What do we mean by the term, ‘gay rights’?
It is not quite understood when a person’s sexual identity and the fight to live as oneself began, but while doing research it appears that in the US, it began per the website Gay Rights ‑ Movement, Marriage & Flag | HISTORY it states, “In 1924, Henry Gerber, a German immigrant, founded in Chicago the Society for Human Rights, the first documented gay rights organization in the United States. During his U.S. Army service in World War I, Gerber was inspired to create his organization by the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, a “homosexual emancipation” group in Germany.
Gerber’s small group published a few issues of its newsletter “Friendship and Freedom,” the country’s first gay-interest newsletter. Police raids caused the group to disband in 1925—but 90 years later, the U.S. government designated Gerber’s Chicago house a National Historic Landmark.”
Some have thought it was earlier when during the Harlem Renaissance Drag Balls were the vouge. That all said, gay people under the LGBTQ umbrella had until the early 1970s stayed hidden and found a community that tried to not be detected as it was illegal in almost every city/state to engage in same sex affairs - even holding hands or kissing was a chargeable offense.
This website narrows down to Oregon, which became a State in 1859. There’s quite a history within its own boundaries. Here is what has been found thus far (and it is not complete) on Gay Rights in Oregon.
Also check out Gay and lesbian rights movement on the Oregon Encyclopedia website.