December 21 in LGBTQ History
1917: In Russia, the Bolsheviks repeal the entire criminal code in favor of “revolutionary justice.” Among the laws nullified are those relating to sex acts between men.
Tag: 1981
December 8 in LGBTQ History
1981: The NYC Gay Men’s Chorus becomes the first openly gay musical group to play at Carnegie Hall with their Christmas concert.
December 1 in LGBTQ History
1989: Alvin Ailey dies from AIDS-related complications.
October 28 in LGBTQ History
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.
October 24 in LGBTQ History
2002: Harry Hay, leader in the early gay rights movement in the United States, co-founder of the Mattachine Society and the Radical Faeries, dies at age 90.
October 11 in LGBTQ History
1981: In Los Angeles, then twenty-one year old Prince opens for the Rolling Stones. He is booed off the stage with taunts of “Faggot!” and “F*cking queer!” 1987: The Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights (aka “The Great March”) takes place in Washington, DC. The march, demonstration, and rally also included … Read More
September 18 in LGBTQ History
1980: The Toronto Board of Education adopts a policy banning discrimination based on sexual orientation while adding a clause forbidding “proselytizing of homosexuality in the schools.” 1981: The film Mommie Dearest opens, simultaneously glorifying and condemning gay icon Joan Crawford. 2003: The bill to repeal Section 28 in the remaining parts United Kingdom (England and … Read More
September 7 in LGBTQ History
1981: Larry Kramer and two friends put up a banner at the Fire Island dock that says “Give to Gay Cancer”. They make only $124. 2011: The United States Department of Health and Human Services issues a finalized guidance memorandum that creates an enforcement mechanism for the policy announced last year by the Obama administration … Read More
August 26 in LGBTQ History
1904: Christopher Isherwood is born in Wyberslegh Hall, United Kingdom. 1981: In California, Governor Jerry Brown appoints Mary Morgan to the San Francisco Municipal Court. She is the first openly lesbian judge in the U.S. 1986: Jerry Smith, former Washington Redskins tight end, is the first celebrity to voluntarily acknowledge that he has AIDS. He … Read More
August 11 in LGBTQ History
1981: Larry Kramer, whose 1978 novel Faggots took gay men to task for promiscuity in pre-AIDS New York, calls a meeting of concerned men in his Greenwich Village apartment. It is a precursor to the organization that will become Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York. 1995: South Korea marks its first Pride Celebration with … Read More