1975: The Arizona State House of Representatives votes 37 to 3 to pass an “emergency measure” specifically banning same-sex marriages.  Two weeks later, the Colorado Attorney General also rules that gay and lesbian marriages are illegal and orders Clela Rorex, the Boulder, Colorado county clerk who had issued a marriage license to two gay men in March 1975, to stop issuing licenses to same-sex couples who apply for them.

1981: Four gay men are beaten-one to death-when six North Carolinians wielding logs and shouting “We’re going to beat some faggots!” lay siege to a gay sunbathing area along the Little River near Durham.