The word homophile is an alternative to the word for homosexual or gay. The homophile movement also refers to the gay rights movement of the 1950s and '60s.
The term homophile is favoured by some because it emphasizes love ("-phile" from Greek φιλία) rather than sex. Coined by the German astrologist, author and psychoanalyst Karl-Günther Heimsoth in his 1924 doctoral dissertation "Hetero- und Homophilie," the term was in common use in the 1950s and 1960s by homosexual organizations and publications; the groups of this period are now known collectively as the homophile movement.
The term homophile began to disappear with the emergence of the Gay Liberation movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s, replaced by a new set of terminology such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, although some of the homophile groups survived until the 1980s, 1990s and even the present day.
Read more about Homophile: History of The Homophile Movement, Current Uses of "Homophile", List of Organisations and Publications of The Homophile Movement, Unrelated Meaning of "Homophile", in Laboratory Experimentation On Animals