making it legal throughout the nation for consenting adults to have sex with a person of the same gender. While the 1990s had seen the rise of social conservatism and two major federal restrictions on equality for gay people with the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy and the Defense of Marriage Act. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was dropped in 2011, and all prohibitions of same-sex marriage were dropped in 2015. Official church positions on LGBT issues have been slower to change and mostly among mainstream Protestant denominations. Communities The Mattachine Society In 1950, a gay community in Los Angeles with communist ideals founded the movement "The Mattachine Society". It began in 1940 when a man named Harry Hay idealized the term homophile. "The Mattachine Society" originated the name "International Bachelors Fraternal Orders for Peace and Social Dignity." The new name was founded by the influence of European masked performers. The main goal of this movement was to go against discrimination and create a strong identity within the gay community. The goals started to change into assimilation instead of advocation and the group started to decline from being a national organization to smaller chapters in the 1950s. The Lesbian Movement In 1955 in San Francisco, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon founded Daughters of Bilitis, part of "the homophile movement," to create lesbian community. The organization was intended to be a safe space for lesbians and to advocate. It was influenced by The Mattachine Society and other groups. In the early 1970s, lesbian activists created their own communities and institutions including self defense schools. Many of their activities were separate from the broader feminist movement and from the gay men's movement. In the late 1970s, the lesbian movement dwindled due to the economic recession, and it generally integrated with the broader gay movement. History of Gay Rights Movement in U.S. Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries was founded in 1970 by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson in New York City. They housed and fed LGBT street youth and sex workers, and advocated for social change for these communities. Rights LGBT rights in the US have evolved over time and vary on a state-by-state basis. Sexual acts between persons of the same sex have been legal nationwide in the US since 2003, pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas. Anti-discrimination laws vary by state. Same-sex