1986: Jean Genet dies in Paris at the age of seventy-five. 1990: Screen legend Greta Garbo, eighty-four, dies in New York City. Several obituaries allude to persistent rumors about the reclusive star’s alleged sexual affairs with writer Mercedes de Acosta and various other women.

1947: The Institute for Sex Research, popularly known as the Kinsey Institute after researcher Alfred C. Kinsey, is incorporated in Indiana. 1990: After a five-year, highly publicized battle with AIDS, Ryan White, eighteen, dies of the disease in a hospital in Indianapolis, one month before his high school graduation.  White, a hemophiliac, had contracted the … Read More

1976: The owner of a Hoboken, NJ dinner theater, the Clam Broth House, cancels an upcoming production of The Boys in the Band after learning that the play is about homosexuality. “The Clam Broth House is a family restaurant,” says manager Arthur Pelaez, “and I do not feel that this kind of play is the type … 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

1969: Society for Individual Rights president Leo Laurence and his lover are featured in a photo-illustrated article in the Berkeley Barb. Calling for “the Homosexual Revolution of 1969,” Laurence exhorts gay men and lesbians to Join the Black Panthers and other left-wing groups and to “come out” en masse. 1990: With the opening of the Robert … Read More

1990: Famed pop artist Keith Haring dies from AIDS at 31.  Six months earlier he had been quoted as saying, “The hardest thing is just knowing that there’s so much more stuff to do.”