Gays and Lesbians in the 70s

During the 1970s, not only did the face of sexuality changed because of the music, the television, etc. But different relationships started to emerge, like gays and lesbians. 

The 1970s and also the 1980s were times of tremendous feminist activism and much of that work was accomplished by lesbian feminists. An important development in the 1970s was the formation of a strong gay and lesbian movement in the downtown Santa Cruz community.
The first gay and lesbian meeting at UCSC took place in December 1971, when a symposium entitled "Homosexuality: Exploring an Alternative in Sexual Expression" was organized at Cowell College and attracted over 120 people from UCSC, Cabrillo College, and the Bay area. Many of the posters publicizing the symposium at UCSC were ripped down. UCSC's first gay (but still unofficial because they lacked a faculty sponsor) student organization, the Gay Students Union (GSU) formed at the symposium, and began meeting in the Stevenson College Jolly Room (which later became the Stevenson Coffeehouse).
Also, in December 1971, UCSC student Steve Kraft wrote an article for the campus newspaper, City on a Hill Press entitled: "Gay Lib: Dispelling Uptightness." In this article he talked about the formation of an eight-person gay, lesbian, and bisexual household in downtown Santa Cruz.

As the gay movement at UCSC blossomed in the 1970s, it was crossfertilized by other political movements at UCSC, which were also spaces where students were coming out. UCSC was the site of a powerful antiapartheid movement which advocated the divestment of the UC Regents from South Africa. While the story of GSU, LAGMU, and GALA is a vital part of the history of the GLBT community at UC Santa Cruz, it is not the only story. There are many stories, many communities, many overlapping histories.

The thriving feminist movement also inspired an active lesbian (and to a lesser-extent, feminist gay male) community at UCSC. With the birth of lesbian feminism in the early-1970s, many lesbians began to break off from both mainstream feminist organizations such as the National Organization of Women (NOW), as well as from gay liberation organizations. These divisions between gay men and lesbians were visible at UCSC as early as the 1971 conference at Cowell College, at which one woman was quoted as saying, "We all know that when the shit is flying we'll all support each other. But I'm sick and tired of giving more energy to helping men. After the way they've ripped me off!" Another complained, "Christ! The most chauvinistic thing I can think of for a man to say to me: 'Help me understand how I oppress you.' They should work that out among themselves!" Lesbians began to withdraw from GALA.
In 1974, the UCSC women's studies program was founded by a collective of students, many of whom taught student-directed seminars such as The Women-Identified Novel in Historical Perspective that included significant lesbian content. This program later grew into today's women's studies department, one of the strongest in the United States.

Another important development in the 1970s, was the formation of a strong gay and lesbian movement in the downtown Santa Cruz community. Due in part to the influence of UC Santa Cruz, the community had changed from a conservative beach resort town to a nationally recognized center of progressive activism.

In 1975, Santa Cruz County became the first county in the United States to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation for its civil service employees. That same year, the first Gay Alcoholics Anonymous meetings formed in Santa Cruz, along with the Gay Counseling Collective and Gays Over Forty. In 1978, Santa Cruz gay and lesbian activists organized against the Briggs Initiative (California Proposition 6) and Anita Bryant's national Save Our Children campaign, both of which targeted gay and lesbian teachers. This was also the year in which San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk was murdered by Supervisor Dan White. Both UCSC and Santa Cruz community members traveled up to San Francisco to join 40,000 others in a candlelight vigil the night of Milk's death. The following year, on May 21, 1979, after a jury found White guilty of manslaughter instead of first degree murder, Santa Cruz gays and lesbians joined what has become known as the White Night Riot, a violent protest in San Francisco. The battle against the Briggs Initiative, and Harvey Milk's assassination were some of the dramatic landmarks in this remarkable decade of modern GLBT history.

University of California, Regents. "Gay Liberation and Lesbian Feminism." Out in
the Redwoods . 2003. US Santa Cruz. 9 Dec. 2008 .

The 70s were the years were the most changes of sexuality took place. It was the time when everyone started to "come out of their shells". Others just wanted to follow others steps, like actors, actresses and models. Gays and Lesbians began to create their own societies and spread their "love" throughout the Country. From restaurant to counseling groups, the new sexual groups, gays and lesbians, began to spread their sexuality and change its face. Because of these movements ,in today's generation we can see homosexuals shows on TV, radios, etc. Not only that, but everyday we can see them on the streets holding hands and sharing their sexuality with the world. Before the 1970s, gays and lesbians were not known as they are today, they didn't have the rights that they currently have and most importantly, they weren't treated as a normal human being.