The importance of gay liberation, both on a personal and a social level, was discussed by George Chauncey, professor of history at the University of Chicago, in his lecture entitled "Why Come Out of the Closet? Secrecy, Authenticity & the Shifting Boundaries of the Public and Private Self in the 1950s and 1960s." This lecture was one of The Rahv, Hughes, Manuel and Marcuse Memorial Lecture Series which is sponsored by the departments of History, English and Women's Studies. The lecture was held Feb. 5 in the Rappaporte Treasure Hall. Chauncey is the author of "Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940" (Basic, 1994), which won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award and the Merle Curti Social History Award from the Organization of American Historians, as well as the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and Lambda Literary Award. He is currently working on "The Strange Career of the Closet: Gay Culture, Consciousness, and the Politics from the Second World War to the Stonewall Era," which serves as a historical commentary as well as a social commentary on gay male institutions and everyday life.

Chauncey explained that when speaking about gay liberation, it should be kept in mind that it wasn't merely gays coming out to heterosexuals but also to themselves. He said that coming out in the 1950s and '60s was a political, psychological and moral issue. According to him, many men during this period lived a life full of depression. Hundreds of raids on "gay" bars, restaurants, bath houses and parties were just some of the ways that showed how extensive policing was during these two decades.

Chauncy said that in order to achieve acceptance within straight circles many gays led a "double-life" as well as devising practices, tactics and codes that would only be understood within gay circles to communicate in hostile settings. Many strides were made during the 1950s and '60s, including Stonewall which for gay, lesbian and bisexual activists signifies quite possibly the most important, single landmark in the worldwide struggle for gay rights.

Most chroniclers, Chauncy said, of the homosexual rights movement, trace the beginnings of the movement's militant phase to 1969 and New York City's Stonewall Bar. There, for the first time on record, homosexual patrons fought back when Stonewall was raided by New York City policemen, who came hoping to arrest gay individuals for engaging in then illegal homosexual acts.

Chauncy said after that incident and during the following years, it did not make sense to many liberated gays why non-liberated gays would lead an excruciating double-life. The reason, however, many gay men remained in the closet, Chauncey said, was, "They didn't think they were hypocritical ... it was not because they wanted to hide ... wasn't because they wanted to be heterosexual, they just didn't want to be homosexual." These men were affected by the shame they were led to believe they should see in their actions.

Yet, according to Chauncey, there were also many gay men that found pleasure in leading a double-life. They enjoyed the diversity it provided for them and it was almost as if they belonged to a secret fraternal order by living a secret life, he said. Many older homosexuals opposed the rise, because they believed that the protection they received through the double-life would not compare to the liberation they would feel after coming out. It was not only fear that kept gay men in the closet, but they felt that it was less burdensome and less emotional to do so, Chauncey explained.

Due to these differences in opinion, many crusaders of varying levels have emerged in the fight for gay liberation. Today, the bond that gays once shared has been redefined yet again. The gay liberation movement really reflected a whole generation shift and has created its own history in not only the gay world but the entire world, Chauncey concluded.