1961: U.S. Fashion designer and gay icon Tom Ford is born.

1982: Iran re-institutes Islamic sharia law, proscribing all same-sex acts. Punishments include 100 lashes of the whip, beheading, and stoning to death.

1970: “Homosexuals in Revolt” is a front-page story in The New York Times. The article reports “a new mood now taking hold among the nation’s homosexuals. In growing numbers they are publicly identifying themselves as homosexuals, taking a measure of pride in that identity and seeking militantly to end what they see as society’s persecution … Read More

1954: Charles Busch, actor and playwright, is born.

1983: Organizers of a Washington march marking the 20th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech announce that no representatives from gay or lesbian rights groups will be allowed to speak.  A group of lesbians and gay men stage a sit-in at the organizers’ office in response.

1979: At Sarnia, Ontario / Port Huron, Michigan international bridge, lesbians on their way to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival are harassed or turned back by US Immigration officials. Formal complaints are laid on behalf of Canadian women by American gay organization, the National Gay Task Force.

1867: In Munich, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs is jeered when he attempts to persuade a conclave of jurists that same-sex love should be tolerated rather than persecuted. He is probably the first to come Out publicly in defense of what he calls “Uranism” (homosexuality). 1992: In Germany, some 250 lesbian and gay couples all over the … Read More

1990: President George H. W. Bush signs the Ryan White Care Act, a federally funded program for people living with AIDS. Ryan White, an Indiana teenager, contracted AIDS in 1984 through a tainted hemophilia treatment. After being barred from attending school because of his HIV-positive status, Ryan White becomes a well-known activist for AIDS research … Read More