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.
November 21 in LGBTQ History
1987: Having raided and closed down The Detour the night before, Los Angeles police raid and shut down the One Way, over alleged violations to the city’s fire ordinance.
November 15 in LGBTQ History
1636: The Plymouth Colony (present-day Massachusetts) issues the first complete legal code in the colonies. “Sodomy, rapes, buggery” constitute one of eight categories of crimes punishable by death.
October 13 in LGBTQ History
1970: Bob Mellors and Aubrey Walter host the United Kingdom’s first Gay Liberation Front meeting at the London School of Economics. 1982: Jerry Falwell and National Gay Task Force director Virginia Apuzzo debate gay rights on the Donahue show. 1987: Over 600 lesbians, gay men, and supporters are arrested on the steps of the U.S….
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…
October 10 in LGBTQ History
1987: 2,000 gay and lesbian couples exchange vows in a mass wedding held on the steps of the I.R.S. building in Washington, DC.
October 7 in LGBTQ History
1959: Russell Wolden, running for mayor of San Francisco as a Democrat, accuses the incumbent of welcoming and collaborating with the city’s “sex deviates.” His tactic backfires: the city’s newspapers accuse him of irresponsible mudslinging, and he loses in the next month’s elections.
September 5 in LGBTQ History
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.
August 7 in LGBTQ History
1987: In London, more than 100 lesbians and gay men stage a kiss-in at Piccadilly Circus in defiance of the Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalized private sex acts between consenting adults but left public displays of same-sex affection a misdemeanor.
July 7 in LGBTQ History
1979: Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King win the women’s doubles championship at Wimbledon. 1986: The United States Supreme Court denies certiorari in the case of Baker v. Wade, thereby refusing to review a constitutional challenge to the sodomy law of Texas. 1987: Arizona gay activist Ed Buck begins a recall effort to have Arizona governor Evan Mecham-known…
