremacy and Anti-LGBTQ Politics

The arrest of neonazis in Idaho who planned an attack on a Pride event echoes a 1937 raid on a Miami gay nightclub by the KKK, says historian Julio Capo, Jr. 

Video: When a Protester Hit Anita Bryant with a Cream Pie in 1977

"Thus always to bigots" declared the Des Moines, Iowa protester who greeted Anita Bryant's anti-gay roadshow with a pie to the face. 

Florida Bill Echoes Anita Bryant's Antigay Crusade in the 1970s

Historians Lillian Faderman, Hugh Ryan and Julio Capó, Jr. trace the links between the Christian entertainer's claims that gay teachers threatened children and the effort to portray them as "groomers" for child abuse today. Also, video of Bryant being hit with a pie.

While "Anti-Grooming" Rhetoric Seems to Come from the Fringe, it Can be Influential

by Mical Raz and Paul M. Renfro

The latest culture war battle revives historical efforts to use the law to institutionalize the slander that LGBTQ people pose an inherent danger to children and families. 

Did British Intelligence Try to Undermine Castro's Cuba with Homophobia?

Declassified documents show that one unknown facet of the British effort to undermine communist Cuba was to encourage the spread of homophobic rumors about Raúl Castro.  

The Homophobic Background to Jim Garrison's Persecution of Clay Shaw

by Martin J. Kelly, Jr.

Alecia Long's book argues that Jim Garrison's prosecution of Clay Shaw as a conspirator in the Kennedy assassination was steeped in homophobia and leveraged the defendant's inability to properly defend himself because of the illegality of homosexuality to make up for lack of evidence. 

LGBTQ Documentary “Cured” Debuts on PBS’ Independent Lens

A new documentary revisits the period before the American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1973, and psychiatry endorsed extreme measures to "cure" same-sex attraction. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s #Pride Tweet Conceals a Violent History

by Jessica Ordaz and Alejandra Portillos

"ICE’s message, that immigration enforcement and LGBTQ equality can be compatible, is dangerous because it conceals a violent history of immigration enforcement that has targeted and harmed LGBTQ people in the name of policing borders."

New Trump Appointee to Foreign Aid Agency Has Denounced Liberal Democracy and “Our Homo-Empire”

Merritt Corrigan, USAID’s new deputy White House liaison, has condemned the “tyrannical LGBT agenda” and celebrated Hungary’s right-wing prime minister as “the shining champion of Western civilization.”

In Netflix’s ‘Hollywood,’ One Movie Fixes Racism. Hooray!

Ryan Murphy’s revisionist series is laughably self-satisfied and willfully naïve about complex real-world problems. I also kind of enjoyed it.

Coronavirus: Three Lessons from the AIDS Crisis

by Laurie Marhoefer

The U.S. made serious mistakes when the HIV virus and AIDS emerged. Those errors cost many lives. But our nation learned a few things, too.

How True-Crime Stories Reveal the Overlooked History of Pre-Stonewall Violence Against Queer People

by James Polchin

Today, 50 years after the Stonewall uprising that marks the birth of the modern gay-rights movement, we may understand that violence against LGBTQ citizens has been central to the evolution of that movement. But the history of such crimes tends to be lost. 

President Donald Trump, HIV/AIDS, and Black Lesbian and Gay Activism

by Darius Bost

Trump’s plan to end AIDS within this decade came as a surprise given his history with communities most impacted by HIV/AIDS.

The Dark History of Anti-Gay Innuendo

by James Kirchick

The accusation that Lindsay Graham is susceptible to blackmail is historically groundless, predicated upon the same flawed assumption most people held about gays at the height of the Cold War: that they would commit treason in order to avoid being outed.