Part II: The Early Gay Rights Movement in the US.
1. 1860-1935: "The Movement that did not exist-.
The early gay movement from 1860 to about 1935 developed mostly in Germany and England before it became first suppressed and later almost totally obliterated during Nazism and Stalinism. In the US, there has been apparently no notable organized gay rights activity during the late 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th century. There was some literature on homosexuality from Germany available but it was hard to get. Some of the medical and psychological sort such as Dr. von Kraft Ebbing's "Psychopathia Sexualis- or Dr. Moll's "Contrãre Sexualitãt- for example could only be procured with a physician's certificate. Considering how difficult it was even to obtain literature relevant to homosexuality, it is not surprising there was no important campaigning for gay rights in the US during that time. .
This does not mean however that homosexually did not exist. Xavier Maine, the author of "The Intersexes: A History of Similisexualism as a Problem in Social Life-, which was published privately in Italy, lists "New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, Milwaukee, New Orleans, and Philadelphia as homosexual capitals'" . This is even by modern standards an impressive list.
One of the first and only public gay rights supporters in her time was Emma Goldman, who made speeches all across the US and spoke up for the homosexuals in her "Mother Earth- publication. She wrote about the question of gay rights:.
I regard it as a tragedy that people of a different sexual orientation find themselves proscribed in a world that has so little understanding for homosexuals and that displays such gross indifference for sexual gradations and variations and the great significance they have for living. It is completely foreign to me to wish to regard such people as less valuable, less moral, or incapable of noble sentiments and behavior .
