Dylan Gardner
May 6, 2013

Intro to Sociology Per. IV

San Giovanni

Social Movement Research Paper

Whether or not an individual would like to accept the fact, the Gay Rights Movement has taken the United States by storm in the last one hundred years and has receied many influential, popular, and famous new advocates. America as a whole is a very sports driven country. Pride is taught to be based off of ones accomplishments in the American society. What better place to accomplish masterful feats than in sports? With that being said, many athletes and sport icons have shown their support thus helping the Gay Rights Movement along immensely in recent years. Through the use of these iconic figures and their ability to voice opinions to large amounts of fans, the Gay Rights movement has progressed through multiple key stages almost making homosexuality not be something to fear, but rather something as normal as a heterosexual relationship.

On December 10, 1924 America was just beginning the movement we all understand today as the Gay Rights Movement. Henry Gerber of Chicago, Illinois founded the Society for Human Rights that would later go on to publish the first American publication for homosexuals named Friendship and Freedom. Unfortunately, due to political pressure the society had to disband. The movement just began there. As many other movements Gay Rights had just hit its first bump in the road metaphorically speaking. Previous to advances in science homosexuality was considered a behavioral illness and because there was no actual research done, this idea was generally accepted. That was of course until Biologist and Sex Researcher Alfred Kinsley published his own findings in 1948 in his book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Kinsley’s studies concluded that homosexual tendencies are not restricted to just those who define themselves as