1982: An article in the medical journal “Lancet” suggests that there is evidence to show inhaling poppers damages the immune system. 2004: Victoria Dunlap, Republican county clerk of rural Sandoval County, New Mexico, began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, citing lack of legal grounds for denial. 2004: King Norodom Sihanouk, constitutional monarch of Cambodia, … Read More
1974: The Pat Collins Show, a morning program on New York’s WCBS, broadcasts live from the Continental Baths. The station only receives one complaint about the episode.
1966: The first meeting of the coalition of gay rights groups that will become the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations takes place in Kansas City, Missouri.
1989: Chicago’s new gay rights ordinance takes effect. It mandates fines up to $500 for discrimination based on sexual orientation.
1990: Famed pop artist Keith Haring dies from AIDS at 31. Six months earlier he had been quoted as saying, “The hardest thing is just knowing that there’s so much more stuff to do.”
1980: William Friedkin’s Cruising opens nationwide and is blasted by critics (gay and straight) for its depiction of homosexuality, but also, as one critic puts it, “[its] narrative loopholes [and] unconvincing plot twists.” 1983: Lesbian playwright Jane Chambers (A Late Snow, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove) dies of a brain tumor at the age of … Read More
1984: In Sydney, Australia, Elton John marries recording tech Renate Blauel. Close friends claim he has found “a cover, not a lover.” 1988: Three lesbian guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show are introduced as “women who hate men.”
1972: The film version of Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret, based on Christopher Isherwood’s writings about his time in pre-WWII Berlin, has its world premiere in New York City. Unlike the stage version, the film version adheres slightly more closely to the source material and portrays Michael York’s character, Brian (based on Isherwood himself), bisexual. 1990: Thirteen … Read More
1976: Gay actor, Sal Mineo, is stabbed to death in the garage of his West Hollywood apartment building at 8569 Holloway Drive. He is only 37 years old. The crime goes unsolved for a number of years until his murderer, Lionel Ray Williams, is caught and convicted. 1982: Making Love opens nationwide. Producers timed the release of the film with … Read More
1965: At the San Francisco trial of the four people arrested at the Council on Religion and the Homosexual’s New Year’s Ball, the judge orders the jury to find the defendants not guilty. The decision is widely seen as a turning point in the homophile movement’s fight for gay and lesbian civil rights. 1967: In … Read More