How did the Gay Liberation Movement make improvements for gays and lesbians in the last quarter of the twentieth century?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: The ideal answer will include:
1. Following the Stonewall Riots in 1969, the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activist Alliance formed, with branches and offshoots in cities across the country.
2. Homosexuals were encouraged to affirm their sexual identity with pride, not shame.
3. The American Psychiatric Association stopped classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder.
4. By 1980, half the states had repealed their sodomy statutes.
5. The Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that private consensual sex was a matter of personal liberty.
6. Following the AIDS crisis, gay organizations channeled their energies into caring for the ill, promoting safer sex practices, and fighting for more public funding to help conquer the disease.
7. An estimated 600,000 gays and lesbians took part in a march on Washington in 1987 to stimulate gay consciousness.
8. A National Coming Out Day is celebrated in October to encourage homosexuals to proclaim proudly their sexual identity.
9. In 2000, Vermont legalized civil unions between individuals of the same sex, enabling gays and lesbians to receive all the legal benefits available to married couples.