1971: Village Voice columnist Jill Johnston comes out in her article, “Lois Lane is a Lesbian,” sparking a controversy between feminism and lesbianism that results in various Johnston antics, including simulating an orgy during a panel discussion moderated by Norman Mailer. 1972: The California DMV reports that while the majority of the 65,000 vanity license plates … Read More
2010: Congress approves a law signed in December 2009 that legalizes same-sex marriage in the Washington, DC
1976: Mayor George Sullivan of Anchorage, Alaska vetoes a municipal civil rights ordinance that would have extended protections in housing and employment to LGBT people, proclaiming that the “people of Anchorage should not be forced to associate with sexual deviates.” 1982: Wisconsin becomes the first U.S. state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual … Read More
1977: Blueboy Forum, which bills itself as the U.S.’s first gay-oriented TV show, debuts on New York cable. 2012: Maryland passes legislation to legalize gay marriage, becoming the eighth state to do so.
1971: The New York Times publishes a front page story with the headline “More Homosexuals aided to become Heterosexual”
1989: The U.S.S.R. reports the case of twenty-nine infants and six mothers who all contracted AIDS in the same hospital through a single unsterile syringe that was used over and over again.
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.
1982: Wisconsin becomes the first state in the U.S. to enact a statewide gay rights statute. 1983: Tennessee Williams dies at the age of 71 in his suite at the Hotel Elysee in New York City.
1982: Jerry Falwell is hit in the face with two fruit pies by protester at the annual convention of the Bible Baptist Fellowship. 2004: President George W. Bush announces that he supports a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
1977: After a television producer cancels plans to develop a weekly series around her, Anita Bryant complains to the press that she is being “blacklisted” in Hollywood because of her crusade against homosexuals.