1970: Chicago Gay Alliance separates from the local Gay Liberation Front (GLF), declaring in a position statement that GLFs political agenda is too broad to be effective in the struggle for gay and lesbian civil rights. 1974: The National Gay [later: and lesbian] Task Force and other lesbian and gay activists persuade major consumer advertisers … Read More
1965: In San Francisco, thirty people picketed Grace Cathedral to protest punitive actions taken against Rev. Canon Robert Cromey for his involvement in the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, an alliance between LGBT people and religious leaders. 1970: In Los Angeles, Gay Liberation Front demonstrators persuade bar owners to allow gay patrons to hold hands. … Read More
1970: On the CBS Television series Medical Center, a medical researcher announces, “I am a homosexual.” Although his “condition” is portrayed as unfortunate, the program is acclaimed as the first sympathetic treatment of a gay man in an American TV drama. 1998: The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Abel v. United States … 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
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
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
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.
1970: “Homosexuals in Revolt” is a front-page story in The New York Times. The article reports “a new mood now taking hold among the nation’s homosexuals. In growing numbers they are publicly identifying themselves as homosexuals, taking a measure of pride in that identity and seeking militantly to end what they see as society’s persecution … Read More
1970: Huey Newton, leader of the Black Panthers, expresses his support of the Gay Liberation movement. 1983: La Cage aux Folles opens on Broadway to rave reviews and $4 million in advance ticket sales. 2008: The Coquille Indian Tribe in Oregon legalizes same-sex marriage. The state of Oregon does not recognize same-sex marriage but, as … Read More
1970: In New York City, the Rockefeller Five appear in court, but their trial is postponed (charges are later dismissed). Daughters of Bilitis activist Isabel Miller (which is a pseudonym of Alma Routsong) is among the speakers at a rally held after their court appearance. 2011: The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth … Read More