Homosexual Equality Rally in London 1974

      In the 1960s and 1970s Reformist ideas changed homosexuals’ activism. During this time the Civil Rights movement and women’s movement helped fight for the rights of everyone; including Homosexuals. Women took the streets on behalf of issues such as decriminalization of gay and lesbian sexuality. The ladies ignored social conventions by wearing high-heeled shoes, cosmetics, and rejecting to wearing bras. Their attitudes and language went against the norms of society for women. They spoke openly about taboo subjects such as their sexual feelings, which this technique was used to shock polite society. To fight for homosexuals, this rally concentrated on gays and lesbians beginning to establish a special sexual identity, instead of concentrating on mostly legal protection form criminal persecution.For this rally and others like it, gays, women, and ethnic or racial minorities responded to the constitutional rights and universal values arguing that these seemed to only apply to the privileged few and not every individual. 

<Hunt, Lynn, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, R. Po-chia Hsia, and Bonnie G. Smith. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, Vol. C Since 1740. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008.>