1676: Governor Edmond Andros of New York issues an order extending the 1665 sodomy law of New York into what now are Pennsylvania and Delaware. 1965: Emmy winning actor, producer and writer, Scandal‘s Dan Bucatinsky is born in New York CIty. 2002: In Switzerland, voters in the canton of Zurich vote 63% to 37% to give … Read More
1955: In San Francisco, four lesbian couples, including Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, found the Daughters of Bilitis, the first homophile organization exclusively for women. 1982: The Oklahoma Supreme Court awards custody of two boys to their divorced gay father, declaring homosexuality isn’t in itself grounds for ruling a parent unfit. 1993: Married … with Children‘s Amanda Bearse talks … Read More
1958: In New York City, lesbians, including Barbara Gittings, hold the first Daughters of Bilitis New York meeting at the offices of the Mattachine Society of New York. The chapter is the first lesbian organization on the East Coast. 1973: In Houston, Billie Jean King defeats “male chauvinist” Bobby Riggs in tennis’ “Battle of the Sexes” … Read More
1964: Organized by activist Randy Wicker, a small group picketed New York City’s Whitehall Street Induction Center after the confidentiality of gay men’s draft records was violated. This action has been identified as the first gay rights demonstration in the United States. 1970: In Sydney, Australia, John Ware and Christabel Poll, founders of the newly … Read More
1980: The Toronto Board of Education adopts a policy banning discrimination based on sexual orientation while adding a clause forbidding “proselytizing of homosexuality in the schools.” 1981: The film Mommie Dearest opens, simultaneously glorifying and condemning gay icon Joan Crawford. 2003: The bill to repeal Section 28 in the remaining parts United Kingdom (England and … Read More
1972: M*A*S*H premieres on CBS introducing the world to Corp. Max Klinger, televisions first on-going transvestite (but still heterosexual) character. 1979: California Governor Jerry Brown appoints Stephen M. Lachs to the Los Angeles Superior Court making him the nation’s first openly gay judge. 1986: Arch-Conservative Antonin Scalia joins the U.S. Supreme Court. 2007: The Maryland … Read More
This weekend, the Lavender Effect launched our IndieGogo campaign for our Oral History Project. The Oral History Project (OHP) will record testimonies from the LGBTQ community and supportive allies who were integral participants or witnesses to a historic event or movement. These recordings will be produced at the highest standards possible (i.e. USC Shoah Foundation‘s guidelines). … Read More
1994: At the insistence of the U.S., the United Nations suspends the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) from observer status because of allegations that ILGA’s members include groups that promote pedophilia. 2004: Manitoba becomes the fifth of Canada’s provinces or territories to have legal same-sex marriage. Neither the federal nor provincial governments opposed the … Read More
1969: Gay Power, “New York’s First Homosexual Newspaper” and the first publication to emerge from the post-Stonewall movement, publishes its premiere issue. 1988: ACT UP protests MoMA’s show of graphic photos of people with AIDS by celebrated photographer Nicholas Nixon, who was neither gay nor afflicted. “The artist makes people with AIDS look like freaks, … Read More
1953: Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Female goes on sale reporting that “2 to 6% of females, aged 20-35, were more or less exclusively homosexual in experience/response.” 1970: In New York City, Gay Activists Alliance stages the first of an orchestrated campaign of “zaps” in protest of continuing police harassment, heckling Mayor John … Read More