July 1961 – Illinois becomes the first state to decriminalize homosexuality by repealing its sodomy laws. These early years of the movement also saw notable setbacks: the American Psychiatric Association classified homosexuality as a form of mental disorder in 1952. The first chapter of the National Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), founded in 1978 to fight the California Briggs Initiative, an election initiative that would have banned homosexuals from teaching in public schools. The chapter worked diligently and succeeded in persuading Governor Reagan to speak out publicly against the measure. [248] Reagan wrote a comment against the Briggs Initiative in which he wrote, “Be that as it may, homosexuality is not a contagious disease like measles. The prevailing scientific opinion is that an individual`s sexuality is determined at a very early age and that a child`s teachers do not really influence this. [260] In a television interview, Bush said that if he found out his grandson was gay, he would “love his child” but would tell him that homosexuality was not normal and discouraged him from standing up for gay rights. Starting with Massachusetts in 2004, LGBT Americans had earned the right to marry in all 50 states by 2015. In addition, LGBT Americans are explicitly protected from discrimination in employment, housing, and access to public housing in many states and communities. Many LGBT rights in the United States have been established by the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down a state law banning protected class recognition based on homosexuality, struck down sodomy laws nationwide, struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, and prohibited discrimination against gay and transgender employees. In the early 1980s, it was reported that a new disease was transmitted through infected blood and sexual contact, and that risk factors included homosexuality and drug use.
[204] [205] One of the first medical clinics to treat the disease was run in New York City by Dr. Joseph Sonnabend. By 1985, thousands of people had died in the United States. Many LGBT advocacy groups have begun to speak out and raise funds. Other states, however, opposed such reform proposals, arguing that changes to sodomy laws encouraged homosexuality and unnatural behavior.[16] States that adopted the revised OAG experienced huge protests from right-wing religious groups and political interests [16]. States such as Idaho reinstated the previous version of the OAG (which included the criminalization of consensual sodomy), and Arkansas, which adopted the revised OAG, responded to public outrage by recriminalizing consensual same-sex sodomy with the approval of then-Attorney General Bill Clinton.[16] To train the new U.S. Army for the latest military exercises and tactics, General George Washington called on Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730-94), who had been an officer on the German General Staff. Von Steuben fled Germany, where he was threatened with prosecution for homosexuality. He joined Washington`s army at Valley Forge in February 1778, accompanied by two young aides. Steuben became an American general and a senior adviser to Washington.