The first hurdle in the [[homosexual "rights"]] movement was overcoming the progressive reform of the 1950s that treated criminals as victims of psychological disorders. By the 1960s [[homosexuality]] was considered by experts and the [[court]]s as both a [[crime]] and a [[mental illness]]. Due to claimed "ethical concerns" over locking people up on the basis of a psychological disorder (but in reality, due to political pressure imposed by radical homosexual activists<ref name="AmericanActivism">{{cite book |title=Leaders from the 1960s: A Biographical Sourcebook of American Activism |author=David De Leon |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1994 |pages=253–259 |isbn=978-03132-74145 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oHYD-XUiSBEC |quote=Early on Kameny developed an absolute belief in the validity of his intellectual processes and a habit of challenging accepted orthodoxies.}}</ref><ref name="Bestiality OK">{{cite web |url=https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/prominent-homosexual-activist-says-bestiality-ok-as-long-as-the-animal-does |author=Peter J. Smith |title=Prominent Homosexual Activist Says Bestiality OK "As Long as the Animal Doesn’t Mind" |publisher=LifeSiteNews.com |date=4 Jun 2008 |accessdate=13 December 2015 |quote=}}</ref>), the psychiatric profession dropped the diagnosis of homosexuality as a mental disorder in the early 1970s. In the 1980s the states began de-criminalizing homosexuality with the idea that law enforcement resources could be better utilized elsewhere, the [[war on drugs]] for example. With homosexuality "normalized" now, by the 1990s the [[Equal protection]] clause was being invoked for a group in the [[coalition]] of [[identity politics]]. | The first hurdle in the [[homosexual "rights"]] movement was overcoming the progressive reform of the 1950s that treated criminals as victims of psychological disorders. By the 1960s [[homosexuality]] was considered by experts and the [[court]]s as both a [[crime]] and a [[mental illness]]. Due to claimed "ethical concerns" over locking people up on the basis of a psychological disorder (but in reality, due to political pressure imposed by radical homosexual activists<ref name="AmericanActivism">{{cite book |title=Leaders from the 1960s: A Biographical Sourcebook of American Activism |author=David De Leon |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1994 |pages=253–259 |isbn=978-03132-74145 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oHYD-XUiSBEC |quote=Early on Kameny developed an absolute belief in the validity of his intellectual processes and a habit of challenging accepted orthodoxies.}}</ref><ref name="Bestiality OK">{{cite web |url=https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/prominent-homosexual-activist-says-bestiality-ok-as-long-as-the-animal-does |author=Peter J. Smith |title=Prominent Homosexual Activist Says Bestiality OK "As Long as the Animal Doesn’t Mind" |publisher=LifeSiteNews.com |date=4 Jun 2008 |accessdate=13 December 2015 |quote=}}</ref>), the psychiatric profession dropped the diagnosis of homosexuality as a mental disorder in the early 1970s. In the 1980s the states began de-criminalizing homosexuality with the idea that law enforcement resources could be better utilized elsewhere, the [[war on drugs]] for example. With homosexuality "normalized" now, by the 1990s the [[Equal protection]] clause was being invoked for a group in the [[coalition]] of [[identity politics]]. |