In response to this persecution, Washington's first effective organization, the Mattachine Society of Washington, was organized in 1961 by activists Frank Kameny, Jack Nichols, Lilli Vincenz, and others. Not associated with the national Mattachine Society, which had briefly sponsored a Washington chapter in the 1950s but which was in disarray in 1961, the new local organization's most visible action occurred in 1965, when it initiated a series of pickets of government institutions, including the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the Civil Service Commission, that discriminated against lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals.

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The Federal vs. Local Government

While the federal government has historically been antagonistic toward the glbtq community, the local District government has been at the forefront of enacting glbtq rights legislation ever since Congress granted limited autonomy to the city in the early 1970s.

In 1973, Washington became the first major city in the country to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, and public accommodations, and in 1976, these rights were extended to include child custody and visitation cases, the first such law in the United States. Lobbying from gay activists also led the city to cut off funding for the police department's morals squad in 1975, effectively ending decades of persecution.

Since the 1980s, however, the federal government has regularly tried to prevent the District from enacting pro-glbtq measures under a provision of the home-rule charter that enables Congress to overturn legislation passed by the D. C. city council. In this way, the government prevented the District from repealing its law for twelve years, finally relenting in 1993, and blocked a domestic partnership law until 2002--nine years after it was passed by the city council.

Congress continues to prevent the District from spending funds to implement a clean needle exchange program to combat the spread of HIV and from enforcing a ruling by the D. C. Commission on Human Rights that ordered the Boy Scouts of America to reinstate two openly gay local scout leaders.

National Headquarters

As the national capital and the center of political power, Washington, D. C. has become home to a number of organizations important to the glbtq movement for equality. The Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, GenderPAC, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, the AIDS Action Council, the National Minority AIDS Council, and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) are just a few of the organizations headquartered in the capital.

Because Washington is the nation's capital, it has also been the site of the most important national demonstrations for glbtq rights, including four Marches on Washington.

Conclusion

Discussions involving Washington, D. C. and glbtq people often focus on the lack of support, if not outright hostility, of the federal government toward gay and lesbian rights. But the capital has vibrant glbtq communities with rich histories that deserve to be documented. A bookstore, medical clinics, bars and restaurants, and political and cultural organizations are just a few of the lively community institutions enjoyed today by glbtq residents of Washington.

Glbtq African Americans frequently experience racism in predominantly white glbtq communities and homophobia in heterosexual black society, but the multiple oppressions faced by black glbtq people are now being recognized.

"Domestic partnership" is the generic term for a variety of forms of legal and institutional recognition of same-sex couples that fall short of same-sex marriage.

Marches on Washington in support of the rights of glbtq people have been a significant part of the modern movement for equality.

McCarthyism, which attempted in the late 1940s and early 1950s to expunge Communists and fellow travelers from American public life, made homosexuals the chief scapegoats of the Cold War.

Both parades and marches have served to render the glbtq community visible; whereas marches typically attempt to effect political change, parades and pride events affirm identity and community.

First used to refer only to anal intercourse, sodomy was progressively defined by the Church Fathers, and many later lawmakers, to include all sexual acts that could not result in procreation.

Sodomy laws, which provided the legal basis for police harassment of sexual minorities, were conclusively overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 2003, after more than half a century of efforts at reform.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the photographs of Joan Elizabeth Biren, better known as JEB, defined and set the standard for lesbian feminist image making in the United States.

The Boy Scouts of America, formed to rehabilitate masculinity in the early twentieth century, has constantly seen itself as under attack or at least challenged by homosexuality or effeminacy, and its official policy excluding homosexuals has recently led to several legal and social challenges.

Lesbian poet and novelist Rita Mae Brown, best known for the highly successful Rubyfruit Jungle, resists neat categorization.

American activist and academic Charlotte Bunch is a key player in the movement for international human rights for women.

The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) works to end discrimination and violence prompted by gender identification and stereotypes.

The largest glbtq political organization in the United States, the Human Rights Campaign has emerged as the leading national organization representing glbtq concerns.

One of the founding fathers of the American gay rights movement, Frank Kameny helped radicalize the homophile movement, preparing the way for the mass movement for equality initiated by the Stonewall Riots of 1969.

One of the earliest American gay movement organizations, the Mattachine Society was dedicated to the cultural and political liberation of homosexuals; but in the face of McCarthyism, it adopted conservative policies of accommodationism.

The oldest continuously operating national glbtq interest group, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has played a significant role in the development of the glbtq movement for equal rights.

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), an American organization of some 460 affiliated chapters and 80,000 members, works to support glbtq people and their loved ones.