Labor of Love summary

There was a time when people looking for a relationship would roam the local bars for a partner. But today, most people just log on and swipe right or left, depending on the particular dating app.

From patient, personal searching to digital courtship – how did we get here?

Even today, people who don’t fit the “traditionalist” view that a couple should consist of a man and a woman have to fight for basic rights. A century ago, things were even more challenging – even dangerous.  

In the 1900s, society and the law were openly hostile to the practice of homosexuality. Gay people in America faced sanctions, if not jail time, when they were outed. Indeed, many gay people found themselves behind bars or the targets of public shaming in the papers.

Today it’s not uncommon for people to jump from romantic partner to partner or “hook up” with a person for a short period or even one night, without any expectation of a relationship.

The practice of trying out different partners before committing comes from the 1950s when a new trend in dating became popular. It was called “going steady.”

While “going steady” was all the rage in the 1950s, after the 1960s sexual revolution, rules regarding dating and sexual relationships became far less restrictive.

At the time, young people argued that they deserved the freedom to have sex with whomever they chose. Intercourse wasn’t an act to be enjoyed only once people were married. They felt that sex and sexual desire were natural things and should be pursued however one desired.

In the early 1980s, many people, especially gay men, were being diagnosed with and dying from a series of uncommon diseases. Doctors were perplexed; the one connection among a majority of patients, however, was sexual orientation.

Doctors began referring to this growing epidemic as gay-related immuno-deficiency, or GRID. We now know this illness as AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.