1982: A federal judge rules that the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s policy of excluding foreign gays from entering the United States is unconstitutional and violates guarantees of free speech and free association. 1984: U.S. News & World Report reports that gay men and lesbians, with an estimated seventeen million potential voters, now make up the seventh largest … Read More
1962: In New York City, Randy Wicker talks listener-supported radio station WBAI into broadcasting a taped program in which seven gay people discuss homosexuality. Widely publicized in the local press, the program is believed to be the first favorable broadcast on the subject in the U.S. 1975: Santa Cruz County, California, is the first US county to … Read More
1983: In the wake of a House Ethics Committee’s recommendation that he be reprimanded for a consensual sexual affair he had ten years previously with a seventeen-year-old congressional page, Representative Gerry Studds publicly acknowledges his homosexuality, becoming the first member of Congress ever to do so. 2011: California governor Jerry Brown signs the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and … Read More
1969: The New York Times notes that filming is under way for the movie version of Matt Crowley’s play The Boys in the Band, which is scheduled for release the following March. 1984: Appearing on a San Francisco talk show, Jerry Falwell offers $5,000 to anyone who can prove he once called the Metropolitan Community Church “vile … Read More
1972: At the Democratic National Convention, Madeline Davis, representing the Mattachine Society of the Niagara Frontier, and Society for Individual Rights leader Jim Foster are the first speakers to advocate lesbian and gay rights at a national political convention. 1984: Walter Mondale chooses New York congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, the first female vice-presidential candidate … Read More
1977: Diversions and Delights, a one-man play starring Vincent Price as Oscar Wilde, has its world premiere in San Francisco. Nine months later, it moves to Broadway. 1984: Boston Mayor Ray Flynn approves a gay rights ordinance that prohibits job and credit discrimination against lesbians and gay men. 1990: Hong Kong repeals its sodomy laws.
1971: The Austrian Parliament decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults. 1972: Ann Arbor, Michigan, passes the first comprehensive gay and lesbian municipal rights ordinance.
1969: The Mattachine Society of New York invites activists to gather in Greenwich Village for the first “gay power” meeting. 1986: New Zealand repeals its laws prohibiting homosexual acts between consenting adults. 2008: The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Thomas Cook v. Robert Gates upholds the constitutionality of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, … Read More
1980: The Democratic Rules Committee states that it will not discriminate against homosexuals. At their National Convention on August 11-14, the Democrats become the first political party to endorse a homosexual rights platform. 2010: United States District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro rules in two separate cases that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is … Read More
1979: Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King win the women’s doubles championship at Wimbledon. 1986: The United States Supreme Court denies certiorari in the case of Baker v. Wade, thereby refusing to review a constitutional challenge to the sodomy law of Texas. 1987: Arizona gay activist Ed Buck begins a recall effort to have Arizona governor Evan Mecham-known … Read More