1950: After months of controversy, the United States Senate authorizes a wide-ranging investigation of homosexuals “and other moral perverts” working in national government.

1973: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (originally titled They Came from Denton High), opens at London’s experimental Theatre Upstairs, where it becomes such a hit that it soon has to be moved to a theater with a seating capacity eight times larger.  The film version goes on to be an LGBTQ cult classic.

1978: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejects an application by Gaysweek magazine to register its name, claiming that it is “immoral.”

1983: The first gay high school in the country, Philadelphia’s Byton High, holds graduation exercises for the class of ’83. Size of the graduating class: three males, one female. The school was started in 1982 for gay teens as an alternative to the public school system.

2011: United States Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan affirms in a letter to educators that gay-straight alliances should be afforded the same rights and protections as any other student-initiated organisation under the Equal Access Act.

2011: The El Paso, Texas city council votes to restore health benefits to the non-married partners of city employees. The benefits had been stripped by a voter initiative in November 2010.