Recently, we’ve had major discussion in Ireland around civil partnership and marriage equality, a situation which would have been unthinkable even ten years ago. Let’s not forget that our “perverse tendencies” were only decriminalised in 1993, which is shockingly recent.

Although there is still a way to go, life hasn’t always been so kind to the gays, a fact which was brought home when I recently watched the 25th anniversary edition DVD of “Before Stonewall: The making of a gay and lesbian community.”

I think that knowing and learning about LGBT history is hugely important: Stonewall was a milestone, but not the beginning. It was an important milestone on a long journey. But what was life like for 20th century gays before 1969? “Before Stonewall” is a wide-ranging documentary which sets out to explore the answer to this question, through first-hand accounts and original footage, from a US perspective.

The film tells us that from the early decades of the century to the 1930s there were always queer clusters – vibrant social scenes, even under prohibition – dependent of course on who you were, where you were. These areas were in the larger cities of the US, such Harlem, New York, in the east and San Francisco in the west. These areas attracted bohemian types, liberals, artists, intellectuals and – of course – the gays. In many ways, this is still the same, even today.

The rise of Hitler in Europe obliterated what we might now call the gay and lesbian communities of cities in Germany, France and elsewhere. WWII, paradoxically, provided an opportunity for women in the US to enter the workplace, gain financial independence, and find each other. As a result, in some cities, gay bars began springing up where lesbian and gay military and Ministry of Defence employees were concentrated.

Eventually, political opposition to lesbians in the home-front ranks of the US army were no match for the sheer numbers of dykes keeping the war effort going. Johnnie Phelps (great name) was a member of the WAC battallion which she estimates was “97% lesbian”. She was one day called into her commanding officer’s office and ordered to “ferret out” the lesbian element in the batallion. To her CO, who was none other than one General Dwight D. Eisenhower, she replied:

I said, “Well, Sir, if the General pleases, I’ll be happy to do this investigation for you, but you have to know that the first name on the list will be mine.” And he was kind of taken aback a bit. And then this woman [Eisenhower’s secretary] standing next to me said, “Sir, if the General pleases, you must be aware that Sgt Phelps’s name may be second on the list, but mine will be first.” And I looked at him and I said, “Sir, you’re right, there are lesbians in the WAC batallion. And if the General is prepared to replace all the file clerks, and all the section commanders, all the drivers, everyone in the WAC batallion” – and I think there were about nine hundred and eighty-something.

He must have done well to remember that, given the footage of the US army-commissioned drag show, starring well-known drag queens who had been enlisted into the military for the war.

After the war ended, supposed “traditional norms” were re-imposed on society. Returning male veterans took the jobs back from the women, women were forced back into the roles of housewives and mothers, and everyone was expected to get married (hetero style) and move to newly-invented suburbia a.s.a.p.

A growing conservatism began to take hold of the US. Yet for a fleeting moment before the 1950s, given the realisation of the horrors of the atrocities of WWII, beatniks and queers began to assert themselves. Names such as Kerouac, Vidal, Burroughs, and Kinsey came to prominence.

But then, at the end of the 1940s/beginning of the 1950s, there was a sudden U-turn when a new administration – and the paranoia of a new Senator called Joseph McCarthy – closed its grip on US society. Commies, queers, dissidents, subversives, deviants were actively pursued, whether or not they existed. A connection between Communism and homosexuality was made and an effective purge of federal employees followed. Obviously Dwight’s enlightenment by Sgt Phelps was short-lived, as he signed the Executive Order for the Stasi-like interrogations and investigations.

Nevertheless, in 1950, a small group of brave men formed the Mattachine Society. This was the first gay organisation ever established. This was the beginnings of any kind of recognisable LGBT movement.

In addition to sponsoring discussion groups and fighting police entrapment, some members began the USA’s first homosexual magazines, Mattachine Review and One.

The Mattachine Review was instrumental in finding for Dr Evelyn Hooker “well-functioning” gay males for psychological review. She found that there were almost no numerical differences between gay and straight males who had superior mental well-being.

Around the same time, a group of lesbians founded The Daughters of Bilitis in San Francisco, whose founders included Del Martin.

At great personal and professional risk to its publishers, the first lesbian publication, The Ladder, came into being. For many women of the time it was their only link to other lesbians. In the days before the internet, this helped to end the isolation of many lesbians in small-town America.

The identities of butch and femme are explored, including pressures from other lesbians to fit into the particular role. At times, in order to go out on a date, it was easier and safer for one partner to really butch it up, and for both to try to pass themselves off as a straight couple. Audre Lorde explains that the lesbian population – the “gay girls” – were simply reflecting the society around them. And lesbians didn’t just reflect the prevailing gender roles. Racism transcended the queer boundaries, too.

Another key development was the publication of lesbian pulp fiction: from trash novels, such as “The Twisted Ones” to classics written by and for women such as “Odd Girl Out” by Ann Bannon. Other writers included Vin Packer (Marijane Meaker) who wrote “Spring Fire” and Marion Zimmer Bradley.

As a background to Stonewall, it’s important to know that in the 1950s and 1960s, it was routine for the police in New York to back a paddy wagon up to the door of a gay bar, and simply round up those inside, regardless of who they were or how they identified. Lists appeared in the newspapers the following day with names and details of each person arrested. Think shooting fish in a barrel – and then criminalising each of them – and you’ve got it.

Accompanying this atmosphere, the 1960s saw the emergence of a strong civil rights movement, Black Power, hippies and women’s liberation. For lesbians, the Women’s Liberation Movement was a place where they could safely assert themselves while (hopefully) avoiding the levels of abuse and invective they may have experienced if they were presenting themselves as lesbians in similar terms. In many cases, the leaders of women’s liberation movements were lesbians, although not always openly.

“Before Stonewall” is a warm, touching and engaging production, featuring relateable interviewees. Each contributor presents familiar stories of coming out, yet from another time and place. The film features a fascinating cast of real-life characters, including some familiar faces, plus the first fag-hag, and in my opinion the gayest man in the world, and the butchest lesbians in the world. They are fabulous!

• Before Stonewall: The making of a gay and lesbian community (Amazon.co.uk)