1976: The owner of a Hoboken, NJ dinner theater, the Clam Broth House, cancels an
upcoming production of The Boys in the Band after learning that the play is about homosexuality. “The Clam Broth House is a family restaurant,” says manager Arthur Pelaez, “and I do not feel that this kind of play is the type of entertainment we want.” A few years later, television commercials showed just what kind of family establishment it was.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk2Vq2ajtgc]

1982: The United Nations Human Rights Committee, in the case Hertzberg et al. v. Finland, refuses to “question the decision of the responsible organs of the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation that radio and TV are not the appropriate forums to discuss issues related to homosexuality, as far as a programme could be judged as encouraging homosexual behaviour”

1990: Newsweek‘s March 12, 1990 cover story, “The Future of Gay America,” draws an unusually heavy amount of reader mail in this week’s issue, with about 60% of it antigay. Complains one reader, “Homosexuality is a perversion and is unnatural to man’s common sense.”