2005: H.B. 1515, which would have made it illegal to fire an employee based on sexual orientation, is defeated in the Washington state senate by a single vote. Two Democratic-party lawmakers join all 23 Republican state senators to defeat the bill.
1966: Members of the Mattachine Society stage a “sip-in” at the Julius Bar in Greenwich Village, where the New York Liquor Authority prohibits serving gay patrons in bars on the basis that homosexuals are “disorderly.” Society president Dick Leitsch and other members announce their homosexuality and are immediately refused service. Following the sip-in, the Mattachine Society … Read More
1948: Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior In The Human Male 1962: Illinois becomes first state in The US to discriminalize homosexual acts between to two consenting adults in the privacy of their homes. 1977: The Nevada State Senate – meeting a mere twenty miles from the nearest legalized brothel and just across the street from the nearest … Read More
1978: 1,500 gays and supporters rally on the steps of the state capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota, in support of the gay rights provision in the city’s human rights ordinance. 1989: In one of the Navy’s worst peacetime tragedies, a gun turret explosion aboard the U.S. battleship Iowa kills forty-seven sailors while the ship is … Read More
1965: Following the previous day’s protest in Washington, D.C., twenty-nine ECHO (East Coast Homophile Organization) demonstrators picket the United Nations in New York City. 1973: The Minnesota State House of Representatives votes 69 to 46 to retain the state’s sodomy laws. 1976: Michael Bennett’s “A Chorus Line” sweeps the Tony Awards, winning nine in all, including one for Best … Read More
1965: Ten gay and lesbian demonstrators picket the White House in Washington, D.C., the first in a series of demonstrations staged this year by the East Coast Homophile Organization (ECHO) 1976: The Lavender World’s Fair – the first all-gay world’s fair, featuring a “Spectacular Grandstand Concert,” “Special Lesbian Guest Stars,” “The World’s Largest Outdoor Disco” … Read More
1977: A New York judge rules that transsexual tennis player Renee Richards is eligible to play in the women’s division of the U.S. Open tennis championships and does not have to undergo a chromosome test. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDu7mvm8CvE] 2001: Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg steps down from an advisory board of the Boy Scouts of America, citing … Read More
1986: Jean Genet dies in Paris at the age of seventy-five. 1990: Screen legend Greta Garbo, eighty-four, dies in New York City. Several obituaries allude to persistent rumors about the reclusive star’s alleged sexual affairs with writer Mercedes de Acosta and various other women.
1955: In the wake of a moral panic brought on by the sexual assault and murder of a boy in 1954, Iowa enacts a “sexual psycopath” law, allowing for the involuntary commitment of anyone charged with a public offense who possessed “criminal propensities toward the commission of sex offenses”. Twenty gay men from the Sioux … Read More
1970: In the first of a series of public “zaps” by New York City gay activists, an appearance by Mayor John Lindsay at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is interrupted by angry protesters shouting “Gay Power!”, demanding his support for an end to job and housing discrimination against LGBT people. His appearance on a local … Read More