Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America

by Stacey Abrams

The development of an identity politics for the LGBTQ+ community has stretched over nearly 150 years in America, from the 1870s forward. As the acronym demonstrates, no single profile adequately describes the range of issues faced by lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queer, or other nonbinary individuals in the United States. Forced for most of American history into the shadows of daily life, the emergence of a social movement got its initial start during World War II, layering upon the underground freedom experienced in metropolitan areas like New York City in the 1920s. During World War II, the first iteration of “don’t ask, don’t tell” led to members of the LGBTQ+ community enlisting in the armed forces, and a relaxation of social constraints permitted more open behaviors. Backlash quickly followed, highlighted by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s crusade against homosexuals employed by the federal government in the 1950s. The public demand for equality for the LGBTQ+ community coincided and intersected with the rise of the civil rights movement. The Stonewall movement, which began with a raid of a gay club in 1969, launched a more sustained effort to gain equality in mental health treatment, health care, housing, employment, marriage, and adoption. What remains a tension in the LGBTQ+ movement are the conflicts that race, class, and gender expose when wrapped into the national debate on sexual orientation.