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Honor a Gay/Lesbian Hero

Discussion in 'Current Events, World News, & LGBT News' started by Sylver, Feb 4, 2010.

  1. Sylver

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    I want to start a thread that recognizes those LGBT heroes who have made it possible for us to be out in the open today. I think many of us take for granted just how much effort and suffering it took for the "fighters" who came before us to advance gay rights to the point where they are today, along with the activists who continue to press for our rights today. This is a way for each of us to say "Thanks" to these pioneers and activists who fought and still fight for the rights we enjoy.

    *******

    My personal hero has always been Sir Ian McKellen;

    http://www.mckellen.com/

    And the support group he founded in the UK;

    http://www.stonewall.org.uk/

    Here's a man who is a giant in theater and more recently in film, and who was knighted by the Queen for his work. He was in the closet for a very long time, but when he finally came out, he came out in force. He has since become one of the most visible gay rights activists in the world, and he uses his renown to raise LGBT issues whenever he can.

    Sir Ian McKellen, I salute you for your work on behalf of the LGBT community! :thumbsup:
     
  2. Emberstone

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    Ellen.

    She presents a realistic view of gay people. She, other than her short hair perhaps, is not playing stereotypes at all. She is a normal and down to earth person as you could hope to meet. She is open and honest about who she is, and makes no apology.
     
  3. GhostDog

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    Evelyn Hooker. She was a straight woman, however, her psychological research is basically one of the main reasons homosexuality was declassified as a mental disorder. (Her influence was such that she was considered an "honorary homosexual" by many.)

    She was doing this research during the 1950s, at the height of McCarthyism, when gays and lesbians were being arrested, committed to institutions, actively rooted out of the government, forced to out each other, and having their lives destroyed over it. Medical opinion at the time held that one could not be a well-adjusted, functional person and be homosexual. You were gay, or you were healthy.

    But Evelyn Hooker conducted an experiment, comparing psychologically normal (i.e., not a criminal or in a mental institution*) homosexual males to normal heterosexual males, via three different psychological tests. The conductors of the experiment were asked to identify which subjects were homosexual, and which were heterosexual.

    They couldn't.

    A second researcher later repeated the experiment, a little more rigorously, and repeated the results.

    The idea that homosexuality was not a mental disorder was a revolutionary one. All the research that had been done previously had assumed that it was. Her research, along with that of other researchers like Kinsey, resulted in a paradigm shift that led other researchers to approach it differently. If you research something assuming it is a disease, and all your experiments are geared towards that idea, it will look an awful lot like a disease, after all.

    It still took a while for the APA to declassify it as a mental disorder, but this was a pivotal piece of research that helped them even consider the issue in the first place.

    I'm ashamed to say I didn't know anything about her at all before I had to read about her for class. Yet, my life has directly benefited from her work, as have so many of ours.

    We owe ya one, Mrs. Hooker. <3

    *Which is the sample on which all previous research on homosexuality had been done, which only reinforced the idea that it was some kind of disease.
     
    #3 GhostDog, Feb 4, 2010
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2010
  4. dromadus

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    OSCAR WILDE

    A famous man in the public eye; writer and playwright who simply lived his life less in the closet than his contemporaries. His trial on sodomy charges ended his career and got him imprisoned for two years. He wasn't demonstrating or protesting, simply living and as openly as possible for the 19th century.

    He is an icon to be looked up to and admired. :eusa_danc:
     
  5. Connor22

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    John Barrowman, he's out he's proud, he's famous and he kissed david tennant on TV that's a hero in my books
     
  6. paint

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    Brendan Burke :thumbsup:

    RIP
     
  7. dromadus

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    Check out Morris Kight and Frank Kameny on Google. They were important leaders in the movement when I was still a kid. Because the second Republican nominating convention was planned for San Diego for the reelection of Richard Nixon, I went to Chicago to a national conference that was called by the Gay Activist Alliance of New York. GLF of San Diego wanted to invite our community to help make a strong national gay presence among other protest groups. While there I was privileged to have worked with both these men on writing the first national platform document on the goals of the gay movement (there were 4 of us chosen to write the draft, but I can't remember the last guy's name). It was called the 44 Points if I remember correctly. They were brilliant minds behind so much stuff. Check them out. At this conference we adopted the platform and the first agreed upon national gay symbol which had just been originally adopted by the GAA of NY: the Lambda. So FYI, the origin of that symbol is not well known. The planned protests were so intimidating that the Republicans moved their convention to Florida where they said security would be better LOL (!)(!)(!)
     
    #7 dromadus, Feb 9, 2010
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2010