Another factor in the development of these significantly homosexual cities involved the ban of gays from the United States military following World War I. After receiving a dishonorable discharge, they were literally just dumped off and left in a port city, often with no money to travel back to their homes or the desire to deal with the shame they had brought to their families. As time went on, things did not get any easier for homosexual people. Persecution of gays and lesbians was widespread into the early and mid-part of the century, typically in the form of police entrapment and brutality. Simply admitting to living a homosexual lifestyle was cause for a person to lose their job and be ostracized by families and communities. By executive order of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, homosexuality became a "necessary and sufficient reason" to fire a federal employee from his or her job thru 1993. And there was no one to help or rectify this situation. (Ford).
In 1950 in Los Angeles, the first homophile political organization or special interest group, The Mattachine Society, was founded by English expat Harry Hay, a musicologist and member of the Communist party USA (CPUSA). Hay is often referred to as the "father of gay liberation". The group took on a cell type organization, at the time popular with secret Communist groups, to avoid prosecution. Their intention was to become "an internationalfraternal order acting as a service and welfare organization devoted to the protection and improvement of Society's Androgynous Minority." (Timmons 145) While the society was short lived, it was influential in some of the first homosexuality based legal cases in America. It was also the base for other groups founded thereafter, such as the Gay Liberation Front and Daughters of Bilatis, which was the first interest group specifically for lesbians. The Mattachine Society drew large amounts of support for the first time in 1952, when it supported and defended a gay gentleman, as well as a founder of the group, Dale Jennings, against charges for lewd and dissolute behavior.
