bihistorygroup: [Know Your Bisexual History]: Photos from joint Street Transvestite Action Revolutio

bihistorygroup:

[Know Your Bisexual History]: Photos from joint Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR)+Gay Liberation Front (GLF) protest for an end of oppressive treatment of LGBTQ Patients at NYC’s Bellevue Hospital (Fall 1970creditRichard C. Wandel).

1. Bisexual Activist Brenda Howard,GLF(standing far left, pigtails + glasses); Gay Activist Bob Kohler,GLF(sitting 2nd left, light hair); Trans*Bi Activist Sylvia Rivera,STAR+GLF(sitting 3rd left, dark hair)
2. Trans*Bi Activist Sylvia Rivera,STAR+GLF
3. Trans* Activist Marsha P. Johnson,STAR

At that time, NYC’s Bellevue Hospital followed prevailing thought that sexuality and gender identity that did not correspond to a narrow and binary view of normative behaviors was a sign of mental illness. Like many institutions they practiced Electroshock Therapy to “cure”bisexual as well as gay/lesbian people and mistreated LGBTQ patients who were simply there for routine medical complaints.

Butall LGBTQ people, including large numbers of bisexual activists,began fighting back and by 1973 the American Psychiatric Association (APA) declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder.

“the meaning of Stonewall has shifted as the assimilations in favor of a ‘we’re just like them’ gay politics have struggled against the radical activists over the legacy of the riot and the broad, multi issue based activism which accompanied it.” ~“History or Myth? Writing Stonewall” by Benjamin Shepard in Lambda Book Report;Aug/Sep2004, Vol. 13 Issue ½