Stonewall on the Potomac: Gay political activism in Washington, DC, 1961-1973

The first organized demonstration on behalf of gay rights in the United States occurred in front of the White House on April 16, 1965. Six years later, Dr. Franklin E. Kameny became the first openly gay American to run for a seat in the United States Congress when he launched his campaign to become Washington’s delegate to the House of Representatives in February 1971. The following year, Washington’s school board voted to include sexual orientation alongside gender and race as a protected category in its non-discrimination employment policy. This victory for gay Washingtonians was expanded on in 1973, when Washington’s city council passed a monumental piece of legislation, called Title 34, which made it illegal to discriminate against gay men, lesbians, and transgender people in the areas of employment, housing, education, and public accommodations. Washington was the first major city in the United States to enact such a law. Far too often, New York and San Francisco are believed to be the epicenters of the gay rights movement in the United States. The Stonewall Riots, which occurred in June 1969 in Greenwich Village, are often credited with launching a gay rights movement in America. This thesis explores how gay Washingtonians engaged with the political process both conventionally and unconventionally during the years before and after the Stonewall Riots. Although it was home to some of the earliest and most important events in the gay rights movement in America, Washington, DC is under-researched and under-represented in the historiography of gay rights in the United States. This thesis aims to help elevate Washington’s place within that history, and to prove that a gay rights movement was well underway in the nation’s capital long before the first bricks and bottles were thrown in front of the Stonewall Inn

Grappling with Structure, Social Construction, and Morality: Towards a Human Rights Approach to Social Problems Instruction

This essay proposes a human rights approach to social problems instruction, whereby social problems are defined as conditions in which a group’s human rights are violated due to their position in a social structure. The approach advocated here draws upon the strengths of the values-structure and social constructionist heritages in the teaching of social problems, while also correcting for some of their individual weaknesses and limitations. The essay closes by outlining what such a class might look like and includes a list of possible teaching resources and a sample class syllabus

Hegemony and Humanitarian Norms: The US Legitimation of Toxic Violence

Despite widespread beliefs that the United States has not used chemical weapons since the distant past of World War I, this study suggests a more complicated history by examining U.S. use of herbicides and incapacitating gases in the Vietnam War and its use of herbicides in the War on Drugs. This article places such use of toxic violence within a context of U.S. hegemony, by which U.S. officials have used contested forms of violence to secure geopolitical goals, but have also been pressured to comply with humanitarian norms or-when there is a gap between norms and state policy-to do legitimating work in order to maintain domestic and international consent. Based on case study analysis of archival and secondary sources, this article identifies three main techniques U.S. officials use to legitimate contested forms of violence. These techniques are defensive categorization, humanitizing discourse, and surrogacy

The Voices of Low-income African American Single Mothers as Potential Agents for Change: Education for Transformative Learning

AbstractMany African American single mothers have embarked on an academic journey, which oftentimes symbolizes the desire of these mothers to fight against structural and personal forces that have prevented them from achieving life goals, one of which is moving beyond poverty. Despite their efforts, this population continues to encounter barriers to access, retention, and completion of their educational endeavors. There is much literature documenting public and political discourse surrounding poverty policy and the dominant imagery created by this discourse that influence policy decisions. However, is this discourse taking space from individuals who most need to talk? Historically, this is a population that has been greatly affected by poverty policies and associated discourse. The purpose of this study is to describe how ten African American single mothers experience transformative learning while participating in a post-secondary education program in the era of welfare. The single mothers narratives speak to their personal experiences and ways of knowing that are unique to their positionality in American society. Their voice can serve as a bridge that connects their experiences and needs to policymakers and leaders and assist in designing policies and programs that will effectively address the barriers encountered by this population. This is a qualitative study using a phenomenological methodology and the theoretical framework of Transformative Learning, Race-centric Transformative Learning, Critical Race, and Black Feminist Thought to inform the study. Data will be collected using semi-structured oral history interviews. Life change/transformation in the context of welfare is the phenomenon of importance for this study. The following research question will guide the study: What are the lived experiences of African American single mothers as learners in a post-secondary education program in the context of welfare

The Power of the Puff: Mary Robinson’s Celebrity and the Success of Walsingham

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Gambling on Gaming: Mary Robinson’s Literary Censures of the Fashionable Vice

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