1970: Chicago Gay Alliance separates from the local Gay Liberation Front (GLF), declaring in a position statement that GLFs political agenda is too broad to be effective in the struggle for gay and lesbian civil rights. 1974: The National Gay [later: and lesbian] Task Force and other lesbian and gay activists persuade major consumer advertisers … Read More
1791: In France, the new law code, enacted as part of the French Revolution, effectively decriminalizes sodomy by including no mention of sex between consenting adults. 2004: California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signs “AB 2900,” a bill to unify all state anti-discrimination codes to match the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. In essence it adds … Read More
1970: On the CBS Television series Medical Center, a medical researcher announces, “I am a homosexual.” Although his “condition” is portrayed as unfortunate, the program is acclaimed as the first sympathetic treatment of a gay man in an American TV drama. 1998: The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Abel v. United States … Read More
1952: The McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act bars immigrants “afflicted with psychopathic personality,” a phrase that is interpreted to include all homosexuals. 1972: “Gay News”, England’s first national gay newspaper, makes its debut. 1994: Deborah Batts becomes the first openly LGBTQ U.S. federal judge. 2010: Same-sex marriage in Iceland is legalised with Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir … Read More
1718: The death penalty for “sodomy and buggery” is instituted in Pennsylvania, bringing Pennsylvania into conformity with English statute and common law. The law remained in effect until 1786 when, after the Revolution, Pennsylvania legislators were the first to revoke the death penalty for sodomy. 1982: AIDS makes the front page for first time in … Read More
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 … Read More
1979: David Kloss of San Francisco wins the first annual Mr. International Leather title in Chicago. 1988: The first-ever Conference on Homophobia Education convenes in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Campaign to End Homophobia and cosponsored by a number of church groups and national gay rights organizations, the symposium is held to work out strategies … Read More
1981: In the midst of Lesbian/Gay Awareness Week, at the University of Florida, a fraternity-circulated petition asserting, “Homosexuals need bullets-not acceptance” draws the signatures of almost fifty people. “We don’t have anything else to do,” says one of the petition’s organizers. “We’re just out here having a good time. I don’t believe in queers.” 1988: … Read More
1897: In Germany, Magnus Hirschfeld founds the Scientific Humanitarian Committee to organize for homosexual rights and the repeal of Paragraph 175. 1969: Canada decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults with the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69. 1974: The first federal gay civil rights bill, extending antidiscrimination protection to gay men and lesbians under the … Read More
1975: California repeals its 103-year-old sodomy laws. A spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department seeks reinstatement of them, saying, “We’re having trouble enough convincing our men that they should accept women as equals. Can you imagine what it would do to morale if we gave them a queer as their partner?” 1985: Seven days … Read More