Homosexuality In America,” -- or-- How I found out I was “gay” at age 16, 1964.

[MikeW]

From this point the article begins to get into “the legal” question . . . a very serious concern.

These formal homophile groups share the same problems -- small memberships, insufficient funds and the hostile atmosphere in which they try to promote their cause. Although membership rolls of various societies are held confidential, homosexuals are reluctant to join simply because they fear that their names may reach the hands of the police.

Homosexuals everywhere fear arrest -- and the public exposure that might go with it. In Los Angeles, where homosexuals are particularly apparent on city streets, police drives are regular and relentless. The running battle between police and homosexuals has produced bitter feeling on both sides. Leaders of homophile societies in Los Angeles and San Francisco have accused the police of “harassment, entrapment and brutality” toward homosexuals.

And what the hell was all THIS about ?? . . .

Actually there is no law in California -- or in any other state -- against being a homosexual. The laws which police enforce are directed at specific sexual acts. For the most part these laws make it a crime for two people to engage in any sex activity which could not result in procreation.

It is also unlawful in California to solicit anyone in a public place to engage in a lewd act. Under these laws, the police are able to make arrests. In many cases a conviction results in a homosexual being registered as a “sex offender” (along with rapists) in the state of California.

Inspector James Fisk says that the 3,069 arrests for homosexual offenses made in Los Angeles last year represent merely a “token number” of those that should have been made. “We’re barely touching the surface of the problem,” Fisk says. “The pervert is no longer as secretive as he was. He’s aggressive and his aggressiveness is getting worse because of more homosexual activity.”

So, there you have it ladies and gentlemen! The one *primary* difference between then and now is that homosexuals were being arrested by the thousands in cities for soliciting or engaging in “lewd” (non procreative) sexual acts! And, as you see by the quote from the LA police Inspector, we were considered “aggressive perverts,” a real problem and threat to society!

To me at age 16, this was like, WOAH, WTF?!?! Holy crap!

This was my first inkling that *I* -- little ol’ me, a white boy who grew up on a farm in the rural Midwest -- *was apart of an oppressed class*. :eek: I had never thought of myself as a member of a minority who, just like “colored folk,” had to endure not just imaginary but real, bona fide, legal repression. And to be clear about it, this wasn’t just about getting arrested. It was about being publicly humiliated, having your sex life shoved into the spotlight, identified, outed, branded a “sex offender” and potentially much worse.

Why “worse”? Well because at this time homosexuality was considered a psychological disorder. Your family could commit you to a mental institution for being a queer.

In the 1940s, homosexuals were also involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities by their families, with the hospitals promising that the patient would eventually leave the facility cured of their "sexual illness." Not only were they not allowed to leave, but they were often subjected to cruel and inhumane treatments, including castrations, torture drugs, shock therapy, and lobotomies.

The surgeon most credited for the rise of lobotomies was Dr. Walter Freeman, who was best known for his transorbital lobotomy, or "ice pick lobotomy." In this procedure, the surgeon entered the prefrontal area through the patient's eye sockets, using an instrument that resembled a common household ice pick. Out of the thousands of lobotomies Freeman performed, up to 40 percent of them were on homosexuals.

Source.

Getting arrested wasn’t just a matter of to getting swept up in a police raid either. You had to be careful, because you never knew if that guy giving you the eye was into you or was an under cover vice cops. There is a whole back and forth conversation between such a cop and his mark in the article.

The article concludes with a ton of grown-up stuff that, as a kid, didn’t interest me much. I read it but didn’t really understand it.

In retrospect, it foreshadowed the kinds of political struggles that would be unfolding in the future. For example, it sites the British Wolfenden report suggesting that . . .

. . . ”Homosexual behavior between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offense.” In its argument, the committee held the view that “there must remain a realm of private morality and immorality which is, in brief and crude terms, not the law’s business.”

The article goes on to outline some of the ways this report was being picked up and used to change state penal codes. It mentions the question of the morality of homosexuality in relation to religion. It mentions the military attitude toward homosexuals:

Homosexuals are unwelcome in the armed forces, where forced segregation of the sexes develops more pressure for deviate activity (as it does in prisons). Many homosexuals are drafted for the service -- and quickly weeded out when they have been identified. Homophile groups have protested the unfairness of a system that forces a man into military servce and then rejects him with a “less-than-honorable” or “dishonorable” discharge because of a psychological condition over which he has not control. But the DOD official explains the policy: “If we didn’t throw them out, we’d be condoning homosexuality. The services’ position has to be that homosexual practices prejudice morale and discipline.”

I wasn’t 18 yet, but in the not too distant future, I would have to register for the draft. If I dropped out of college after that, my sexuality and the Vietnam War would be on a collision course.

The article even mentions a Supreme Court decision to hear an employment discrimination case brought against the federal government by a homosexual, “charging that the government has , on grounds of personal immorality, denied him a job for which he was qualified.”
It concludes . . .

Today, as homosexuals become more visible to the public, there is a need for greater knowledge about them. What science has found out is discussed in the article following.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

To be continued . . .