1977: Soap premieres on ABC with then unknown Billy Crystal playing Jodie Dallas, one of TV’s first prominent and sympathetic gay characters. 1996: In the U.S. Congress, a bill that would ban employment discrimination against lesbians and gay men is defeated by one vote. 1997: The newly crowned Miss America, Kate Shindle, vows to dedicate her … Read More
1964: Chip Kidd, U.S. Author, Editor, and Graphic Designer, perhaps best known for the iconic cover of the novel Jurassic Park and Batman: Black and White, is born near West Lawn, Pennsylvania. 1970: Lola, the Kinks song about transvestism enters the Billboard Top 40, where it stays for 12 weeks. 1992: Anthony Perkins, star of Hitchcock’s Psycho, dies in Hollywood … Read More
1961: KQED in San Francisco broadcasts The Rejected, the first made-for-television documentary about homosexuality on American television. 1976: California Appeals court upholds lewd conduct convictions of two men arrested for “kissing in public” in a parked car at a freeway rest stop. Both are ordered to register as sex offenders.
1996: The United States Senate passes the Defense of Marriage Act (85–14) and rejects prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation in the private sector (49–50). 2002: In Du Toit v Minister of Welfare and Population Development, the Constitutional Court of South Africa rules that same-sex couples must be allowed to adopt children jointly.
1985: In the New York City borough of Queens, parents launch a school boycott after the city allows a second-grader with AIDS to attend classes. 2010: Judge Virginia A. Phillips of the United States District Court for the Central District of California ruled in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States of America that the “don’t … Read More
1983: The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rules that federal immigration authorities cannot prevent lesbians and gay men from entering the country purely on the basis of their sexuality. 2008: Rachel Maddow becomes the first openly gay anchor of a major prime-time news program in the United States as host of The Rachel … Read More
1981: Larry Kramer and two friends put up a banner at the Fire Island dock that says “Give to Gay Cancer”. They make only $124. 2011: The United States Department of Health and Human Services issues a finalized guidance memorandum that creates an enforcement mechanism for the policy announced last year by the Obama administration … Read More
1935: New York University professor Dr. Louis W. Max tells a meeting of the American Psychological Association that he has successfully treated a “partially fetishistic” homosexual neurosis with electric shock therapy delivered at “intensities considerably higher than those usually employed on human subjects.” Max’s presentation is the first documented instance of aversion therapy used to … Read More
1970: Colombia changes “homosexual behavior” from a felony into a misdemeanor, and the maximum penalty is reduced to three years. 1987: The Homomonument, a memorial to LGBT victims of the Nazis, is dedicated at Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1957: The Wolfenden report is published in England. The committee recommends “that homosexual behavior between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offense”. The committee also recommended that the age of consent for sexual acts between men be set at 21, in contrast to 16 for heterosexual and lesbian sex. 1976: Start … Read More