Rebecca J. Rosen recalls "the transformative decade between Stonewall and AIDS", an age of activism whose "improbable unveiling" began with a riot sparked by drag queens.
At its core, that transformation was about visibility. During those years, there was the first gay television movie; a sexy on-screen kiss between two men in Sunday, Blood Sunday; and the release of Cabaret, which has been hailed as the first movie that "really celebrated homosexuality." There were gains in politics too: Edward Koch, then serving in Congress, "became one of the first elected officials to publicly lobby on behalf of the homosexuals of Greenwich Village," Kaiser writes. Gay Pride Week was established. Perhaps most significantly: In December of 1973, the board of the American Psychological Association voted 13-0 "to remove homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders."
