2008: Strauss v. Horton, a legal challenge to Proposition 8, is filed.

2008: California voters ban same-sex marriage with Proposition 8, becoming the first U.S. state to do so after marriages had been legalized for same-sex couples. The amendment to California’s constitution passed by a margin of 52% to 47% and overturned the state supreme court’s ruling in May in favor of same-sex marriage.

1999: Aaron McKinney is found guilty of murdering Matthew Shepard. He is sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.

2010: Voters in El Paso, Texas pass an initiative that strips health insurance benefits from the unmarried partners of city employees. Supporters say that their intention was to target gay city employees and their partners.

1999: Nancy Katz becomes the first openly-lesbian judge in the U.S. state of Illinois.

1955: Three men are arrested in Boise, Idaho on charges of lewd conduct and sodomy, inciting a “moral panic” in Boise that resulted in 16 arrests, 15 convictions and almost 1,500 people being questioned.

1968: Popular silent film star, Ramon Novarro, is murdered in his North Hollywood home by Paul and Tom Ferguson, aged 22 and 17, whom he had hired from an agency to come to his home for sex.

2004: Germany expands the rights of same-sex couples, allowing registered domestic partners to adopt each other’s children.

1824: The Marquis de Custine is beaten and left for dead after propositioning a male soldier in Saint-Denis. The scandal forces him out of the closet, but he recovers and lives the rest of his life as an open ‘sodomite’ with his partner Edward St. Barbe. Custine maintains a successful social life in Paris.