1935: New York University professor Dr. Louis W. Max tells a meeting of the American Psychological Association that he has successfully treated a “partially fetishistic” homosexual neurosis with electric shock therapy delivered at “intensities considerably higher than those usually employed on human subjects.” Max’s presentation is the first documented instance of aversion therapy used to … Read More
1970: Colombia changes “homosexual behavior” from a felony into a misdemeanor, and the maximum penalty is reduced to three years. 1987: The Homomonument, a memorial to LGBT victims of the Nazis, is dedicated at Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1957: The Wolfenden report is published in England. The committee recommends “that homosexual behavior between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offense”. The committee also recommended that the age of consent for sexual acts between men be set at 21, in contrast to 16 for heterosexual and lesbian sex. 1976: Start … Read More
1969: The American Sociological Association issues a public declaration, condemning “oppressive actions against any persons for reasons of sexual preference” and endorses rights of homosexuals and other sexual minorities. It is the first national professional organization to voice support of gay and lesbian civil rights.
1907: Dr. Evelyn Hooker is born. Dr. Hooker published the first empirical research to challenge the notion that homosexuality was a mental illness. Her work was the foundation for an entire field of research that led to removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 1967: Dick Michaels, Bill Rand, and Sam … Read More
1969: West Germany repeals laws prohibiting gay acts between consenting adults-applies to males only as lesbianism was never proscribed by W. German law. 1977: The present-day Log Cabin Republicans organization is founded as the “Gay Republicans” club, a group of lesbians and gays within the United States’ Republican Party. 1979: New Jersey decriminalizes private consensual … Read More
1979: At the start of the Labor Day weekend at the Sri Ram Ashram near Benson, Arizona, the Spiritual Conference for Radical Fairies was organized as a ʺcall to gay brothersʺ by early gay rights advocates Harry Hay, John Burnside, Don Kilhefner, and Mitch Walker. It becomes the birthplace of The Radical Faeries. 2005: In … Read More
1956: American psychologist Evelyn Hooker shares her paper “The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual” at the American Psychological Association Convention in Chicago. After administering psychological tests, such as the Rorschach, to groups of homosexual and heterosexual males, Hooker’s research concludes homosexuality is not a clinical entity and that heterosexuals and homosexuals do not differ … Read More
1867: LGBTQ rights pioneer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs becomes the first self-proclaimed homosexual to speak out publicly for homosexual rights when he pleads at the Congress of German Jurists in Munich for a resolution urging the repeal of anti-homosexual laws.
1951: The Supreme Court of California rules in Stoumen v. Reilly that the mere congregation of homosexuals at a bar was not sufficient grounds for suspending the bar’s liquor license. The ruling came in the case of the Black Cat Bar, a San Francisco gay bar that was the target of a 15-year campaign by … Read More