December 21 in LGBTQ History
1917: In Russia, the Bolsheviks repeal the entire criminal code in favor of “revolutionary justice.” Among the laws nullified are those relating to sex acts between men.
Tag: Military
October 27 in LGBTQ History
1970: To protest a September 1970 Harper’s cover story entitled “The Struggle for Sexual Identity,” in which editor Joseph Epstein had lamented homosexuals as “an affront to our rationality” and homosexuality as “anathema,” Columbia graduate student Pete Fisher stages a sit-in at the magazine’s Park Avenue offices with 40 other Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) members. Although the sit-in does not elicit an official response from the magazine, it leads to GAA’s national Television debut and has an enormous impact on future media coverage of lesbian and gay issues.
September 20 in LGBTQ History
1958: In New York City, lesbians, including Barbara Gittings, hold the first Daughters of Bilitis New York meeting at the offices of the Mattachine Society of New York. The chapter is the first lesbian organization on the East Coast. 1973: In Houston, Billie Jean King defeats “male chauvinist” Bobby Riggs in tennis’ “Battle of the Sexes” … Read More
September 9 in LGBTQ History
1985: In the New York City borough of Queens, parents launch a school boycott after the city allows a second-grader with AIDS to attend classes. 2010: Judge Virginia A. Phillips of the United States District Court for the Central District of California ruled in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States of America that the “don’t … Read More
July 31 in LGBTQ History
1940: The German Reich Commissar of the occupied Netherlands territories makes all sexual activities between men illegal. 1965: Lesbian and gay demonstrators picket the Pentagon to protest discrimination in the military. 1969: In New York City, militants separate from the more moderate homophile movement to form a counterculture-inspired group they vote to call the “Gay Liberation Front”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Liberation_Front … Read More
July 1 in LGBTQ History
1919: In Berlin, Magnus Hirschfeld opens the Institute of Sexual Research. 1934: The Hays Code, a self-regulatory code of movie ethics, discouraging filmmakers from including frank depictions of sex and sexuality instituted by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), becomes mandatory. The code is nicknamed after the head of the MPPDA, former … Read More
June 4 in LGBTQ History
1920: House of Representatives Subcommittee of the Committee on Military Affairs approves “Revisions to The Articles of War”, which criminalizes sodomy.
February 26 in LGBTQ History
1990: Refusing to consider the cases of Ben-Shalom v. Stone and Woodward v. U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court effectively upholds the right of the American military to discharge gays and lesbians of the armed forces.
January 20 in LGBTQ History
1960: U.S. Court of Federal Claims overturns the Other Than Honorable discharge issued by the Air Force to Fannie Mae Clackum for her alleged homosexuality. This is the first known instance of a homosexuality-related discharge being successfully fought, although the case turned on due process issues and did not affect the military’s policy of excluding … Read More
January 12 in LGBTQ History
1977: The Advocate reveals that the CIA has been collecting information on some three hundred thousand people who have been arrested in the U.S. for committing homosexual acts. 1981: Premiering tonight on ABC, Dynasty, featuring gay character Steven Carrington, cat fights and more shoulder pads than have ever been seen on TV before. 2000: The … Read More