History Lesson: The 1970 American Psychiatric Association Convention

During the recent abortion debate, several people privately bemoaned the demonic and sophomoric tactics of the pro-abortion mob.  They interpreted these actions as another sign of cultural decline.  Unfortunately, this sort of intimidation has a long history among advocates of casual sex.

 A major turning point in the American sexual revolution was the 1970 meeting of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco.  The sexual 'liberationists' of that era were attempting to 'persuade' the APA to abandon their conviction that a number of sexual activities (primarily, but not exclusively, homosexuality) were deviant.  They used the exact same tactics as the pro-Abortion crowd at the Texas Capitol.

Allan Sherman explains this event in his 1973 book Rape of the A*P*E*:

The American Psychiatric Association held it's 1970 convention in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco....In the middle of [the] speech both doors of the Fairmont Ballroom burst open.  Down one aisle marched the Gay Liberation Front; down the other came Women's liberation, both shouting obscenities and throwing brassieres and dildos. (emphasis mine) (262/3)

 Conservative activist Ryan Sorba goes into more detail:

[I]n 1970 the leadership of a faction of pro-sodomy psychiatrists within the APA planned a “systematic effort to disrupt annual meetings of the American Psychiatric Association.” Although politically motivated protests directed at psychiatrists had taken place prior, one can see the beginnings of a coordinated effort to politicize the APA at its 1970 annual meeting in San Francisco....Pro-sodomy activists took over the podium and microphones. Then, Konstantin Berlandt, of the Berkeley chapter of the Gay Liberation Front, “paraded through the hall in a bright red dress. Paper airplanes sailed down from the balcony. With two papers still unread, the chairman announced adjournment.”

 There's nothing new about what we saw at the Texas Capitol two weeks ago.