December 17 in LGBTQ History
1997: In New Jersey, same-sex couples are given the right to jointly adopt children
December 16 in LGBTQ History
1983: Mel Brook’s To Be or Not To Be, a remake of the Ernst Lubitsch classic becomes the first mainstream Hollywood film to not only acknowledge Nazi persecution of homosexuals, but also makes it a key plot element.
November 29 in LGBTQ History
1933: Close to bankruptcy after repeated Nazi raids and seizures of his publications and property, Adolf Brand writes a letter to his followers announcing the end of the Homophile movement he has led.
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.
September 17 in LGBTQ History
1972: M*A*S*H premieres on CBS introducing the world to Corp. Max Klinger, televisions first on-going transvestite (but still heterosexual) character. 1979: California Governor Jerry Brown appoints Stephen M. Lachs to the Los Angeles Superior Court making him the nation’s first openly gay judge. 1986: Arch-Conservative Antonin Scalia joins the U.S. Supreme Court. 2007: The Maryland…
August 31 in LGBTQ History
1979: At the start of the Labor Day weekend at the Sri Ram Ashram near Benson, Arizona, the Spiritual Conference for Radical Fairies was organized as a ʺcall to gay brothersʺ by early gay rights advocates Harry Hay, John Burnside, Don Kilhefner, and Mitch Walker. It becomes the birthplace of The Radical Faeries. 2005: In…
August 9 in LGBTQ History
1972: The Ohio Secretary of State refuses to grant articles of incorporation to the Greater Cincinnati Gay Society. Two years later, the Ohio Supreme Court upholds the decision, stating that even though homosexual acts are now legal in Ohio, “the promotion of homosexuality as a valid life style is contrary to the public policy of…
May 25 in LGBTQ History
1895: Oscar Wilde is convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years’ hard labour. 1913: Colonel Alfred Redl, former chief of Austrian counterintelligence, commits suicide when it becomes known that he has been blackmailed, on account of his homosexuality, into working for the Russians for the past year. Later in the century, the Redl…
May 24 in LGBTQ History
1610: The Virginia Colony passes the first anti-sodomy law of the American colonial period. 1919: Anders als die Andern (“Different from the Others“), the first pro gay film, premieres in Berlin. Magnus Hirschfeld is a producer and makes a cameo appearance. The movie stars Conrad Veidt. 1953: A Mattachine Foundation circular estimates total membership in the society at…
May 22 in LGBTQ History
1929: Katharine Lee Bates, author of America the Beautiful, who was in a so-called “Boston Marriage” with Katharine Coman, dies. 2007: Vermont bans gender identity discrimination in the private sector.
