The use of the word homosexuality in mainstream news headlines before Stonewall was not pretty, not pretty at all, depicting us as everything from danger perverts to be feared to silly nuisances to be dismissed.
Early headlines ranged from “Homosexuality A New Menace” in the 1917 Los Angeles Times to “Debutants Bow at Local ‘Pansy’ Ball” in the 1931 Afro-American. Even the kindly advice columnist Ann Landers was skeptical of our sanity.
