History By Susan Stryker Summary

Homosexuals have suffered over decades from the antihomosexual society. The period of 1960s witnessed many pictures of cultural resistance. Susan Stryker talks about the violence, gays faced during that period, in her paper Transgender History Homonormativity, and Disciplinarity. She writes: “In the streets of the Tenderloin, at Turk and Taylor on a hot August night in 1966, Gays rose up angry at the constant police harassment of the drag- queens by the police. It had to be the first ever recorded violence by Gays against police anywhere.” (Stryker, 151). Stryker writes about one of the very first liberation movements of gays. The fact that this is the first recorded incident against the police shows how much offending gays received from the police . Gays were shown as sinners and criminals to the society. Despite the harsh treatment gays got from the police, they did not give up their rights and equality. Their persistence continued and they formed large organizations, from the street gathering and marches, called “The old GAY LIBERATION FRONT in San Francisco, and is today called the GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE.” (Stryker 151). These organization were founded right after stonewall

Ann said: “I do think members of the police in that era had a blind spot when it came to the gay community. The mentality of those times allowed people and not just the police to dehumanize anyone whom they could dismiss as a sexual deviant, as a lesser member of society. By dehumanizing them, they could justify their repression with laws that kept them segregated and through the use of force.” (43). This interview was done in June 2015. This shows that even people in the 2000’s still think the same about the police, even if they are not homosexuals like Ann Bausum. The segregation gays faced during the 1960’s was seen by everyone, but not the police, who purposely used their power against