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

1971: NYC Dept. of Consumer Affairs recommends repealing law that prohibits homosexuals from being employed in or frequenting the city’s bars, cabarets and dance halls. 1998: Matthew Shepard dies from his injuries sustained in a brutal attack just six days earlier.

1971: W.W. Norton publishes E.M. Forster’s Maurice, written in 1913, but dedicated by Forster “to a happier year.”

1982: Former Los Angeles Dodger outfielder Glenn Burke comes out in “Inside Sports”, becoming the first professional baseball player to do so.

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

1971: The Austrian Parliament decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults. 1972: Ann Arbor, Michigan, passes the first comprehensive gay and lesbian municipal rights ordinance.