1969: Society for Individual Rights president Leo Laurence and his lover are featured in a photo-illustrated article in the Berkeley Barb. Calling for “the Homosexual Revolution of 1969,” Laurence exhorts gay men and lesbians to Join the Black Panthers and other left-wing groups and to “come out” en masse. 1990: With the opening of the Robert … Read More
1977: On Face the Nation, White House press secretary Jody Powell defends charges that the Carter Administration panders to gay activists by saying, “For an organized group who feel they have a grievance that they are not treated fairly, for them to have a right to put that grievance before high officials and say ‘We … Read More
1973: Gay playwright, Noel Coward, dies in Jamaica at the age of 73. 1975: After the local district attorney’s office rules that there are no county laws preventing two people of the same-sex from getting married, Boulder, Colorado county clerk Clela Rorex issues a marriage license to two gay men. It is the first same-sex marriage … Read More
1985: The Times of Harvey Milk wins the Oscar for Best Feature Length Documentary. Accepting the award, producer Richard Schmeichen thanks his male lover. 1988: Robert Joffrey, founder and artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, dies in New York City at the age of fifty-seven, of what is reported to have been “liver, renal, and respiratory … Read More
1971: In defiance of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, a federal judge grants U.S. citizenship to a 24-year old gay man from Cuba, ruling that an applicant’s homosexuality cannot, in itself, bar a person from becoming a citizen. 1986: William Hurt wins the Best Actor Oscar for his role as an imprisoned homosexual window … Read More
1988: Israel legalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults.
1972: The Equal Rights Amendment, banning discrimination on the basis of sex, passes the U.S. Senate. Opponents of the amendment claim it will destroy the nuclear family, give broad civil rights to homosexuals, and even mandate unisex rest rooms in public. Though by the end of 1972 twenty-two of the required thirty-eight states had ratified … Read More
1961: The United States Supreme Court denies certiorari to Frank Kameny’s petition to review the legality of his firing by the United States Army’s Map Service in 1957, bringing his four-year legal battle to a close. 1970: Twenty-three year old David Bowie marries nineteen year old American Mary Angela Barnett. A few years later, Bowie … Read More
1982: Victor Victoria opens nationwide to generally rave reviews. Blake Edward’s farce, based on a 1933 German film, Viktor und Viktoria features Robert Preston as perhaps the most relaxed and affable homosexual ever scripted into a major Hollywood motion picture. The movie becomes a box office hit and accomplishes what many years of gay liberation … Read More
1971: Idaho decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults, but before the law can take effect, the legislature – under pressure from conservative and religious groups – reverses itself and votes to make them a felony again. 1982: Police raid a Washington, D.C. male escort service, “Friendly Models,” and cart away more than a dozen boxes … Read More