1961: Illinois becomes the first U.S. state to repeal its sodomy law. 1988: A major, 175-picture retrospective of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs-“Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment”-opens at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.
1940: The Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, is born. 1967: In the United Kingdom, nearly ten years after the publication of the Wolfenden Report, the Sexual Offenses Act takes effect, decriminalizing private homosexual acts in England and Wales. The age of consent for homosexual acts is set at 21, compared to 16 … Read More
1989: In a response to politcal outcries over a Robert Mapplethrope exhibit, Jesse Helms leads a fight in the U.S. Scnate to curtail National Endowment for the Arts funding for “obscene or indecent art,” including artworks that depict “sadomasochism, homoeroticism, the exploitation of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts.” The measure is overwhelmingly adopted … Read More
1970: The Vatican issues a statement reminding the faithful that the Roman Catholic Church considers homosexuality a moral aberration. 1979: Hundreds of demonstrators show up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to protest location shooting for William Friedkin’s new film, Cruising, which deals with a series of grisly mutilation murders within the city’s gay leather community. 1985: In Paris, … Read More
2011: The first legal same-sex marriages are performed in the state of New York. New York City records 659 marriages, a one-day record for the city.
1975: World-famous evangelist Billy Graham states that he is in favor of gay men being ordained as ministers, though he hedges on the question of whether women should enjoy the same right.
1980: In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons extends the Sexual Offenses Act to cover Scotland, decriminalizing most private consensual sex acts between men.
1980: Thirty-two-year-old Italian Enso Francone, in Moscow for the summer Olympics, chains himself to a fence in Red Square to protest Soviet persecution of homosexuals. With Western journalists looking on, a group of KGB officers moves in and drags Francone away. 1981: George Hamilton plays the twin roles of Don Diego Vega and his look-alike gay brother … Read More
1845: In Paris, a mob attacks a group of about 50 men arrested by police in a sweep of the Tuileries Gardens, a popular cruising area. 1951: The “Missions and Purposes” of the Mattachine Society are ratified under a California corporation. 1981: Despite having privately acknowledged her bisexuality to officials from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Czechoslovakian- born … Read More
1848: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Co-organizer Lucretia Mott invite several hundred women to Seneca Falls, New York, for the first Women’s Rights Convention. About 100 sign a “Declaration of Sentiments” modeled on the U.S. Declaration of Independence. The document marks the beginning of organized feminism in the United States. 1921: The U.S. Senate Naval Affairs Committee issues … Read More