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
1986: Vanessa Redgrave stars as Renee Richards in the CBS made-for-TV movie, Second Serve.
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
1982: Voters in Lincoln, Nebraska, go to the polls to decide whether or not to accept a proposed gay rights ordinance for the city. Leading the fight against the initiative is local psychologist Paul Cameron who has asserted, among other things, that gay and lesbian teachers are forty-three times more likely to molest a child than … Read More
1954: The Missouri Supreme Court upholds a life sentence for sodomy. 1962: The California Supreme Court overturns the sodomy conviction of a man caught by police in a public restroom by use of a peephole drilled into the roof.
1970: Ingrid Montano, a teacher in Phoenix, Arizona, resigns after being condemned by community Ieadcrs for having invited a homosexual to come and speak to one of her high school sociology classes. Although she has the support of her principal, she submits her letter of resignation, declaring, “I refuse to compromise on certain issues, and … Read More
1990: Fitness trainer and former model Paul Barresi “outs” actor John Travolta in an interview in the National Enquirer, claiming that Travolta first propositioned him in the showers of a health club and that over the next two years they “had sex dozens of times while [Travolta] was dating girl stars.” Barresi later apologizes for … Read More
1987: Stewart McKinney, a Republican from Connecticut, becomes the first U.S. congressman to die of AIDS. He is fifty-six. His widow subsequently establishes a foundation in his name and eventually sets up a medical scholarship for college students interested in working with people with AIDS. It is later revealed that McKinney was actively, if not … Read More
1868: In a letter to an early sex-law reformer, Karl Maria Kertbeny is first known to have privately used the new terms “Homosexual” and “Heterosexual”, the words aren’t in print publicly until the following year. 1933: In Berlin, young Nazis attack and destroy the Institute of Sexual Research. A few days later, the institute’s priceless … Read More
1971: Andy Warhol’s play Pork opens at the La Mama Experimental Theater in New York City. Among the cast, making his acting debut, is an extremely talented, sixteen-year-old drag queen named Harvey Fierstein. 1981: After customs officials at New York’s JFK Airport find a gay love letter in his luggage, British traveler Phillip Fotheringham is … Read More