1981: The so-called McDonald Amendment-prohibiting Legal Services Corporation from assisting in “any case which seeks to promote, defend or protect homosexuality”-is passed by the U.S. House of Rcpresentatives, 281 to 124. The measure was introduced by ardently homophobic congressman Larry McDonald, a conservative Dcmocrat from Georgia.

1992: The soap opera One Life to Live introduces the first openly gay teen character on American television when Billy Douglas, a high school student, tells his best friend, Joey Buchanan, that he is gay.

2003: The Canadian province of Ontario Appeals Court rules that civil same-sex marriages will be recognized as valid by the government, making Canada the first country in the Americas to honor legal same-sex marriage.