1977: Thelma Houston’s Don’t Leave Me This Way begins its 17-week top 40 run. It goes on to become a perennial gay anthem. 1991: Minnesota governor Arne Carlson issues an executive order banning sexual orientation discrimination in the public sector.
1985: People Magazine begins picking its annual “Sexiest Man Alive”
1972: The NYC Council vetoes a proposed gay rights ordinance that would have prohibited discrimination against gay men and lesbians in employment, housing and public accommodations.
1971: Look magazine includes a gay couple from Minnesota – Jack Baker and Mike McConnell as part of that week’s cover article on “The American Family”. Baker and McConnell are also noteworthy as they are the first same-sex couple in the U.S. to be granted a marriage license.
2005: Alameda County, California’s Board of Supervisors votes 4–0 to prohibit discrimination in public-sector employment, services and facilities based on gender identity.
1975: Norman Lear’s TV adaptation of Lanford Wilson’s “Hot l Baltimore” premieres on ABC. Though it features a diverse cast of characters, including two gay men and a latent lesbian, it lasts only five months. 1983: Noted gay director George Cukor dies at age 83 in Los Angeles.
1978: NYC Mayor Ed Koch issues Executive Order 50 which forbid discrimination against gay men and lesbians in municipal government.
1973: The U.S. Supreme Court decides Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion in the United States. Norma Leah McCorvey (aka “Jane Roe”) wrote of her sexual orientation in her 1994 autobiography, I Am Roe. A few years later she claims that she has converted to Christianity and is no longer a lesbian.
1966: Time magazine publishes an unsigned two-page article, “The Homosexual in America” which includes statements such as “Homosexuality is a pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality, a pitiable flight from life”
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