1985: In a letter to ultra-conservative American Coalition for Family Values, former Los Angeles Police Chief and state assembly member Ed Davis responds against anti-gay politicians and pressure from the group that he take a public pledge refusing donation or endorsements from gay political groups. “I close this letter,” he says, “by asking you to … Read More
1976: By a vote of 6 to 3, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of Virginia’s sodomy laws. 1985: The Los Angeles Times comes out in favor of gay rights and urges the U.S. Supreme Court to take a stand on more gay-related issues. 1988: Georgetown University, the nation’s oldest Roman Catholic university, loses … Read More
1973: Gay playwright, Noel Coward, dies in Jamaica at the age of 73. 1975: After the local district attorney’s office rules that there are no county laws preventing two people of the same-sex from getting married, Boulder, Colorado county clerk Clela Rorex issues a marriage license to two gay men. It is the first same-sex marriage … Read More
1985: The Times of Harvey Milk wins the Oscar for Best Feature Length Documentary. Accepting the award, producer Richard Schmeichen thanks his male lover. 1988: Robert Joffrey, founder and artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, dies in New York City at the age of fifty-seven, of what is reported to have been “liver, renal, and respiratory … Read More
1977: The ABC sitcom, Three’s Company, premieres. The “sit” in the sitcom is that an unemployed straight chef (John Ritter‘s Jack Tripper) moves in with two female roommates, but in order to satisfy the landlord’s suspicions that there might be sexual impropriety, pretends he is gay. The show stays in the Nielsen Top Ten for … Read More
1985: William Hoffman’s play about AIDS, As Is, opens at New York City’s Circle Rep Theater. Less than six weeks later, Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart opens at the Public Theater. 1987: AIDS advocacy group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) is formed in response to the devastating effects the disease has had on … Read More
1976: Mayor George Sullivan of Anchorage, Alaska vetoes a municipal civil rights ordinance that would have extended protections in housing and employment to LGBT people, proclaiming that the “people of Anchorage should not be forced to associate with sexual deviates.” 1982: Wisconsin becomes the first U.S. state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual … Read More
1985: People Magazine begins picking its annual “Sexiest Man Alive”
1950: In Los Angeles, Harry Hay, Rudi Gernreich, Dale Jennings, Bob Hull and Chuck Rowland, hold the first meeting of the Mattachine Society. 1985: NBC airs “An Early Frost” starring Aidan Quinn. It’s the first made-for-TV movie about AIDS.
1985: Terry Sweeney, arguably the first openly gay performer on network television, joins the cast of Saturday Night Live, where he quickly gains national attention for his hilarious impersonation of First Lady Nancy Reagan. 1989: Variety reverses an earlier policy and begins listing the surviving same-sex partners (listed as “longtime companions”) in the obituaries of … Read More