The LGBT+ rights groups that formed in the U.K. Marriage law and other anti-discrimination measures have only changed within the past decade. But it wasn’t until 2003 that “ Section 28”-a law that effectively prohibited the discussion of LGBT+ issues in schools-was repealed. two years earlier, when parliament passed a limited decriminalization bill. The Stonewall Riots followed a different kind of breakthrough moment in the U.K. It unabashedly uses the term gay, and uses provocative biological iconography that challenged dominant discourses on gender and sexuality. Diverging from the quietism of groups like the Mattachine Society, new campaign groups crafted an aesthetic that was bold, highly visible, and uncompromising.įor example, Gay Liberation Front banners like the one pictured below featured in the 1970 Christopher Street Parade, which is often recognized as the first pride march. For centuries, the Queer community had been confined to the shadows. With little organization and few resources to draw on, graphics were initially handmade out of necessity.Īs time went on, this graphic style came to represent the reality and authenticity of LGBT+ identities and demands.
The graphics of campaign groups in the years that followed the Stonewall Riots showed that this was a campaign built from the ground up.
This was reflected in real-time by a plea painted by the Mattachine Society on the boarded-up windows of the Stonewall Inn following the riots: Before the breakthrough moment of 1969, these organizations tended to use names that obscured their purpose, and their public campaigning tended to be conciliatory and gradualistic.īut the defiance shown during the Stonewall Riots set the stage for a shift in the tone and visual language of LGBT+ campaigning, and represented a cultural changing-of-the-guard within the gay rights movement. during the 1950s and 1960s, such as the Mattachine Society, took a quiet approach to campaigning. The gay rights organizations that formed in the U.S.A. So the fight for social respect and legal equality continues, with fresh challenges to be faced both at home and around the world.īlack, White, and Bold: the Campaigning Visuals of LGBT+ Design Meanwhile, the stigma and oppression facing the global LGBT+ community are extreme and shocking. Same-sex marriage is still a contentious issue in many developed countries, and many other inequalities remain unaddressed. Given the level of oppression and criminalization that the LGBT+ community faced only a few decades ago, it could be tempting to think that today we live in a different time, and that these issues have been addressed. Pro-gay street protests continued in the following days, catching politicians and law enforcement off-guard. The unprecedented pushback that police encountered became known as the Stonewall Riots, and began to transform LGBT+ life from a subculture to a social movement. The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village was raided so often that bar staff had devised special methods of hiding alcohol, so that they could resume trading as quickly as possible following a raid.īut on 28 June 1969, one of those raids was met with unexpected resistance. The protests and civil unrest that followed lasted several days, and finally brought LGBT+ issues into the public eye. In Manhattan, police regularly raided establishments known to be popular with the LGBT+ community. The associated social stigma was extreme, leading to high rates of mental illness and homelessness-problems that persist today. Most jurisdictions still criminalized and pathologized minority sexual orientations and gender identities. It might seem like ancient history in countries where relative tolerance of LGBT+ identities is now common, but back in the 1960s things were very different. Let’s start with a reminder of what the movement is about, and why it remains as essential today as it was in 1969.
So, following on from our series of posts about design history, we’re taking this opportunity to look at the impact of that event on the design language of the LGBT+ rights movement as it progressed over the past five decades. 2019 marks an important anniversary, both in the United States and around the world: it’s 50 years since the “Stonewall Riots”, a moment which came to symbolize the spirit of the ongoing campaign for LGBT+ equality.