Chicano Groups In The 1960s

The first decade of the 60’s looked very much like the 1950’s. The economy was good, society was still child centered, and the suburbs were still growing. Even though everything was fine and dandy and it seemed like nothing was going on, there were people still fighting for their rights. Throughout the 1960s there were multiple groups that fought for specific things. The four groups that will be discussed throughout this paper are Chicanos, African Americans, and gay and lesbians. The paper will talk about what each group is fighting for, why and if it was successful or not. The first group that will be discussed are the Chicanos. In the 1960s, the life expectancy for Mexican American migrant workers hovered around age 50, while their infant
According to Jennifer D. Keene, “In the 1960s the Civil Rights Movement and the hippie counterculture assault on sexual taboos inspired some gay people to “come out of the closet” and challenge the ways that American society ostracized them.” (Keene et al. 2015, pg.28.3.2) During the Stonewall Inn, the gay rights movement came into action on June 28, 1969 due to a gay male fighting back at a New York City police raid. This incident electrified the gay community and cause them to gather outside Stonewall the next morning chanting “Gay Power.” Organizations such as Gay Liberation Front and other small gay rights groups formed gay support groups on campuses, lobbied for antidiscrimination laws, marched in Gay Pride parades, and followed the “sit-in” model of the Civil Rights Movement by staging “kiss-ins” in restaurants. The increased visibility of the gay rights movement provoked a conservative response. Fundamentalist churches opposed legislation granting gays legitimacy, lobbying strongly for laws that prevented homosexuals from teaching in public schools. Gay rights groups ridiculed the notion that gay men, because they preferred men as sexual partners, were pedophiles. A more insidious challenge loomed ahead, however. Heterosexual Americans uniformly disparaged gays as deviant and morally reprehensible. The American Psychiatric Association categorized homosexuality as a “mental disorder,” a position it did not jettison until 1973. Taking the psychological stereotyping a step further, Time magazine viewed homosexuality as “a pernicious sickness.” “If you were gay and you accepted those societal norms, then you were at war with yourself,” stated one college student as he recalled his own struggle to come to terms with his homosexuality. Exposure as a homosexual or lesbian could mean losing everything—job, spouse, friends, and social