Burdened by the mid-20th century art world's homophobic tendencies, gay artists of this time period embraced these political ideals, which sparked their development of bodies of work challenging traditional notions of sexuality, gender, love and eroticism.
However, by the 1960s gay political organizations began publicly protesting the mistreatment of gay communities, and arguing for equal treatment and the decriminalization of homosexuality. Toward the beginning of the 20th century, homosexuality was deemed immoral and punishable by law, necessitating that most homosexuals remained closeted and forcing gay communities to evolve separately from, yet in parallel to, the culture-at -large. Within the United States, response by the culture-at-large (mainstream culture) towards this sexual orientation underwent a radical transformation within the last one hundred years. Abstract : History is fraught with critical reactions toward homosexuality.
