1970: Chicago Gay Alliance separates from the local Gay Liberation Front (GLF), declaring in a position statement that GLFs political agenda is too broad to be effective in the struggle for gay and lesbian civil rights.

1974: The National Gay [later: and lesbian] Task Force and other lesbian and gay activists persuade major consumer advertisers to withdraw commercials from a Marcus Welby, MD, episode about a high school boy who is raped by a male teacher. Their achievement is hailed as the first successful protest against alleged defamation of gay men on American Television.

1994: In Canada, Real Menard, a Montreal representative of the Bloc Quebecois, becomes the second MP to come out when he tells reporters that he is “speaking for the community” to which he belongs when he protests the televised statements of another member of Parliament, Roseanne Skoke of Nova Scotia, among which is the claim that “this [gay and lesbian] love, this compassion, based on an inhuman act, defiles humanity, destroys family … and is annihilating mankind.”

1999: The European Court for Human Rights rules that the United Kingdom’s ban on gay military personnel is a breach of human rights, although the court does not have the power to unilaterally lift the ban.

2004: California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signs “SB 1193,” a bill to provide a $10,000 death benefit to the surviving spouse or designated beneficiary of a member of on of the state military reserves (California National Guard, State Military Reserve, or Naval militia). The bill, retroactive to March 1, 2003 allows LGBT partners of military personnel be listed as “designated beneficiary.”