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
1975: The Arizona State House of Representatives votes 37 to 3 to pass an “emergency measure” specifically banning same-sex marriages. Two weeks later, the Colorado Attorney General also rules that gay and lesbian marriages are illegal and orders Clela Rorex, the Boulder, Colorado county clerk who had issued a marriage license to two gay men … Read More
2006: Ernie Fletcher, governor of the U.S. state of Kentucky, rescinds a 2003 executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the public sector. 2011: The Maine Human Rights Commission finds that a rental agency that repeatedly delayed an application from a transgender applicant illegally discriminated against her based on her … Read More
1967: Loving v. Virginia is argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. A Virginia law against interracial marriages would be struck down, with the Supreme Court declaring that marriage is a “fundamental civil right” and that decisions in this arena are not those with which the State can interfere unless they have good cause. 1972: The Missouri Supreme … Read More
1982: An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association claims that gay men who take the passive role in anal intercourse may have a twenty-five to fifty times greater risk of anal cancer than heterosexual men. 1986: Georgia outlaws gay bathhouses. 2009: Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signs a domestic partner benefits bill effective … Read More
1947: The Institute for Sex Research, popularly known as the Kinsey Institute after researcher Alfred C. Kinsey, is incorporated in Indiana. 1990: After a five-year, highly publicized battle with AIDS, Ryan White, eighteen, dies of the disease in a hospital in Indianapolis, one month before his high school graduation. White, a hemophiliac, had contracted the … Read More
1970: Midnight Cowboy wins the Oscar for Best Picture, becoming the first (and only) X-rated film to do so. It is also the first major Hollywood film to feature an onscreen sexual encounter between two men. The film’s director, John Schlesinger, also gay, wins for Best Director. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnFoaj8utio] 1976: Civil rights crusader and U.S. Congresswoman Barbara … Read More
1955: Rob Epstein, Oscar-winning producer of The Times of Harvey Milk, Common Threads, and The Celluloid Closet is born in New Jersey. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL_vrb4-6_0]