Queers in the Pre-Stonewall Media

The Stonewall Riots in June of 1969 started the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) rights movement in the United States. It took four more years for "homosexuality" to be removed from the Diagnosis and Statistical Manual (DSM). This study looks at the 20 years before the Stonewall Riots, exploring how LGBTQ people were discussed in the media. Using content analysis on more than 300 articles from the New York Times (1950-1969), we explore the evolution of language used to describe members of the LGBTQ communities, through the McCarthy era (1950-1956), the decriminalization of homosexuality in the UK in 1967, and social movements, like the riots in the summer of 1969.