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Ronni Sanlo

higher education

Published July 10, 2023

THIS DAY IN LGBTQ HISTORY – JULY

JULY 1

 

1510

Las Sergas de Esplandin (The Adventures of Esplandin) is a novel written by Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo (1450-1505), published in July, 1510. Unbeknownst to most people, the state of California was named after Calafia, a fictional Black queen who ruled over a mythic all-female (perhaps lesbian) island of Black women just off the coast of Asia. She used an army of flying griffins to fight Christians at Constantinople and has become an interesting yet little known literary figure. In 1530, when Spanish conquistador Herman Cortes arrived on what is now known as Baja California on Mexico’s west coast, he named the land California, after Calafia’s island in de Montalvo’s book.

1663, UK

English politician Samuel Pepys writes in his diary of his displeasure at how common sodomy had become in the country’s military.

1670, France

Julie d’Aubigny (1670/1673-1707), better known as Mademoiselle Maupin or La Maupin, was a word-slinger, opera singer, and larger-than-life bisexual 17th-century celebrity opera singer. Little is known about her life; her tumultuous career and flamboyant lifestyle were the subject of gossip, rumor, and colorful stories in her own time, and inspired numerous fictional and semi-fictional portrayals afterwards. Gautier loosely based the title character, Madeleine de Maupin, of his novel Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835) on her. The celebration of sensual love, regardless of gender, was radical, and the book was banned by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and authorities elsewhere. Mademoiselle Maupin retired from the opera in 1705 and took refuge in a convent, probably in Provence, where she is believed to have died on July 1, 1707, at the age of 33.

1828, UK

The Buggery Act is repealed then reenacted, criminalizing sodomy.

1925

Farley Granger (July 1, 1925 – March 27, 2011) is born. He was an American actor best known for his two collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock. In 2007, Granger published the memoir Include Me Out, co-written with domestic partner Robert Calhoun (November 24, 1930 – May 24, 2008). In the book, named after one of Goldwyn’s famous malapropisms, he freely discusses his career and personal life.

1928

The lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness by the British author Radclyffe Hall (August 12, 1880 – October 7, 1943) was published on this date in the United States and sold an initial 20,000 copies. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose “sexual inversion” (homosexuality) is apparent from an early age. She finds love with Mary Llewellyn whom she meets while serving as an ambulance driver in World War I, but their happiness together is marred by social isolation and rejection, which Hall depicts as typically suffered by “inverts” with predictably debilitating effects. The novel portrays inversion as a natural, God-given state and makes an explicit plea: “Give us also the right to our existence.” In 1915, Hall fell in love with Una Troubridge (1887-1963), a sculptor with whom she lived at 37 Holland Street, Kensington, London. The relationship would last until Hall’s death, though in 1934 Hall fell in love with Russian Evguenia Souline and embarked upon a long-term affair with her which Troubridge painfully tolerated.

1934

Hollywood makes adherence to the Hays Code mandatory. It was named after for Will H. Hays who was the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. Among its provisions: “Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationships are the accepted or common thing,” and “Sex perversion or any inference to it is forbidden on the screen.” The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral guidelines that was applied to most United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) adopted the Production Code in 1930 and began strictly enforcing it in 1934. The Production Code spelled out what was acceptable and what was unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States. Hays, who was Postmaster General under Warren G. Harding and former head of the Republican National Committee, served for 25 years as president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA).

1943, Netherlands

Willem Arondeus (August 22, 1894 – July 1, 1943) dies. He was a Dutch artist and author who joined the Dutch anti-Nazi resistance movement during World War II. He participated in the bombing of the Amsterdam public records office to hinder the Nazi German effort to identify Dutch Jews. Arondeus was caught and executed by the Nazis soon after his arrest along with tailor Sjoerd Bakker and writer Johan Brouwer who also were gay and 10 others. Arondeus was openly gay before the war and defiantly asserted his sexuality before his execution. The last wish of Arondeus is that he be given a pink shirt. He declares: “Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.”

1947

U.S. Congress discontinues the military “Blue Discharges” with two new classifications: general and undesirable. The Army then changes its regulations so that gay and lesbian service members would not qualify for general discharges. The U.S. military had a long-standing policy that service members found to be homosexual or to have engaged in homosexual conduct were to be court-martialed for sodomy, imprisoned and dishonorably discharged. However, with the mobilization of troops following the United States’ entry into World War II, it became impractical to convene court-martial boards of commissioned officers so some commanders began issuing administrative discharges instead. Several waves of reform addressing the handling of homosexuals in the military resulted in a 1944 policy directive that called for homosexuals to be committed to military hospitals, examined by psychiatrists, and discharged under Regulation 615-360, Section 8 as “unfit for service.” It is unknown exactly how many gay and lesbian service members were given blue discharges under this regulation, but in 1946 the Army estimated that it had issued between 49,000 and 68,000 blue discharges, with approximately 5,000 of them issued to homosexuals. The Navy’s estimates of blue-discharge homosexuals was around 4,000. Blue discharges were discontinued as of July 1, 1947 when the two new headings of general and undesirable took their place. A general discharge was considered to be under honorable conditions-distinct from an “honorable discharge”and an undesirable discharge was under conditions other than honorable-distinct from a “dishonorable discharge.” At the same time, the Army changed its regulations to ensure that gay and lesbian service members would not qualify for general discharges. Those found guilty of engaging in homosexual conduct still received dishonorable discharges, while those identified as homosexuals but not to have committed any homosexual acts now received undesirable discharges.

1962

Dr. Alan Hart (October 4, 1890 – July 1, 1962) dies. Historian Jonathan Ned Katz explains that Stanford University graduate Lucille Hart changed her name and lived as a man in order to practice medicine and marry the women he loved. The first was Inez Stark in 1918 and then, after their 1925 divorce, Edna Ruddick, to whom he stayed married until his death 37 years later.

1969

In Norton v. Macy, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rules that the termination of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration employee for “immoral conduct” relating to his alleged homosexual conduct was unlawful.

1970

The Task Force on Gay Liberation forms within the American Library Association. Now known as the GLBT Round Table, this organization is the oldest LGBT professional organization in the United States. On July 1st at the ALA Annual Conference in Detroit, MI, the Task Force on Gay Liberation meets for the first time. Israel Fishman serves as the first coordinator of the group. A social and “consciousness-raising event” was held with members of the Detroit Gay Liberation Front. Initial goals of the group included the creation of bibliographies, revision of library classification schemes and subject headings, building and improving access to collections, and fighting job discrimination. Barbara Gittings (July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007) puts together a list of 37 gay-positive books, magazine articles, and pamphlets, the first version of a resource that would become known as A Gay Bibliography.

1971, Canada

The founding meetings of the Gay Alliance Toward Equality (GATE) are held in Vancouver. It is the first Canadian group to talk about civil rights strategies.

1971

The Furies Collective House at 219 11th St SE in Washington, D.C. was the operational center of the Furies, a lesbian feminist separatist collective from July 1, 1971 to 1973. The work done by the Furies here, including publication of their newspaper, The Furies, was instrumental in creating and shaping the ideas that continue to underpin lesbian feminism and lesbian separatism. The Furies, along with the Gay Liberation House and the Skyline Collective, was among Washington, D.C.’s best known communal living groups in the early 1970s. They were an example of lesbian feminism which emerged during the women’s movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. According to Rita Mae Brown in Rita Will, the members of the collective were Rita Mae Brown, Charlotte Bunch, Tasha Byrd Peterson, Ginny Berson, Sharon Deevey, Susan Hathaway, Lee Schwing, Helaine Harris, Coletta Reid, Jennifer Woodul, Nancy Myron and Joan E. Biren (J.E.B.) In 2016 the house at 219 11th St. SE was named as the first lesbian-related historic landmark in Washington, D.C.

1971, Austria

The Parliament rescinds laws against sex between consenting adults but adds legislation penalizing individuals who make public statements or join organizations that favor homosexuality. Although the new legislation is used to harass lesbians and gay men and, later, to prevent the import of gay and lesbian pornography, including safer sex literature, no individuals or organizations are successfully prosecuted under the laws.

1972,  UK

The United Kingdom’s first Gay Pride March draws about 2,000 gay men and lesbians to the center of London.

1972

Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern endorses gay rights, the first U.S. presidential candidate in history to do so; party stalwarts denounce him.

1975, Mexico

Lesbian activists at the first United Nations World Conference on Women come to the attention of the world press when Pedro Gringoire attacks their efforts to make lesbian rights part of the conference agenda in an essay published in Excelsior, the country’s leading newspaper. Gringoire calls lesbianism a “pathological irregularity,” a “sexual aberration,” and a “severe illness.” Lesbian activists score gains in visibility as a result but fail to elicit an official response to their demands at the conference.

1975

California and Washington decriminalize private consensual adult homosexual acts. Indiana does so the following year.

1975

A gay rights group called Gay American Indians is launched in San Francisco by Randy Burns and Barbara May Cameron. It was initially launched as a safe place to socialize and share. It was the first gay American Indian liberation organization.

1975

Blue Boy magazine debuts. It was a gay pornographic/lifestyle magazine with pictures of men in various states of undress from 1974 to 2007. It was published by Donald N. Embinder, a former advertising representative for After Dark, an arts magazine with a substantial gay readership. Embinder first used the nom de plume Don Westbrook but soon assumed his real name on the masthead.

1976

Haaz Sleiman (born July 1, 1976) is a Lebanese-American television and film actor. He most notably played the role of Tarek in the 2007 film The Visitor and the role of Jesus in the American TV mini-series Killing Jesus, in addition to a number of American TV series. On August 22, 2017 Sleiman came out as gay via a Facebook video.

1979

The Susan B. Anthony dollar makes its debut. While there were many complaints about the coin, it was mostly because it was nearly the same size as a quarter, not that it was the first U.S. coin to feature the likeness of a lesbian. Susan Brownell Anthony (February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women’s rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who became her lifelong friend and co-worker in social reform activities, primarily in the field of women’s rights. In 1852, they founded the New York Women’s State Temperance Society after Anthony was prevented from speaking at a temperance conference because she was female. In 1863, they founded the Women’s Loyal National League which conducted the largest petition drive in United States history up to that time, collecting nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery. In 1866, they initiated the American Equal Rights Association which campaigned for equal rights for both women and African Americans. The Nineteenth Amendment, which guaranteed the right of women to vote, was popularly known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. Historian Lillian Faderman (July 18, 1940) suggests that Susan B. Anthony may have had relationships with Anna Dickinson, Rachel Avery and Emily Gross at different times in her life. Her niece Lucy Anthony was a life partner of suffrage leader and Methodist minister Anna Howard Shaw.

1986

Renowned science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke (December 16, 1917 – March 19, 2008) comes very close to coming out in an interview published in Playboy magazine. When Clarke was asked if he’s had bisexual experiences, he responded, “Of course! Who hasn’t?” He is perhaps most famous for being co-writer of the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, widely considered to be one of the most influential films of all time.

1987

President Reagan nominates openly homophobic Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nomination is rejected by the U.S. Senate for a wide variety of reasons.

1989

Professional body builder Bob Paris (December 14, 1959) comes out in an interview in Ironman magazine. He is an American writer, actor, public speaker, civil rights activist and former professional bodybuilder. Paris was the 1983 NPC American National and IFBB World Bodybuilding Champion Mr. Universe. He was the world’s first male professional athlete, in any sport, to come out in the media while still an active competitor in his sport. The same year, Paris appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show discussing marriage and being gay. Oprah asked Paris, “Bob, why not just stay in the closet?” Paris explained how “you fall in love” and that it doesn’t feel right to hide it. Paris and his former boyfriend at the time, Rod Jackson, became symbols for gay marriage and advocated for gay rights. Paris’s career ended up suffering because he came out; he claims his life was even threatened through mail and by phone. Paris lost about 80% of his bookings and endorsements for bodybuilding. Today, Paris lives with his spouse Brian LeFurgey on an island near Vancouver, British Columbia. Together since 1996, Bob and Brian were legally married in British Columbia after the province equalized the marriage laws in 2003.

2000

Vermont begins performing civil unions for same-sex couples. Still not equivalent to marriages (and not recognized by the federal government or by other states or countries), these are nonetheless the first relationships in the U.S. to receive this level of legal recognition.

2006

Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist’s (July 24, 1956) campaign ads were carefully worded to include his support of “traditional marriage.” Media stories throughout the campaign claimed that Crist is gay. He is the U.S. Representative for Florida’s 13th congressional district. He had previously served as the 44th Governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011. In January 2014, Crist apologized for his support for the 2008 same-sex marriage ban and for the same-sex adoption ban, telling an Orlando LGBT publication that “I’m sorry I did that. It was a mistake. I was wrong. Please forgive me. On May 9, 2013, Crist announced that he supports same-sex marriage; “I most certainly support marriage equality in Florida and look forward to the day it happens here.” In both 2006 and 2008, Crist announced his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment. By 2010, he had endorsed adoption rights for gay couples.

2009, Hungary

Registered partnerships go into effect.

2010, Denmark

Denmark allows same sex couples to apply jointly for adoptions.

2020, Poland

LGBT Free Zone stickers distributed by the Gazeta Polska newspaper in Poland. The Warsaw district court ordered that distribution of LGBT-free zone stickers should halt pending the resolution of a court case. However, Gazeta Polska’s editor dismissed the ruling saying it was “fake news” and censorship, and that the paper would continue distributing the stickers. Gazeta continued distribution of the stickers but modified the decal to read “LGBT ideology-Free Zone.”

JULY 2

1899, UK

Actor Charles Laughton is born in Scaborough, England. Laughton (July 1, 1899 – December 15, 1962) was an English stage and film character actor, director, producer and screenwriter. Not blessed with matinee idol looks, Laughton built a brilliant career as a character actor and still earned his fair share of male lovers. His wife Elsa Lanchester (October 28, 1902 – December 26, 1986) was a British-born American actress with a long career in theatre, film and television. Elsa knew all about Charles’ boys. In her biography of Laughton she was candid and loving in her descriptions of his affairs.

1951

Sylvia Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002) was an American gay liberation and transgender activist and self-identified drag queen. She was a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance. With her close friend Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992), Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens and trans women of color. Rivera’s gender identity was complex and varied throughout her life. In 1971 she spoke of herself as a “half sister.” In her essay Transvestites: Your Half Sisters and Half Brothers of the Revolution, she specifically claims her use of the word “transvestite” as only applying to the gay community: “Transvestites are homosexual men and women who dress in clothes of the opposite sex.” People now want to call me a lesbian because I’m with Julia, and I say, “No. I’m just me. I’m not a lesbian.” I’m tired of being labeled. I don’t even like the label transgender. I’m tired of living with labels. I just want to be who I am. I am Sylvia Rivera. Ray Rivera left home at the age of 10 to become Sylvia. And that’s who I am.”

1953

The State Department fires 381 gay and lesbian employees. In the early 1950s, the entire country was in the grips of the Red Scare as Wisconsin Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy was conducting his witch hunts. One of his main platforms was the Senate’s Subcommittee on the Investigation of Loyalty of State Department Employees. While McCarthy’s main targets were imaginary Communists in the State Department, gay employees were also seen as “subversives” in need of rooting out. Both homosexuals and Communist Party members were seen as subversive elements in American society who shared the same ideals of antitheism, rejection of the middle-class morality, and lack of conformity. In the eyes of the government, they were seen as scheming and manipulative and, most importantly, would put their own agendas above that of the general population. McCarthy also as-sociated homosexuality and communism as “threats to the ‘American way of life’.” Homosexuality was directly linked to security concerns, and more government employees were dismissed because of their homosexual sexual orientation than because they were left-leaning or communist. George Chauncey noted that, “The specter of the invisible homosexual, like that of the invisible communist, haunted Cold War America,” and homosexuality (and by implication homosexuals themselves) were constantly referred to not only as a disease, but also as an invasion, like the perceived danger of communism and subversives. Among the more high-profile targets was Samuel Reber III (July 15, 1903 – December 25, 1971) a twenty-seven year career diplomat who announced his retirement in May of 1953 after McCarthy charged that he was a security risk which was a barely-concealed code for homosexual. By then, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had already responded to McCarthy’s witch hunt by signing an executive order that mandated the firing of all federal employees who were deemed guilty of “sexual perversion,” whether proven or not. Eisenhower also announced a re-organization of the State Department. Rep. Charles B Brownson, an Indiana Republican with his own lesser-known witch hunt underway in the House Government Operations Committee, asked the State Department for a progress report in rooting out homosexuals. On July 2, 1953, the State Department’s chief security officer R.W. Scott McLeod revealed that 351 homosexuals and 150 other “security risks” had been fired between 1950 and 1953.

1970

The Fifth Biennial Convention of the Lutheran Church in America expresses its opposition to discrimination and oppression of gay men and lesbians.

1984

Figure skater Johnny Weir (July 2, 1984) is born. Johnny an American figure skater, fashion designer, and television commentator. He is a two-time Olympian, the 2008 World bronze medalist, a two-time Grand Prix Final bronze medalist, the 2001 World Junior Champion, and a three-time U.S. national champion (2004-2006). Weir is openly gay. In 2011, Weir married Victor Voronov (b. 1984), a Georgetown Law graduate of Russian Jewish descent, in a civil ceremony on New Year’s Eve in New York City. He is also known for his sports commentary with Tara Lipinski, as well as his work in LGBTQ activism.

1989

Internal Revenue Service employees who are members of the National Treasury Employee’s Union receive a new contract that includes protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation.

2009, India

Same-sex sex acts are decriminalized in India, citing that the existing laws violate fundamental rights to personal liberty. The Delhi High Court rules that the existing laws violate fundamental rights to personal liberty (Article 21 of the Indian Constitution) and equality (Article 14) and prohibition of discrimination (Article 15). Before the overturning of this 148-year-old law, so-called homosexual acts were punished with a ten-year prison sentence.

JULY 3

1783

Deborah Sampson Gannett (December 17, 1760 – April 29, 1827) was a woman who disguised herself as a man in order to serve in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. She was one of a small number of women with a documented record of military combat experience in that war. She served 17 months in the army under the name Robert Shirtliff of Uxbridge, Massachusetts.  During her first battle, on July 3, 1782, out-side Tarrytown, New York, she took two musket balls in her thigh and a cut on her forehead. She begged her fellow soldiers to let her die and not take her to a doctor, but a soldier put her on his horse and took her to a hospital. The doctors treated her head wound, but she left the hospital before they could attend to her leg. Fearful that her identity would be discovered, she removed one of the balls herself with a penknife and sewing needle, but the other one was too deep for her to reach. Her leg never fully healed. On April 1, 1783, she was reassigned to new duties, and spent seven months serving as a waiter to General John Paterson. On this day, Sampson was wounded in 1782, and was honorably discharged at West Point, New York in 1783. During the summer of 1783, Sampson became ill in Philadelphia and was cared for by Doctor Barnabas Binney (1751-1787). He removed her clothes to treat her and discovered the cloth she used to bind her breasts. Without revealing his discovery to army authorities, he took her to his house, where his wife, daughters, and a nurse took care of her. She was discharged at West Point, New York, on October 25, 1783, after a year and a half of service. In January 1792, Sampson petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature for pay which the army had withheld from her because she was a woman. The legislature granted her petition and Governor John Hancock signed it. The legislature awarded her 34 pounds plus interest back to her discharge in 1783. An Official Record of Deborah Gannet’s service as ‘Robert Shirtliff” from May 20, 1782 to Oct 25, 1783 appears in the “Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War” series. During World War II the Liberty Ship S.S. Deborah Gannett (2620) was named in her honor. It was laid down March 10, 1944, launched April 10, 1944 and scrapped in 1962. As of 2001, the town flag of Plympton incorporates Sampson as the Official Heroine of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Meryl Streep named Deborah Sampson as one of the women who made history in her speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 26, 2016.

1975

In a change of policy, the U.S. Civil Service Commission decides to consider applications by lesbians and gay men on a case-by-case basis. Previously, homosexuality was grounds for automatic disqualification.

1981

“Rare Cancer Seen in Homosexuals” is the first story in The New York Times about the mysterious disease that will later be named AIDS.

1981

The CDC initially refers to AIDS as GRID – Gay Related Immune Deficiency Disorder.

1989

Andy Lippincott, a fictional character in the cartoon strip Doonesbury, was hospitalized with AIDS. The character first appears in January 1976, in a law library. Joanie Caucus becomes attracted to him so Lippincott confesses he is gay. Joanie is heart-broken and takes some time to recover. Lippincott contributes position papers to Virginia Slade’s failed run for Congress in 1976. He disappears from the strip for a few years after this storyline. In 1982, the character reappears as an organizer for the Bay Area Gay Alliance and contributes to the congressional re-election of Lacey Davenport. In 1989 he returns to the strip again when he is diagnosed with AIDS. Over the course of the next year, Lippincott’s battles with the disease, and eventual death from it, helped bring the AIDS crisis into popular culture. Ultimately, he is shown dying to the sound of the Beach Boys’ song Wouldn’t It Be Nice. This storyline led to a Pulitzer Prize nomination for Garry Trudeau, but three newspapers of the 900 carrying the strip refused to publish it as being in bad taste. Andy Lippincott may be the only fictional character with a panel on the AIDS quilt and hangs in The NAMES Project Foundation’s offices in Atlanta though it was not actually sewn into a block of The AIDS Memorial Quilt.

1992, Buenos Aires

An estimated 300 lesbians and gay men march in Argentina’s first-ever Pride Celebration. While same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults in private had been legal since 1887, there were no civil rights laws de-signed to protect LGBT people, and public opinion tended to look down upon LGBT people. While not given official recognition until 1992, the Comunidad Homosexual Argentina publicly campaigned for the human rights of LGBT people. Since 1987 the rights of gay and bisexual women have been defended by Cuadernos de Existencia Lesbiana. Significant legal and social progress began to be seen in the 1990s.

2000

Arthur “JR” Warren, Jr.  (1974 – July 3, 2000) is murdered. Warren, 26, who was African American and gay, was beaten and then run over by a car. One of the two teens who killed him had been sexually involved with him and claimed he felt humiliated when rumors of their relationship began to spread. Warren lived with learning disabilities and a birth defect that caused him to be born with several fingers missing on one hand. He was widely regarded in his community as a “soft spoken” young man. At 16, he came out to his mother and the minister at his church and found acceptance and support with both. After his death, his mother Brenda Warren addressed a hate-crimes rally in Washington, D.C. and lobbied for the inclusion of sexual orientation in West Virginia’s hate crimes law. Arthur Warren’s funeral was held on July 8, 2000, at his family’s church, and was attended by hundreds of mourners. His parents insisted that the coffin be open for viewing. “We want people to see what they did to my son,” said Brenda Warren. The Warrens later told CNN during an interview that they hoped the suspects would be tried as adults and the murder treated as a hate crime.

2003, Spain

The first gay hotel, the Axel, opens in Barcelona. The Axel company created a cosmopolitan and tolerant environment where atmosphere, diversity and respect are valued. The construction of Axel Hotel Barcelona, opened in 2003, was the beginning of a project that is now a chain. In 2007, Axel opened its first hotel in South America, the Axel Hotel Buenos Aires, and two years later, in 2009, Axel Hotel Berlin.

2005, Spain

Same-sex marriage is legalized. In 2004, the nation’s newly elected Socialist Party (PSOE) Government, led by Prime Minister JoseLuis Rodriguez Zapatero, begins a campaign for its legalization, including the right of adoption by same-sex couples. The law took effect on this day, making Spain the third country in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry across the entire country, after the Netherlands and Belgium, and 17 days ahead of the right being extended across all of Canada. The U.S. was 17th.

JULY 4

1826

Composer Stephen Foster (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864), born in Pittsburgh and known as “the father of American music,” was famous for his parlor and minstrel music. Foster wrote over 200 songs; among his best-known are Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races, Swanee River, My Old Kentucky Home, and more. He likely abandoned his wife for fellow composer George Cooper. There are many biographers who have published works on the life of Stephen Foster but details differ widely. Foster wrote very little biographical information himself. His brother destroyed much of the information about Stephen that he judged to reflect negatively upon the family.

1855

First edition of Walt Whitman’s (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) Leaves of Grass is published. It’s considered the clearest expression of the author’s homosexual desires.

1895

The song America the Beautiful is published. Its author, Katharine Lee Bates (August 12, 1859 – March 28, 1929) was a professor at Wellesley College who lived with Katharine Coman (November 23, 1857 – January 11, 1915), as ‘one soul together.’ Coman was a history and political economy teacher and founder of the Wellesley College School Economics department. The pair lived together for twenty-five years until Coman’s death in 1915.

1965

Organized by ECHO, the East Coast Homophile Organizations, demonstrators picket at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Picketers returned each year through 1969 for what came to be known as the Annual Reminder. It was the beginning a new era in Philadelphia LGBT culture as a presence in the community. A small group of conservatively dressed lesbians and gay men picket Independence Hall in in one of the first public demonstrations for gay rights. Among those marching is Barbara Gittings (July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007). The picket is to call public attention to the lack of civil rights for LGBT people. The gatherings continue annually for five years. The Daughters of Bilitis and Mattachine Society members participate in the fifth and final picket in 1969.

1970

The General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association becomes the first mainstream religious group in the US to recognize publicly the existence of gay, lesbian, and bisexual clergy and laity among its members and to demand “an end to all discrimination against homosexuals.”

1973

The Seattle Lesbian Separatist Group (later the Gorgons) issues The Amazon Analysis, a manifesto and handbook of lesbian separatism. The paper’s nearly 100 mimeographed pages are passed among lesbians across the country.

1975, Canada

In Winnipeg, the New Democratic Party Gay Caucus is formed at the NDP national convention.

1976

Dykes on Bikes is founded by Soni Wolf as a group of lesbians on motorcycles who come together to lead the San Francisco Pride Parade. In 1976 a small group of 20 – 25 women motorcyclists gathered at the head of the San Francisco Pride Parade and, unbeknownst to them, a tradition began. Soni coined the phrase “Dykes on Bikes.” The San Francisco Chronicle picked it up and ran with it. Chapters of the club have been leading Pride Parades around the world ever since.

2020, Russia

The United States Embassy in Moscow defied U.S. President anti-gay Donald Trump by hanging a rainbow LGBT PRIDE flag on its building after Trump ordered embassies around the world not to do so. Russian President Vladimir Putin mocked the flag, suggesting it reflected on the orientation of the diplomats. Putin also signed amendments to the constitution backed by way of a national vote that includes a clause on marriage being between a man and a woman, aimed at preventing legalization of gay unions. Putin then claimed that Russia does not discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation. In 2013 Putin signed into law, amid a storm of international condemnation, the prevention of ‘foisting’ LGBT information to children. The law has since been used as a pretext to ban gay pride events and jail LGBT activists in Russia.

JULY 5

1842

Andrew George Scott (July 5, 1842 – January 20, 1880), also known as Captain Moonlite, is born. He was an Irish-born Australian bushranger and folk figure. He gathered a band of thieves together and became especially close to one James Nesbit. Nesbit was to die in a shoot-out after which Scott was imprisoned. While there he wrote letters that declared his undying love for Nesbit in terms that were extravagant and uncompromising.

1853, UK

Cecil Rhodes (July 5, 1853 – March 26, 190) is born in Hertfordshire, England. He was a British businessman, mining magnate and politician in South Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. The owner of the Kimberley Diamond Mines, he was a multi-millionaire whose De Beers diamond company, formed in 1888, retains its prominence into the 21st century. Rhodes never married saying that he would not be a dutiful husband. Some writers and academics have suggested that Rhodes may have been homosexual and had relationships with Sir Leander Starr Jameson (9 February 1853 – 26 November 1917) and Henry Latham Curry (1863 – 1945). Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was named for him. He also created the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford. While Rhodes is considered a hero, the true story is that he was a blatant racist who built his empire on “land grabs” and murders of thousands in Zimbabwe.

1889, France

Jean Cocteau (July 5, 1889 – October 11, 1963) is born in Maisons-Lafitte, France. A giant in the arts, Cocteau was a poet, a novelist, a playwright, and a filmmaker. He is best known for his novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929), and the films The Blood of a Poet (1930), Les Parents Terribles (1948), Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus (1949). His affairs with the handsome young men of Paris is as legendary as his art. Cocteau’s longest-lasting relationships were with the French actors Jean Marais (11 December 1913 – 8 November 1998) and √Edouard Dermit, whom Cocteau formally adopted. Cocteau cast Marais in The Eternal Return (1943), Beauty and the Beast (1946), Ruy Blas (1947), and Orpheus (1949).

1903, Netherlands

Hendrik “Hein” Vos (5 July 1903 – 23 April 1972) was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA). Vos was the first known Dutch gay politician. This fact was an open secret in Dutch politics at that time. His life partner was the journalist and writer Aar van de Werfhorst (March 3, 1907-January 20, 1994).

1970

Wayne Besen (born July 5, 1970) is an American gay rights advocate. He is a former investigative journalist for WABI-TV, a former spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, and the founder of Truth Wins Out. Besen came out to his parents before starting his Truth Wins Out organization. After coming out to his parents, they bought him an ex-gay DVD that could supposedly hypnotize people and turn them straight. It was that and the invitation by President George W. Bush of ex-gay leader Alan Chambers to the White House that led him to start Truth Wins Out. Besen has interviewed hundreds of former and current “ex-gays” and is an out-spoken critic of organizations such as Homosexuals Anonymous. Besen announced on his truthwinsout.org website that he married his boyfriend of five years Jamie Brundage on December 8, 2011 in the City Hall of Burlington, VT.

1978, Canada

In Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, an hour-long Gay News and Views begins on a local station. It is the first regularly scheduled gay radio program in Canada.

1978, Canada

The Quebec Human Rights Commission decides that Montreal Catholic School Commission’s refusal to rent facilities to a gay group is discriminatory. It is the first such finding by the Commission since the inclusion of “sexual orientation” in the provincial Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

1980, Canada

The national convention of the Liberal Party of Canada adopts a resolution to include sexual orientation in the Canadian Human Rights Act.

1985

Megan Rapinoe (July 5, 1985) is the first openly gay woman in the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Megan is an American professional soccer player who heads the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) as well as the United States national team. Named the Best FIFA Women’s Player in 2019, Rapinoe won gold with the national team at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Rapinoe co-captained the national team alongside Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan from 2018 to 2020. She previously played for the Chicago Red Stars, Philadelphia Independence, and MagicJack in Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) as well as Olympique Lyon in France’s Division 1 Feminine. Her wife is basketball star Sue Bird (born October 16, 1980).

1987

James H. Donovan was a New York state senator. On this day, he suggests that giving teens rosary beads would prevent the spread of AIDS more effectively than the distribution of condoms.

2011, Serbia

The Serbian parliament approves a law to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

JULY 6

1750, France

Bruno Lenoir and Jean Diot, 18 and 20 years old, are caught having sex. They are strangled and burned in the Place de Greve by “seven wagons of brushwood, two hundred faggots (bundles of wood sticks), and straw.” This is the last execution in France for consensual sodomy. In October, 2014, a memorial plaque was unveiled the Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo to remember them.

1907, Mexico

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954) is born. Inspired by Mexican popular culture, she employed a native folk-art style to explore questions of identity, post-colonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society. Kahlo was bisexual and a polio survivor. She married Diego Rivera twice, had an affair with Leon Trotsky, and had affairs with several women as well. La Casa Azul, her home in Coyoacán was opened as a museum in 1958, and has become one of the most popular museums in Mexico City. In the United States, she became the first Hispanic woman to be honored with a U.S. postage stamp, in 2001, and in 2012 was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display in Chicago that celebrates the LGBT history and people.

1943

Leonard P. Matlovich (July 6, 1943 – June 22, 1988) is born. During three tours of duty in Viet Nam, he would earn, among other honors, a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and an Air Force Commendation Medal. Sgt. Matlovich was discharged when he came out as gay. He died of AIDS in June 1988, at the age of 45. Matlovich was the first gay service member to purposely out himself to the military to fight their ban on gays, and perhaps the best-known gay man in America in the 1970s next to Harvey Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978). His fight to stay in the United States Air Force after coming out of the closet became a cause celebre around which the gay community rallied. His case resulted in articles in newspapers and magazines throughout the country, numerous television interviews, and a television movie on NBC. Matlovich was the first named openly gay person to appear on the cover of a U.S. newsmagazine – of the September 8, 1975 issue of Time magazine, making him a symbol for thousands of gay and lesbian service members and gay people generally. According to author Randy Shilts (August 8, 1951 – February 17, 1994), “It marked the first time the young gay movement had made the cover of a major newsweekly. To a movement still struggling for legitimacy, the event was a major turning point.” His tombstone, meant to be a memorial to all gay veterans, does not bear his name. It reads, “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a dis-charge for loving one.”

1966

Glenn Christopher Scarpelli (born July 6, 1966) is an American former child actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Alex Handris from 1980 to 1983 on the sitcom One Day at a Time. Scarpelli came out as gay in adulthood. He resides in Arizona where he and his then-partner Jude Belanger established the Sedona Now Network, a community television station, in 2003. Scarpelli and Belanger were married in California in 2008 but filed for divorce in 2012.

1979

Billy S. Jones, Darlene Garner, and Delores P. Berry co-found the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays in Washington, D.C. Bisexual and transgender people are included in bylaws, mission and outreach. The National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays (formerly The National Coalition of Black Gays) was the United States’ first national organization for African American and Third World gay rights. While many Washington, D.C.-based gay rights organizations opposed the 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, NCBG’s support for the march smoothed the way for the event. The organization was to provide a national advocacy forum for African American gay men and lesbians at a time when no other organization existed to express their views. The organizers, also including Louis Hughes, Gil Gerald, Rev. Renee McCoy, and John Gee, were motivated by a belief that existing gay and lesbian organizations did not represent the views and experiences of African Americans. In 1984, NCBG added Lesbian to its name to become the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays. The organization’s headquarters moved to Detroit, Michigan briefly in the mid-1980s. By 1986, several key leaders left the organization, and eventually the group (without any official announcement) faded out of existence. By 1990, formal operations ended for the organization. As founding member A. Billy S. Jones described, “We just faded away. Some board members re-fused to acknowledge that it was time to say goodbye but folks just burned out and faded away.”

1992

Some 50 activists in New York City attend the first public meeting of the Lesbian Avengers, a direct action group focused on issues vital to lesbian survival and visibility.” Dozens of other chapters quickly emerged world-wide, a few expanding their mission to include questions of gender, race, and class. The Lesbian Avengers was founded by Ana Maria Simo, Sarah Schulman ((born July 28, 1958), Maxine Wolfe, Anne-Christine D’Adesky, Marie Honan, and Anne Maguire, six longtime lesbian activists who were involved in a variety of LGBT groups from the Medusa’s Revenge lesbian theater to ACT-UP and ILGO (the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization). Lesbian Avenger Ann Northrop underlined the point. “We’re not going to be invisible anymore. We are going to be prominent and have power and be part of all decision making.” Her assumptions were largely proved in interviews with Avengers in the 1993 documentary film Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire, Too edited by Sue Friedrich and Janet Baus. Some members, though, joked they also joined to meet women.

2007, Hungary

Gabor Szetey (born January 6, 1968) is a Hungarian former politician and former Secretary of State for Human Resources in the Gyurcsany government, a role he held from July 2006 to April 2009. He was the first openly gay Hungarian government member. On this day, he publicly declares that he’s gay at the opening night of the Budapest LGBT film festival, making him the first out LGBT person in Hungarian government. He currently lives in Spain.

JULY 7

2010, Sweden

Tobias Billstrom (born 27 December 1973) is the first openly bisexual person elected to the Swedish government. He was the Minister of Migration Affairs and has been leader of the Moderate Party in the Swedish Riksdag since 2017. He served as Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy in the Swedish Government from 2006 to 2014 and has been a Member of the Swedish Riksdag for Malmo Municipality since 2002. Although several controversial statements regarding immigration and immigrants, Billstrom is the longest serving Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy in Sweden. From 2014 to 2017, he served as First Deputy Speaker of the Riksdag.

2014

The first White House LGBT Innovation Summit takes place to discuss ways in which technology can help the LGBT community’s challenges. Speakers included Tim Gill (born October 18, 1953), founder of Quark publishing software; transgender activist and model Geena Rocero (born 1983 or 1984), founder of transgender rights group Gender Proud; and Leanne Pittsford (born 1980), founder of Lesbians Who Tech, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of women and lesbians in technology. This was the first summit of its kind held at the White House. Nearly 180 people attend.

JULY 8

1864

Fred Holland Day (July 8, 1864 – November 12, 1933) is born. He was an American photographer and publisher, and the first to advocate that photography should be considered a fine art. Day’s life and works had long been controversial since his photographic subjects were often nude young men. Since the 1990s, Day’s works have been included in major exhibitions by museum curators, notably in the solo Day retrospective at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 2000/2001 and similar shows at the Royal Photographic Society in England and the Fuller Museum of Art. Art historians are once again taking an interest in Day, and there are now significant academic texts on Day’s homoerotic portraiture, and its similarities to the work of Walter Pater and Thomas Eakins.

1906

Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, the postmodern 550 Madison Avenue in New York, designed for AT&T, and 190 South La Salle Street in Chicago. In 1978, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and in 1979 the first Pritzker Architecture Prize. Johnson was gay. He came out publicly in 1993 and was regarded as “the best-known openly gay architect in America”.

1950

Harry Hay (April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) and Rudi Gernreich (August 8, 1922 – April 21, 1985) meet on this day and later found the Mattachine Society, one of the earliest homophile organizations in the U.S. Hay was a prominent American gay rights activist, communist, labor advocate, and Native American civil rights campaigner. He was a founder of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States, as well as the Radical Faeries, a loosely affiliated gay spiritual movement. Gernreich was an Austrian-born American fashion designer whose avant-garde clothing designs are generally regarded as the most innovative and dynamic fashion of the 1960s. He purposefully used fashion design as a social statement to advance sexual freedom, producing clothes that followed the natural form of the female body, freeing them from the constraints of high fashion.

1978

A group of men set out to attack homosexuals in Central Park, injuring several with baseball bats, including former Olympic and world champion ice skater Dick Button (born July 18, 1929).

1980

The Democratic Rules Committee states that it will not discriminate against homosexuals. At their National Convention on August 11-14, 1980, the Democrats become the first major political party to endorse a homosexual rights platform.

1981, Canada

In Montreal the owner of Sauna David is found guilty of keeping a common bawdyhouse. The charges were the result of a police raid on bathhouse April 26, 1980.

2010

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro in Massachusetts becomes the first to rule that a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.

2018

Tab Hunter (July 11, 1931 – July 8, 2018) died. He was an American actor, pop singer, film producer, and author. He starred in more than 40 films and was a well-known Hollywood star of the 1950s and 1960s. Hunter’s autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star (2005), co-written with Eddie Muller, became a New York Times best-seller as did the paperback edition in 2007. Hunter had long-term relationships with actor Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) and champion figure skater Ronnie Robertson (September 25, 1937 – February 4, 2000) before settling down with his partner of over 35 years, film producer Allan Glaser.

JULY 9

1550, Italy

Jacopo Bonfadio (c. 1508 – July 1550) is tried and beheaded for sodomy, most likely because he published gossipy accounts of wealthy Genoese families. He was an Italian humanist and historian. Several humanists were tried for sodomy during this time as well, but Bonfadio is one of few to be executed.

1775, UK

Matthew Gregory Lewis (9 July 1775 – 16 May 1818) is born. He was an English novelist and dramatist, often referred to as “Monk” Lewis because of the success of his 1796 Gothic novel The Monk. Silly, stilted, and great fun to read, the genre was the high camp of its day. His most famous work was Ambrosio, The Monk written in 1795. Like most Gothic novels, it takes place in a Latin country. In this case in a monastery where Ambrosio, the head of the order, meets Matilda. She sneaks into his bed disguised as a man and quickly reveals she is a woman. After humping him into a frenzy he turns into a satyr and can’t get enough. In real life, Lewis was in love with a 14-year-old boy who brought him nothing but misery.

1893

Dorothy Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) is born in Lancaster, New York. Thompson, a newspaper writer and radio commentator, was expelled from Germany by Hitler because of her critical reports on Nazism. Thompson fell in love with Baroness Hatvany, better known as Christa Winsloe (23 December 1888 – 10 June 1944), the author of Madchen in Uniform about girls in love in a boarding school. Other lovers include Gertrude Franchot Tone (1876 – 1953), the feminist politician and mother of actor Franchot Tone. In 1939 she was recognized by Time magazine as the second most influential woman in America next to Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) and was featured on the cover. She was married three times, most famously to second husband and Nobel Prize in literature winner Sinclair Lewis. She is regarded by some as the “First Lady of American Journalism.”

1926, Italy

Mathilde Krim (July 9, 1926 – January 15, 2018) is born. She was a medical researcher and the founding chair of the American Foundation for AIDS Research. She devoted her life to the fight against HIV/AIDS, in particular raising the public’s awareness of the devastating disease. In 1950, she married David Danon, an Israeli man she met at University of Geneva School of Medicine. Krim died at home in Kings Point, New York on January 15, 2018, aged 91.

1965

Anthony D. Romero (July 9, 1965) is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He assumed the position in 2001 as the first Latino and openly gay man to do so.

1969

The Mattachine Society of New York invites activists to gather in Greenwich Village for the first “gay power” meeting. Called the “Homosexual Liberation Meeting,” it was held at the Freedom House in Midtown Manhattan with over 100 attendees.

1986, New Zealand

The Parliament passes the Homosexual Law Reform Act, decriminalizing sex between men and establishing the same legal provisions for all sexual relations.

2008, Croatia

The Croatian parliament approves new law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in all areas.

2018

Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz (1945 – July 9, 2018) was a Jewish-American essayist, poet, academic, and political activist against racism and for economic and social justice. She later added Kantrowitz to her name to honor her Jewish roots. Kaye/Kantrowitz was active in the Harlem Civil Rights Movement as a teenager. When she was 17, she worked with the Harlem Education Project. About this she said “It was my first experience with a mobilizing proud community and with the possibilities of collective action.” In 1990, she served as a founding director for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), a progressive Jewish organization focused mostly on anti-racist work and issues of economic justice. Kaye/Kantrowitz served on the JFREJ board from 1995 to 2004. Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz taught the first women’s studies course at the University of California, Berkeley and at Hamilton College, Brooklyn College/CUNY, Vermont College, and Jewish studies, history and comparative literature at Queens College. Kaye/Kantrowitz died on July 9, 2018, of Parkinson’s disease at age 73.

JULY 10

1871, France

Marcel Proust (July 10, 1871 – November 18, 1922) is born in Anteuil. The great French writer, perhaps the greatest of the first half of the 20th century, was rejected when he brought the manuscript for Remembrance of Things Past to a publisher. The rejection note reads “one has no idea what it’s all about.” His friend Andre Gide pointed out that Proust suffered a pronoun problem. Too many of his characters were women when they were intended to be men. Proust was homosexual, and his sexuality and relationships with men are often discussed by his biographers. His romantic relationship with composer Reynaldo Hahn (August 9, 1874 – January 28, 1947) and his infatuation with his chauffeur and secretary, Alfred Agostinelli, are well documented.

1909

The book Road to Oz, the fifth in the Oz series by L. Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) is published. In gay slang, a “friend of Dorothy” is a term for a gay man. While the precise origin of the term is unknown, some believe it is derived from this book. The book introduces readers to Polychrome who, upon meeting Dorothy’s traveling companions, ex-claims, “You have some queer friends, Dorothy,” and she replies, “The queerness doesn’t matter, so long as they’re friends.” More commonly, “friend of Dorothy” refers to the film The Wizard of Oz because Judy Garland, who starred as the main character Dorothy, is a gay icon. In the early 1980s, the Naval Investigative Service (NIS) was investigating homosexuality in Chicago. Having heard gay men refer to themselves as “friends of Dorothy,” the NIS went on a futile search for the elusive woman clearly at the center of a homosexual ring.

1931

Jerry Herman (July 10, 1931- December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. He has been nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles. In 2009, Herman received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He is a recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors. Herman was diagnosed with HIV in 1985. As noted in the Words and Music PBS documentary, “He is one of the fortunate ones who survived to see experimental drug therapies take hold and is still, as one of his lyrics proclaims, ‘alive and well and thriving’ over quarter of a century later. Herman resided in Miami Beach, Florida. He died at the age of 88.

1932

American actor Nick Adams (July 10, 1931 – February 7, 1968) is born on this day. The blonde actor usually played neurotics or comic sidekick roles such as Andy Griffith’s friend Ben in No Time for Sergeants. Before he got into acting, Adams was a well-known Hollywood hustler. He was the roommate of James Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955). Adams tragically took his own life at age 36 in 1968. Adams’ highly publicized life and death at a young age, his friendships with cultural icons such as James Dean and Elvis Presley, and his reported drug consumption made his private life the subject of many reports and assertions by some writers who have claimed Adams may have been gay or bisexual.

1954, UK

“Pet Shop Boy” Neil Tennant (born 10 July 1954) is born. He is an English musician, singer, songwriter, music journalist and co-founder of the synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys which he formed with Chris Lowe in 1981. He also was a journalist for Smash Hits and was assistant editor for the magazine for a period in the mid-1980s. Tennant is openly gay, revealing his sexuality in a 1994 interview in Attitude magazine. He is also a patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

1965

Actor/comedian Alec Mapa (born July 10, 1965) is born. He is a Fillipino-American actor, comedian and writer. He got his first professional break when he was cast to replace B. D. Wong for the role of Song Liling in the Broadway production of M. Butterfly. He gained recognition for roles such as Adam Benet in Half & Half, Suzuki St. Pierre on Ugly Betty and Vern on Desperate Housewives. Mapa recurred as Renzo on Switched at Birth. Mapa co-hosted the Logo network reality dating game show Transamerican Love Story with Calpernia Addams in 2008. In 2013, he debuted in his own one-man show, Alec Mapa: Baby Daddy, which was made into a concert film and premiered on Showtime in 2015. Mapa is gay and lends his support to various projects supporting the gay, lesbian, and Asian American communities. In 2008, Mapa legally married Jamison “Jamie” Hebert after dating since 2002. On the TV series The Gossip Queens, Mapa stated in the opening episode that he and his husband had adopted a 5-year-old boy.

1970, Austria

The Austrian Parliament decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults.

1970

The national organization of Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) is disbanded. Local chapters are free to continue as independent entities. The Daughters of Bilitis was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. The organization, founded in 1955 by Del Martin (May 5, 1921 – August 27, 2008) and Phyllis Lyon (born November 10, 1924) in San Francisco, was conceived as a social alternative to lesbian bars which were subject to raids and police harassment. As the DOB gained members, their focus shifted to providing support to women who were afraid to come out. The DOB educated them about their rights and about gay history. The historian Lillian Faderman (born July 18, 1940) declared, “It’s very establishment in the midst of witch-hunts and police harassment was an act of courage, since members always had to fear that they were under attack, not be-cause of what they did, but merely because of who they were.” The Daughters of Bilitis endured for 14 years, becoming an educational resource for lesbians, gay men, researchers and mental health professionals. Bilitis is the name given to a fictional lesbian contemporary of Sappho by the French poet Pierre Louosin his 1894 work The Songs of Bilitis in which Bilitis lives on the Isle of Lesbos alongside Sappho.

1972

Jim Foster and Madeleine Davis are the first openly gay and lesbian people to address a major party presidential nominating convention, the Democratic National Convention, held in Miami Beach, Florida. They called upon the party to add a gay rights plank to the platform. The plank was defeated. Jim Foster (November 19, 1934 – October 31, 1990) was an American LGBT rights and Democratic activist. He became active in the early gay rights movement when he moved to San Francisco following his undesirable discharge from the Army in 1959 for being homosexual. Foster co-founded the Society for Individual Rights (SIR), an early homophile organization, in 1964. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein credits SIR and the gay vote with generating her margin of victory in her election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969. Madeleine Davis (born 1940) is a noted gay rights activist. In 1970 she was a founding member of the Mattachine Society of the Niagara Frontier, the first gay rights organization in Western New York. In 1972, Davis taught the first college course on lesbianism in the United States. She was also a founding member of HAG Theater, the first all-lesbian theater company in the US.

1972

Ann Arbor, Michigan becomes the first U.S. city to pass a broad gay civil rights law. The city council passes the Human Rights Code making discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing, public accommodation, and employment illegal throughout the city.

1985

“Given a choice between sharing a park with homosexuals or a bunch of white-sheeted, racist, hate-peddling losers, we think we would prefer homosexuals.” This quote is from an editorial in the Texas Daily News regarding an upcoming anti-gay rally by the Ku Klux Klan.

1991

Raykeea Raeen-Roes Wilson (born July 10, 1991), known professionally as Angel Haze, is an American rapper and singer. In 2012, Wilson released Reservation. On December 31, 2013, Wilson released her debut album Dirty Goldwhich featured the singles Echelon (It’s My Way) and Battle Cry. Wilson is pansexual and agender. She has said: “People talking about me, like, ‘I’m glad there’s an actual woman of color representing queerness and pansexuality, someone who is like me in the spotlight.

JULY 11

1931

Tab Hunter (born Arthur Andrew Kelm; July 11, 1931 – July 8, 2018) is born. He was an American actor, television host, pop singer, film producer, and author. He starred in more than 40 films and was a well-known Hollywood star and heart throb of the 1950s and 1960s, known for his golden blond California surfer-boy looks. At his height he had his own television show The Tab Hunter Show and a hit single with Young Love. His break-through role came when he was cast as the young Marine Danny in 1955’s World War II drama Battle Cry. He starred in the 1958 musical film Damn Yankees in which he played Joe Hardy of Washington, D.C.’s American League baseball club. Hunter’s autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star (2005), co-written with Eddie Muller, became a New York Times best-seller. In the book, he acknowledges that he is gay, confirming rumors that had circulated since the height of his fame. Hunter had long-term relationships with actor Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) and champion figure skater Ronnie Robertson (September 25, 1937 – February 4, 2000) before settling down with his partner of over 30 years, film producer Allan Glaser. Hunter died from complications of deep vein thrombosis that caused cardiac arrest on July 8, 2018, three days before his 87th birthday. According to his partner Glaser, Hunter’s death was “sudden and unexpected”.

1934, Italy

Giorgio Armani (July 11, 1934) is born. He is an Italian fashion designer, particularly noted for his menswear and is also known as the man who put women into men’s blazers. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer that Italy has produced. Armani is an intensely private man but has publicly identified as bisexual. He had a longstanding relationship with architect Sergio Galeotti (1945-Aug. 14, 1985) who died of AIDS-related complications in 1985. Galeotti was co-founder and chairman of the board of Armani.

1946

Vito Russo (July 11, 1946 – November 7, 1990) is born. He was an American LGBT activist, and film historian who is best remembered as the author of the book The Celluloid Closet (1981, revised edition 1987). Russo’s concern over how LGBT people were presented in the popular media led him to co-found the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a watchdog group that monitors LGBT representation in the mainstream media and presents the annual GLAAD Media Awards. The Vito Russo Award is named in his memory and is presented to an openly gay or lesbian member of the media community for their outstanding contribution in combating homophobia. When he published the first edition of The Celluloid Closet in 1981, there was little question that it was a ground-breaking book. Today it is still one of the most informative and provocative books written about gay people and popular culture. Russo appeared in the 1989 Academy Award-winning documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt as a “storyteller,” relating the life and death of his lover Jeffrey Sevcik (1955-1986). Russo was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and died of AIDS-related complications in 1990. His work was posthumously brought to television in the 1996 HBO documentary film The Celluloid Closet, co-executive produced and narrated by Lily Tomlin. Also in 1990, Merrill College at UC Santa Cruz established the Vito Russo House to promote Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender awareness and provide a safe and comfortable living environment for queer, straight-supportive and all students who value and appreciate diversity. The house tailors its programming to meet the needs of LGBT students and offers all an opportunity to build understanding and tolerance. Russo’s papers are held by the New York Public Library.

1946

Jack Wrangler, born John Robert Stillman (July 11, 1946 – April 7, 2009), is born. He was an American gay and straight pornographic film actor, theatrical producer, director and writer. Open about his homosexuality and adult film work throughout his career, Wrangler was considered an icon of the gay liberation movement.

1966

Oklahoma County Attorney Curtis Harris revealed that 26 teachers and school administrators in Oklahoma City had been forced to resign following a six-month investigation into “alleged homosexual activity.”

1968

Esera Tavai Tuaolo (born July 11, 1968) is born. He was a former American professional football player, a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for nine years. Tuaolo, who is of Samoan ancestry, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and raised in poverty in a banana-farming family in Waimanalo. He played college football at Oregon State University. Nick-named “Mr. Aloha”, Tuaolo played tackle for several teams in his career, reaching the Super Bowl in 1999 while playing with the Atlanta Falcons. He also played for the Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers during his career. He recorded the last tackle of football legend John Elway. In 2002, having retired from sports, he announced to the public that he is gay, coming out on HBO’s Real Sports. This made him the third former NFL player to come out after David Kopay (born June 28, 1942) and Roy Simmons (November 8, 1956 – February 20, 2014). He has since worked with the NFL to attempt to combat homophobia in the league and is a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation. He made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004 to share his coming out story. Tuaolo’s autobiography, Alone in the Trenches: My Life As a Gay Man in the NFL, was released in the spring of 2006. Tuaolo currently resides in Minneapolis. Along with his advocacy and singing, he does philanthropic work, cooks professionally, and runs Hate in Any Form is Wrong, an anti-bullying program.

1986, New Zealand

The NZ Homosexual Law Reform Act of 1986 decriminalizes consensual sex between men. Homosexual male sex had been illegal in NZ since 1840.

1987

Dr. Tom Waddell (November 1, 1937 – July 11, 1987) dies on this day. He was a gay American sportsman and competitor at the 1968 Summer Olympics who founded the Gay Olympics in 1982 in San Francisco. The international sporting event was later renamed the Gay Games after the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) sued Waddell for using the word “Olympic” in the original name. The Gay Games are held every four years. The October 11, 1976 issue of People magazine featured Waddell and his lover Charles Deaton in a cover article. They were the first gay couple to appear on the cover of a major national magazine. In 1981, while founding the Gay Games, Waddell met two people with whom he formed major relationships. One was public relations man and fundraiser Zohn Artman with whom he fell in love and began a relationship. The other was lesbian athlete Sara Lewinstein. Both Tom and Sara had longed to have a child so they decided to have a child together. Their daughter, Jessica, was born in 1983. To protect Jessica’s and her mother’s legal rights, Tom and Sara married in 1985. In the 1980s Waddell was employed at the City Clinic in San Francisco’s Civic Center area; after his death, it was renamed for him. He died of complications from AIDS.

1990

Muscatine, Iowa’s public library board held a meeting to discuss the possible removal of books about gays and lesbians from the shelves. The proposal was defeated. Of the 75 residents who attended the meeting only one was in favor of the proposal.

1998, Italy

The Vatican condemns a decision by municipal authorities in Pisa, Italy to recognize a lesbian marriage. The women had been together for eleven years.

2003, UK

Britain’s House of Lords repeals the notorious anti-gay Section 28, the Thatcher-era law that banned any mention of homosexuality in schools.

2006

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago orders Southern Illinois University to officially recognize the Christian Legal Society, a student group that excludes membership to gays and people who support LGBT issues, while a lawsuit against the university proceeds. The injunction allows the group to use university facilities and receive funding from the public institution even though the school’s own policies and state law bars discrimination against gays.

2007

Florida State Rep. Bob Allen (Republican), a co-chair of John McCain’s Florida presidential campaign, was arrested for trying to charge a cop $20 for oral sex in a park restroom in Titusville, FL. During his time in the Florida legislature, Allen was a staunch supporter of anti-gay legislation. In 2009, Newsweek listed Allen among other conservative and liberal politicians who were caught in sex scandals.

2012

Jane Lynch (July 14, 1960), Billie Jean King (November 22, 1943), Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts (December 15, 1967), LGBT leader Urvashi Vaid (October 8, 1958- May 14, 2022) and other influential lesbians form their own political action group to fundraise and lobby on issues that impact lesbians in the U.S. LPAC provides financial backing to pro-lesbian candidates, whether Democrat or Republican, male or female, gay or straight. Laura Ricketts is the daughter of Joe Ricketts, a Republican businessman who had donated large sums to an anti-Obama super PAC. His daughter, however, was a major donor to President Obama. While there are already women’s and LGBT groups-such as EMILY’s List and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund-LPAC bills itself as the first super PAC to specifically target lesbians who are generally a small subset of these two communities.

2012

Stacy Offner became the rabbi of Temple Beth Tikvah in Madison, Connecticut. Offner is an openly lesbian American rabbi and was the first to be hired by a mainstream Jewish congregation. She also became the first rabbi-elected chaplain of the Minnesota Senate, the first female vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism, and the first woman to serve on the national rabbinical pension board. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Kenyon College and earned an M.A. in Hebrew Literature from Hebrew Union College in New York. She also has an honorary degree from Hebrew Union College where she was ordained in 1984. She was fired from her job as associate rabbi when she came out as a lesbian in 1987. She left with some of her congregants and in 1988 they founded Shir Tikvah, a Reform congregation in Minneapolis.

JULY 12

1817

Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) is born in Concord, Massachusetts. He was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Civil Disobedience (originally published as Resistance to Civil Government), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. His life was spent falling in and out of love with his male companions. He strove to portray himself as an ascetic puritan. However, his sexuality has long been the subject of speculation, including by his contemporaries. Thoreau never married and was childless. Critics have called him heterosexual, homosexual, or asexual. There is no evidence to suggest he had physical relations with anyone, man or woman. Some scholars have suggested that homoerotic sentiments run through his writings and concluded that he was homosexual.

1868, Germany

Poet Stefan George (July 12, 1868 – December 4, 1933) is born. Believing that the purpose of poetry was distance from the world-he was a strong advocate of art for art’s sake-George’s writing had many ties with the French Symbolist movement and he was in contact with many of its representatives including Stephane Mallarme and Paul Verlaine. George was an important bridge between the 19th century and German modernism even though he was a harsh critic of the then modern era. George’s homosexuality is reflected in works such as Algabal and the love poetry to a gifted adolescent of his acquaintance named Maximilian Kronberger whom he called Maximin and whom he identified as a manifestation of the divine.

1876, France

French writer Max Jacob (July 12, 1876 – March 5, 1944) is born. He was a poet, painter, writer, and critic. He was among the leaders of the avant-garde art movement in Paris during the early 20th century. He is regarded as an important link between the symbolists and the surrealists as seen in his prose poems The Dice Box (1917) and in his paintings, exhibitions of which were held in New York City in 1930 and 1938. Max Jacob was Jewish but converted to Catholicism hoping to stem his homosexual urges. He was arrested on February 24, 1944 by the Gestapo and died in a former housing block which served as the internment camp known as Drancy.

1908

Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American comedian and actor. As the host of NBC’s Texaco Star Theater (1948-55), he was the first major American television star and known to millions of viewers as “Uncle Miltie” and “Mr. Television” during TV’s golden age. While Berle was heterosexual, he often cross-dressed on his television shows.

1918

American novelist, biographer, literary critic, and essayist Doris Grumbach (born July 12, 1918) is born on this date in New York City. She taught at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and American University in Washington, D.C., and was literary editor of The New Republic for several years. Following her 1972 divorce, she began a relationship with Sybil Pike (July 27, 1929-March 9, 2021) who became and remains her life partner. For two decades, she and Sybil operated a bookstore, Wayward Books, in Sargentville, Maine, until 2009 when they moved to a retirement home in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

1934

Pianist Van Cliburn (Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr.) (July 12, 1934 – February 27, 2013) is born. He was an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at the age of 23 when he won the inaugural quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow during the Cold War. Cliburn received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003 by President George W. Bush, and, in October 2004, the Russian Order of Friendship, the highest civilian awards of the two countries. He was also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award the same year. In 1998, Cliburn was named in a lawsuit by his domestic partner of seventeen years, mortician Thomas Zaremba. In the suit, Zaremba claimed entitlement to a portion of Cliburn’s income and assets and went on to charge that he might have been exposed to HIV and claimed emotional distress. Each claim was subsequently dismissed by an Appellate Court, citing palimony suits are not permitted in the state of Texas unless the relationship is based on a written agreement.

1940, Germany

A directive from Heinrich Himmler of the Nazi Reich Main Security Office mandated that any homosexual who had seduced more than one person would be put into a concentration camp. Evidence of a sexual act was often absent in meeting the criteria.

1948

Milton Teagle “Richard” Simmons (born July 12, 1948) is an American fitness guru, actor, and comedian. He promotes weight-loss programs, prominently through his Sweatin’ to the Oldies line of aerobics videos and is known for his eccentric, flamboyant, and energetic personality. Aside from his three Dalmatians and two maids, Simmons lives alone in Beverly Hills, California. While his sexual orientation has been the subject of much speculation, he has never publicly discussed his sexuality. In May 2017, Simmons sued the National Enquirer, Radar Online and American Media, Inc. for libel and false claims that he was undergoing gender reassignment. In September 2017, Simmons lost the lawsuit and was ordered to pay the defendants’ attorney’s fees.

1975

Cheyenne David Jackson (July 12, 1975) is born. He is an American actor and singer-songwriter. His credits include leading roles in Broadway musicals and other stage roles as well as film and television roles, concert singing, and music recordings. Jackson appeared on the March 26, 2008, cover of The Advocate. The magazine used the caption “Hello, gorgeous! For leading man Cheyenne Jackson, coming out is a beautiful thing.” In 2008, he was named “Entertainer of the Year” by Out and appeared beside Gus Van Sant, Katy Perry, and Sam Sparro on the magazine’s commemorative 100th issue in December. Jackson is an LGBT rights supporter and an international ambassador for The Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR). Jackson is also a national ambassador and spokesperson for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a non-profit organization devoted to serving the needs of LGBT youth. In October 2013, Jackson announced he was dating actor Jason Landau (April 12, 1977). They were married in Encino, California in September 2014. Jackson and Landau welcomed twins on October 7, 2016.

1976

Kyrsten Sinema (born July 12, 1976) is born. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, making her the first openly bisexual member of Congress. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in both chambers of the Arizona legislature, being elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2005, and the Arizona Senate in 2011. Sinema has worked for the adoption of the DREAM Act and has campaigned against Propositions 107 and 102, two voter referendums to ban the recognition of same-sex marriage and civil unions in Arizona. In 2005 and 2006, she was named the Sierra Club’s Most Valuable Player. She also won the 2006 Planned Parenthood CHOICE Award, 2006 Legislator of the Year Award from both the Arizona Public Health Association and the National Association of Social Workers, 2006 Legislative Hero Award from the Arizona League of Conservation Voters, and the 2005 Stonewall Democrats’ Legislator of the Year Award. In 2010, she was named one of Time magazine’s “40 Under 40.” Sinema is the only openly non-theist or atheist member of Congress although she herself has disassociated from such labels. She has reversed her stand on many of the above issues and is barely a Democrat any longer.

1982, France

France removes homosexuality from its official list of mental illnesses.

1986

The International Lesbian and Gay Association votes almost unanimously not to revoke the membership of the South African Gay Association after testimony from a representative who stated that the organization was opposed to apartheid.

1998, Poland

Poland’s first gay pride demonstration was canceled because city authorities refused to issue the necessary permits.

1999

William Douglas Ireland (March 31, 1946 – October 26, 2013) was an American journalist and blogger who wrote about politics, power, media, and LGBT issues. He was the U.S. correspondent for the French political-investigative weekly Bakchich for which he also wrote a weekly column, and he was the contributing editor for International Affairs of Gay City News. Scott Tucker has called him “not only a left-wing critic of sexual and political conformism among sectors of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movements, but also one of the notable public intellectuals of the civil libertarian left. On this day Ireland suggested rebuilding the Gay Movement in The Nation, and that “the direction the gay movement takes will depend not on checkbook activism but on the kind of energy and commitment that people bring to work in their own communities. This may involve some nasty battles with more conservative gay elements and force the debate into the open, but the ultimate goal is victories that last, and that’s worth the fight.”

2018

Angela Bowen (February 6, 1936 – July 12, 2018) dies. She was an American dance teacher, English professor, and a lesbian rights activist. Bowen co-founded the Bowen/Peters School of Dance in New Haven, Connecticut in the 1960s. It closed in 1982. She became a gay rights activist and served on the board of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays. Bowen was a professor of English and Women’s Studies at California State University, Long Beach. She was the subject of the 2016 documentary, The Passionate Pursuits of Angela Bowen, by her wife Jennifer Abod and Mary Dupree which won Best Documentary in the Women’s History U.S. category at the 2017 To the Contrary About Women and Girls film festival. Bowen suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and died on July 12, 2018 in Long Beach, California, at age 82.

JULY 13

100 BC, Italy

Caius Julius Caesar (July 13, 100 BC – March, 15, 44 BC) is born in Rome. He had an affair with Nicomedes IV of Bithynia early in his career according to some historians. Caesar was referred to as the Queen of Bithynia by some Roman politicians as a way to humiliate him. Catullus wrote two poems suggesting that Caesar and his engineer Mamurra were lovers, but later apologized. Mark Antony charged that Octavian had earned his adoption by Caesar through sexual favors. Suetonius described Antony’s accusation of an affair with Octavian as political slander. Octavian eventually became the first Roman Emperor as Augustus.

1863

Mary Emma Woolley (July 13, 1863 – September 5, 1947) is born today. She was an American educator, peace activist and women’s suffrage supporter. She was the first female student to attend Brown University and served as the 11th President of Mount Holyoke College from 1900 to 1937. In 1900, Woolley was one of 60 signers of the Call for the Lincoln Emancipation Conference to Discuss Means for Securing Political and Civil Equality for the Negro, a document which created the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She lived in a lesbian relationship with Professor Jeanette Marks (1875-1964) for fifty-five years.

1888

According to an article in Ohio’s Springfield Daily Republic, James Chesser marries George Ann Holly who is actually one George Burton, discovered to be a male person after a medical exam. They were a young interracial couple living in Fort Smith, Arkansas from May to July of 1888. Both men were charged with sodomy. This is thought to be the first case where two men were duly married to one another.

1934, Germany

Hitler gave a speech in response to a retaliation that occurred after the murder of Ernst Rohm. The speech equated being homosexual with being a traitor.

1935, France

Monique Wittig (July 13, 1935 – January 3, 2003) is born in Haut-Rhin, France. She was a French author and feminist theorist and one of the founders of the Mouvement de Libration des Femmes (MLF) (Women’s Liberation Movement). On August 26, 1970, accompanied by numerous other women, she put flowers under the Arc de Triomphe to honor the wife of The Unknown Soldier. This symbolic action was considered to be the founding event of French feminism. Defining herself as a radical lesbian, she and other lesbians during the early 1980s in France and Quebec reached a consensus that “radical lesbianism” posits heterosexuality as a political regime that must be overthrown.

1943

Daniel Joseph “Danny” Lockin (July 13, 1943 – August 21, 1977) was an American actor and dancer who appeared on stage, television, and film. He was best known for his portrayal of the character Barnaby Tucker in the 1969 film Hello, Dolly! On the night of August 21, 1977, Lockin went to a gay bar in Garden Grove, California and left with Charles Leslie Hopkins who already had a police record and was on probation at the time. Several hours later, Hopkins called police to say that a man had entered his apartment and tried to rob him. Upon arrival, police found Lockin’s body on the floor of Hopkin’s apartment. He had been stabbed 100 times and bled to death. His body had also been mutilated after death. Hopkins claimed he had no idea how the dead body got in his apartment. He was arrested, convicted of voluntary manslaughter, and sentenced to a four-year prison term.

1944

Joan E. Biren or JEB (born July 13, 1944) is an American feminist photographer and filmmaker who dramatizes the lives of LGBTs in contexts that range from healthcare and hurricane relief to Womyn’s Music and anti-racism. For portraits, she encourages sitters to act as her “muse” rather than her “subject.” In her early 20s, Biren and others, including Rita Mae Brown (born November 28, 1944) and Charlotte Bunch (October 13, 1944), formed The Furies Collective, a radical experiment in lesbian feminist separatist organizing. Though the collective lasted only about 18 months, it had a profound influence on lesbian thought through its newspaper, The Furies, and other publications. JEB’s papers and visual materials are permanently archived at The Sophia Smith Collection, the premiere women’s history collection, at Smith College. Many of her photographs are located at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. In addition, The George Washington University houses a collection of photographs used in Queerly Visible: 1971-1991.

1953

Danitra Vance (July 13, 1954 – August 21, 1994) is born. She was an African American comedian and actress best known as a cast member on the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live during its eleventh season and for work in feature films like Sticky Fingers (1988), Limit Up (1990) and Jumpin’ at the Boneyard (1992). Vance was the first African American woman to become an SNL repertory player in 1985. She was awarded an NAACP Image Award in 1986 and later won an Obie Award for her performance in the theatrical adaptation of Spunk, a collection of short stories written by Zora Neale Hurston. She died of breast cancer in 1994.

1970

In response to a letter asking if she considered homosexuality a disease, advice columnist Dear Abby responded “No! It is the inability to love at all which I consider an emotional illness.”

1981, Canada

Toronto City Council appoints former journalist-turned-lawyer Arnold Bruner to conduct a study into relations between the police and the gay community. The appointment is made five months after the infamous Toronto bath-house raids.

1982, France

The Ministry of Health removes homosexuality from its official list of mental illnesses.

1982

The U.S. House of Representatives votes to begin an investigation into reports that a major homosexual prostitution ring was operating in Congress. After a year of hearings no evidence was presented to support the allegations. The reports were the result of accusations from a former page who flunked a lie detector test.

1984

Hate-monger Jerry Falwell appeared on television and denied that he had ever referred to the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) as vile and satanic and its members “brute beasts” on his Old Time Gospel Hour. He offered $5,000 to anyone who could prove that he had. Rev. Jerry Sloan of MCC called Falwell’s toll-free number and purchased a copy of the tape as proof then demanded payment of the $5,000. When Falwell refused, Sloan sued and won.

1984

The Brothers debuts on Showtime as the first television show in the United States with a gay lead character. Two conservative men support their younger brother when he comes out as gay and help him navigate being openly homosexual in 1980s Philadelphia.

1998

A full-page ad claiming gay men and lesbians can overcome their sexuality by becoming Christian ran in the New York Times. The ads were opposed by many in the scientific and medical communities including Dr. Dean Hamer (born 1951) of the National Institutes of Health who said the ads “fly in the face of scientific fact and are at odds with what we know from biological and psychological sciences.” Hamer is an American geneticist, author, and filmmaker. He is known for his research on the role of genetics in sexual orientation and human behavior, contributions to biotechnology and HIV/AIDS prevention, and popular books and documentaries on a wide range of topics.

1999

Dr. Dean Edell wrote that “an investigation into the size of male sex organs reveals that homosexuals are generally better endowed than heterosexuals. This is a study done by the Kinsey Institute and researchers say there may be some relationship between innate sexual orientation tendencies and the size of genitalia. Researchers say they surveyed data gathered on 5,172 men and found penis sizes to be larger in homosexuals than heterosexuals based on five measurement standards. One reason for the differences in penile dimensions could be variations in prenatal hormone levels, according to the study published in the journal, Archives of Sexual Behavior.”

1999

The Vatican orders Rev. Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick to end their Maryland-based 22-year ministry to gays and lesbians. Jeannine Gramick, S. L., (born 1942) is a Catholic religious and advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights as a co-founder of New Ways Ministry. Robert Nugent, a Catholic priest, became nationally known for his pastoral work with gay men and lesbians, a ministry that was officially ended in 1999 when the Vatican declared it “erroneous and dangerous.”

2000

Love in Action’s ex-gay poster boy Wade Richards revealed that his sexual orientation had not in fact changed. “I am and always have been a homosexual, and I do not believe that ex-gay ministries can ever change an individual’s sexual orientation.”

2003

Gay activists took over the general assembly of the Church of England demanding equality for gays in the church.

2016

Army Reserve officer Tammy Smith becomes the first openly gay U.S. general in American history. Tammy Smith (born c. 1963) is a Major General of the U.S. Army Reserve. She received her confirmation to Major General on July 13th, 2016 and was formally promoted to the position in a ceremony at the U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul, Korea. Major General Smith is the Deputy Commanding General-Sustainment for Eighth Army. She also became the first female general officer to serve in an Eighth Army headquarters-level position. Prior to this position, she served as the Commanding General of the 98th Training Division (Initial Entry Training) and served for a year in the Afghanistan War. Smith married Tracey Hepner on March 31, 2012, in a ceremony at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. The ceremony was officiated by a military chaplain. The District of Columbia began recognizing same-sex marriages in 2010 but because Smith was in the Army she could not enter into a marriage until after Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed. She is the first openly gay U.S. flag officer to come out while serving since the repeal of the policy. Smith and her spouse Tracey Hepner are active in volunteer military family support event. General Smith retired in 2021.

JULY 14

1454, Italy

Angelo Poliziano (July 14, 1454 – September 24, 1494) is born in Montepulciano, Tuscany. He wrote under the name Politian and was considered the successor to Ovid. He was a tutor to the children of Lorenzo de Medici. Young men flocked from throughout Europe to study under him. He died at 42 of a heart attack while in bed with one of his students.

1897

Annie Hindle (1840s – July 14, 1897) died. She was the first popular male impersonator performer in the United States. Born in the 1840s in England, she and her adoptive mother migrated to New York City in 1868 where she performed as a male impersonator in solo acts and in minstrel shows from 1868 to 1886. She received high reviews and steady bookings. Her skills in male impersonation astounded her audience. A review of one of her performances at the Adelphi Theater in Galveston, Texas, noted, “Annie Hindle has proved a great success. As a male impersonator her sex is so concealed that one is apt to imagine that it is a man who is singing.” Hindle’s male impersonation career ended in 1886 when she married her dresser, Annie Ryan, while on a tour through the mid-west. Hindle dressed in male clothing and gave her name as Charles and a local Baptist minister performed the ceremony.

1895

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (August 28, 1825 – July 14, 1895) dies. Ulrichs was an openly gay lawyer who was among the earliest to call for the repeal of Germany’s sodomy law Paragraph 175. He was truly a pioneer of the modern gay rights movement.

1926

Charles Pierce (July 14, 1926 – May 31, 1999) was one of the 20th century’s foremost female impersonators, particularly noted for his impersonation of Bette Davis. He was born on this day in Watertown, New York. Throughout his career, Pierce appeared in numerous television shows (Fame, Laverne and Shirley, Designing Women, Starsky & Hutch, and Love, American Style) as well as feature films. He died of cancer on May 31, 1999.

1960

Jane Lynch (born July 14, 1960) is an American actress, singer, and comedian. She is best known for her role as Sue Sylvester in the musical television series Glee. Lynch is openly lesbian; in 2005, she was named one of Power Up’s 10 Amazing Gay Women in Showbiz. Lynch married clinical psychologist Lara Embry on May 31, 2010, in Sunderland, Massachusetts. In June 2013, Lynch announced that she and Embry were divorcing after three years of marriage. The divorce was finalized in January 2014.

1983

Rep. Gerry Studds (D-MA) (May 12, 1937 – October 14, 2006) comes out. He was the first openly gay member of Congress. Studds and partner Dean T. Hara (his companion since 1991) were married in Boston on May 24, 2004, one week after Massachusetts became the first state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage. Studds died on October 14, 2006, in Boston, at age 69, several days after suffering a pulmonary embolism.

1983

Graham Samuel Ackerman (born July 14, 1983) is an American gymnast. In April 2005 he won the national championship in the floor exercise event at the NCAA Men’s Gymnastics championship at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, making him a three-time national champ. In 2004 he won the national titles in two events-floor and vault. Ackerman is openly gay.

1986

In an interview with People magazine, Roy Cohn (February 20, 1927 – August 2, 1986) denies that he was gay (he was) or that he had AIDS (he did). When Cohn brought on G. David Schine (September 11, 1927-June 19, 1996) as chief consultant to the McCarthy staff, speculation arose that Schine and Cohn had a sexual relationship. Cohn died of AIDS in 1986. During Senator Joseph McCarthy’s investigations into Communist activity in the United States during the Second Red Scare, Cohn served as McCarthy’s chief counsel and gained special prominence during the Army-McCarthy hearings. He was also known for being a Justice prosecutor at the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and later for representing Donald Trump during his early business career. In 1984, Cohn was diagnosed with AIDS and attempted to keep his condition secret while receiving experimental drug treatment. He participated in clinical trials of AZT, a drug initially synthesized to treat cancer but later developed as the first anti-HIV agent for AIDS patients. He insisted to his dying day that his disease was liver cancer. He died on August 2, 1986, in Bethesda, Maryland, of complications from AIDS, at the age of 59. Cohn’s “absolute goal was to die completely broke and owing millions to the IRS. He succeeded.” He is buried in Union Field Cemetery in Queens, New York.

1987

In Williamson, West Virginia, a public swimming pool was closed temporarily by Mayor Sam Kapourales who ordered a scrub-down of the diving board, lounge chairs, and locker room, the pool drained and refilled, and 16 times the normal amount of chlorine added because he learned that a man with AIDS had gone swimming in the pool.

1998

The city council of West Hartford, Connecticut voted not to allow same sex couples access to family rate discounts at the city pool.

2004, Canada

Yukon Territory becomes the most northern area of the world to legalize same-sex marriage.

2011

The Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act, also known as the FAIR Education Act is signed into law in California. The act requires that political, economic, and social contributions of LGBTQ people are included in educational curricula in California public schools. It also prohibits discrimination regarding school activities and groups. The bill was originally introduced by then-Senator Sheila James Kuehl (February 9, 1941).

2014

The Los Angeles OUTFEST premiere of Letter to Anita, the heart-wrenching documentary by award-winning filmmaker Andrea Meyerson that explores the painful legacy of singer Anita Bryant’s infamous anti-gay campaign of the late 1970s.

2016

The Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announces that he will name the Military Sealift Command fleet oiler for USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206). The ship is the second of the John Lewis-class oilers built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, Calif.

JULY 15

1834, Spain

The Spanish Inquisition is abolished by Ferdinand VII’s widow Maria Christina. Between 1000 and 1600 people had been convicted of sodomy during that time and 170 were executed.

1914, Scotland

Ring of Bright Water author and naturalist Gavin Maxwell (July 15, 1914 – September 7, 1969) is born on this date. Ring of Bright Water (1960) is about how he brought an otter back from Iraq and raised it in Scotland. The otter was of a previously unknown sub-species which was subsequently named after Maxwell. Though he had been involved with several women and was married for a year, his loves were the men in his life.

1947

Lambda Literary Award winning poet and author Michael Lassell (July 15, 1947) is born. He has written extensively in the fields of design, travel, the arts, and LGBT studies. He lives in New York City. He served as features director of Metropolitan Home from 1992 until 2009. Prior to that, he served as managing editor of Interview and L.A. Stylemagazines as well as a theater critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and L.A. Weekly. Lassell currently resides in Greenwich Village, New York City with his rescued dachshund Schuyler.

1962

In New York City, Randy Wicker (Feb. 3, 1938) talks listener-supported radio station WBAI into broadcasting a taped program in which seven gay people discuss homosexuality. Widely publicized in the local press, the program is probably the first favorable broadcast on the subject in the U.S. While it resulted in positive comments in several newspapers and magazines, a group of homophobic listeners contacted the FCC to challenge the station’s license. The complaint was rejected. The 90-minute program aired in July 1962. Several mainstream media outlets, alerted by Wicker, covered the broadcast which received favorable treatment in The New York Times, The Realist, Newsweek, the New York Herald Tribune, and Variety. As a result of the publicity, from 1962 through 1964 Wicker was one of the most visible homosexuals in New York. He spoke to countless church groups and college classes and, in 1964, became the first openly gay person to appear on East Coast television with a January 31st appearance on The Les Crane Show. Wicker is also credited with organizing the first known gay rights demonstration in the United States. Wicker, along with Craig Rodwell, sexual freedom activist Jefferson Poland and a handful of others, picketed the Whitehall Street Induction Center in New York City in 1964 after the confidentiality of gay men’s draft records was violated. He supported himself by operating, with his lover Peter Ogren, Underground Uplift Unlimited, a slogan-button and head shop. The couple ran the shop from 1967 to 197 and used the proceeds to open an antique and lighting store. Wicker ran his store for 29 years. Since 2009, he has been documenting and participating in the Radical Faerie communities in Tennessee and New York.

1961

David Cicilline (born July 15, 1961) is an American politician who has been the U.S. Representative for Rhode Island’s 1st congressional district since 2011. Upon being sworn in, Cicilline became the fourth openly gay member of Congress. A Democratic, he previously served as mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, from 2003 to 2011, and was the first openly gay mayor of a U.S. state capital. Rep. Cicilline introduced the Equality Act in 2015 to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act and expand protections to LGBTQ people. In September 2017, he re-introduced the Equality Act. In July 2018, Cicilline was a co-sponsor of the Gay and Trans Panic Defense Prohibition Act. This act would prohibit defense lawyers from using a victim’s LGBTQ identity as justification for a crime or to argue for lesser sentences on the premise that there were extenuating circumstances that motivated their clients to lash out violently.

1975

Santa Cruz County, California is the first U.S. county to make job discrimination against gay men and lesbians illegal.

1985

An obviously ill actor Rock Hudson (Nov. 17, 1925 – Oct. 2, 1985) appears on television to promote his new cable series with Doris Day. His publicist explains his appearance by saying he was just getting over the flu. He died from AIDS related complications.

1990

The book Behind the Mask by Dave Pallone (Oct. 5, 1951) debuts at #15 on the New York Times bestseller list. Pallone was a major league baseball umpire who was fired for being gay. He was “outed” in an article. Pallone now does diversity training for corporations, colleges, universities and athletes with the NCAA. Pallone was in the first class of inductees to The National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.

1991

Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer (March 24, 1942) is informed by a military board that while she is a “great American, a great asset, and a superb leader,” and that her 27 years of service have been of “great value,” she is to be discharged for being a lesbian. She was the highest ranking person to be discharged for homosexuality, serving as a colonel in the Washington National Guard. She became a gay rights activist. She had a 15-year marriage to a man with whom they had four sons. In 1988, when she was 46, she met Diane Divelbess who later became her wife. In 2012, after same-sex marriage was legalized in Washington state, Cammermeyer and Divelbess became the first same-sex couple to get a license in Island County. They live on Whidbey Island in Washington State.

1999

An 1897 letter written by gay author Oscar Wilde (Oct. 16, 1854 – Nov. 30, 1900) to novelist Henrietta Stannard fetched $18,745.00 at a Sotheby’s Auction. Stannard was not a lesbian but wrote under the name of John Strange Winter.

2003

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, a reality show of gay men who conduct makeovers for straight men, premieres on Bravo. The show features the “Fab Five,” a quintet of gay men – Ted Allen (born May 20, 1965), Kyan Douglas (born May 5, 1970), Thom Filicia (born May 17, 1969), Carson Kressley (born November 11, 1969), and Jai Rodriguez (born June 22, 1979). The show plays on stereotypes that gay men know more about fashion, food, personal grooming, interior design and culture. The show becomes immensely popular and is praised by much of the mainstream gay press but receives some criticism for its generalizations and stereotyping. Queer Eye won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program in 2004. The series’ name was abbreviated to Queer Eye at the beginning of its third season to include making over individuals regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Queer Eye ended production during June 2006 and the final episode aired on October 30, 2007. Netflix announced in January 2017 that it was reviving the series with a new Fab Five in a season of eight episodes. On February 7, 2018, the revival aired its first season to positive reviews.

2005

Robert Traynham, the chief of staff and communications director for homophobe Sen. Rick Santorum, (R-Pa.) confirms rumors circulating in Washington for several months that he is gay. He continued to defend Santorum even into the 2016 election cycle. Traynham is currently the Bipartisan Policy Center’s vice president of communications.

2010, Argentina

The Senate approves same-sex marriage by a vote of 33-27.

2015

The club Jewel’s Catch One in Los Angeles opened in 1973 and closed on this day in 2015. Jewel’s Catch One was one of the first black discos in the United States and was for a long time the major black gay bar in Los Angeles. It was a dance bar owned by Jewel Thais Williams, located on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. Open for forty years, it was the longest running black gay dance bar in Los Angeles. After nearly closing in 2015, it was purchased by Mitch Edelson who reopened under new management. Briefly called Union after the change in management, it has since reverted to the Catch One moniker. Jewel Thais-Williams graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in History. During her college years she wanted to be self-employed. Her first business was a boutique but it went out of business, so she bought a bar. She opened the club after she experienced discrimination in different clubs around West Hollywood because she was black and female. Women at the time were not allowed to tend bar but Jewel saved enough money and bought the bar despite the limitations. When the club opened, it became a hub for a diverse population of performers including Sylvester, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Janet Jackson, Donna Summer, Whoopi Goldberg, Rick James, and Madonna.

JULY 16

1746, UK

Mary Hamilton (1721-??) was the subject of a notorious 18th century case of fraud and female cross-dressing in which Hamilton, under the name of Charles, duped a woman into marriage. She was arrested, charged with fraud, publicly whipped, and imprisoned for six months. While the surviving records of the case indicate that Hamilton was only prosecuted for deceiving one woman into marriage, newspaper reports at the time claimed that there had been 14 marriages in all.

1943, Cuba

Novelist Reinaldo Arenas (July 16, 1943 – December 7, 1990) is born. He was a Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright who despite his early sympathy for Fidel Castro and the 1959 revolution, grew critical of and then rebelled against the Cuban government. He changed when the government began open persecution of homosexuals. His first novel, entitled Celestino Antes del Alba (Singing from the Well), was published in 1967. He came to the United States in 1980, fleeing the persecution of his homeland. On December 7, 1990, suffering from complications of AIDS and too sick to continue writing, Arenas died by suicide.

1956

Tony Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is born. Kushner, openly gay, received a Tony and the Pulitzer Prize for writing Angels in America. Angels in America is about AIDS, religion/spirituality, family, sexuality, and politics in our culture. He also authored several children’s plays and an essay book Thinking about the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness (1995). Kushner and his spouse Mark Harris (born November 25, 1963) held a commitment ceremony in April 2003, the first same-sex commitment ceremony to be featured in the Vows column of The New York Times. Harris is an editor of Entertainment Weekly and author of Pictures at a Revolution – Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood. In summer 2008, Kushner and Harris were legally married at the city hall in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

1969

The Mattachine Society of New York hosts an organizing meeting which over 200 people attend. During the course of the meeting, approximately 40 participants walk out in dissatisfaction over chapter president Leitsch’s handling of the post-Stonewall political energy. Richard Dick Valentine Dick Leitsch (born May 11, 1935) is an American LGBT rights activist. He was president of the Mattachine Society, a gay rights group, in the 1960s. He conceptualized and lead the “Sip-In” at Julius’ Bar which was one of the earliest acts of gay civil disobedience in the United States in which LGBT activists attempted to legally gain the right to drink in bars in New York. He is also known for being the first gay reporter to publish an account of the Stonewall Riots and the first person to ever interview Bette Midler in print media.

1973

Chad Griffin (born July 16, 1973) is an American political strategist best known for his work advocating for LGBT rights in the United States. Griffin got his start in politics volunteering for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign, which led to a position in the White House Press Office at the age of 19. Following his stint in the White House and his graduation from Georgetown University, he led a number of political campaigns advocating for or against various California ballot initiatives as well as a number of fundraising efforts for political candidates, such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Following the 2008 passage of California’s highly publicized Proposition 8 which barred the recognition of same-sex marriage, Griffin founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) to overturn the law. AFER’s challenge, Perry v. Brown, was ultimately successful following a decision by the United States Supreme Court in June 2013. In 2012, Griffin was appointed president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT rights organization in the United States

1976

The discharge of Sgt. Leonard Matlovich (July 6, 1943 – June 22, 1988) is upheld in a civilian court by Federal District Judge Gerhard Gesell. He was a Vietnam War veteran, race relations instructor, and recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. Matlovich was the first gay service member to purposely out himself to the military to fight their ban on gays, and perhaps the best-known gay man in America in the 1970s next to Harvey Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978). His fight to stay in the United States Air Force after coming out of the closet became a cause celebre around which the gay community rallied. Matlovich was the first named openly gay person to appear on the cover of a U.S. newsmagazine. His tombstone, meant to be a memorial to all gay veterans, does not bear his name. It reads, “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.

1982

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service policy of barring homosexuals from entering the country is ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge.

1984

U.S. News and World Report announces that gays and lesbians make up the seventh-largest voting bloc in the US.

1986

Jeff Levi, executive director of NGLTF (National Gay and Lesbian Task Force), announces plans for a Privacy Project to fight sodomy laws.

1992

Bill Clinton becomes the first candidate for president to mention gays and lesbians in a speech accepting the Democratic nomination for president.

2001

Leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) vote overwhelmingly to overturn a ban on ordaining homosexuals as ministers of the church. The 317-208 vote, taken at the church’s annual general assembly in Louisville, Kentucky, comes after more than two hours of debate.

2003

Drew Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) comes out as bisexual. She is an American actress, author, director, model and producer. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American stage and film actors and is a grand-daughter of actor John Barrymore. Barrymore began acting on television, and soon transitioned to film with roles in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Irreconcilable Differences (1984).

2003

Rev. Troy Perry (born July 27, 1940), founder and moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, marries his long-time partner in Toronto. Perry lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Phillip Ray DeBlieck whom he married under Canadian law at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto. They sued the State of California upon their return home after their Toronto wedding for recognition of their marriage and won. The state appealed and the ruling was overturned by the State Supreme Court after five years in their favor.

2005

Thailand announces it will provide free HIV/AIDS meds to any citizen who needs them.

JULY 17

1730, Netherlands

In Rotterdam, Leendert de Haas, age 60, candlemaker, Casper Schroder, distiller, and Huibert V. Borselen, gentleman’s servant, were strangled, burnt, and their ashes carried in an ash cart out of the city and then by ship to the sea and thrown overboard during the anti-gay purge. In April 1730 some men were arrested in Utrecht. They incriminated others, and on June 21st, the State of Holland issued a Placat, posted in every town, that set off wide-scale persecution. The document began with the customary warnings about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, then lamented that no laws had heretofore been provided to punish “this execrable crime of sodomy”, and concluded with its measures for obliterating this evil: that sodomy be punished by death, that those who offer their homes for its commission also die, that their corpses be burned to ashes and thrown into the sea “or exposed as unworthy of burial”, that the names of the convicted – including the fugitives – be publicly posted, and that the magistrates be specially authorized to investigate thoroughly any suspicions, particularly against those who mysteriously flee the province. Some 250 men were summoned before the authorities; 91 faced decrees of exile for not appearing. At least 60 men were sentenced to death. The astonishing purges of 1730 were widely re-ported in the English newspapers (mainly in June and July), and probably sent men running for cover even in England. The English news reports also state that many Dutch sodomites fled to England-where they unfortunately were not accorded the same reception as refugees from religious persecution.

1859, UK

Ernest Rhys (July 17, 1859 – May 25, 1946) is born in London. Rhys was the editor of the Everyman Library, a collection that totaled 967 volumes containing the classics. After he retired, he wrote his autobiography filled with anecdotes about his gay clique including Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900).

1883, Finland

Swedish director Mauritz Stiller (July 17, 1883 – November 18, 1928) is born. In addition to discovering Greta Garbo (18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990), Stiller is given credit for creating a Swiss national cinema that took a progressive attitude toward sexuality and desire.

1898

Photographer Bernice Abbott (July 17, 1898 – December 9, 1991) is born in Springfield, Ohio. Famous for her photographs of the changing New York City cityscape, Abbott also photographed many gay, lesbian, and bisexual images during the 1920s and 30s. The film Bernice Abbott: A View of the 20th Century, which showed 200 of her black and white photographs, suggests that she was a “proud proto-feminist,” someone who was ahead of her time in feminist theory. Before the film was completed, she said, “The world doesn’t like independent women, why, I don’t know, but I don’t care.” She lived with critic, writer, and historian Elizabeth McCausland (1899-1965) for 30 years.

1942

Fred Halsted (July 17, 1941 – May 9, 1989) is born. He was an American gay pornographic film director, actor, escort, publisher, and sex club owner. His films Sex Garage and L.A. Plays Itself are the only gay pornographic movies in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, where they were screened before a capacity audience on April 23, 1974. A screening of L.A. Plays Itself was sponsored by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on February 28, 2013 and another took place on December 16, 2011 at the Los Angeles art gallery Human Resources. His films have also been shown the Netherlands Film Museum and in competition at The Deauville Film Festival. His lover, Joseph Yanoska, died of AIDS in 1986.

1945

Drag performer Ethyl Eichelberger (July 17, 1945 – August 12, 1990) is born in Pekin, Illinois, under the name John Roy Eichelberger. He was an American drag performer, playwright, and actor. He became an influential figure in experimental theater and writing, and performed nearly forty plays. He became more widely known as a commercial actor in the 1980s. With the lack of AIDS medications, Ethyl died by suicide on August 12, 1990.

1968

The Wall Street Journal publishes an article entitled “U.S. Homosexuals Gain in Trying to Persuade Society to Accept Them.” The article, an overview of what was happening during the late 1960’s, was written by Charles Alverson.

1982, UK

Commander Michael Trestrail (born 1931), Queen Elizabeth’s personal bodyguard, is forced to resign after he was outed in the British newspapers. Soon after, reports surfaced that Margaret Thatcher wanted to raise the issue of gays in the palace until the Queen reportedly summoned her to Buckingham Palace and told her to mind her own business.

JULY 18

64, Italy

Roman Emperor Nero (15 December 37 AD – 9 June 68 AD) took the role of a bride in a public wedding ceremony to Pythagoras. Nero also married other men and some women during his lifetime.

1865, UK

Playwright Laurence Housman (July 18, 1865 – February 20, 1959) is born in Fockbury, England. He and his sibling, the classicist A. E. Housman (26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936), and sister Clemence (23 November 1861 – 6 December 1955) who was a woodcut artist and an activist in the women’s suffrage movement, were all gay. There is no doubt he was helped in his career by Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900). His greatest script was Victoria Regina.

1882

A new edition of Walt Whitman’s (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) Leaves of Grass is released by Rees Welsh & Company publisher. It was rejected by his former publishers on obscenity charges. The first printing of 1000 of the new edition sold out in one day even though it was boycotted by major retailers.

1892

Alice Mitchell’s trial begins in Tennessee. Alice Mitchell (November 26, 1872-March 31, 1898) was an American woman who gained notoriety for the murder of her lover Freda Ward. On February 23, 1892, the 19-year-old Mitchell cut the throat of her lover, 17-year-old Freda Ward. Mitchell was subsequently found insane by means of a jury inquisition and placed in a psychiatric hospital until her death in 1898. The case, exploited by sensationalist press, and focused attention of the sexual attachments of women and drew out into the public discourse discussions of lesbianism. The case was headlined as “A Very Unnatural Crime” across the country. The case influenced the popular literature of the era which began to depict lesbians as “murderous” and “masculine.” One identity that came to be through lesbians was the “mannish lesbian” creating dialogue of gender expression.

1929

Richard Totten “Dick” Button (July 18, 1929) is born. He is an American former figure skater and a well-known long-time skating analyst. He is a twice Olympic Champion (1948, 1952) and five-time World Champion (1948-1952). Button is credited as having been the first skater to successfully land the double axel jump in competition in 1948, as well as the first triple jump of any kind – a triple loop – in 1952. He also invented the flying camel spin which was originally known as the “Button camel.” Button graduated from Harvard University in 1952 where he was a member of The Delphic Club. He received a JD degree from Harvard Law School in 1956. On July 5, 1978, Button and five other victims were attacked with baseball bats by a gang of teenagers in New York City’s Central Park. The gay-bashing left all six victims with skull fractures; Button also suffered serious nerve damage and permanent hearing loss in one ear. In 1996, Button was named to the 100 Golden Olympians, a USOC program to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games and honor America’s best Olympic athletes.

1940

Lillian Faderman (born July 18, 1940) is an American historian whose books on lesbian history and LGBT history have earned critical praise and awards. The New York Times named three of her books on its “Notable Books of the Year” list. In addition, The Guardian named her book Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers one of the Top 10 Books of Radical History. Faderman studied first at the University of California, Berkeley and later at UCLA. She was a professor of English at California State University, Fresno and a visiting professor at UCLA. She retired in 2007. She lives with her wife Phyllis Irwin in San Diego.

1966

Before Stonewall there was Compton’s Cafeteria. People picketed Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco when management starts using Pinkerton agents and police to harass LGBT customers. This precedes the August 1966 riot at Compton’s that is considered one of the first transgender rights protests in the U.S.

1969

Elizabeth M. Gilbert (born July 18, 1969) is an American author, essayist, short story writer, biographer, novelist, and memoirist. She is best known for her 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love which had spent 199 weeks on The New York TimesBest Seller list and which was also made into a film by the same name in 2010. On September 7, 2016, Gilbert published a Facebook post saying that she was in a relationship with her best friend, writer Rayya Elias (1960-January 4, 2018). On June 6, 2017, the two celebrated a commitment ceremony with close family and friends. Elias died of pancreatic cancer on January 4, 2018.

2006

Alabama’s first openly gay public official, Patricia Todd (born July 25, 1955), wins the Democratic primary by 59 votes. She represented downtown Birmingham in the Alabama House of Representatives. Currently she is the Human Rights Campaign Alabama State Director. Formerly she was the associate director of AIDS Alabama. Her spouse was Jennifer Clarke. They were married in 2013 and divorced in 2014.

2014

The White House announces that President Barack Obama will sign an executive order that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees and job seekers. LGBT discrimination would continue under the guise of so called “religious beliefs.”

July 18, 2020

The Pentagon bans confederate flags on military property but that also includes rainbow PRIDE flags. Rudy Coots, president of Department of Defense Pride, objects to the new policy because it would change Pride displays and events at the Pentagon. “It’s absolutely outrageous that Defense Secretary Mark Esper would ban the Pride flag – the very symbol of inclusion and diversity,” said Jennifer Dane, interim executive director for the Modern Military Association of America. “In what universe is it OK to turn an opportunity to ban a racist symbol like the Confederate flag into an opportunity to ban the symbol of diversity? This decision sends an alarming message to LGBT service members, their families and future recruits.”

JULY 19

508, Lebanon

Marina the Monk (dates of birth and death uncertain) was the daughter of a wealthy nobleman who wanted to live in the Monastery of Qannoubine in the Kadisha Valley of Lebanon. After her father found a husband for her, rather than marry, Marina cut her hair, donned men’s clothes, and changed her name to Marinus. When she died, the monks changed his clothes for burial and discovered he was female. She defied gender roles so well that, her fellow monks never once suspected that Brother Marinos was a woman, as they attributed her lack of beard and high voice as a result of pious asceticism. Her discipline and self-control also goes against the assumption of what is typical female behavior, for when she was accused of fathering a child (after years of staying in the monastery, long after her father died) she did not break down and tell the truth, as many would assume, but instead took responsibility for the child that was not hers. On this day, we celebrate the feast day of Saint Marina the Monk.

1822, UK

The Irish Bishop of Clogher Percy Jocelyn (November 29, 1764 – September 3, 1843) is discovered having sex with a soldier in the 1st Regiment of Guards in an alehouse in London. This is one of the largest public homosexual scandals involving the Church in the 19thcentury. The bishop is arrested, but it is possible he is allowed to escape to avoid the spectacle of the government prosecuting a clergy member. Jocelyn flees to Scotland and lives out his life under the name of Thomas Wilson, working as a butler.

1875

Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar Nelson (July 19, 1875 – September 18, 1935) is born. She was an American poet, journalist and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance. Her first husband was the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar; she then married physician Henry A. Callis; and last married Robert J. Nelson, a poet and civil rights activist. Dunbar had a long-term relationship with educator Edwina Kruse (1848-?), the school’s principal, and affairs with artist Helene London and journalist Fay Jackson Robinson (1902-1988).

1884

An editorial in a New York medical journal said that urnings, a term coined by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (August 28, 1825 – July 14, 1895) to describe men who are attracted to other men, have an irrepressible desire to act like females, and that their “perverted feelings” lead to insanity and suicide. The article was an attempt to remove homosexuality from the realm of the criminal and into the realm of the medical.

1892, France

Suzanne Alberte Malherbe (19 July 1892 – 19 February 1972) is born. She and Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob (25 October 1894 – 8 December 1954), under their pseudonyms Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, earned belated recognition for the startling photographs, collages and writings they created in the cutting-edge art world of 1920s Paris. As lovers and collaborators they left a body of surrealist work prescient in its gender ambiguity and shape-shifting, and earned fans ranging from rock star David Bowie to artist Cindy Sherman. Their lives and art are marked by fluidity – in their sexuality, in their names, in their identities. In 1909, at age seventeen, Malherbe met fifteen-year-old Lucie Schwob and began a lifelong artistic collaboration. … They took gender-neutral pseudonyms: Malherbe became Marcel Moore, and Schwob became Claude Cahun. They remained together until Cahun’s death in 1954. In 1937 Moore and Cahun moved from Paris to Jersey, possibly to escape the increasing anti-Semitism and political upheavals leading up to World War II. They remained on the island of Jersey when German troops invaded in 1940. For several years, the two risked their lives by distributing anti-Nazi propaganda to the German soldiers. Despite having reverted to their original names and introducing themselves as sisters in Jersey, their resistance activities were discovered in 1944, and they were sentenced to death. They were saved by the Liberation of Jersey in 1945, but their home and property had been confiscated and much of their art destroyed by the Germans. In 2018, a street of Paris close to the rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs where Marcel and Claude lived, took the name of  Claude Cahun-Marcel Moore in the 6th district of the French capital.

1921

The U.S. Senate Naval Affairs Committee issues its “Report on Alleged Immoral Conditions and Practices at the Naval Training Station, Newport, RI,” accusing officers under the command of Franklin D. Roosevelt, former assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy, of ordering enlisted men to engage in 11 immoral practices in order to entrap “perverts” and obtain evidence against them. The report is also one of the first to document gay male cruising areas including Riverside Drive in New York City.

1925

A book reviewer for The New York Times, Percy A. Hutchison, writes about a new translation of the poetry of Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BC). He criticizes previous translators who purposely mistranslated the love poems directed toward women by masculinizing the subject. He also criticizes the fanatical Christians who destroyed much of her work by burning the library at Alexandria in 391, and Pope Gregory VII who ordered much of what remained to be destroyed.

1970

Hans Knight of the Philadelphia Sunday Bulletin writes an article that begins “Homosexuals are sick. Very sick. They’re sick of wearing masks. They’re sick of being snickered and sneered at. They’re sick of being feared. They’re sick of being called queers, faggots, and fairies. They’re sick of being punished for being honest, of being labeled criminals by the letter of the law. They’re sick of being barred from federal jobs and the armed forces. They’re sick of being insulted on one hand, pitied on the other. Most of all, they’re sick of being told they’re sick.”

1974

Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC) synagogue in Los Angeles receives its charter from the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, making it the first officially recognized gay and lesbian synagogue. Affiliated with Reform Judaism, it has been acknowledged by the Los Angeles Conservancy as being “culturally significant” as both the first LGBT synagogue in the world, the first LGBT synagogue recognized by the Union for Reform Judaism and, in 1977, as the first LGBT synagogue to own its own building. In 1973, BCC received a Torah scroll from the town of Chotebor, Czechoslovakia, on permanent loan from Westminster Synagogue in London. It continues to be a cherished guest at BCC. Janet Marder was the congregation’s first rabbi. Lisa Ann Edwards later served as a student rabbi under their first full-time rabbi, Denise Eger (born March 14, 1960). Edwards became the Synagogue’s longest running Rabbi.

1977

Actor Danny Roberts (July 19, 1977) is born. He is best known for appearing on The Real World: New Orleans in 2000. Prior to beginning the show, he had begun a relationship with Paul Dill, a U.S. Army captain stationed in Vicenza, Italy. Because of the U.S. Military Don’t ask, Don’t tell policy toward homosexuals, Paul’s face was obscured on TV and much national attention was brought to the issue. In early 2004 MTV aired a special where Paul (then out of the military) revealed his face for the first time and the policy and its effects were discussed. In November 2006, Roberts announced in The Advocate magazine that he and Dill had split up.

1984

Gay author Roger Austen (1935-1984) dies by suicide. He was a literary historian whose work focused on gay writers. He was the author of Playing the Game: the Homosexual Novel in America (1977), and Genteel Pagan: The Double Life of Charles Warren Stoddard, which was unpublished at the time of his suicide. The Stoddard manuscript was later edited by Austen’s friend and mentor, Syracuse University professor John W. Crowley, and published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 1991. Additional biographical information and an account of Austen’s friendship with Crowley can be found in Crowley’s lengthy preface to Genteel Pagan.

1988

Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis signs into law an amendment that bars homosexuals from becoming foster parents unless no heterosexual couples are available. The law was in effective for only one year.

1989

Urvashi Vaid (October 8, 1958-May 14, 2022) is appointed to replace Jeff Levi as executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Urvashi is an Indian-American LGBT rights activist. In April 2009 Out magazine named her one of the 50 most influential LGBT people in the United States. Vaid shared homes in Manhattan and Provincetown, Massachusetts with her partner, comedian Kate Clinton.

1990

The House of Representatives Ethics Committee votes to reprimand Rep. Barney Frank (born March 31, 1940) for his involvement with a male prostitute. Attempts to have Frank expelled from Congress by Reps William Dannemeyer and Newt Gingrich failed.

1998

A group of ex-gays hold a press conference to counter ads stating that gays and lesbians could become straight by converting to Christianity. They said the ads were an attempt to falsely present gays and lesbians as anti-Christian and deny that many are spiritual people.

2001

Rhode Island becomes the second state in the country to ban discrimination against transsexuals, cross-dressers and others who cross sex boundaries. The law, which became effective without the governor’s signature, prohibits discrimination based on “gender identity or expression” in housing, employment and credit. The law ensured that a worker cannot be fired for having “sex reassignment” surgery.

2004

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California refuses to apologize to gays for using the word “girlie-man” to describe his political foes.

2005, Iran

Iranian gay youths Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, are publicly hanged in the town square in Mashhad in northeast Iran.

JULY 19

356 BCE, Macedonia

Alexander the Great (July 20, 356 BC – June 10, 323 BC) is born. Alexander died in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, in Babylon, at age 32. One of the greatest conquering generals of all time, Alexander’s love of Hephaistion, before and during a marriage, is well accepted as factual history. Upon Hephaistion’s death in battle, Alexander wept for days and pro-vided him a funeral normally afforded kings.

1845, France

In Paris, a mob attacks a group of about 50 men arrested by police in a sweep of the Tuileries Gardens, a popular cruising area.

1936

Ruth Berman (born July 19, 1936) was a health and physical education teacher at a Brooklyn high school. She and her partner Connie Kurtz (March 30, 1934- May 27, 2018) sued the New York City Board of Education for domestic partner benefits in 1988, eventually winning for all New York City employees in 1994. The couple came out of the closet on The Phil Donahue Show. Berman and Kurtz started branches of Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) in Florida and New York, and in 2000, they began serving as co-chairs of the New York State NOW Lesbian Rights Task Force. They also founded The Answer is Loving Counseling Center (both certified counselors) and worked there for over twenty years. They were married on July 26, 2011, in New York. Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum officiated. They retired to Palm Beach County, Florida, where they were active in Democratic, LGBT, feminist, and BlackLivesMatter politics. The Ruthie and Connie LGBT Elder Americans Act had been slowly making its way through Congress. It did not pass. The bill would have amended the Older Americans Act of 1965 to provide equal treatment of LGBT older individuals. In 2002, a documentary titled Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House was made about their lives; it was directed by Deborah Dickson. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2002, and won six best documentary awards within a year. The Ruth Berman and Connie Kurtz Papers are held in the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College.

1950

Roberta Achtenberg (July 20, 1950) is born. She is an American politician who recently served as a Commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights. She also served as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, becoming the first openly lesbian or gay public official in the United States, appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, whose appointment to a federal position was confirmed by the United States Senate.

1981

Martina Navratilova (born October 18, 1956) is granted U.S. citizenship, six years after she defected from Czechoslovakia. She is a retired tennis player and coach. In 2005, Tennis magazine selected her as the greatest female tennis player for the years 1965 through 2005 and is considered one of the best female players of all time. Navratilova was World No. 1 for a total of 332 weeks in singles, and a record 237 weeks in doubles, making her the only player in history to have held the top spot in both singles and doubles for over 200 weeks. In 1981, shortly after becoming a United States citizen, Navratilova gave an interview to New York Daily News sports reporter Steve Goldstein, coming out as bisexual and revealing that she had a sexual relationship with author Rita Mae Brown (born November 28, 1944), but asked him not to publish the article until she was ready to come out publicly. However, the New York Daily News published the article on July 30, 1981.Navratilova and professional basketball player and coach Nancy Lieberman (born July 1, 1958), her girlfriend at the time, gave an interview to Dallas Morning News columnist Skip Bayless, where Navratilova reiterated that she was bisexual and Lieberman identified herself as straight. Navratilova has since identified herself as a lesbian. On September 6, 2014, Navratilova proposed to her longtime girlfriend Russian former model Julia Lemigova (born 20 June 1972) at the US Open. They married in New York on December 15, 2014.

2021

Paul Fasana (July 20, 1933-April 5, 2021) was born on this day. He helped the LGBT community thrive by keeping its history alive. The Stonewall National Museum & Archives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida was where he volunteered his time and knowledge for more than 20 years. Fasana served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War then graduated from UC Berkeley; first in 1959 with a B.A. and then 1960 with a Masters of Library Science. Armed with those degrees, he began a long career in library administration; first at the New York Public Library as a cataloguer and later at the Columbia University Libraries as director of library automation. Eventually he returned to the New York Public Library as senior vice president and director of the Research Libraries until he retired in 1995.

JULY 21

1414, Italy

Fransesco della Rovere (July 21, 1414 – August 12, 1484), who later became Pope Sixtus IV, is born on this date. According to the later published chronicle of the Italian historian Stefano Infessura, Diary of the City of Rome, Sixtus was a “lover of boys and sodomites,” awarding benefices and bishoprics in return for sexual favors, and nominating a number of young men as cardinals; some of whom were celebrated for their good looks. He founded the Sistine Chapel where the team of artists he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance to Rome with the first masterpiece of the city’s new artistic age. In addition to restoring the aqueduct that provided Rome an alternative to the river water that had made the city famously unhealthy, Sixtus IV restored or rebuilt over 30 of Rome’s dilapidated churches and added seven new ones.

1730, The Netherlands

Holland issues an edict justifying arrests and capital punishment of homosexuals.

1899

Poet Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) is born in Garrettsville, Ohio. He has been called “a Dionyesian ecstatic from Cleveland, drunk on metaphysics and cheap red wine.” Crane associated his sexuality with his vocation as a poet and had a number of lovers until his suicide at the age of 32. His most famous poem, The Bridge, appears in The Complete Poems of Hart Crane.

1977, Canada

The Ontario Human Rights Code Review Committee releases its report Life Together, calling for major changes in code and commission, including strong support for inclusion of sexual orientation.

1980, Russia

Enso Francone, a 32 year-old Italian in Moscow for the summer Olympics, chains himself to a fence in Red Square to protest Soviet persecution of homosexuals. He was dragged away by KGB officers.

1986

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (born March 31, 1940) addresses the House of Representatives for one hour regarding a Justice Department memo that misrepresents medical evidence to give the impression that AIDS is casually transmitted. He criticized the memo as an invitation to discriminate.

1988

Michael Dukakis officially becomes the Democratic candidate for President. During his acceptance speech he promises to do more in the fight AIDS.

1997

Chrysler employee and gay activist Ron Woods spoke about his coming out in The New Yorker. He had been physically assaulted and received death threats.

1998

The Lesbian Health Initiative in Houston receives a $50,000 grant from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

1998, UK

Waheed Alli, Baron Alli (born 16 November 1964) takes his place in the House of Lords as the youngest and the first openly gay Muslim life peer to be appointed in Britain. He is a British multimillionaire media entrepreneur and politician. He was co-founder and managing director of Planet 24, a TV production company, and managing director at Carlton Television Productions. He was, until November 2012, chairman of ASOS.com. He is the Chief Executive of Silvergate Media which purchased two of the media rights previously held by Chorion Ltd where Alli was former chairman. Alli is a patron of Oxford Pride, the annual Pride event in Oxfordshire, and of Pride London. He is also a patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

1999, Mexico

Meeting to discuss the formation of Gay/Lesbian Pride Committee of Guadalajara and to join the Pride Organization National and International Plan takes place at the Flama Latina night club.

2014

President Obama issues an executive order to prohibit job discrimination against LGBT people in federal employment.

JULY 22

1777, UK

In England, Ann Marrow is found guilty of impersonating a man so she could marry three different women and defraud them. Marrow was sentenced to three months in prison and had stand at the pillory at Charing Cross, where she was pelted so severely, primarily by female spectators, that she was blinded in both eyes. The spectacle of the sentence was crucial in the very public unmasking of the female body hidden by the passing cross-dresser.

1860, UK

Frederick William Rolfe (July 22, 1860 – October 25, 1913) is born. He is better known as Baron Corvo but also calling himself Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe. He was a flamboyant and decadent English writer, novelist, artist, fantasist and eccentric. His writings were an unashamed celebration of male love and friendships. His fantasy autobiography Hadrian the Seventh (1904) was successfully adapted by Peter Luke as a stage production in London in 1968, in which the part of Hadrian/Rolfe was played by Alec McCowen. Further productions with Barry Morse played in Australia, on Broadway, and in a short USA national tour.

1896, UK

Film Director James Whale (July 22, 1889 – May 29, 1957) is born in Dudley, England. He directed such classics as Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man. His death was featured in the film Gods and Monsterswhere he was portrayed by out gay actor Sir Ian McKellan (born 25 May 1939). James Whale lived as an openly gay man throughout his career in the British theatre and in Hollywood, something that was virtually unheard of in the 1920s and 1930s. He and David Lewis lived together as a couple from around 1930 to 1952. Whale died by suicide, drowning himself in his Pacific Palisades swimming pool on May 29, 1957 at the age of 67.

1935

Grover Dale (born July 22, 1935) is an American actor, dancer, choreographer and theatre director. He was involved in a six-year relationship with actor Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) that ended in 1973 when he married actress/singer Anita Morris; they remained married until Morris’s death in 1994. Dale’s Broadway stage debut was in the 1956 musical Li’l Abner as a dancer. He appeared in the original cast of West Side Story as Snowboy, a member of the Jets gang. Other stage credits include the role of Andrew in Greenwillow, in which he also understudied Anthony Perkins as Gideon Briggs; Noel Coward’s Sail Away where he had the juvenile lead role of architect Barnaby Slade; and in Half a Sixpence where he played Pearce, one of a quartet of 19th century London shop apprentices around whom the show is structured.

1963

Lesbian singer Emily Saliers (July 22, 1963), a member of the rock/folk duo Indigo Girls, is born on this date in New Haven, Connecticut. She has a passion for wine collecting, and is the co-owner of Watershed restaurant in Decatur, Georgia. Saliers married her longtime girlfriend, former Indigo Girls tour manager Tristin Chipman at New York City Hall in 2013.

1966

Born on this day, Roland Tec is an American writer and movie director. His 1997 film All the Rage is widely considered a hallmark of the Queer Indie Film movement of the ’90s for what was then its unprecedented critical view of A-list gay male culture of perfection.

1973, Canada

The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) is given its first mission status in Canada. It begins holding services at Holy Trinity Church in Toronto under Rev Bob Wolfe.

1973

Rufus Wainwright (July 22, 1973) is born. He is an openly gay Grammy-nominated Canadian-American singer-songwriter. He released his first album in 1998 to great critical acclaim. He has contributed to several film soundtracks, including Moulin Rouge, I Am Sam, Heights, and Brokeback Mountain. Wainwright is the son of musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. In April 2010, Wainwright came out publicly in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States because he wanted to marry his partner, Jorn Weisbrodt (born 26 January 1973).

1977, Canada

In Toronto a second march is organized by the Coalition Against Anita Bryant to protest the homophobe’s visit to the city takes place.

1980

The U.K. House of Commons extends the Sexual Offenses Act to cover Scotland, decriminalizing most private consensual sex acts between men.

1997

Three same-sex couples sue the state of Vermont on the grounds that banning same-sex unions is a violation of their state constitution. Baker v. Vermont, 744 A.2d 864 (Vt. 1999) was decided by Vermont Supreme Court on December 20, 1999. It was one of the first judicial affirmations of the right of same-sex couples to treatment equivalent to that afforded different-sex couples. The decision held that the state’s prohibition on same-sex marriage denied rights granted by the Vermont Constitution. The court ordered the Vermont legislature to either allow same-sex marriages or implement an alternative legal mechanism according similar rights to same-sex couples. The plaintiffs were Stan Baker and Peter Harrigan, Holly Puterbaugh and Lois Farnham, and Nina Beck and Stacy Jolles. Two of the couples had raised children together. The couples sued their respective localities and the state of Vermont, requesting a declaratory judgment that the denial of licenses violated Vermont’s marriage statutes and the state Constitution. The plaintiffs were represented by Mary Bonauto (born June 8, 1961), an attorney with Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, and two Vermont attorneys, Susan Murray and Beth Robinson.

2004

A Federal appeals court declines to hear a challenge to Florida’s ban on gay adoption.

2008, Greece

An Athens court rules that the term lesbian “does not define status and personality and therefore the Lesbos islanders have no reason to complain that they felt personally slighted by its use.” The word lesbian is derived from the name of the island of lesbos where the Greek poet Sappho lived.

2010

Argentina legalizes same-sex marriage.

2011

A bill to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is introduced in Congress, overturning the 1993 law prohibiting lesbian, gay, and bisexual people from serving openly in the U.S. military.

2011, Norway

A lesbian couple, Hege Dalen and Toril Hansen, who had been camping on a neighboring island, use their boat to ferry forty people to safety as 69 other people are being shot and killed.

2013, Jamaica

Sixteen year-old Dwayne Jones attends a party in Montego Bay dressed as a woman and dances with men. A mob identified Dwayne as male and killed him. His story gained international attention and outcry as an example of the anti-LGBT violence issues in Jamaica.

July 23

1726, UK

Margaret Clap (died c. 1726) is convicted for of “keeping a disorderly house of the entertainment of sodomites.” Better known as Mother Clap, she was notable for running a molly house, an inn or tavern primarily frequented by homosexual men. She was also heavily involved in the ensuing legal battles after her premises were raided and shut down. Primarily targeted by the Society for the Reformation of Manners, the house had been under surveillance for two years. While not much is known about her life, she was an important part of the gay subculture of early 18th-century England. At the time sodomy in England was a crime under the Buggery Act 1533, punishable by a fine, imprisonment, or the death penalty. Despite this, particularly in larger cities, private homosexual activity took place. To service these actions there existed locations where men from all classes could find partners or just socialize, called molly houses, “molly” being slang for a gay man at the time. One of the most famous of these was Clap’s molly house.

1816

Charlotte Cushman (July 23, 1816 – February 18, 1876) was born in Boston. She was an opera singer but when her voice began to fail she turned to acting, becoming America’s first great performer. Cushman did not limit her roles to females, earning accolades for Hamlet and Romeo. It may have been a hint about her own life. Cushman was involved romantically with just about every major female of her time including Rosalie Sully  (June 3, 1818 – July 8, 1847), one of America’s first female foreign correspondents writer Anne Hampton Brewster (October 29, 1818 – April 1, 1892), writer and actress Matilda Hays (8 September 1820 – 3 July 1897), African American/Native American sculptor Edmonia Lewis (c. July 4, 1844 – September 17, 1907),  the first female professional sculptor Harriet Hosmer (October 9, 1830 – February 21, 1908), sculptor Emma Stebbins (1 September 1815 – 25 October 1882), and actress, Emma Crow (April 3, 1839 – September 15, 1920). In 1869, Cushman underwent treatment for breast cancer. Stebbins ignored her own sculpting career and devoted all of her time to caring for Cushman. In 1915 she was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. Her Charlestown home is a site on the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.

1899

Ruth Charlotte Ellis (July 23, 1899 – October 5, 2000) is born. She was an open lesbian and an LGBT rights activist. Her life was the subject of the documentary directed by Yvonne Welbon, Living with Pride: Ruth C. Ellis at 100. Until her death in 2000 at age 101, she was thought to be the oldest living “out” African American lesbian. Her parents were born in the last years of slavery in Tennessee. She came out as a lesbian around 1915, and graduated from Springfield High School in 1919, at a time when fewer than seven percent of African Americans graduated from secondary school. In the 1920s, she met the only woman she ever lived with, Ceciline “Babe” Franklin. They moved together to Detroit, Michigan, in 1937 where Ellis became the first American woman to own a printing business in that city. She made a living printing stationery, fliers, and posters out of her house. Ellis and Franklin’s house was also known in the African American community as the “gay spot.” It was a central location for gay and lesbian parties, and also served as a refuge for African American gays and lesbians. Although Ellis and Franklin eventually separated, they were together for more than 30 years. Franklin died in 1973.Throughout her life, Ellis was an advocate of the rights of gays and lesbians, and of African Americans. She died in her sleep at her home on October 5, 2000.

1909

Samuel M. Steward (July 23, 1909 – December 31, 1993) is born in Woodsfield, Ohio. He hated teaching and students so much he gave it up to become a tattoo artist. When he wasn’t tattooing, he was feeding information about the tattoo subculture to Alfred Kinsey. He wrote under the name Phil Andros and became one of the 20th century’s greatest porn writers. Unlike modern gay porn, Steward’s characters spouted Shakespeare while they had sex with handsome young men. Starting in 2001, Steward’s biographer Justin Spring tracked down Steward’s archive and began writing Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade, which was ultimately published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2010. The book was the recipient of many literary honors and was a finalist for the National Book Award.

1924, UK

Gavin Lambert (23 July 1924 – 17 July 2005) is born. He was a British screenwriter, novelist and biographer who lived part of his life in Hollywood. His final biography was Natalie Wood: A Life (2004) where he claimed that Wood frequently dated gay and bisexual men including director Nicholas Ray (August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) and actors Nick Adams (July 10, 1931 – February 7, 1968), Raymond Burr (May 21, 1917 – September 12, 1993), James Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955), Tab Hunter (July 11, 1931 – July 8, 2018), and Scott Marlowe (November 28, 1932 – January 6, 2001). Lambert said he was also involved with Ray and that Wood supported playwright Mart Crowley (born August 21, 1935- March 7, 2020) (a later lover of Lambert’s) in a manner that made it possible for him to write his play The Boys in the Band (1968). Lambert was also a biographer and novelist, who focused his efforts on biographies of gay and lesbian figures in Hollywood.

1944

Novelist Lisa Alther (born July 23, 1944) is born. Alther’s most recent book, published in spring 2007, is a nonfiction work entitled Kinfolks: Falling Off the Family Tree, the Search for My Melungeon Ancestors. As in others of Alther’s novels, lesbianism is portrayed as one of several possible versions of how one might live one’s life. Alther’s heroines tend not to have a single sexual identity but move from lesbian relationships to heterosexual ones, or vice versa.

1985

A publicist for actor Rock Hudson (November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) announces that he is being treated for inoperable liver cancer in Paris. The AIDS epidemic got much needed publicity and support after it was revealed that Hudson actually had AIDS.

1985

After a two-year legal battle, a Minnesota judge grants custody of Sharon Kowalski to her father rather than her lover, Karen Thompson. After Kowalski was severely disabled, her father put her in a nursing home and forbade visits by Thompson. Thompson continued the legal fight, but it was more than three years before she saw Kowalski again. Re Guardianship of Kowalski, 478 N.W.2d 790 (Minn. Ct. App. 1991) is a Minnesota Court of Appeals case that established a lesbian’s partner as her legal guardian after she became incapacitated following an automobile accident. Because the case was contested by Kowalski’s parents and family and initially resulted in the partner being excluded for several years from visiting Kowalski, the gay community celebrated the final resolution in favor of the partner as a victory for gay rights. Karen Thompson received several awards for her work to achieve LGBT equality, including the 2012 “100 Women We Love” from Go Magazine, the Liberty Award from Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the 1989 Annual Humanitarian Award from the American Psychological Association. Together Thompson and Sharon Kowalski received the 1990 Woman of Courage Award from the National Organization for Women, the 1991 Feminist of the Year Award from the Feminist Majority Foundation, and a 1990 Creating Change Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

1987

At its national convention in Miami, Florida, the Catholic gay organization Dignity voted to peacefully challenge the Vatican’s Ratzinger letter that referred to homosexuality as “a strong tendency to behavior which is intrinsically evil.” It opposed civil rights for gays and lesbians, barred churches from allowing organizations that do not agree with church teachings on homosexuality from using church facilities, and suggested that anti-gay violence should not come as a surprise to society. On the same day in San Francisco, several groups protest the Pope’s visit, including the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Jewish holocaust survivors.

1987

President Ronald Reagan announces the formation of a presidential commission on AIDS. None of the 13 members was an expert on AIDS. It included Richard DeVos, political ally of Pat Robertson; homophobic New York Archbishop John Cardinal O’Connor; and Penny Pullen, an associate of homophobe Phyllis Schlafley. Conservatives had a hissy-fit over the selection of Dr. Frank Lilly, a medical researcher who said that “As far as I know, I’m the only gay on the panel. “It was viewed as an embarrassment by medical authorities, a joke by the gay community, and a fiasco by several members of the Reagan administration.

2001, Canada

Eight British Columbia couples took the fight for legalized gay and lesbian marriage to the B.C. Supreme Court. They argued that the federal definition of marriage (between a man and a woman) bans gays and lesbians from marrying and is therefore unconstitutional.

2015

The Equality Act is introduced by Senators Jeff Merkley, Tammy Baldwin, and Cory Booker, as well as Representative David Cicilline who formerly introduced The Equality Act, which would make LGBTQ individuals a protected class and grant them basic legal protections in areas of life including education, housing, employment, credit, and more. The Equality Act was re-introduced in 2021 but again failed. The Act would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the 1964 Non-Discrimination law.

2019

Meghan Stabler became the first openly transgender member of Planned Parenthood’s National Board of Directors on July 23, 2019. The Advocate editors named Meghan as one of The Advocate magazine’s 2019 Champions of Pride.

JULY 24

1 BCE, China

Emperor Ai of Han dies. He ascended the throne when he was 20, having been made heir by his uncle Emperor Cheng who was childless. He reigned from 7 to 1 BC. He’s one of ten emperors of the Western Han dynasty who are considered to be homosexual or bisexual by today’s terms and was famous for being the most effusive of the Han Dynasty. Traditional historians characterized the relationship between Emperor Ai and Dong Xian as one between homosexual lovers and referred to their relationship as “the passion of the cut sleeve.” Dong was noted for his relative simplicity contrasted with the highly ornamented court, and was given progressively higher and higher posts as part of the relationship, eventually becoming the supreme commander of the armed forces by the time of Emperor Ai’s death. Dong was afterward forced to die by suicide.

1897

Aviator Amelia Earhart (July 24, 1897 – disappeared July 2, 1937) is born in Atchison, Kansas. A tomboy, preferring riding pants to dresses, and having a marriage that allowed for infidelity, we will never know if she was bisexual. Many lesbian historians claim her as one of their own. She certainly outrageously transgressed the gender expression boundaries of her time when women were not only not pilots, they also weren’t explorers, except, like the Shoshone heroine Sacajewea, in the service of or in partnership with men who got the credit.

1951, UK

British Labour Party politician Christopher Robert “Chris” Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury (July 24, 1951) is born. He is a British politician and a peer; a former Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Minister; and former chairman of the Environment Agency. For the majority of his career he was a Labour Party member. He was the first openly gay British MP, coming out in 1984, and in 2005, the first MP to acknowledge that he is HIV positive

1952

Gus Van Sant, Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American film director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician and author who has earned acclaim as both an independent and more mainstream filmmaker. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultures, in particular homosexuality; as such, Van Sant is considered one of the most prominent auteurs of the New Queer Cinema movement. He is openly gay and currently lives in Portland, Oregon.

1969

The Gay Liberation Front, a radical leftist group addressing not only gay rights but other left-wing causes, is formed in New York City. Over the next few years dozens of local GLF chapters would form across the country.

2001

Ronald E. Gay, a drifter, who told Roanoke, Va. police that jokes about his last name had angered him, was sentenced to four life terms for a shooting rampage in a gay bar that killed one man and wounded five other men and a woman. Gay, 55, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and six charges of malicious wounding in the shooting at the Backstreet Cafe in Roanoke. In court and in interviews with police, he said he was on a mission to kill homosexuals.

2004, Germany

German Free Democratic Party leader Guido Westerwellen (December 27, 1961 – March 18, 2016) comes out in an interview with the country’s leading news magazine. He served as Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and as Vice Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011, being the first openly gay person to hold any of these positions. He was also the chairman of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) from May 2001 until he stepped down in 2011. He died of leukemia at the age of 54.

2011

The first legal same-sex marriages are performed in New York. New York City records 659 marriages, a one-day record.

2013, Montenegro

The First LGBT Pride march in Montenegro is held with violent protestors shouting “kill the gays.”

2013

The Quist LGBT history app is created by Sarah Prager. Sarah is dedicated to raising awareness of LGBTQ history through writing, speaking, and her app, Quist. She lives with her wife Liz, and their daughter Eleanor in Connecticut. (I, for one, thank you, Sarah!…Ronni)

JULY 25

1844

One of the greatest American painters of the 19th century, Thomas Eakins (July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) is born on this date. He was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important artists in American art history. No less important in Eakins’ life was his work as a teacher. As an instructor he was a highly influential presence in American art. The difficulties which beset him as an artist seeking to paint the portrait and figure realistically were paralleled and even amplified in his career as an educator, where behavioral and sexual scandals truncated his success and damaged his reputation. The nature of Eakins sexuality and its impact on his art is a matter of intense scholarly debate. Strong circumstantial evidence points to Eakins having been accused of homosexuality during his lifetime, and there is little doubt that he was attracted to men, as evidenced in his photography, and three major paintings where male buttocks are a focal point: The Gross Clinic, William Rush, and The Swimming Hole. The latter, in which Eakins appears, is increasingly seen as sensuous and autobiographical. Two years earlier Eakins’ sister Margaret, who had acted as his secretary and personal servant, had died of typhoid. It has been suggested that Eakins married Susan Hannah Macdowell to replace her. In the latter years of his life, Eakins’ constant companion was the handsome sculptor Samuel Murray, who shared his interest in boxing and bicycling.

1865, UK

James Miranda Steuart Barry (1789-July 25, 1865) dies in Kensal Green, England. It was only on his death that it was discovered Barry was a woman. For 40 years he was an officer and surgeon in the British Army in Canada and South Africa. Although Barry’s entire adult life was lived as a man, Barry was born Margaret Ann Bulkley and was known as female in childhood. Barry lived as a man in both public and private life, at least in part in order to be accepted as a university student and pursue a career as a surgeon, with Barry’s birth sex only becoming known to the public and to military colleagues after death. Barry held strict and unusually modern views about nutrition, being completely vegetarian and teetotal, and, while keeping most personal relationships distant, was very fond of pets, particularly a be-loved poodle named Psyche. Playwright Jean Binnie’s radio play Doctor Barry (BBC, 1982) identified John Joseph Danson as the black servant Barry first employed in South Africa and who remained with Barry until the doctor’s death. The play was re-broadcast as recently as 2018. Barry was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery under the name James Barry and full military rank.

1936

Preacher-playwright-composer Alvin Allison “Al” Carmines, Jr. (July 25, 1936 – August 9, 2005) is born on this date. He was a key figure in the expansion of Off-Off-Broadway theatre in the 1960s. Carmines was hired by Howard Moody as an assistant minister at Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square Park, New York, to found a theater in the sanctuary of the Greenwich Village church in conjunction with playwright Robert Nichols. He began composing in 1962 and acted as well. His Bible study group grew into the Rauschenbusch Memorial United Church of Christ, with Carmines as pastor. Carmines taught at Union Theological Seminary and received the Vernon Rice Award for his performance and the Drama Desk Award for Lyrics and Music and was awarded the Obie award for LifeTime Achievements. His 1973 musical The Faggot was a success d’estime which transferred from the Judson Memorial Church to the Truck and Warehouse Theatre and ran for 203 performances. Carmines appeared in the show as Oscar Wilde.

1943

Cheryl Christina Crane (born July 25, 1943), lesbian daughter of Lana Turner, is born. Cheryl is Turner’s child from her marriage to actor-restaurateur Stephen Crane, Turner’s second husband who murdered her mother’s boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato in 1958. In 1988, Crane published a memoir entitled Detour: A Hollywood Story (1988) in which she discussed the Stompanato killing publicly for the first time and admitted to the stabbing. She further alleged that she was subject to a series of sexual as-saults at the hands of her stepfather and her mother’s fourth husband, actor Lex Barker. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In it, Crane also publicly revealed how at age thirteen she had come out as a lesbian to her parents. In November 2014, Crane married model Joyce LeRoy, her longtime partner, after having been together for over four decades.

1970

The Vatican issues a statement reminding the faithful that the Roman Catholic Church considers homosexuality a moral aberration. The Vatican confirms its condemnation of homosexuality stating that it is a “moral aberration that cannot be approved by human conscience.”

1975

A Chorus Line premiers on Broadway. It is directed and choreographed by Michael Bennet (1943-1987) and won nine of twelve Tony nominations in addition to the 1975 Pulitzer for drama.

1979

Hundreds of demonstrators show up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to protest location shooting for William Friedkin’s new film Cruising which deals with a series of grisly mutilation murders within the city’s gay leather community.

1985, Paris

A spokesperson for Rock Hudson (November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) acknowledges that the actor is suffering from AIDS. Later, media reports openly discuss his homosexuality for the first time. The publicity given his illness marks a turning point in building public awareness of the threat of AIDS and in galvanizing support for efforts to fight the disease.

1985, France

The French Parliament amends the penal code to prohibit discrimination based on “moral habits,” one of which is homosexuality. France is the first country to legislate gay and lesbian rights.

1989

Studio 54 creator Steve Rubell (December 2, 1943 – July 25, 1989) dies of complications from AIDS.

JULY 26

1944, UK

Mick Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is born in Dartford, England. Androgynous, gender defiant, and ambisexual, Jagger has come to symbolize rock from the 60s and 70s. Look-alike ex-wife Bianca once claimed he married her because “he wanted to achieve the ultimate by making love to himself.”

1959

Kevin Spacey (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in the early 1990s that culminated in his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the neo-noir crime thriller The Usual Suspects (1995), and an Academy Award for Best Actor for the midlife crisis-themed drama American Beauty (1999). In October 2017, actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making a sexual advance toward him when Rapp was 14. In the wake of Rapp’s accusation, numerous other men alleged that Spacey had sexually harassed or assaulted them. As a result, Netflix cut all ties with him, shelved his film Gore and removed him from the cast of the last season of House of Cards.

1979

Andrew Gillum (born July 26, 1979) is born. In a September appearance on The Tamron Hall Show, the former Florida gubernatorial candidate came out as bisexual. Gillum, who ran for Florida governor in 2018, appeared on the show alongside his wife, R. Jai, who said her husband of 11 years has been upfront with her about his sexuality.

1979

The Advocate magazine first mentions “bears” in print. Bears are “usually hunky chunky types reminiscent of railroad engineers and former football greats.” Bears are one of many LGBT communities with events, codes, and a culture-specific identity. However, in San Francisco in the 1970s, any hairy man of whatever shape was referred to as a ‘bear’ until the term was appropriated by larger men as well. The term bear was popularized by Richard Bulger, who, along with his then partner Chris Nelson (1960-2006) founded Bear Magazine in 1987. There is some contention surrounding whether Bulger originated the term and the subculture’s conventions. George Mazzei wrote an article for The Advocatein 1979 called “Who’s Who in the Zoo?” that characterized gay men as seven types of animals, including bears. The International Bear Brotherhood Flag is the pride flag of the bear community, created by Craig Byrnes in 1995.

1981

Dr. Jeanette Howard Foster (November 3, 1895 – July 26, 1981), author of Variant Women in Literature, dies on this date in Arkansas. Dr. Foster was an American librarian, professor, poet, and researcher in the field of lesbian literature. She pioneered the study of popular fiction and ephemera in order to excavate both overt and covert lesbian themes. Her years of pioneering data collection culminated in her 1956 study Sex Variant Women in Literature which has become a seminal resource in LGBT studies. Initially self-published by Foster via Vantage Press, it was photoduplicated and reissued in 1975 by Diana Press and reissued in 1985 by Naiad Press with updating additions and commentary by Barbara Grier (November 4, 1933 – November 10, 2011).

1985

U.S. Senators Pete Wilson (R-CA) and Alfonse D’Amato (R-NY) attempt to hold a briefing on AIDS for Republican senators. Not a single Senator shows up for it.

1993, Nigeria

Richard Akuson (born July 26, 1993) is a Nigerian lawyer, LGBT rights activist, writer, editor, and the founder of A Nasty Boy magazine, Nigeria’s first LGBTQ+ publication. In 2019, Richard was named one of Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 change-makers for challenging rigid notions of masculinity, gender, and sexuality in Nigeria where homosexual acts can be punished with 14 years in prison. In 2017, he was nominated for the Future Awards, Africa’s New Media Innovation Award. Richard is also a two-time Abryanz Style & Fashion Award Best Fashion Writer nominee. Following the launch of A Nasty Boy magazine in 2017, Richard was named one of the 40 Most Powerful Nigerians under the age of 40.

1989

In a response to political outcries over a Robert Mapplethorpe (November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) exhibit, Jesse Helms leads a fight in the U.S. Senate to curtail National Endowment for the Arts funding for “obscene or indecent art,” including artworks that depict “sadomasochism, homoeroticism, the exploitation of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts.” The measure was overwhelmingly adopted.

1990

President George H. W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act which prohibits discrimination against various groups of people including those living with AIDS.

2007

Fox News host/homophobe Bill O’Reilly apologizes on the air for errors in a widely criticized June 21st segment that reported a “nationwide epidemic” of violent lesbian gangs terrorizing neighborhoods and schools. O’Reilly was fired in 2017 for sexual harassment.

2018

Land O’Lakes named Beth Ford its first female CEO, making her the first openly gay woman CEO to run a Fortune 500 company.

JULY 27

1899

Author Henry James (15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) wrote to Hendrik C. Andersen, “I’ve struck up a tremendous intimacy with Conte Alberto, and we literally can’t live without each other. He is the first object my eyes greet in the morning, and the last at night.” James was an American-born British writer. He is regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James. As more material became available to scholars, including the diaries of contemporaries and hundreds of affectionate and sometimes erotic letters written by James to younger men, the picture gave way to a portrait of a closeted homosexual. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s Epistemology of the Closet made a landmark difference to Jamesian scholarship by arguing that he be read as a homosexual writer whose desire to keep his sexuality a secret shaped his layered style and dramatic artistry.

1928

Radclyffe Hall’s (12 August 1880 – 7 October 1943) The Well of Loneliness is published in the UK by Jonathan Cape. It’s one of the first to portray lesbianism as natural. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an English woman from an upper-class family whose “sexual inversion” (homosexuality) is apparent from an early age. She finds love with Mary Llewellyn, whom she meets while serving as an ambulance driver in World War I, but their happiness together is marred by social isolation and rejection, which Hall depicts as typically suffered by “inverts,” with predictably debilitating effects. The novel portrays “inversion” as a natural, God-given state and makes an explicit plea: “Give us also the right to our existence.” Although The Well of Loneliness is not sexually explicit, it was nevertheless the subject of an obscenity trial in the UK, which resulted in all copies of the novel being ordered destroyed. The United States allowed its publication only after a long court battle. It is currently published in the UK by Virago, and by Anchor Press in the United States. The Well of Loneliness was number seven on a list of the top 100 lesbian and gay novels compiled by The Publishing Triangle in 1999.

1940

The Rev. Troy Perry (July 27, 1940), founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, is born. The Metropolitan Community Church, a Christian denomination with a special affirming ministry with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, is formed in Los Angeles on October 6, 1968. In March 2017, Perry became the first Ameri-can citizen honored with Cuba’s CENESEX award. The 10th Cuban Gala Against Homophobia and Transphobia, held at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana, Cuba, was the setting where nearly 5,000 people gathered to honor Rev. Perry, including the US, French, Swiss ambassadors, as well as the Minister of Culture of Cuba. Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro, and a member of the country’s National Assembly, and Director of CENESEX, presented the award. He was given the award for his long history of working for human rights and the rights of the LGBTQ community worldwide. He re-mains active in public speaking and writing. Perry lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Phillip Ray DeBlieck, whom he married under Canadian law at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto. They sued the State of California upon their return home after their Toronto wedding for recognition of their marriage and won. The state appealed. and the ruling was overturned by the State Supreme Court after five years in their favor.

1946

Stephen Donaldson (July 27, 1946 – July 18, 1996) is born Robert Anthony Martin, Jr. and also known by the pseudonym Donny the Punk. He was an American bisexual political activist. He is best known for his pioneering activism in LGBT rights and prison reform, and for his writing about punk rock and subculture. In 1966, Donaldson fell in love with a woman, Judith “JD Rabbit” Jones (whom he later considered his “lifetime companion”) and began identifying as bisexual. His “growing feeling of discomfort with biphobia in the homophile/gay liberation movement was a major factor” in his deciding to quit the movement and enlist in the Navy after graduating from Columbia in 1970. After a series of meetings, the Committee of Friends on Bisexuality was formed, with Donaldson (using the name Bob Martin) as its chair until he left the Quakers in 1977. Donaldson was involved in the New York bisexual movement in the mid-1970s, appearing in 1974 on a New York Gay Activists Alliance panel with Kate Millet. Donaldson propounded the belief that ultimately bisexuality would be perceived as much more threatening to the prevailing sexual order than homosexuality, because it potentially subverted everyone’s identity (the idea that everyone is potentially bisexual was widespread) and could not, unlike exclusive homosexuality, be confined to a segregated, stigmatized and therefore manageable ghetto. Donaldson died of AIDS in 1996 at the age of 49. After Donaldson’s death, the Columbia Queer Alliance renamed its student lounge in his honor.

1967, UK

Britain decriminalizes homosexuality between consenting adults in private, except for those in the military and police forces. The new law makes the age of consent 21 years old.

1969

The Gay Liberation Front organizes a protest of police harassment, with an estimated 300-400 people participating. It was the one-month anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

1982

The term AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is proposed at a meeting in Washington of gay community leaders, federal bureaucrats and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to replace GRID (gay-related immune deficiency) as evidence showed it was not gay specific.

1987

Sports Illustrated published a five-page tribute to Dr. Tom Waddell (November 1, 1937 – July 11, 1987), Olympic decathlete and organizer of the Gay Games, who had recently died from complications of AIDS. Waddell was the first gay man to be featured with his lover in the “couples” section of People magazine. He was a U.S. Army paratrooper, a physician specializing in the treatment of infectious disease, a gymnastics champion at Springfield College in Massachusetts, and the personal physician to the brother of the King of Saudi Arabia.

2001

The Houston, Texas City Council approves an ordinance outlawing discrimination against gay men and lesbians in hiring by city agencies.

2011, Argentina

Osvaldo Ramon Lopez (Sept. 4, 1971), the first openly gay congressperson, takes office in Argentina.

2015

World champion power lifter Janae Marie Kroc (formerly Matt Kroczaleski) (born December 8, 1972) comes out as transgender and genderfluid. Janae began entering powerlifting contests after joining the Marines in 1991. In 2017, after 18 months on estrogen, her performance was reduced to 210 pounds for 10 reps and deadlifted 605 pounds. Kroc is a world champion and a National Physique Committee bodybuilder.

2015

Boy Scouts of America President Robert Gates announces “the national executive board ratified a resolution removing the national restriction on openly gay leaders and employees.”

JULY 28

600 B.C., Greece

The Greek poet Theognis is born near Athens. He was an aristocrat who lost his wealth and property during one of the many civil wars of the period and turned to writing, penning most of his works for his lover Cyrnus.

1533, UK

Walter Hungerford (born 1503 – July 28, 1540), First Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury, is the first person executed under the Buggery Act of 1533.

1533, Italy

Artist Michelangelo (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564) wrote to Tommaso Cavaleri, “I could as easily forget your name as the food by which I live; nay, it would be easier to forget the food, which only nourishes my body, than your name, which nourishes both body and soul.”

1928, The Netherlands

Opening of the 1928 Olympics where French athlete Violette Morris (April 18, 1893 – April 26, 1944) had been barred from competing because she was a lesbian and because she and her female lover made their affair public. Morris won two gold and one silver medals at the Women’s World Games in 1921-1922. She underwent a double mastectomy to fit into race cars more easily. Starting in 1936 she worked with the Gestapo during World War II. She was killed in 1944 in a Resistance-led ambush as a traitor to the French state.

1958

Sarah Schulman (born July 28, 1958) is an American novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter and AIDS historian. She is a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the College of Staten Island (CSI) and a Fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities. In 1992, Schulman and five others co-founded the Lesbian Avengers, a direct action organization. On her 1992 book tour for Empathy, Schulman visited gay bookstores in the South to start chapters of Lesbian Avengers. The organization’s high points included founding the Dyke March and sending groups of young organizers to Maine and Idaho to assist local fights against anti-gay ballot initiatives. In 2017, she joined the advisory board of Claudia Rankine’s Racial Imaginary Institute.

1961

Illinois becomes the first U.S. state to repeal its sodomy law.

1976

The San Francisco Department of Health reports an outbreak of GI disorders, especially shigellosis and amoebic dysentery, among gay men.

1983

Bobbi Campbell (January 28, 1952 – August 15, 1984) is the 16th person to be diagnosed with Kaposi’s sarcoma and possibly the first to be open about his diagnosis even before GRID (gay related immune disease ) or HIV/AIDS had been named. Robert Boyle “Bobbi” Campbell Jr. was a public health nurse and an early AIDS activist. In 1983, he co-wrote the Denver Principles, the defining manifesto of the People with AIDS Self-Empowerment Movement which he had co-founded the previous year. Appearing on the cover of Newsweek and being interviewed on national news reports, Campbell raised the national profile of the AIDS crisis among heterosexuals and provided a recognizable, optimistic, human face of the epidemic for affected communities.

1985

The first AIDS Walk is held in Los Angeles. Craig Miller and AIDS Project LA produce the fundraiser that attracts 4500 walkers.

1986

Gov. George Deukmejian of California vetoes a bill that would have protected people with AIDS from discrimination in housing and employment.

1987

Gay filmmaker Arthur Bressan, Jr. (1943 – July 28,1987) dies of complications from AIDS. All of his films were low budget productions and dealt with gay characters and storylines. Buddies was one of the first feature films to deal with AIDS.

1989

William Cruse is sentenced to death for a shooting spree in Palm Bay, Florida, that left six people dead and ten injured. He said he did it because his neighbors were spreading rumors that he was a homosexual.

1993, UK

Jonathan Harvey’s (born 13 June 1968) influential play about two working-class teenage boys who fall in love, Beautiful Thing, premiers at London’s Bush Theater.

1993

New Zealand becomes the seventh country in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.

1997

The city council of Evanston, Illinois votes unanimously to extend anti-discrimination protection to transgendered people.

1997

Judge John Frusciante, a Broward County Circuit Court judge, upholds Florida’s ban on adoption by same-sex couples.

1998, Fiji

A constitution approved by the Fiji government went into effect that granted constitutional protection to gay and lesbian citizens. Opponents claimed it would result in an increase in homosexuality.

2004

The Miami Beach City Council unanimously votes to create a domestic partner registry.

2011, Serbia

Serbian Parliament approves change in health insurance law to subsidize sex reassignment surgery.

2016

Sarah McBride (born on August 9, 1990) is the first openly transgender person to speak at a major party convention in the U.S., the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. McBride made national headlines when she came out as transgender to her college while serving as student body president at American University. McBride is largely credited with the passage of legislation in Delaware banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity in employment, housing, insurance, and public accommodations. In August 2014, McBride married her then-boyfriend Andrew Cray after he received a terminal cancer diagnosis. Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson (born May 29, 1947) presided at their ceremony. Four days after their nuptials, Cray died from cancer. In 2018, Sarah released the book Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality.

2020, Europe

The European Union announced its decision to stop the funding of six Polish towns that boast of being “LGBT-Free Zones.” According to CNN, the six Polish towns that were denied funds had applied to join the EU’s twinning program. The program aims at fostering “peaceful relations” and “mutual understanding” between European citizens. It provides funds of up to ‚Ǩ25,000 ($29,000) to the members on the condition that it is made accessible to all without any discrimination. Since 2019, one-third of Polish towns have declared themselves to be “free from LGBT ideology”

JULY 29

1519, Spain

Four men are burned at the stake for sodomy because a Franciscan friar, Luis Castelloli, preached that God’s wrath for sodomy was the plague.

1905, Sweden

Dag Hammarskjold (July 29, 1905 – September, 18 1961) is born in Jonkoping, Sweden. Secretary of the United Nations during its most turbulent years, he died in a plane crash in Africa. A Swedish diplomat, he was the second Secretary General (leader) of the United Nations. After his death, he would be awarded a Nobel Prize. Hammarskjold was not out about his sexual orientation during his lifetime; that would have been unheard of at that time in history. According to OutSmart magazine, “[Hammarskjold’s] diary, Markings, published posthumously in 1966, alluded to homosexual longings, perhaps never fulfilled.”

1953

Tim Gunn (July 29, 1953), fashion guru, is born. He served on the faculty of Parsons, The New School for Design, from 1982 to 2007 and was chair of fashion design at the school from August 2000 to March 2007, after which he joined Liz Claiborne as its chief creative officer. For over 15 seasons, Gunn has become well known as the on-air mentor to designers on the television program Project Runway. In 2014, he participated in Do I Sound Gay?, a documentary film by David Thorpe about stereotypes of gay men’s speech patterns.

1962

Out actor Kevin Spirtas (July 29, 1962) is born. Spirtas is best known for his roles as Dr. Craig Wesley on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, Jonas Chamberlain on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, and as Nick in the slasher film Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988). Spirtas has worked on Broadway with roles including Hugh Jackman’s understudy in The Boy from Oz and has also worked as a stunt performer. He began using the name Kevin Spirtas professionally in 1995, having been previously credited as Kevin Blair.

1967, Scotland

Ian Campbell Dunn (May 1, 1943 – March 10, 1998) was a gay rights campaigner who lived and worked in Scotland. Dunn began his work in gay rights activism after finding that the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which partially decriminalized homosexual relations between adult men, applied only to England and Wales and not to Scotland. On this day, he wrote to Antony Grey (6 October 1927 – 30 April 2010), secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society in London, about establishing a chapter in Scotland. Grey refused.

1975

The Annual Conference of the Metropolitan Community Church was held in Dallas, Texas. Among the speakers was Elaine Noble (born January 22, 1944), who was the first person to be elected to a state legislature (MA) while running as an open lesbian.

1978

The Village People’s first major hit Macho Man disco single debuts and eventually goes gold.

1986

The Chicago City Council defeats a gay rights bill by a vote of 30-18.

1987

President Reagan nominated homophobic judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. He was rejected by the Senate 58-42.

1998

World renowned and arguably the best ever American choreographer Jerome Robbins (October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) dies. Robbins was bisexual, though he was always ashamed of it, according to biographers. He had relationships with a number of people, from Montgomery Clift (Octo-ber 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966) and Nora Kaye to Buzz Miller (December 23, 1923-February 23, 1999) and Jess Gerstein. He never married. Among his numerous stage productions he worked on were On the Town, Peter Pan, High Button Shoes, The King And I, The Pajama Game, Bells Are Ringing, West Side Story, Gypsy, and Fiddler on the Roof. Robbins was a five-time Tony Award winner and a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. He received two Academy Awards, including the 1961 Academy Award for Best Director with Robert Wise for West Side Story. In 1950, Robbins was called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), suspected of Communist sympathies. Robbins, though willing to confess to past party membership, resisted naming names of others with similar political connections; he held out for three years until, according to two family members in whom he confided, he was threatened with public exposure of his homosexuality. On the evening of his death, the lights of Broadway were dimmed for a moment in tribute.

2004

The Wyoming Supreme Court rejects a final appeal by Matthew Shepard’s killer Russell Henderson to have his sentence reduced. Matthew Wayne “Matt” Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was an American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. Six days later, he died from severe head injuries at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado.

2005

Aerospace manufacturer Raytheon adds transgender to its anti-discrimination policy.

2008, Panama

Same-sex sexual activity is decriminalized.

2012, India

The Alan Turing Rainbow Festival in Madurai hosts Asia’s first gender-queer Pride Parade.

JULY 30

1960, France

The National Assembly adds homosexuality to a list of “fleaux sociaux” (social plagues) that the government is charged to combat.

1971

The New York lesbian bar Kooky’s made it known that lesbians working for gay liberation were not welcome. Lesbians gathered to picket. Kooky’s was one of only two lesbian-oriented bars in New York City. Kooky, the bar owner, was said to be hostile to the gay liberation movement, fearing it would cut into her business. Kooky’s closed in the 1970s. Today it’s La Nueva Rampa.

1981

Martina Navratilova (born October 18, 1956) is outed by a New York Daily News article. The article is called “Martina Fears Avon’s Call If She Talks.” Navratilova had spoken months earlier with the writer of the article about her sexual relationship with Rita Mae Brown (November 28, 1944), and Navratilova had asked him not to go public. He quotes her in the article: “If I come out and start talking, women’s tennis is going to be hurt. I have heard that if I come out, if one more top player talks about this, then Avon will pull out as a sponsor.” Avon pulled out as a sponsor the next year.

2003

U.S. President George W. Bush says he supports “codifying marriage in the United States as being between one man and one woman.

1992

Canadian swimmer Mark Tewksbury (born February 7, 1968) won an Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke. He would come out six years later.

1997

The Gay and Lesbian OutGiving Fund, a project of the Gill Foundation, pledged $100,000 to help the victims of flooding in Ft. Collins, Colorado.

1998

Massachusetts Governor Paul Celluci announces that he would veto a domestic partnership bill which would have given equal health insurance benefits to all Boston city employees.

1998, Netherlands

Dr. Joep M. A. Lange of the University of Amsterdam reported the successful results of a study using a five-drug combination regimen to combat AIDS.

1999

After battling a San Francisco ordinance, United Airlines announced it would offer domestic partner benefits.

2004

Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry, in a speech to the party convention in Boston, blasted President Bush for pushing a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

2015, Israel

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man returned to the LGBT Pride parade to commit the same 2005 crime of attacking several marchers. After being released just three weeks prior from a 10-year prison sentence for his first crime, Yishai Schlissel returned to the 2015 parade and stabbed six people, killing one. Schlissel reportedly told police he went to the parade “to kill in the name of God.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack as “a most serious incident.” Israel’s LGBT community was the target of a 2009 attack in Tel Aviv where a gunman opened fire at a center for young gays, killing two people and wounding 15 others. Israel has relatively liberal gay rights policies, despite the ultra-Orthodox community’s hostility. The Jewish state repealed a ban on consensual same-sex sexual acts in 1988.

JULY 31

1607, Italy

Pope Paul V orders the confiscation of 105 paintings from the artist Cavaleiere d’Arpino who had been unable to pay his taxes. Among the paintings was Caravaggio’s Boy with a Basket of Fruit, an overtly homoerotic image of a youth extending both a basket of fruit and his tongue seductively toward the viewer. Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon has said: A lot has been made of Caravaggio’s presumed homosexuality, which has in more than one previous account of his life been presented as the single key that explains everything, both the power of his art and the misfortunes of his life.

1889

Nels Anderson (July 31, 1889 – October 8, 1986) is born. He was an early American sociologist who studied hobos, urban culture, and work culture. The word fag is first used in print in reference to gays in Nels Anderson’s 1923 monograph The Hobo: Fairies or Fags, defining the words as men or boys who exploit sex for profit. Anderson studied at the University of Chicago under Robert E. Park and Ernest Burgess, whose Concentric zone model was one of the earliest models developed to explain the organization of urban areas. Anderson’s The Hobo was a work that helped pioneer participant observation as a research method to reveal the features of a society and was the first field research monograph of the famed Chicago School of Sociology, marking a significant milepost in the discipline of Sociology.

1932

Barbara Gittings (July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007), one of the pioneers of gay and lesbian activism, is born. She organized the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) from 1958 to 1963, edited the national DOB magazine from 1963-66, and worked closely with Frank Kameny (May 21, 1925 – October 11, 2011) in the 1960s on the first picket lines that brought attention to the ban on employment of gay people by the largest employer in the U.S. at that time: the United States government. Her early experiences with trying to learn more about lesbianism fueled her life-time work with libraries. In the 1970s, Gittings was most involved in the American Library Association, especially its gay caucus, the first such in a professional organization, in order to promote positive literature about homosexuality in libraries. She was a part of the movement to get the American Psychiatric Association to drop homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973. Her self-described life mission was to tear away the “shroud of invisibility” related to homosexuality which had theretofore been associated with crime and mental illness.

1939

Susan Flannery (born July 31, 1939) is an American actress known for her roles in the daytime dramas The Bold and the Beautiful and Days of Our Lives. She and actress Fannie Flagg (September 21, 1944) had been together for eight years. The cracks in their relationship widened under the pressure. Many of Susan and Fannie’s friends knew they were lovers.

1940, Germany

The German Reich Commissar of the occupied Netherlands territories makes all sexual activities between men illegal.

1965

The first lesbian and gay protest of the Pentagon happens on this day. Twelve male and four female veterans of the armed services picket the Pentagon to protest discrimination in the military. Coverage airs on CBS in Washington that evening.

1965, Australia

Openly gay Australian Ian Roberts (born 31 July 1965) is born. He is an actor, model and former professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 1990s. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australian international representative forward, he played club football with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Wigan Warriors, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and North Queensland Cowboys. In 1995 Roberts became the first high-profile Australian sports person and first rugby footballer in the world to come out to the public as gay.

1969

The first meeting of the Gay Liberation Front was held in New York City at Alternative University. Gay militants separate from the more moderate homophile movement come together to form a counterculture-inspired group. The meeting was advertised with a leaflet which read, DO YOU THINK HOMOSEXUALS ARE REVOLTING? YOU BET YOUR SWEET ASS WE ARE. About 50 people attended.

1974

The Centers for Disease Control reports that gay and bisexual men account for one third of all cases of syphilis in the US.

1976

Dykes on Bikes is founded. A group of lesbians on motorcycles comes together to lead the 1976 San Francisco Pride Parade. Founder Soni S.H.S. Wolf (September 1948-April 25, 2018) was to be the Community Grand Marshal during the San Francisco Pride parade in 2018. Unfortunately, Wolf passed away in April 2018. Her close friends represented her in the 2018 parade by carrying the custom-painted motorcycle tank from the bike she rode during the inaugural ride in 1976.Chapters of the club have been leading Pride Parades around the world ever since.

1986

Jeff Levi, executive director of National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), addressed the U.S. Senate during hearings on the nomination of William Rehnquist to the Supreme Court. Strom Thurmond questioned him on why NGLTF doesn’t work for something constructive such as changing homosexuals into heterosexuals.

1989

Urvashi Vaid (October 8 1958-May 14, 2022) replaces Jeff Levi as the executive director of the NGLTF. Urvashi is an Indian-American LGBT rights activist. In April 2009 Out magazine named her one of the 50 most influential LGBT people in the United States. Vaid shares homes in Manhattan and Province-town, Massachusetts with her partner, comedian Kate Clinton.

1996

Jamie Nabozny (born October 1975) wins nearly a million dollars in the first ever case of a gay teen suing school officials for failing to protect him from years of horrendous abuse. (Nabozny v. Podlesny) The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rules that a public school and individual school employees may be held liable under federal equal protection law for failing to respond to the anti-gay abuse of a student by other students.

1998, UK

Kristina Sheffield and Rachel Horsham, both male-to-female transgender people, lost a legal battle to be recognized as women under English law when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the British government had not violated their rights by refusing to issue them new birth certificates or by refusing to allow them to marry men.

1999

Simone Wallace (born 1945) and Adele Wallace close their Sisterhood Bookstore in Los Angeles. Founded in 1972, it operated at the intersection of Westwood and Rochester near UCLA. Sisterhood was so much more than a bookstore; it was a community center which supported women for decades. Its books are now in the June Mazer Archives.

2003

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa warns Canada’s Prime Minister Jean Chretien that if he continues to support same-sex marriage he could be denied the sacraments.

2005, The Netherlands

The Netherlands halted the extradition of gays back to Iran following re-ports of gay executions.

2012

Gore Vidal (October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) dies. He was an American writer and public intellectual known for his patrician manner, epigrammatic wit, and polished style of writing. As a public intellectual, Gore Vidal was identified with the liberal politicians and the progressive social causes of the Democratic Party. In 1960, he was the Democratic candidate for Congress, for the 29th Congressional District of New York State, a usually Republican district on the Hudson River, but lost the election to the Republican candidate J. Ernest Wharton, by a margin of 57 percent to 43 percent. In 1950, Gore Vidal met Howard Austen (January 28, 1929 – September 22, 2003) who became his life-partner in a 53-year relationship. In 2010, Vidal began to suffer from Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a brain disorder often caused by chronic alcoholism. On July 31, 2012 Vidal died of pneumonia at his home in the Hollywood Hills at the age of 86.

Published July 10, 2023

THIS DAY IN LGBTQ HISTORY – JUNE

JUNE 1

LGBTQ Pride Month

 

1732

The term lesbian is first used by William King in his book The Toast, published in England, to mean women who love women. The word lesbian literally means resident of the Greek Isle of Lesbos. The term came to describe women who love women after the island’s most famous resident, the poet Sappho.

1749

Thomas Cannon (1720-?) was an English author of the 18th century who wrote what may be the earliest published defense of homosexuality in English, Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify’d (1749). Although only fragments of his work have survived, it was a humorous anthology of homosexual advocacy, written with an obvious enthusiasm for its subject. It contains the argument: “Unnatural Desire is a Contradiction in Terms; downright Nonsense. Desire is an amatory Impulse of the inmost human Parts: Are not they, however constructed, and consequently impelling, Nature?” He may also have collaborated with John Cleland (September 24, 1709 – January  23, 1789), author of Fanny Hill.

1880

The United States Census finds 63 men in 22 states incarcerated for “crimes against nature.”

1886

Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886-1954) was a transgender woman living in Oxnard, CA for two decades before she was brought to court to defend her gender identity. Anderson was born as Tobias Lawson in Waddy, KY. Her parents, William and Nancy Lawson, were former slaves. As a young child, she insisted on being treated as a girl, preferring to wear dresses to school and going by the name Lucy. When Lucy was nine years old, her mother took her to a medical professional. The doctor examined her and determined the child should be raised as a girl to match her gender identity. Her mother agreed. Lucy Hicks Anderson would go on to live the rest of her life as a woman. In 1920, she married Clarence Hicks and the newlywed couple moved to Oxnard, CA. Over the years, Lucy Hicks continued to work as a housekeeper and eventually saved enough money to purchase an old boarding house property, converting it into a brothel that she owned and operated. Despite the somewhat immodest nature of her profession, Lucy Hicks was well-respected in the Oxnard community throughout the 1920s. Later in her life, local press reported that she bought an estimated $50,000 in war bonds during World War II to support the war effort overseas. In spite of the glamor that dominated her public life, Hicks occasionally had run-ins with the law, particularly during the age of Prohibition. Lucy Hicks’ transgender identity remained a secret. She achieved a certain social status within upper class white society that was largely unattainable for many Black women of the era. In 1944, Lucy married Reuben Anderson, a soldier previously employed at a department store in Los Angeles before joining the Army during World War II. The following year, local Navy service members experienced an outbreak of venereal disease, and officials began investigating nearby brothels, including that of Lucy Hicks Anderson. Investigators forced all women at the brothel to undergo medical examinations, including Lucy. She protested, arguing that she had not provided services to the patrons herself, but it was to no avail. Examiners discovered she was biologically assigned male at birth, and her gender identity burst open. In 1945, the Ventura County district attorney charged Lucy Hicks Anderson with perjury for signing a marriage application with “another” man. During her trial, she said, “I have lived a good life and a Christian life. I have lived a good citizen for many years in this town and am going to die a good citizen.”

1922, Russia

On this day, the USSR’s Criminal Code of 1922 decriminalized homosexuality. This was a remarkable step in the USSR at the time. Russia was backward economically and socially and where many conservative attitudes towards sexuality prevailed. This step was part of a larger project of freeing sexual relationships and expanding women’s rights including legalizing abortion, granting divorce on demand, equal rights for women, and attempts to socialize housework. During Stalin’s era, however, USSR reverted all these progressive measures, re-criminalizing homosexuality, imprisoning gay men and banning abortion.

1926

Marilyn Monroe (/June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was an American actress, model, and singer. Famous for playing comic “blonde bombshell” characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s as well as an emblem of the era’s sexual revolution. Long after her death, Monroe remains a major icon of pop culture. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her sixth on their list of the greatest female screen legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Monroe had noted affairs with men in her industry and married retired Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller. Monroe also noted in taped sessions (released after her death) with her psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson that she had also had sex with Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, her acting coach Natasha Lytess whom she lived with for several years, and a handful of other women. Monroe was on a career upswing when she was found dead in her bedroom on August 4, 1962. The coroner deemed it suicide by barbiturate overdose, but to this day, conspiracy theories swirl on the true cause of her death, including her alleged romantic link to President Kennedy.

1952

Ferron (born Deborah Foisy on 1 June 1952) is a Canadian-born singer-songwriter and poet. In addition to gaining fame as one of Canada’s most respected songwriters, Ferron, who is openly lesbian, became one of the earliest and most influential lyrical songwriters of the women’s music circuit and an important influence on later musicians such as Ani DiFranco, Mary Gauthier and the Indigo Girls. From the mid-eighties on, Ferron’s songwriting talents have been recognized and appreciated by music critics and broader audiences, with comparisons being made to the writing talents of Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen.

1967

Los Angeles Police conduct brutal raids on several gay bars. Enraged by the sight of a few men exchanging in customary New Year’s kisses at midnight at the Black Cat in Silver Lake, LAPD undercover agents attack patrons and employees, leaving several severely injured and arresting 16.

1970

The first lesbian/feminist bookstore in the U.S. was the Amazon Bookstore Cooperative which opened in Minneapolis in 1970. It later became True Colors bookstore (with a labrys acting as the “T,”) but has since closed. In 1970, when Amazon was founded by Rosina Richter and Christy and Julie Morse Quist, it was far from a full-fledged bookstore. The books were kept in the front room of the women’s collective in which they lived and books were only available from 3 to 6 PM or by special arrangement. This lasted for about two years before the bookstore moved to Minneapolis’ Lesbian Resource Center and then migrated through a series of different storefront addresses. Working conditions were sometimes difficult and included an unsafe neighborhood and a building with no heat where pipes froze and people had to wear gloves inside the store. The bookstore began experiencing financial difficulties in late 2011 and closed in February 2012.

1971, UK

London’s underground newspaper, the International Times, loses its appeal of a recent conviction for indecency, for having run personal ads for gay men. The judge rules that while the acts may be legal, public encouragement of the acts is not.

1972, Sweden

On this day Sweden becomes the first country in the world to allow by legislation transsexual people to surgically change their sex and provide free hormone replacement therapy. Sweden also permitted the age of consent for same-sex partners to be at age 15, making it equal to heterosexual couples.

1975

The leather magazine Drummer debuts. Drummer magazine spotlights the rise of open s/m and leather sub-subcultures within the gay male subculture.

1976

Virginia decriminalizes private consensual adult homosexual acts.

1979

Jerry Falwell forms The Moral Majority which opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, Strategic Arms limitation talks, any recognition or acceptance of homosexual acts, and abortion even in cases involving incest, rape or in pregnancies where the life of the mother is at stake. It played a key role in the mobilization of conservative Christians as a political force and particularly in Republican presidential victories throughout the 1980s. The Moral Majority was incorporated into the Liberty Federation in 1985.

1991

The first “Gay Days” event is organized in Walt Disney World in Orlando. About 3,000 gays and lesbians gather, wearing red for visibility. It’s become one of the largest LGBT events in the world.

1994

A federal judge rules that Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer (born March 24, 1942) be reinstated in the Washington State National Guard. She had been discharged from the military for being a lesbian. Margarethe “Grethe” Cammermeyer served as a colonel in the Washington National Guard and became a gay rights activist. Born in Oslo, Norway, she became a United States citizen in 1960. In 1961 she joined the Army Nurse Corps as a student. A television movie about Cammermeyer’s story, Serving in Silence, was made in 1995, with Glenn Close starring as Cammermeyer. Its content was largely taken from Cammermeyer’s autobiography of the same name.

2003, Belgium

Belgium becomes the second country to allow same-sex marriages, after the Netherlands.

2013

The Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) elects its first openly gay bishop, Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin (born 1958). He was elected in 2013 to a six-year term as bishop of the Southwest California Synod of the ELCA. Erwin is also the first Native American bishop elected to office in the ELCA and is a member of the Osage Nation. He has lived in a committed same-sex relationship for 20 years. He and Rob Flynn were married in August 2013.

2014-2016

President Barack Obama declares June as LGBT Pride Month. “NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2014 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.”

JUNE 2

1899

A train is robbed by George “Butch” Cassidy. Earlier in his career, he worked as a butcher in Wyoming, earning him the nickname of “Butch.” This is one of the first times the term “butch” appears. The exact origin of the word is still unknown, but it takes on meaning in the lesbian community in the 1940s.

1952, Canada

Ferron, born Deborah Foisy (born June 2 , 1952) is a Canadian-born singer-songwriter and poet. In addition to gaining fame as one of Canada’s most respected songwriters, Ferron first became one of the most influential lyrical songwriters of the women’s music circuit and an important influence on later musicians such as Ani DiFranco, Mary Gauthier and the Indigo Girls. From the mid-eighties on, Ferron’s songwriting talents have been recognized and appreciated by music critics and broader audiences, with comparisons being made to the writing talents of Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen.

1965

San Francisco Council on Religion and the Homosexual representatives, most of whom are heterosexual, hold a press conference to protest the police force’s “deliberate harassment” of the group’s New Year’s Ball.

1989

Lambda Book Report presents the first Lambda Literary Awards as part of the American Booksellers Association convention in Washington, D.C. Armistead Maupin (born May 13, 1944) is the emcee. “Lammy” winners include Dorothy Allison (April 11, 1949), Paul Monette (October 16, 1945 – February 10, 1995), Michael Nava  (born September 16, 1954), Karen Thompson (born 1947), and Edmund White (born January 13, 1940).

1999

President Bill Clinton made history when he became the first president to announce June 1999 as national Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. The proclamation coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, NY. The proclamation recognizes the lasting contributions and continuing struggles of lesbian and gay people. He also calls for Congress to pass hate crimes legislation.

2006, Denmark

Danish parliament allows lesbians access to artificial insemination. The vote repeals a 1997 prohibition of the procedure for lesbians.

2017

Leo Varadkar (born January 18, 1979), an openly gay son of an Indian immigrant, becomes the Prime Minister of Ireland.

JUNE 3

1818, Greece

On this day the Lion of Chaeronea is discovered by a British architect named George Ledwell Taylor. The Lion was erected by the Sacred Band of Thebes which was a troop of select soldiers consisting of 150 pairs of male lovers which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC. Its predominance began with its crucial role in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. It was annihilated by Philip II of Macedon in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. Built to honor their dead, the statue was surrounded by 254 buried skeletons. Plutarch’s Life of Pelopidas, which contains the most detailed account of the Sacred Band, is considered a highly reliable account of the events. Chaeronea is a village in Boeotia, Greece,

1926

Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) is born. Irwin Allen Ginsberg was a gay American poet of Jewish origin and one of the leading figures of both the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the counterculture that soon would follow. He vigorously opposed militarism, economic materialism and sexual repression and was known as embodying various aspects of this counterculture, such as his views on drugs, hostility to bureaucracy and openness to Eastern religions. Ginsberg is best known for his poem Howl in which he denounces what he saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States. In 1956, Howl was seized by San Francisco police and U.S. Customs. In 1957, it attracted widespread publicity when it became the subject of an obscenity trial, as it described heterosexual and homosexual sex at a time when sodomy laws made homosexual acts a crime in every U.S. state. Irwin Allen Ginsberg (/Àà…°…™nzb…úÀêr…°/; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Generation. He vigorously opposed militarism, economic materialism, and sexual repression, and he embodied various aspects of this counterculture with his views on drugs, sex, multiculturalism, hostility to bureaucracy, and openness to Eastern religions.[1][2] One contribution that is often considered his most significant and most controversial was his openness about homosexuality. Ginsberg was an early proponent of freedom for gay people. In 1943, he discovered within himself “mountains of homosexuality.” He expressed this desire openly and graphically in his poetry.[111] He also struck a note for gay marriage by listing Peter Orlovsky, his lifelong companion, as his spouse in his Who’s Who entry. Subsequent gay writers saw his frank talk about homosexuality as an opening to speak more openly and honestly about something often before only hinted at or spoken of in metaphor.[96]

1948

The Kinsey Report on Male Sexuality is published, shocking the nation with its revelation of the high incidence of same-sex acts among American men.

1967

Anderson Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is an American journalist, television personality, and author. He was a primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360 until February 2021. The program was normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasted live from CNN’s studios in Washington, D.C., or on location for breaking news stories. In addition, he is a major correspondent for 60 Minutes. Cooper was born in New York City, the younger son of the writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and the artist, fashion designer, writer, and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt. Cooper is openly gay; according to The New York Times, he is “the most prominent openly gay journalist on American television.” Cooper and his boyfriend, gay bar owner Benjamin Maisani (born Jan. 27, 1973) have been dating since 2009. Cooper considered coming out to the public when same-sex marriage became legal in New York in July 2011. In 2014, the couple purchased the Rye House, a historic estate in Connecticut. Apple CEO Tim Cook (born November 1, 1960) turned to Cooper for advice before he subsequently made the decision to publicly come out as gay.

1989

The United States postal service supposedly issues the first “Lesbian and Gay Pride” postage stamp. (If anyone can find a photo or graphic of it, please message it to me. Thanks! RS)

1991

Eva Le Gallienne (January 11, 1899 – June 3, 1991) dies. She was a British-born American stage actress, producer, director, translator, and author. A Broadway star by age 21, Le Gallienne consciously ended her work on Broadway to devote herself to founding and running the Civic Repertory Theater, in which she was both director, producer, and lead actress. Noted for her boldness and idealism, she became a pioneering figure in the American Repertory Movement, which enabled today’s Off-Broadway. A versatile and eloquent actress herself (playing everything from Peter Pan to Hamlet), Le Gallienne also became a respected stage coach, director, producer and manager.  The Civic Repertory Theatre Company was backed by the financial support of one of her lovers, Alice DeLamar (April 23, 1895 – August 31, 1983), a wealthy Colorado gold mine heiress. Le Gallienne never hid her lesbianism inside the acting community but reportedly was never comfortable with her sexuality, struggling privately with it. In 1918, while in Hollywood, she began an affair with the actress Alla Nazimova (May 22, 1879 – July 13, 1945) who was at her height of fame, and who at that time wielded much power in the acting community. The affair ended reportedly due to Nazimova’s jealousy. Nonetheless, Nazimova liked Le Gallienne very much, and assisted in her being introduced to many influential people of the day. It was Nazimova who coined the phrase “sewing circles” to describe the intricate and secret lesbian relationships lived by many actresses of the day. Le Gallienne also was involved for some time with actresses Tallulah Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968), Beatrice Lillie (29 May 1894 – 20 January 1989) and Laurette Taylor (April 1, 1883 – December 7, 1946).

2000, Italy

Italian Agricultural Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio (born 13 March 1959) announces that he’s bisexual, becoming the first openly bi member of the Italian government.

2007, Japan

The first openly lesbian politician, Kanako Otsuji (born December 16, 1974), holds a public wedding ceremony with her partner of four years, Maki Kimura, despite lack of legal recognition. Kanako is a Japanese LGBT rights activist and member of the House of Representatives for the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. She is a former member of the House of Councilors and a member of the Osaka Prefectural Assembly (April 2003-April 2007). One of only seven women in the 110-member Osaka Assembly, Otsuji represented the Sakai-ku Sakai City constituency. In May 2013, after her party member of the House resigned, Otsuji became the nation’s first openly homosexual member of the Diet but her term in office expired in July. She won a seat in the 2017 general election and became the first openly homosexual member of the House of Representatives.

2012, Argentina

A six-year-old girl named Luana, who was born male, becomes the first transgender child in Argentina to have her new name officially changed on her identity documents. She is believed to be the youngest to have her gender identity officially acknowledged anywhere.

2018, Guyana

Guyana held its first gay pride parade during which the country’s gay rights activists accused the three-year old government as well as the opposition of breaking their election campaign promises to outlaw discrimination against vulnerable groups. Guyana, which was the site of the infamous Jim Jones and the Jonestown mass suicide in 1978, is the only country in South America where homosexuality remains criminalized, with sentences that include life imprisonment although they are rarely enforced.

JUNE 4

1971

Nearly two years after the Stonewall riot, a group of men and women from the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) walk into the New York City Marriage License Bureau carrying coffee urns and boxes of cake. Their purpose: to hold an engagement party for two male couples and to protest the “slander” of City Clerk Herman Katz who had threatened legal action against same-sex “holy unions” being performed by the Church of the Beloved Disciple which had a largely gay congregation.

1975

American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian, Angelina Jolie Voight (born June 4, 1975) is born in Los Angeles. Dropping her last name, Jolie is a huge Hollywood star and an openly bisexual role model. She had a relationship with model/actress Jenny Shimizu (born June 16, 1967) in 1996, before her marriage to Billy Bob Thornton. She told Barbara Walters, in a 20/20 interview in 2002, “I consider myself a very sexual person who loves who she loves, whatever sex they may be.” Jolie married Brad Pitt in 2014, divorced in 2019. Jolie has six children: three sons and three daughters. Of the children, three were adopted internationally, while three are biological.

1979, Canada

In Toronto the Gay Liberation Union establishes the first gay self-defense course in Canada. The program grew out of increasing anti-gay violence on streets.

2018

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of a baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same sex couple because of a religious objection. The case was Masterpiece Cakeshop, LTD v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

JUNE 5

1465, Spain

In a location around Avila, a group of Castilian noblemen depose King Henry IV (Enrique IV) of Castile (5 January 1425 – 11 December 1474) and proclaim his half-brother Prince Alfonso, better known as Alfonso the Innocent, as king. This ceremony became known by its detractors as the farce of Avila. The accusations against the king: he was sympathetic with Moslems; he was a homosexual; he was of peaceful character; and he was not the true father of his daughter, the infant Juana. As each charge is read, one of the symbols of rank is removed from his statue. Finally, the statue was thrown from the platform while the mob laments the death of the king. Then Enrique’s half-brother, Alfonso, age 12, was brought forth and crowned the new king.

1887

Ruth Fulton Benedict (June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) is born. She was an American anthropologist and folklorist who entered graduate studies at Columbia University in 1921 where she studied under Franz Boas. She received her PhD and joined the faculty in 1923. Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978), with whom she later shared a romantic relationship, and Marvin Opler, were among her students and colleagues. A U.S. 46¢ Great Americans series postage stamp in her honor was issued on October 20, 1995. Benedict College in Stony Brook University has been named after her.

1967

A Los Angeles homophile group called Pride mobilizes a crowd of several hundred demonstrators on Sunset Boulevard to protest police raids on gay bars.

1974

Chad Allen (born June 5, 1974) is an American actor. Beginning his career at the age of seven, Allen is a three-time Young Artist Award winner and GLAAD Media Award honoree. He was a teen idol during the late 1980s as David Witherspoon on the NBC family drama Our House and as Zach Nichols on the NBC sitcom My Two Dads before transitioning to an adult career as Matthew Cooper on the CBS western drama Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman. He announced his retirement from acting in April 2015. In November 2006, The Los Angeles Daily News wrote in passing that Allen’s partner, actor Jeremy Glazer (born November 1, 1978), was also in the film Save Me. In a September 2008 interview with Out.com, Allen stated that he was currently in a three-year relationship and had been sober for eight years. In May 2009, Allen was the recipient of a GLAAD Media Award: the Davidson/Valentini Award.

1981

HIV/AIDS (though these words are not used yet) is first mentioned in print. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) MMWR, June 5, 1981/Vol. 30 /No. 21 reports the case of an unusual pneumonia in Los Angeles. “In the period October 1980-May 1981, five young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at three different hospitals in Los Angeles, California.”

1984

Rock Hudson (November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) becomes the first major celebrity to be diagnosed with HIV but he doesn’t announce it until 1985. He was a prominent actor and ‘heartthrob’ of the Hollywood Golden Age. Hudson was voted Star of the Year, Favorite Leading Man, and similar titles by numerous film magazines. He completed nearly 70 films and starred in several television productions during a career that spanned more than four decades. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1956 for Giant. Hudson died from AIDS-related complications in 1985, becoming the first major celebrity to die from an AIDS-related illness. According to some colleagues, Hudson’s homosexual activity was well known in Hollywood throughout his career, and former co-stars  Elizabeth Taylor and Susan Saint James claimed that they knew of his homosexuality as did Carol Burnett. Hudson’s revelation had an immediate impact on the visibility of AIDS, and on the funding of medical research related to the disease. Among activists who were seeking to de-stigmatize AIDS and its victims, Hudson’s revelation of his own infection with the disease was viewed as an event that could transform the public’s perception of AIDS. Following Hudson’s death, Marc Christian (June 23, 1953-June 12, 2009), Hudson’s former lover, sued his estate on grounds of “intentional infliction of emotional distress”. Christian claimed that Hudson continued having sex with him until February 1985, more than eight months after Hudson knew that he had HIV. Although he repeatedly tested negative for HIV, Christian claimed that he suffered from “severe emotional distress” after learning from a newscast that Hudson had died of AIDS.

1986

The first issue of Q-Notes is published. Q-Notes is a newsletter of the Charlotte, N.C. organization called Queer City Quordinators. It transitions to a bi-weekly newspaper and is now online. It is the largest LGBT print news publication in the Southeast. Q-Notes was originally started in 1983 as a monthly newsletter, named Queen City Notes. On May 12, 2006, Q-Notes merged with the Raleigh, N.C., based The Front Page, a Raleigh, N.C. LGBT newspaper founded in 1979.

2010

Portugal becomes the eighth country to approve same-sex marriage.

2014

The documentary Letter to Anita has its world premiere at the Pride of the Ocean Film Festival. Letter to Anita is the heart-wrenching story of Anita Bryant’s anti-gay campaign, its shattering effect on one Florida family, and the redemptive power of forgiveness. The Andrea Meyerson film is narrated by Meredith Baxter and tells a story of LGBT history through the journey of activist and educator Ronni Sanlo. Sanlo’s wife Kelly Watson is executive producer.

2018

The European Court of Justice (ECJ), the judicial body that oversees the European Union’s 28 member nations, rules that all 28 nations must grant legal rights of residence to same-sex spouses legally wed elsewhere, even if their home countries do not allow legalized same-sex marriages. While this ruling mostly affects the six EU nations which don’t legally recognize same-sex relationships, this momentous Europe gay marriage decision could lay the groundwork for increased rights for same-sex couples in these six countries. The case began in 2013 when Romanian activist Adrian Coman and his American husband Claibourn Robert Hamilton were denied spousal residency rights by Romania. The two had married in Belgium in 2010, but Romanian law prohibits marriages between same-sex couples. The couple filed a lawsuit, and the ECJ took up the case in 2016 after Romania’s Constitutional Court requested the Court help interpret obligations under European Union law.

2020, Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vazquez signed a new civil code that eliminates LGBT rights and protections. It overhauls a series of laws regulating various rights, including LGBT rights. The changes and the fact that no public hearings were held has angered the LGBT community and many of the island’s citizens.

JUNE 6

1832, UK

Jeremy Bentham (February 4, 1748 – June 6, 1832) died. He was an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer and founder of modern utilitarianism. Bentham wrote the first known argument for homosexual law reform in England in around 1785, at a time when the legal penalty for buggery was death by hanging. His advocacy stemmed from his utilitarian philosophy in which the morality of an action is determined by the net consequence of that action on human well-being. He argued that homosexuality was a victimless crime, and therefore not deserving of social approbation or criminal charges. He regarded popular negative attitudes against homosexuality as an irrational prejudice, fanned and perpetuated by religious teachings. However, he did not publicize his views as he feared reprisal. His powerful essay Offences Against One’s Self argued for the liberalization of laws prohibiting homosexual sex. The essay remained unpublished during his lifetime for fear of offending public morality. It was published for the first time in 1931. Bentham did not believe homosexual acts to be unnatural, describing them merely as “irregularities of the venereal appetite”. The essay chastises the society of the time for making a disproportionate response to what Bentham appears to consider a largely private offence – public displays or forced acts being dealt with rightly by other laws. When the essay was published in the Journal of Homosexuality in 1978, its Abstract stated that Bentham’s essay was the “first known argument for homosexual law reform in England.” On his death in 1832, Bentham left instructions for his body to be first dissected then permanently preserved as an “auto-icon” (or self-image) which would be his memorial. This was done and the auto-icon is now on public display at University College London (UCL).

1885

A’Lelia Walker (June 6, 1885 – August 17, 1931) was an American businesswoman and patron of the arts. She was the only surviving child of Madam C.J. Walker, popularly credited as being the first self-made female millionaire in the United States and one of the first African American millionaires. “A’Lelia Walker probably had much to do with the manifest acceptance of bisexuality among the upper class in Harlem,” wrote Lillian Faderman in Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, “Those who had moral reservations about bisexuality or considered it strange or decadent learned to pretend a sophistication and suppress their disapproval if they desired A’Lelia’s goodwill.” A’Lelia inherited her mother’s fortune but also ran the business herself, opening training centers for Walker agents and the Walker Hair Parlor. She married three times and has been linked to the legendarily hilarious Mayme White (daughter of the 19th century’s last black U.S. Congress member), stage actress Edna Thomas (November 1, 1885 – July 22, 1974) and Mae Fane, about whom little is known.

1944 – D-DAY

The invasion of Normandy beaches in WWII. While it’s not a specific LGBT-related event, there were undoubtedly many hundreds of young gay soldiers killed on those beaches: 160,000 men landed, 9,000 were killed or wounded. Today we remember them with gratitude.

1949

Holly Near (born June 6, 1949) is born. She is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist. In 1970, Near was a cast member of the Broadway musical Hair. Following the Kent State shootings in May of that year, the entire cast staged a silent vigil in protest. The song, It Could Have Been Me, released on A Live Album 1974, was her heartfelt response to the shootings. In 1971, she joined the FTA (Free the Army) Tour, an anti-Vietnam War road show of music, comedy, and plays, organized by antiwar activist Fred Gardner and actors Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland. In 1972, Near founded an independent record label called Redwood Records (now defunct) to produce and promote music by “politically conscious artists from around the world”. Near became a feminist, linking international feminism and anti-war activism. In 1976, Near came out as a lesbian and began a three-year relationship with musician Meg Christian (born 1946). Near was probably the first out lesbian to be interviewed in People Magazine. “I don’t know why. Just isn’t a handle I relate to. I include human and civil rights in all that I do. I am monogamous. I relate to that term. I am a feminist. If I am with a woman I am a feminist. If I am alone I am a feminist. If I am with a man I am a feminist. And until the one I am with and I part ways, then I am just what I am in that relationship and I don’t much think about what I will do next. I focus more on what I bring to that relationship. It is a full-time job being honest one moment at a time, remembering to love, to honor, to respect. It is a practice, a discipline, worthy of every moment. I think my feminism and my ability to love has been highly informed by having had lesbian relationships. The quality of my life has, without question, been elevated.” For a brief moment in time I struggled with sexual identity, somewhere in the mid-’80s. Then I realized it was the wrong question for me. That is not to say it is the wrong question for others. It just wasn’t important to me. So I haven’t really thought much about it since. I am going to sing lesbian love songs and support gay rights no matter what. The rest is public relations.”

1950, Belgium

Chantal Anne Akerman (6 June 1950 – 5 October 2015) is born. She was a Belgian film director, artist and professor of film at the City College of New York. Her best-known film is Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975). According to film scholar Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Akerman’s influence on feminist filmmaking and avant-garde cinema has been substantial. Although Akerman is often grouped within feminist and queer thinking, the filmmaker has articulated her distance from an essentialist feminism. Akerman resists labels relating to her identity like “female”, “Jewish” and “lesbian”, choosing instead to immerse herself in the identity of being a daughter. Akerman has stated that she sees film as a “generative field of freedom from the boundaries of identity.” Akerman died on October 5, 2015 in Paris. Le Monde reported that she died by suicide.

1954

Harvey Fierstein (born June 6, 1954) is born in Brooklyn, NY. Author of The Sissy Duckling, playwright, and beloved Emmy- and Tony-award winning actor, Fierstein is also a fiercely gay social activist. Fierstein has won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his own play Torch Song Trilogy about a gay drag-performer and his quest for true love and family, and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. He also wrote the book for the musical La Cage aux Folles for which he won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical and wrote the book for the Tony Award-winning Kinky Boots. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2007. Fierstein occasionally writes columns about gay issues. He was openly gay at a time when very few celebrities were.

1955

Sandra Bernhard (born June 6, 1955) is an American actress, singer, comedian and author. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy, where she often critiqued celebrity cultureand political figures.

She is perhaps best known for portraying Nancy Bartlett Thomas on the ABC sitcom Roseanne from the fourth season (1991) to the end of the show in 1997. She played Nurse Judy Kubrak in the FX drama series Pose. She is number 96 on Comedy Central’s list of the 100 greatest stand-ups of all time.[2]

Bernhard is bisexual and a strong supporter of LGBT rights.[43][44] On July 4, 1998, she gave birth to a daughter,[45] whom she raised with Sara Switzer, her partner of over 20 years.

1956

June Chan (born June 6, 1956) is an Asian-American lesbian activist and biologist. The organizer and co-founder of the Asian Lesbians of the East Coast (ALOEC), Chan raised awareness for LGBT issues relating to the Asian-American community.

1961, UK

Carole Baskin (born June 6, 1961) is born. The Tiger King star revealed that she is bisexual. Describing herself as a “tomboy” growing up, the 59-year-old said she began to explore her sexuality in the 1980s when she was engaged to a psychologist who worked with members of the LGBTQ community impacted by the HIV/AIDS crisis.

1967

The New York City’s Civil Service Commission makes public its year-old policy of allowing city agencies to hire and employ lesbians and gay men. The new policy comes partly in response to the lobbying efforts of the Mattachine Society of New York.

1976

Richard Heakin, a 21 year old college student, is killed on this day in Tucson, AZ, by four teenagers while leaving the Stonewall Tavern. He was visiting in Tucson for Gay Pride. The 13 teenage killers received only probation for the murder. The entire community of Tucson was outraged. Within months anti-discrimination laws were introduced.

1979, Canada

Toronto Teacher Don Franco is charged with being a keeper of a common bawdyhouse in his own home after a police raid found him in an orgy with a number of other men. The raid was condemned by the gay community as an act of revenge by the police, and the case made history as it was the first home, where no prostitution or sex with minors was occurring, to be charged under bawdy house law. A year earlier Franco was arrested in a police raid at the Barracks baths and then released his name to the media. Franco was close to retirement and worried that a conviction might lead to losing his pension. He didn’t back down, and dozens of hearings later he was acquitted of the charge. He retired with full pension. His was an important early victory in the struggle for gay rights. In a time when the fight for rights was savage, Franco was involved with just about every protest, group or movement. He was connected to varying degrees with AIDS Action Now, the Ontario Coalition for Gay Rights, the Campaign for Equal Families and the NDP, just to name a few. He got little credit for the work that he did and didn’t profit from his good deeds, but he is one of a select group of people who were involved in almost the entire history of the fight for gay rights in Canada. He died on February 3, 2014, at the age of 90.

2012

A federal district judge in New York becomes the fifth to rule against the Defense of Marriage Act. The case, Windsor v. United States, eventually will reach the Supreme Court. United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 744 (2013) (Docket No. 12-307), is a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court held that restricting U.S. federal interpretation of “marriage” and “spouse” to apply only to opposite-sex unions, by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote: “The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity.” Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, a same-sex couple residing in New York, were lawfully married in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 2007. Later in 2008, New York recognized their marriage following a court decision. Spyer died at the age of 77 in 2009, leaving her entire estate to Windsor. Windsor sought to claim the federal estate tax exemption for surviving spouses. She was barred from doing so by Section 3 of DOMA (codified at 1 U.S.C. ¬ß 7), which provided that the term “spouse” only applied to marriages between a man and woman. The Internal Revenue Service found that the exemption did not apply to same-sex marriages, denied Windsor’s claim, and compelled her to pay $363,053 in estate taxes. On November 9, 2010, Windsor sued the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking a refund because DOMA singled out legally married same-sex couples for “differential treatment compared to other similarly situated couples without justification.”

JUNE 7

1778, London

Beau Brummell (June 7, 1778-March 30, 1840) is born. He is credited with introducing and establishing as fashion the modern men’s suit, worn with a necktie. He claimed he took five hours a day to dress and recommended that boots be polished with champagne. The style of dress was referred to as dandyism. He was the caricature of the gay male that persisted for generations. He lived in the poshest apartments, wore the most stylish clothes, and had an acerbic sense of humor. Brummell’s life was dramatized in an 1890 stage play by Clyde Fitch with Richard Mansfield as the Beau. This was adapted for the 1924 film Beau Brummel, with John Barrymore and Mary Astor. Brummell died of syphilis in an insane asylum in France.

1954, UK

Mathematical and computer genius and parent of modern computer science Alan Turing (June 23, 1912 – June 7, 1954) dies by suicide using cyanide poisoning 18 months after being sentenced to two years either in prison or libido-reducing hormone treatment for a year as a punishment for homosexuality. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. Turing played a pivotal role in cracking intercepted coded messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial engagements, including the Battle of the Atlantic, and in so doing helped win WWII, shortened the war in Europe by more than two years and saved over fourteen million lives. Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts when the Labouchere Amendment for gross indecency was still criminal in the UK. He accepted chemical castration treatment with DES as an alternative to prison. In 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an apology on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way he was treated.” Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013. The Alan Turing Law is now an informal term for a 2017 law in the United Kingdom that retroactively pardoned men cautioned or convicted under historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts.

1957

The board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union approves a national policy statement asserting that laws against sodomy and federal restrictions on employment of lesbians and gay men are constitutional.

1977

Forced by pressure from fundamentalist Christian singer Anita Bryant, her husband Bob Green and their “Save Our Children” organization, a non-discrimination ordinance in Dade, County Florida is repealed. The new county ordinance prohibited discrimination on basis of sexual orientation. It was the first major battle – and defeat – in the struggle for gay civil rights in United States. It was also the first successful use of “child molestation tactics” by anti- gay forces and set the pattern of attack for the remainder of the 1970s and into the 80s. The following year Florida Governor Reubin Askew signed a law prohibiting gay men and lesbians from adopting children. That law was also cited to prevent lesbians and gay men from having custody of their own children. Bryant faced severe backlash from gay rights supporters across the U.S. She lost her singing contract and endorsements and was removed as spokesperson for the Florida Orange Juice Commission. The Miami-Dade gay rights ordinance was reinstated on December 1, 1998, more than 20 years later.

2012, Denmark

The Danish parliament legalizes same-sex marriage. Same-sex sexual activity was legalized in 1933. Denmark was the first country in the world to grant legal recognition to same-sex unions, in the form of “registered partnerships.” On June 7, 2012, the law was replaced by a new same-sex marriage law, which came into effect on June 15, 2012, and Denmark recognizes same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation was entirely prohibited in 2004. Same-sex couples are allowed to jointly adopt since 2010, while previously allowing stepchild adoptions and limited co-guardianship rights for non-biological parents. Gays and lesbians are also allowed to serve openly in the military. The Kingdom of Denmark also includes two autonomous overseas territories, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which are generally more socially conservative. However, Greenland legalized same-sex marriage in 2016

JUNE 8

1901, Spain

The first documented same-sex marriage in Spain in post-Roman times is performed. Marcela Gracia Ibeas and Elisa Sanchez Loriga, both teachers, are married by a parish priest in Galicia, with Elisa using the male identity “Mario Sanchez.” The couple was exposed by Galician and Madrid newspapers and, as a consequence, both quickly lost their jobs, were excommunicated, and were issued an arrest warrant. So that the ex-communication could take place, the parish priest requested a doctor examine Mario to check if he were a man or a woman. Mario agreed. When the doctor issued his verdict, Mario attempted to pass for a hermaphrodite (intersex) whose condition had been diagnosed in London. Regardless, the marriage certificate was never officially voided. The marriage, according to the Diocesan Archive, is still valid. They moved to Portugal where they were tried, imprisoned, and later released. It is rumored that they fled to Argentina after the Spanish government demanded their extradition from Portugal. It is unknown what happened to them after that. Same-sex marriage was legalized in Spain in 2005.

1945

Donna Deitch (born June 8, 1945) is an American film, television director and writer best known for her 1985 film Desert Hearts. The movie was the first feature film to depict a lesbian love story in a generally mainstream vein, with positive and respectful themes. Her partner is writer Terri Jentz (born 1957).

1949

French songwriter Patrick Loiseau (June 8, 1949). Born: June 8, 1949 (age 71 years), Limoges, France. Spouse: Dave He was lovers with Anthony Perkins  (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992).

1961

Mary L. Bonauto (born June 8, 1961) is an American lawyer and civil rights advocate who has worked to eradicate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and has been referred to by U.S. Representative Barney Frank as “our Thurgood Marshall.” She began working with the Massachusetts-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, now named GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) organization in 1990. A resident of Portland, Maine, Bonauto was one of the leaders who both worked with the Maine legislature to pass a same-sex marriage law and to defend it at the ballot in a narrow loss during the 2009 election campaign. These efforts were successful when, in the 2012 election, Maine voters approved the measure, making it the first state to allow same-sex marriage licenses via ballot vote. Bonauto is best known for being lead counsel in the case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health which made Massachusetts the first state in which same-sex couples could marry in 2004. She is also responsible for leading the first strategic challenges to Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). On April 28, 2015, Bonauto was one of three attorneys who argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges arguing state bans on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. This much-publicized case determined that state bans against same-sex marriage are unconstitutional and is considered one of the most important civil rights cases which came before the U.S. Supreme Court in modern history.

1975, Canada

Members of the gay rights group GATE appear before a Parliamentary Committee on Immigration in Toronto and call for dropping of all references to homosexuality in the Immigration Act. On November 6th, a “Special Joint Committee on Immigration Policy recommends that homosexuals no longer be prohibited from entering Canada. In 1977, the Canadian Immigration Act was amended, removing the ban on homosexual men as immigrants.

2015

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announces that the Military Equal Opportunity policy has been adjusted to include gay and lesbian military members.

JUNE 9

1892

Cole Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) is born in Peru, Indiana. He was an American composer and songwriter. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs. Porter maintained a luxury apartment in Paris, where he entertained lavishly. His parties were extravagant and scandalous, with “much gay and bisexual activity, Italian nobility, cross-dressing, international musicians and a large surplus of recreational drugs.” In 1918, he met Linda Lee Thomas, a rich, Louisville, Kentucky-born divorcee eight years his senior. She was beautiful and well-connected socially; the couple shared mutual interests, including a love of travel, and she became Porter’s confidant and companion. The couple married the following year. She was in no doubt about Porter’s homosexuality, but it was mutually advantageous for them to marry. For Linda, it offered continued social status and a partner who was the antithesis of her abusive first husband. For Porter, it brought a respectable heterosexual front in an era when homosexuality was not publicly acknowledged. They were, moreover, genuinely devoted to each other and remained married from December 19, 1919  until her death in 1954. Cary Grant played Porter in the film Night and Day which ignored Porter’s closeted gay life. Porter died of kidney failure on October 15, 1964, in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 73.

1918

John Hospers (June 9, 1918 – June 12, 2011) is born. He was an American philosopher and political activist. In 1972 he was the first presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party. His libertarianism was inspired by Ayn Rand, the self-declared philosopher and cult hero of the free market with whom he was, for a limited time, close friends. He was emeritus professor in philosophy at the University of Southern California. Many contemporaries considered him to be the first openly gay candidate for President but since his death his family have strenuously denied that he was gay.

1927

Victoria Woodhull (September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927), one of the primary leaders of the woman’s suffrage movement, dies. In 1872, Woodhull was the first female candidate for President of the United States from the Equal Rights Party, supporting women’s suffrage and equal rights. While likely not lesbian, Woodhull was an activist for women’s rights and labor reforms, and an advocate of free love, by which she meant the freedom to marry, divorce, and bear children without government interference. Woodhull, with sister Tennessee (Tennie) Claflin, became the first female stockbrokers and in 1870 they opened a brokerage firm on Wall Street. Woodhull, Claflin & Company opened in 1870, with the assistance of the wealthy Cornelius Vanderbilt, an admirer of Woodhull’s skills as a medium. On May 14, 1870, Woodhull and Claflin used the money they had made from their brokerage to found a newspaper, the Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly, which at its height had national circulation of 20,000. Its primary purpose was to support Victoria Claflin Woodhull for President of the United States. The 1980 Broadway musical Onward Victoria was inspired by Woodhull’s life. The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership was founded by Naomi Wolf and Margot Magowan in 1997. In 2001, Victoria Woodhull was inducted posthumously into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. The Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance is an American human rights and sexual freedom advocacy organization, founded in 2003, and named in honor of Victoria Woodhull. Victoria Bond composed the opera Mrs. President about Woodhull. It premiered in 2012 in Anchorage, Alaska. In March 2017, Amazon Studios announced production of a movie based on her life, starring Brie Larson as Victoria Woodhull.

1983, Italy

Franco Zeffirelli (February 12, 1923) comes out. He is an Italian director, designer, and producer of opera, theatre, motion pictures, and television, particularly noted for the authentic details and grand scale of his opera productions and for his film adaptations of Shakespeare. He is also a former senator (1994-2001) for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party. Some of his operatic designs and productions have become worldwide classics. Zeffirelli has preferred to be discreet about his personal life. He considers himself “homosexual” rather than gay; he feels the term “gay” is less elegant. Zeffirelli has adopted two adult sons, men he has worked with for years and who now live with him and manage his affairs.

2014

Laverne Cox (May 29, 1984) is on the cover of today’s issue of Time. She is interviewed for the article The Transgender Tipping Point: America’s Next Civil Rights Frontier by Katy Steinmetz, which ran in that issue and the title of which was also featured on the cover. Cox is the first openly transgender person on the cover of Time. Cox is an American actress, reality television star, television producer, and LGBT advocate. She became known for her portrayal of Sophia Burset on the Netflix television series Orange Is the New Black, for which she became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Prime-time Emmy Award in the acting category, and the first to be nominated for an Emmy Award since composer/musician Angela Morley (10 March 1924 – 14 January 2009) in 1990.

2021

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation designating Pulse Nightclub a national memorial. On June 12, 2016, a 29-year-old man, killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. Pulse was hosting a “Latin Night”, and most of the victims were Latino. It is the deadliest incident in the history of violence against LGBT people in the United States, as well as the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S. since the September 11 attacks in 2001, and was the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history until the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.

JUNE 10

356 BC, Babylon near Al-·∏§illah, Iraq

Alexander III of Macedon (July 21, 356 BC-June 13, 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, 36, dies in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, in Babylon. He overthrew the Persian empire, carried Macedonian arms to India, and laid the foundations for the Hellenistic world of territorial kingdoms. Already in his lifetime the subject of fabulous stories, he later became the hero of a full-scale legend bearing only the sketchiest resemblance to his historical career. Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mold of Achilles, and he features prominently in the history and mythic traditions of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. He became the measure against which military leaders compared themselves, and military academies throughout the world still teach his tactics. He is often ranked among the most influential people in human history. Alexander earned the epithet “the Great” due to his unparalleled success as a military commander. He never lost a battle, despite typically being outnumbered. Alexander’s sexuality has been the subject of speculation and controversy. However, there is some evidence that Alexander may have been bisexual, which in his time was not controversial.

1566, Switzerland

Bartholome Tecia (1550-June 10, 1566) 15, is convicted of sodomy and drowned in the Rhone River. On 10 June 2013, at the initiative of Network, a Swiss non-governmental organization, a commemorative plaque was unveiled on the banks of the Rhone in Geneva at the site of Bartholome’s murder. It reads: “In 1566, as Bartholome was led to his death, no one stood, as we stand today, to decry the State-sanctioned killing of a child on suspicion of homosexuality,” said Marcia V.J. Kran of the UN Human Rights Office. “No one was prepared, as we are today, to challenge homophobic prejudice, to insist on the equal worth and equal rights of every person, irrespective of their sexual orientation and gender identity. It would be beautiful to think that out of this one sad, lonely death in the Rhone, more than four centuries ago, might come some good; that passers-by who see this plaque will pause and reflect on the folly of homophobia; and that we can all draw from Bartholome’s story the strength to continue our modern-day struggle to achieve equality for LGBT people everywhere.”

1899, Germany

Anita Berber (June 10t, 1899 – November 10, 1928) was born in Dresden. Through 1916-1917, Anita’s star was rising and she not only toured throughout Germany and Austria with the Sacchetto Troupe but also performed solo at the Berlin Wintergarten and was featured twice on the front cover of glossy women’s magazine Die Dame. By 1918 she had made her first of nine silent films, was becoming a sought-after model and was touring her own solo program. By 1921 her sham marriage had collapsed and she dated a string of beautiful women, including activist and bar owner Lotte Hahm (1890-1967) and the young Marlene Dietrich (December 27, 1901 – May 6, 1992). But it was stylish bar-owner Susi Wanowski who won her heart and very quickly became her lover, manager and secretary. On the night of July 13, 1928, Anita collapsed while performing at a Beirut nightclub, and was diagnosed with an advanced state of pulmonary tuberculosis. Four months later, on November 10, 1928, she died and was buried in a grave at St. Thomas Friedhof in Neukoln. She was 29. The graveyard is now disused and her grave is gone.

1922

Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress, singer, dancer, and vaudevillian. During a career that spanned 45 years, she attained international stardom as an actress in both musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. Garland began performing in vaudeville as a child with her two older sisters and was later signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. Although she appeared in more than two dozen films with MGM and received acclaim for many different roles, she is often best remembered for her portrayal of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Garland had a large fan base in the gay community and became a gay icon. Reasons given for her standing among gay men are the admiration of her ability as a performer, the way her personal struggles mirrored those of gay men in the United States during the height of her fame, and her value as a camp figure. Her lifelong addiction to drugs and alcohol ultimately led to her death in London from a barbiturate overdose at age 47.

1928

Maurice Bernard Sendak (/Ààs…õnd√¶k/; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American illustrator and writer of children’s books. He became most widely known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, first published in 1963.[2] Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was affected by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Sendak also wrote works such as In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, and illustrated many works by other authors including the Little Bear books by Else Holmelund Minarik. Sendak mentioned in a September 2008 article in The New York Times that he was gay and had lived with his partner, psychoanalyst Eugene David Glynn(February 25, 1926 – May 15, 2007), for 50 years before Glynn’s death in May 2007. Glynn, was an American psychiatrist, writer, and art critic. He is most famously known for his book Desperate Necessity: Writings on Art and Psychoanalysis; which was illustrated by his partner Maurice Sendak.

1929

Fannie Mae Clackum (June 10, 1929 – August 16, 2014) was the first person to successfully challenge her discharge on the grounds of homosexuality from the U.S military. Fannie Mae Clackum served as a US Air Force Reservist in the late 1940s and early 1950s. When the Air Force suspected her and Grace Garner of being lesbians, it arranged for a four-person overnight trip and motel stay. The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations used those events as the basis of a series of interrogations in April 1951 when the pair were accused of being lesbians. They refused to accept the dishonorable discharges the Air Force offered them and demanded a court-martial. They were demoted from corporal to private, discharged in early 1952 and lived together in Marietta, Georgia. They spent eight years fighting their discharges in the US Court of Claims claiming denial of due process when denied courts-martial and discharged administratively. They prevailed in 1960 when the court invalidated the discharges and awarded them their back military pay for the remainder of their enlistment periods. The court, after recounting the Air Force’s account of its investigation, said: “One’s reaction to the foregoing narrative is ‘What’s going on here?'” The court found it “unthinkable” that the Air Force would burden them with undesirable discharges “without respect for even the most elementary notions of due process of law”. Theirs is the earliest known case of the successful appeal of a discharge from the U.S. Armed Forces on grounds of homosexuality, though the case turned on due process claims, not homosexuality as the basis for their exclusion from military service. Lillian Faderman states that Clackum’s victory “suggests that in somewhat saner times an objective court could understand how outrageous the military’s tactics were.”

1956

The Mattachine Society of New York holds its first public meeting. About 30 people attend the meeting, which takes place at the Diplomat Hotel.

1974

Dustin Lance Black (born June 10, 1974) is an American screenwriter, director, film and television producer, and LGBT rights activist. He has won a Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award for the 2008 film Milk. Black is a founding board member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights and writer of 8, a staged reenactment of the federal trial that led to a federal court’s overturn of California’s Proposition 8. Black has been in a relationship with British Olympic diver Tom Daley since 2013. They live together in London. In October 2015, it was announced that Black and Daley had become engaged. They married on May 6, 2017 at Bovey Castle in Devon. On  February 14, 2018, Black and Daley announced they were expecting their first child. Robert Ray Black-Daley was born on June 27, 2018.

1976

West Virginia is the 16th state to repeal its sodomy laws.

1979, Spain

A policeman shoots and kills a gay man in a bar in Renteria near the Basque city of San Sebastian. Basque nationalist groups join forces with EHGAM, a Basque Gay Liberation organization, and stage a series of protest rallies and a general strike, culminating in a demonstration in which 2,000 lesbian and gay EHGAM supporters march through San Sebastian.

1979

DJ Qualls (born June 10, 1979) is born. The actor, known for roles in Road Trip and The Core, announced on Twitter in January 2020 that he is gay. “Been gay this whole time,” he wrote. “Tired of worrying about what people would think of me. Tired of worrying about what it would do to my career.”

1986

Edward Sagarin (September 18, 1913 – June 10, 1986) dies. Sagarin is known by his pen name Donald Webster Cory. He was an American professor of sociology and criminology at the City University of New York, and a writer. His book The Homosexual in America: A Subjective Approach, published in 1951, was considered “one of the most influential works in the history of the gay rights movement,” and inspired compassion in others by highlighting the difficulties faced by homosexuals.

2003, Canada

The Ontario Court of Appeals strikes down Canada’s ban on same-sex marriage, ruling that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples violates Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, part of the Canadian Constitution. This makes Ontario the first place in North America to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Two other Canadian provinces, British Columbia and Quebec, follow suit in July 2003 and March 2004. Similarly, Massachusetts will become the first U.S. State to marry lesbian and gay couples when its Supreme Judicial Court rules on November 18, 2003 that beginning May 17, 2004 Massachusetts must begin treating same-sex couples equally.

2016

On this day in 2016, an Oregon circuit court ruled that a resident, Jamie Shupe, could legally change their gender to non-binary. The Transgender Law Center believes this to be “the first ruling of its kind in the U.S.” He has since become a vocal critic of the concept of gender identity. Lambda Legal fired Shupe as a client in 2017, citing his “inappropriate media statements that are harming the transgender community.” Shupe is a critic of transgender surgeries, cautioning against what he says are high complication rates. He has also expressed opposition to transgender people serving in the military. In January 2019, Shupe announced that he no longer identified as non-binary and was returning to identifying as male.

JUNE 11

1852

Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. With the possible exception of Walt Whitman, Dickinson is now recognized as the most important American poet of the 19th century. She wrote over 300 deeply affectionate letters, one dated on this day, to her sister-in-law Sue Gilbert. Emily sent much of her poetry to Susan for review, and indeed Susan may have been the inspiration for many of Emily’s poems. It’s clear from Emily’s letters that her love for Susan was deep and abiding. Some argue that it was a typical “romantic friendship” of the 19th century, full of flowery prose and innocence. But Emily’s letters are more than effusive expressions of affection; many letters are erotic in nature. And her feelings for Susan were hardly transient; the two women corresponded for many years without Emily’s passion fading.

1877

Rene Vivien (born Pauline Mary Tarn; 11 June 1877 – 18 November 1909) was a British poet who wrote in French, in the style of the Symbolistes and the Parnassiens. A high-profile lesbian in the Paris of the Belle √âpoque, she is notable for her work, which has received more attention following a recent revival of interest in Sapphic verse. Many of her poems are autobiographical, pertaining mostly to Baudelarian themes of extreme romanticism and frequent despair. Apart from poetry, she wrote several works of prose, including L’Etre Double (inspired by Coleridge’s Christabel), and an unfinished biography of Anne Boleyn, which was published posthumously. She has been the object of multiple biographies, most notably by Jean-Paul Goujon, Andr√© Germain, and Yves-Gerard Le Dantec. Vivien’s relationships were witrh Violet Shillito (-1900),

Natalie Barney (1900-1901) and Hélène van Zuylen (1902-1907). After the death and breakup, Vivien became depressed and turned to drugs and alcohol.[5]

1972, Canada

The first issue of The Other Woman is produced. It is a feminist periodical that was published six times a year through the mid-1970s, starting in 1972. Produced by a Toronto-based collective, the newspaper covered a wide range of struggles and organizations of the women’s movement in Canada and internationally. It is a combination of several feminist newspapers with the predominant input from lesbian feminists.

1976, Canada

In Kingston, Ontario, a convention of the New Democratic Party calls for the inclusion of sexual orientation in the human rights codes. It is the first time a major Canadian political party accepts gay movement demands.

1999

U.S. President Bill Clinton issues the first Presidential Proclamation of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.

2010, Iceland

Iceland’s Parliament approves same-sex marriage 49-0 and becomes the ninth country to legalize same-sex marriages. The bill provided for a gender-neutral marriage definition.

2011

Transgender Evelyn Rios wins two Northern California EMMYs for being a producer for a daytime newscast: ABC7 News at 11 AM and Evening Newscast at 11 PM. The awards are in the category of Outstanding Achievement in News Programming. Her first nominations were in 2007.

June 12

1730, Netherlands

During a major anti-gay purge of the eighteenth century, five men are hanged and their bodies thrown into the sea at Scheveningen for the crime of sodomy. Hundreds of others were killed or banished. This was described as a pogrom or a reign of terror. The astonishing purges of 1730 were widely reported in the English newspapers during June and July. English news reports state that many Dutch sodomites fled to England where they were not accorded the same reception as refugees from religious persecution.

1799

Gilbert du Motier (September 6, 1757 – May 20, 1834), better known as the Marquis de Lafayette, wrote a very affectionate letter to George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) dated on this day. While there is no evidence that the two men were lovers, this and other letters describe a very intimate friendship. Expression of same-sex platonic love was not considered queer during this time. Lafayette spent his lifetime as an abolitionist , proposing slaves be emancipated slowly, recognizing the crucial role slavery played in many economies. He hoped his ideas would be adopted by George Washington in order to free the slaves in the United States.

1929, Germany

Anne Frank (June 12, 1929 – February or March 1945) is born. One of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, Anne Frank gained fame posthumously following the publication of The Diary of a Young Girl (originally Het Achterhuis; English: The Secret Annex) in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. It is one of the world’s most widely known books and has been the basis for several plays and films. Born in Frankfurt, she lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam. There is speculation that she may have been bisexual but her diary had been edited many times and her life as an adolescent was in a hideaway. She was killed at the age of 15 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

1930

Jim Nabors (June 12, 1930 – November 30, 2017) was an American actor, singer, and comedian. Nabors was born and raised in Sylacauga, Alabama, but he moved to southern California because of his asthma. He was discovered by Andy Griffith while working at a Santa Monica nightclub and later joined The Andy Griffith Show as Gomer Pyle. The character proved popular, and Nabors was given his own spin-off show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Nabors married his partner of 38 years, Stan Cadwallader, at Seattle, Washington’s Fairmont Olympic Hotel on January 15, 2013, a month after same-sex marriage became legal in Washington. Although he had been closeted before this, his sexual orientation was not completely secret; for instance, Nabors brought his then-boyfriend Cadwallader along to his Indy 500 performance in 1978.

1967

The Loving v. Virginia decision legalized interracial marriage in the United States. It had significant impact on the LGBT fight for marriage equality.

1976

Brian Anderson (born June 12, 1976)[1][2] is a professional skateboarder based in Queens, New York City.[2][3]

1981, Canada

A Provincial Court judge in Toronto finds two employees guilty and three owners not guilty of keeping common bawdyhouse. Charges relate to the Barracks Steambath, raided by police December 9, 1978. Toronto’s oldest steambath at 56 Widmer Street had been open since 1974. They had the privilege of watching Toronto come from the days of raids, arrests, fear and oppression to general acceptance. After over 30 years of service to the gay leather community, The Barracks closed in 2005.

1989

Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. director Christina Orr-Cahill announces the cancellation of “The Perfect Moment,” a show of 150 photos and objects by Robert Mapplethorpe (November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) that includes 13 S&M images. The museum was afraid of losing National Endowment for the Arts funding. “Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment” was exhibition of more than 150 works, many of them explicit homoerotic and violent images. It was partly financed with a grant of $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts, an agency that was already under fire from Congress for its grant policies. The exhibition was to have opened on July 1.

2003, France

The European Court of Human Rights rules in favor German transgender woman Van Kuck (Van K√ºck v. Germany) whose insurance company denied her reimbursement for sexual reassignment surgery. The Court held that there had been a violation of Article 6 ¬ß 1 (right to a fair hearing) of the Convention. The German courts should have requested further clarification from a medical expert. With regard to the Court of Appeal’s reference to the causes of the applicant’s condition, it could not be said that there was anything arbitrary or capricious in a decision to undergo sex reassignment surgery and the applicant had in fact already undergone such surgery by the time the Court of Appeal gave its judgment. The Court also held that there had been a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the Convention. Since gender identity was one of the most intimate aspects of a person’s private life, it appeared disproportionate to require the applicant to prove the medical necessity of the treatment. No fair balance had been struck between the interests of the insurance company on the one hand and the interests of the individual on the other.

2012

Kylar Broadus (born August 28, 1963), founder of the Trans People of Color Coalition, is the first openly transgender person to testify before the U.S. Senate, speaking in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Kylar W. Broadus is a professor, attorney, activist and public speaker from Missouri. He is an associate professor of business law at Lincoln University of Missouri, a historically black college where he previously served as the chair of the business department. He has maintained a general practice of law in Columbia, Missouri, since 1997. In February 2011, he was awarded the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Sue J. Hyde Award for Longevity in the Movement. He was featured on BlackEnterprise.com discussing his personal experience with workplace discrimination. In 2010 he founded Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC), the only national civil-rights organization dedicated to the needs of trans people of color. He currently serves on the board of the National Black Justice Coalition and was the board chair from 2007 to 2010. ENDA has yet to pass.

2016

At the Pulse Night Club in Orlando, a terrorist who pledged allegiance to ISIS sprays bullets from an automatic weapon, killing 49 people and wounding 53 others at a popular gay club in Orlando. It is the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. Pulse was a gay bar nightclub in Orlando, Florida, founded in 2004 by Barbara Poma and Ron Legler. On June 12, 2016, the club gained international attention as it was the scene of the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history, and the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since the events of September 11, 2001. Poma’s brother, John, had died in 1991 from AIDS; the club was “named for John’s pulse to live on.” The Washington Post described the Pulse’s first 12 years as “a community hub for HIV prevention, breast-cancer awareness and immigrant rights,” and reported it had partnered with educational and advocacy groups such as Come Out with Pride, Equality Florida, and the Zebra Coalition. In November 2016, the city of Orlando offered to buy the nightclub for $2.25 million. Mayor Buddy Dyer expressed plans to convert the nightclub into a memorial to honor the memory of the victims, but the owner refused to sell.

June 13

1845, UK

Richard Barnfield’s poem The Affectionate Shepherd is published. Barnfield (1574 – 1620) was an English poet. His obscure though close relationship with William Shakespeare has long made him interesting to scholars. It has been suggested that he was the “rival poet” mentioned in Shakespeare’s sonnets. Barnfield is the only Elizabethan male poet apart from Shakespeare, whom he admired, to address love poems to a man.

1846

Rose Elizabeth “Libby” Cleveland (June 13, 1846 – November 22, 1918) served as first lady of the United States from 1885 to 1886, during the first term of her brother, President Grover Cleveland’s two administrations. The president was a bachelor until he married Frances Folsom on June 2, 1886, fourteen months into his first term.[1] At age 44, she started a lesbian relationship with a wealthy widow, Evangeline Marrs Simpson, with explicitly erotic correspondence.[6]The tone of their letters cooled when Evangeline married an Episcopal bishop from Minnesota, Henry Benjamin Whipple, despite Cleveland’s protests.[7]After Whipple’s death in 1901, the two women rekindled their relationship and eventually, in 1910, moved to Bagni di Lucca, Italy, to live there together.[7] They shared the house with the English illustrator and artist Nelly Erichsen. Rose died at home on November 22, 1918, at 7:32 in the evening during the 1918 flu pandemic. She was buried there in the English Cemetery, and Evangeline was also buried next to Rose in the same cemetery 12 years later.

1898, Germany

The Reichstag debates a petition urging the revocation of Paragraph 175. Promoted by Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) and signed by dozens of prominent German opinion leaders, the motion is supported by only one political party in the Reichstag, the Social Democratic Party led by August Bebel. The Reichstag votes against reform. It made homosexual acts between males a crime.

1903

Marriage of painter Romaine Brooks (May 1, 1874 – December 7, 1970), born Beatrice Romaine Goddard to John Ellingham Brooks (1863-1929). Romaine was bisexual and John was gay. Goddard never revealed exactly why she married him. The marriage lasted only one year. She is best known for her images of women in androgynous or masculine dress, including her self-portrait of 1923, which is her most widely reproduced work. In 1911 Brooks became romantically involved with Ida Rubinstein (21 September 1883 – 20 September 1960), the white Russian Jewish actress and dancer who was the rock star of her day and created a sensation with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The longest and most important relationship of Brooks’ life was her three-way partnership with writer Natalie Clifford Barney (October 31, 1876 – February 2, 1972) and Lily de Gramont (23 April 1875 – 6 December 1954) with whom she formed a trio that lasted the rest of their lives. Natalie was notoriously non-monogamous, a fact that both Lily and Romaine had to accept and put up with. Romaine met Natalie in 1916 at a time when she had been involved with Lily for approximately nine years. After a brief dust-up that resulted in Natalie’s offering Lily a marriage contract while at the same time refusing to give up Romaine, the three women formed a stable lifelong triangle where no woman was a third wheel. Lily, one of the most glamorous taste-makers and aristocrats of the period, summed up their values when she stated, “Civilized beings are those who know how to take more from life than others.” Gender fluidity and sexual freedom were paramount for women of Brooks’ circle. Barney was an American-born writer who hosted a literary salon on Paris’s Left Bank. When Brooks and Barney met, Barney was already in a close long-term relationship with Duchess Elisabeth de Clermont-Tonnerre (23 April 1875 – 6 December 1954) which would last until the Duchess’ death in 1954. Brooks and Barney were together for 50 years.

1926

Comedian Paul Lynde (June 13, 1926 – January 11, 1982) is born in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. He was an American comedian, voice artist, actor and TV personality. A noted character actor with a distinctively campy and snarky persona that often poked fun at his barely in-the-closet homosexuality, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and the befuddled father Harry MacAfee in Bye Bye Birdie. He was also the regular “center square” panelist on the game show Squares from 1968 to 1981, and he voiced two Hanna-Barbera productions; he was Templeton the gluttonous rat in Charlotte’s Web and The Hooded Claw in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.  ABC had reservations about Lynde, most notably his offscreen behavior, alcoholism, and the persistent rumors of his homosexuality. Lynde became sober and drug-free in early 1980. Lynde’s private life and sexual orientation were not acknowledged or discussed on television or in other media during his lifetime. Asked on the original Hollywood Squares, “Why do motorcyclists wear leather?” Lynde answered, “Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.”

1957

David Buckel (June 13, 1957 – April 14, 2018) is born. He was an American LGBT rights lawyer and an environmental activist. He died on April 14, 2018, by self-immolation as a protest against the use of fossil fuels. Buckel was a senior counsel and marriage project director at Lambda Legal, the American organization that focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities. In 1996, Buckel represented Jamie Nabozny in Nabozny v. Podlesny, a case heard in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit regarding the protection Nabozny did not receive while at school. Buckel represented Nabozny in his claims stemming from “consistent and significant anti-gay bullying and abuse.” In 2000, Buckel was the lead lawyer for of the estate of Brandon Teena, a transgender man who was raped and murdered in Nebraska, when Teena’s family recovered damages against negligent law enforcement officers. Buckel stated, “It’s a very important case, not only within Nebraska but nationally.” The story inspired the 1999 biographical film Boys Don’t Cry. Buckel and his husband, Terry Kaelber, were raising a daughter, Hannah Broholm-Vail. They co-parented Hannah with Rona Vail and Cindy Broholm. On April 14, 2018, Buckel’s body was found by a passerby in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. It appeared that he had burned himself to death. Next to the body was a note in a manila envelope marked “To the police”. The text of the note, which also was emailed to The New York Times, stated: “Most humans on the planet now breathe air made unhealthy by fossil fuels, and many die early deaths as a result-my early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves.”

1958

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reverses three lower court rulings that an issue of ONE magazine seized in Los Angeles was obscene. The Court’s affirmation of free speech for gay and lesbian writing opens the way for more widely distributed publications. In January 1953, ONE, Inc. began publishing a monthly magazine called ONE, the first U.S. pro-gay publication, which sold openly on the streets of Los Angeles for 25 cents. In October 1954, the U.S. Post Office  declared the magazine “obscene” and refused to deliver it. ONE, Inc. brought a lawsuit in federal court, which it won in 1958, when the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the lower court ruling in One, Inc. v. Olesen based on its recent landmark First Amendment case, Roth v. United States. The magazine ceased publication in December 1969.

1991

In a letter to Tony Marco, founder of Colorado for Family Values, Brian McCormick of Pat Robertson’s National Legal Foundation suggested the use of the phrase “No Special Privileges” to campaign for anti-gay voter support for Amendment 2. He warned that it should not be used in the amendment since opponents could argue that gay rights laws are not special privileges but seek to make the rights of homosexuals equal to everyone else.

1993

Rand Schrader (May 11, 1945 – June 13, 1993) dies. Rand was an AIDS and gay rights activist who also served as a judge of the Los Angeles Municipal Court. In 1991, Schrader announced that he had been recently diagnosed with AIDS. Schrader went public with his diagnosis in an attempt to increase AIDS awareness and to combat discrimination and misinformation associated with AIDS. Schrader’s long-time partner was entrepreneur David Bohnett (born April 2, 1956), who, after Schrader’s death, used his own entire life savings and the $386,000 benefits from Schrader’s life insurance to create the pioneering website GeoCities. Schrader had previously advocated for the establishment of an AIDS clinic. Shortly before Schrader’s death, in May 1993, the HIV/AIDS clinic at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center was named in honor of him.

1994

Gay man Bill T. Jones (born February 15, 1952), an African American choreographer, and lesbian Adrienne Rich (May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012), a Jewish poet and essayist, receive the MacArthur Genius Fellowships for their creative bodies of work. The MacArthur Fellows Program, MacArthur Fellowship, or “Genius Grant”, is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 individuals, working in any field, who have shown “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction” and are citizens or residents of the United States. Jones choreographed and performed worldwide as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane (September 26, 1948 – March 30, 1988), before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982 .

1995

Following Attorney General Janet Reno’s (July 21, 1938 – November 7, 2016) decision not to file a brief in the Colorado constitutional Amendment 2 case, and due to protests over a meeting with elected lesbian and gay officials for which security guards wore rubber gloves out of fear of HIV infection, the Clinton administration attempts to smooth relations with activists by naming the first-ever White House liaison to the gay and lesbian communities. Marsha Scott, 47, a deputy assistant to the President was appointed by President Clinton.

1998

Vice President Al Gore meets with gay and lesbian political leaders at the White House. Gore vowed that he and President Bill Clinton would oppose any federal legislation that would interfere with the ability of gays and lesbians to adopt children.

2006

A fire in a Chicago public library damaged more than 100 books, mostly in the gay and lesbian collection. The Chicago Police Department later determined the fire was not a hate crime. A 21-year-old homeless woman was charged with setting the fire that damaged about 90 books in the gay and lesbian collection and 10 books in the branch’s African American history collection. Erica Graham was charged with one count of attempted aggravated arson.

2019

The Discovery Family cartoon series My Little Pony had a same-sex couple on the show for the first time. This occurred in the episode “The Last Crusade,” with a lesbian couple, Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty.

June 14

427 BC

Philosopher Plato (428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) is born in Athens. Platonic love today means love without sex. For Plato it meant sex with young men.

1519, Spain

Friar Luis Castelloli preaches that the Plague came as God’s wrath for sodomy. As a result, mobs hunt down gay men and burn them at the stake.

1949

Sir Antony Sher KBE (14 June 1949 – 2 December 2021) was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 and toured in many roles, as well as appearing on film and television. In 2001, he starred in his cousin Ronald Harwood’s play Mahler’s Conversion, and said that the story of a composer sacrificing his faith for his career echoed his own identity struggles.During his 2017 “Commonwealth Tour”, Prince Charlesreferred to Sher as his favourite actor.[1] Sher and his partner director  Gregory Doran (born 24 November 1958) became one of the first same-sex couples to enter into a civil partnership in the UK.

1950

After months of controversy, the U.S. Senate authorizes a wide-ranging investigation of homosexuals “and other moral perverts” working in national government.

1952

William Charles Patrick Sherwood, better known as Bill Sherwood (June 14, 1952 – February 10, 1990) was an American musician, screenwriter and film director.[1]

Sherwood was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan. A talented violinist, he attended the National Music Camp and graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academyin Michigan in 1970, where he majored in composition. He then moved to New York City, where he was a composition student of Elliott Carter at The Juilliard School. Discouraged by his progress and fascinated by the cultural and social upheavals going on in New York at the time, he discontinued his composition studies, eventually enrolling at Hunter College as a composition major, where he earned a degree and made several short films.

He had a promising career as a filmmaker, but died in New York City from AIDS complications. He is best known for his 1986 film Parting Glances, made for $310,000, a bittersweet romantic comedy that spans a 24-hour period in the upwardly mobile New York gay community. He wrote half a dozen screenplays and completed three short films in the six years before Parting Glances, and wrote additional screenplays in the four years after. These additional screenplays were never produced.

1961

George Alan O’Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is born. He is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, fashion designer and photographer. He is the lead singer of the Grammy and Brit Award-winning pop band Culture Club. George Alan O’Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter and DJ. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynousappearance, Boy George has been the lead singer of the pop band Culture Club since the group’s formation in 1981. He began his solo career in 1987. Boy George’s music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae. In the 1980s, much was made of Boy George’s androgynous appearance, and there was speculation about his sexuality. When asked by Joan Riversin an interview on her show in 1983, “Do you prefer men or women?”, Boy George replied, “Oh both.” In 1985, when asked by Barbara Walters about his sexual orientation, Boy George said he was bisexual and had various girlfriends and boyfriends, in the past. He gave a famous, oft-quoted n his 1995 autobiography Take It Like a Man, Boy George stated that he was actually gay, not bisexual, and that he had secret relationships with punk rock singer Kirk Brandon and Culture Club drummer, Jon Moss. He stated many of the songs he wrote for Culture Club were about his relationship with Moss.[83] In a 2008 documentary Living with Boy George, he talked about his first realisation he was gay, when he first told his parents, and why men fall in love with one another as well as with women.response to interviewer Russell Harty that he preferred “a nice cup of tea” to sex.[82]

1972, Canada

In Montreal gay rights group Front the libération homosexuel (FLH) opens a new gay center with a dance. Police raid it and charge forty people for being in an establishment selling liquor without a permit. The charges were later dropped, but attendance falls at the center. The organization folds within 15 months.

1977

First U.S. national opinion poll of homosexuality takes place. The Gallop team said, “While Americans are becoming increasing liberal regarding homosexual behavior and the legality of homosexuality, there still remains a substantial percentage of the public who consider homosexuality to be unacceptable and who feel it should be illegal.” The questions were: “Do you think homosexual relations between consenting adults should or should not be legal?” and “Do you feel that homosexuality should be considered an acceptable alternative lifestyle or not? The questions were asked by Gallop until 2005.

2004, Australia

In response to the Australian government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage, a group of gay and lesbian activists declare independence on Australia’s external overseas Territory of the Coral Sea Islands which are uninhabited islets east of the Great Barrier Reef. The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands was established as a symbolic political. The rainbow flag is the official flag, the pink triangle is their coat of arms, and “I am what I am” is their national anthem.

2013

Nitza Quinones Alejandro (born January 1951) is appointed to a U.S. federal court by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate. She is a district judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Quiñones Alejandro is the first lesbian Latina to be appointed to serve as a federal judge. Her nomination was confirmed by voice vote on June 14, 2013. She received her commission on June 19, 2013.

June 15

1835

Adah Isaacs Menken (June 15, 1835 – August 10, 1868) is born in New Orleans. She was an American actress, painter and poet, and was the highest earning actress of her time. She was the author of Infelicia, a collection of Sapphic poems that clearly revealed her delight in women. Though she married men many times, Menken was also the lover of cross-dressing novelist George Sand (1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), the pseudonym of Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant.

1884, Russia

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (May 11, 1857 – February 17, 1905) weds Princess Elizabeth of Hesse (UK). The couple has no children. According to some contemporary reports, Sergei was homosexual. His sexuality conflicted with his intense religious beliefs and the expectations of his position. Contrary to this belief, the marriage was happy. Forced to defend Sergei against rumors, Elizabeth was devoted to her husband and treasured his memory after his death.

1885

Malvina Hoffman (June 15, 1885 – July 10, 1966) is born on this day. She was an American sculptor and author, well known for her life-size bronze sculptures of people, particularly known for her sculptures of dancers such as the ballerina Anna Pavlova (January 31, 1881 – January 23, 1931). During WWI, Hoffman helped to organize, and was the American representative, for the French war charity Appui aux Artistes that assisted needy artists. She also organized the American-Yugoslav relief fund for children. She was married to Samuel Bonarius Grimson but divorced in 1936 because of an affair that she had with the ballerina Pavlova. On July 10, 1966, Malvina Cornell Hoffman died of a heart attack in her studio in Manhattan which had been purchased by the philanthropist Mary Williamson Averell and provided to Hoffman for a low-priced rent.

1926

The Greenwich Village Ball is held. Extravagant gay balls at Webster Hall at 119 East 11th Street were common during the 1920’s. This affair was billed as the 15th annual ball and the advertisement reads “Come [‚Ķ] with whom you like – wear what you like – Unconventional? Oh, to be sure – Only do be discreet!”

1949, UK

Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is born. He is an English actor, musician, writer, and theatre director. He was one of the first actors to publicly declare his homosexuality, doing so in his 1984 book Being an Actor. He was listed 28th in The Independent’s 2007 listing of the most influential gay men and women in the UK. He married Sebastian Fox in June 2016.

1973

Neil Patrick Harris (born June 15, 1973) is born.  He is an American actor, comedian, magician, singer, and composer, known primarily for his comedy roles on television and his dramatic and musical stage roles. Harris was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2010. He is married to David Burtka. In 2010, they became the parents of twins through surrogacy.

1987

The New York Times decides to allow its writers to use the word “gay” as an adjectival synonym for “homosexual.”

1998, Finland

The parliament of Finland votes overwhelmingly to lower the age of consent for homosexual acts from 18 years to 16 to match the age for heterosexual acts.

1999

Stephen Gately (17 March 1976 – 10 October 2009), member of the heartthrob Irish boy band Boyzone, comes out in a blaze of publicity. He wed Andrew Cowles first in a commitment ceremony in Las Vegas in 2003 then more formally in a civil partnership ceremony in London in 2006. Upon Boyzone’s reformation, Gately featured as part of the first gay couple in the music video for “Better” in what was to be his last with the band. Gately died of a congenital heart defect on 10 October 2009, in a flat that he and Cowles owned in Mallorca, Spain.

2003

The world’s longest rainbow flag was unfurled in Florida as part of Key West Pride, stretching from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico. The finished flag was a mile and a quarter long and two thousand people were needed to hold it. The Key West flag has had a life of its own, with sections of the historic banner displayed at global events and LGBT festivities around the world – including the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and Australia’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. They have been shown internationally in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Germany, England and Australia; and domestically in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Atlanta.

2003

General Wesley Clark, a former NATO commander shoots down the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on NBC’s Meet the Press on this day. The retired four-star general told the late Tim Russert that “we’ve got a lot of gay people in the armed forces, we always have had, always will. And I think that ‚Ķ we should welcome people that want to serve.”

2012, Denmark

Denmark becomes the 11thcountry in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.

2014

Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. reaffirms the ordination of Allyson Robinson who had previously been ordained as a male person. Allyson Robinson is an American human rights activist, specializing in LGBT rights in the United States. She attended West Point before gender reassignment, graduated in 1994 majoring in her undergraduate degree in physics, and was then commissioned as an officer serving in the U.S. Army until 1999. She held the rank of Captain. Also prior to transition, she became an ordained Baptist minister, earning from the Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) with an emphasis on social justice. Robinson has been married to Danyelle Robinson since 1994.

2016, UK

Prince William graces the cover of LGBT magazine Attitude in the UK. Prince William is offering a show of royal support to the LBGT community in one of its darkest moments. A day after signing a condolence book for victims of the Orlando Pulse Club shooting, he has become the first member of Britain’s royal family to appear on the cover of a gay magazine with the July issue of Attitude, akin to America’s Out. “No one should be bullied for their sexuality or any other reason and no one should have to put up with the kind of hate that these young people have endured in their lives,” he told the magazine, according to a Kensington Palace press release Wednesday.

2017

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic nominates Ana Brnabic (born  28 September 1975) as Prime Minister, the first woman and first openly gay politician to occupy the role in the highly conservative Balkan country. A relative political neophyte, Brnabic had previously worked for U.S.-backed NGOs and in windfarm development. Brnabiƒá is the second lesbian head of government after J√≥hanna Sigur√∞ard√≥ttirof Iceland, elected 2008), and the fifth openly LGBT head of government in the world.

2020

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that federal law protects LGBTQ workers from discrimination. The landmark ruling extends protections to millions of workers nationwide and is a defeat for the Trump administration, which argued that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that bars discrimination based on sex did not extend to claims of gender identity and sexual orientation.

2022

President Joe Biden signed Executive Order Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals

June 16

1858, Sweden

King Gustav V of Sweden (June 16, 1858 – October 29, 1950) is born. He was King of Sweden from 1907 until his death in 1950. He represented Sweden under the alias of Mr. G. as a competitive tennis player, keeping up competitive tennis until his 80s when his eyesight deteriorated rapidly. Allegations of a love affair between Gustav and Kurt Haijby led to the court paying 170,000 kronor under threat of blackmail by Haijby. However, the fact that the Swedish Court was prepared to pay Haijby such large sums to suppress his accusations has by some been taken as evidence that they were true. Later, several servants at the Royal Court, among them a male servant and chauffeurs, claimed that they were given money to keep quiet concerning their own intimate contacts with the King.

1949, Columbia

Colombian American author, poet, and journalist Jaime Manrique (16 June 1949) is born. His first poetry volume won Colombia’s National Poetry Award. In 1977, Manrique met the American painter Bill Sullivan (September 10, 1942 – October 23, 2010). They remained partners until Sullivan’s death in 2010.

1961, Russia

On this date the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev (March 17, 1938 – January 6, 1993) defects from the Soviet Union at Le Bourget airport in Paris. He was director of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1983 to 1989 and its chief choreographer until October 1992. Named Lord of the Dance, Rudolf Nureyev is regarded as one of ballet’s most gifted male dancers. Nureyev met celebrated Danish dancer Erik Bruhn (3 October 1928 – 1 April 1986) after Nureyev defected. Bruhn and Nureyev became a couple and remained together off and on in a volatile relationship for 25 years until Bruhn’s death in 1986. In 1973 Nureyev met the 23-year-old American dancer Robert Tracy (1955 – June 7, 2007) and a two-and-a-half-year love affair began. Tracy later became Nureyev’s secretary and live-in companion.

1965

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rules in Scott v. Macy that the United States Civil Service Commission “may not rely on a determination of ‘immoral conduct’ based only on such vague labels as ‘homosexual’ and ‘homosexual conduct’ as a ground” for disqualifying applicants for federal employment.

1967

Louisiana Supreme Court rules lesbian sex is illegal. The court rules that the state’s statutory ban on “unnatural carnal copulation” applies to women engaged in oral sex with other women.

1967

Jenny Lynn Shimizu (June 16, 1967) is born. She is an American model and actress from San Jose, California. In the mid-1990s, Shimizu was briefly in a relationship with Ione Skye (September 4, 1970). In January 2007, Shimizu described an intimate relationship she had with Madonna (born August 16, 1958). She also had a romantic relationship with Angelina Jolie (born June 4, 1975) which Jolie confirmed in a 1997 interview when she said, “I fell in love with her the first second I saw her. I would probably have married Jenny if I hadn’t married my [first] husband (Jonny Lee Miller).” In 2005, to protest against America’s laws on gay marriage, Shimizu went through the process of marriage to Dutch model  Rebecca Loos (born 19 June 1977) on the Sky documentary Power Lesbian UK (broadcast as Power Lesbians on LOGO in the U.S.). The two had a relationship for a period thereafter. In 2012, Shimizu met Michelle Harper at a party. They married in August 2014.

1979, Canada

Montreal’s first major gay celebration, Gairilla Week, takes place.

1981, Canada

Toronto Police raid two bathhouses, arresting twenty-one men on bawdyhouse charges. Raided were the Back Door Gym and Sauna and the International Steam Baths

1983

The New York Times publishes its first front-page story on AIDS.

1988

Delegates at the annual convention of Southern Baptists pass a resolution blaming gays for AIDS and condemning homosexuals as perverts and abominations who have depraved natures.

1990

Queer Nation holds a Take Back the Night march in New York, protesting hate crimes against gays. Over 1,000 people attended.

1992, Canada

Singer k.d. lang (born November 2, 1961) comes out in an interview with The Advocate, setting off a year of US. media reports on “lesbian chic.” Kathryn Dawn “K.D.” Lang, known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang won the American Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her 1989 album, Absolute Torch and Twang. On November 11, 2009, she entered into a domestic partnership with Jamie Price whom she had met in 2003. After separating on September 6, 2011, Lang filed for a dissolution of the partnership in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Los Angeles, California, on December 30, 2011. In 2011, Lang was inducted to Q Hall of Fame Canada in recognition of the work she has done to further equality for all peoples around the world.

1999

The Southern Baptist Convention passed resolutions demanding the recall of openly gay James Hormel (born January 1, 1933) from his new post as Ambassador to Luxembourg and denouncing President Bill Clinton for issuing the nation’s first official proclamation of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. Ironically, as the hate-mongers convention meeting got underway in Atlanta, Georgia, 600 rainbow flags hung on the light posts for the city’s Pride celebration.

2006

The state of Hawaii agrees to pay $625,000 to three LGBT youth who’d been incarcerated in juvenile jails to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit. “The ACLU won a ruling against the state in February, when a judge agreed that the facility was ‘in a state of chaos’ characterized by dangerous and pervasive harassment against LGBT youth. The judge found ‘a relentless campaign of harassment ‚Ķ that included threats of violence, physical and sexual assault, imposed social isolation, and near-constant use of homophobic slurs.'”

2008

Del Martin (May 5, 1921 – August 27, 2008) and Phyllis Lyon (November 10, 1924 – April 9, 2020) are the first same-sex couple to be legally married, in San Francisco, after a landmark ruling making California the second state to allow same-sex marriage went into effect. In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom, who helped launch the series of lawsuits that led the court to strike down California’s one-man-one-woman marriage laws, presided at the wedding. Newsom picked the couple for the only ceremony in City Hall that Monday evening in recognition of their long relationship and their status as pioneers of the gay rights movement.

2008

Robin Tyler and Diane Olson are the first same-sex couple to wed in Los Angeles. The couple, together for 18 years, were plaintiffs in a California Supreme Court lawsuit that ruled a ban on same-sex marriage was un-constitutional. On this day they became the first of 18,000 couples to marry in the six months before Proposition 8 passed, once again banning the nuptials. The women had applied for marriage every year since 2001 but were repeatedly rejected. In 2008, they joined gay couple Rev. Troy Perry and Phillip Ray de Blieck who had married in Canada, as the plaintiffs for the California Supreme Court suit.

June 17

1864,

Ruth White Fuller Field (June 17, 1864-February 22, 1935) wrote the first lesbian autobiography The Stone Wall under her pseudonym Mary Casal. The book was published in 1930 in Chicago. It wasn’t until 2003 that the author’s birth and married names were discovered by Tufts University doctoral candidate Sherry Ann Darling in what historian Jonathan Ned Katz calls “a major example of creative, historical detective work. The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City was originally opened the same year that Stone Wall was published, in probable tribute to the book in which the author falls in love and has a relationship with her female teacher as well as with her sister’s sister-in-law, likely Mary Willard Lincoln (1847-1900). In 1894, while staying at the Margaret Louisa Home, a Y.W.C.A. hotel on 14 East 16th Street, in July 1894, Ruth meets Emma Elizabeth Altman who works there as a clerk and who becomes her lover. They stay together for at least 15 years, married in a private ceremony. In 1935, Ruth falls and breaks her femur and dies from chronic myocarditis and arteriosclerosis on the 22nd, in Tujunga, California.

1880

Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein.[1] He gained fame as a writer, and notoriety as well, for his 1926 novel Nigger Heaven. In his later years, he took up photography and took many portraits of notable people. Although he was married to women for most of his adult life, Van Vechten engaged in numerous homosexual affairs over his lifetime. Through the guidance of his mentor, Mabel Dodge Luhan, he became engrossed in the avant garde. He began to frequently attend groundbreaking musical premieres at the time when Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, and Loie Fuller were performing in New York City. He also attended premieres in Paris where he met American author and poet Gertrude Stein in 1913.[3] He became a devoted friend and champion of Stein and was considered to be one of Stein’s most enthusiastic fans.[8] They continued corresponding for the remainder of Stein’s life, and, at her death, she appointed Van Vechten her literary executor; he helped to bring into print her unpublished writings.[ Although Van Vechten’s marriage to his wife Fania Marinoff lasted for 50 years, they often had arguments about Van Vechten’s affairs with men.[8] Van Vechten was known to have romantic and sexual relationships with men, especially Mark Lutz.[7] Lutz (1901-1968)

1883, Finland

Mauritz Stiller (July 17, 1883 – November 16, 1928) is born. He was a gay Finnish-Swedish film director, best known for discovering Greta Garbo (18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) and bringing her to America. Stiller had been a pioneer of the Swedish film industry, writing and directing many short films from 1912. When MGM invited him to Hollywood as a director, he arrived with his new discovery Greta Gustafsson, whose screen name Greta Garbo is believed to have been his suggestion.

1943

Barry Manilow (born June 17, 1943) is born. He is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, musician, and producer with a career that has spanned over 50 years. He is best known for a long string of hit recordings such as “Mandy”, “Can’t Smile Without You”, and “Copacabana (At the Copa).” Before Manilow’s well-known association with Bette Midler began at the Continental Baths in New York City in 1971, he recorded four tracks as Featherbed, leading a group of session musicians produced by Tony Orlando. As Manilow accompanied artists on the piano for auditions and performances in the first two years of the 1970s, Midler caught his act in 1971 and chose the young arranger to assist her with the production of both her debut and sophomore releases The Divine Miss M (1972) and Bette Midler (1973), as well as act as her musical director on the eventual tour mounted for the former. Manilow worked with Midler from 1971 to 1975. In 1978, Manilow began a relationship with TV executive Garry Kief, who soon became his manager, and the two married in 2014, after same-sex marriage became legal in California. They kept the relationship and his sexual orientation secret until the marriage made headlines in 2015. Manilow officially came out as gay in April 2017, telling People that he had kept his sexual orientation quiet out of concern that it would disappoint his largely female fan base, but when his fans learned of the marriage, they were supportive.

1959

On this date a London court awarded pianist Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) $22,400 in damages against the London Daily Mirror for implying that the flamboyant entertainer was homosexual. Throughout his life, Liberace publicly denied he was gay. In Britain at the time, where he was popular enough to enjoy sell-out tours and be mobbed wherever he went, homosexuality was illegal. He was gay and died due to complications from AIDS.

1968

The documentary The Queen is released. It’s about a behind-the-scenes drag queen competition in New York City, directed by Frank Simon.

1973

The Gay Community News was an American weekly newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1973 to 1992 by The Bromfield Street Educational Foundation.

Designed as a resource for the LGBT community, the newspaper reported a wide variety of gay and lesbian-related news. The newspaper’s influence was such that it enjoyed a “national reach that was considered the movement’s ‘paper of record’ throughout the ’70s, and whose alumni at one point occupied so many leadership roles around the country that they were called the ‘GCN mafia'”. Founded as a local newsletter early in the struggle for gay liberation, it was soon expanded into a major newspaper with an international readership. The publication saw itself as part an important vehicle for debating gay rights, feminism, antiracism, multiculturalism, class struggle, prisoners’ rights, AIDS, and other causes.The newspaper’s political stance was reflected throughout its reporting. It often served as a place in which liberals and radicals in LGBT groups debated conflicting agendas. An article entitled “Gay Revolutionary”, published in 1987, led to claims from the conservative right that the newspaper promoted a “homosexual agenda” to destroy heterosexuality and traditional values.[2] The premier issue of Gay Community News was published out of the Charles Street Meeting House on June 17, 1973, as a two-page mimeograph, at first titled “Gay Community Newsletter”.[1][3] In less than a year, Gay Community News developed from a two-page mimeograph to an eight-page, tabloid-style newsprint, and moved its office to 22 Bromfield Street.[3] The first issue was loosely organized into sections titled Events, Volunteers, Needs, Notices, and Directory.

1977

Vice President Walter Mondale angrily leaves a San Francisco Democratic fund-raising event when his speech on human rights in South America was interrupted by a man who demanded to know when he would speak in favor of gay rights. Members of the newly formed San Francisco Gay Democratic Club held up signs demanding a statement on human rights in the United States. The club was created by Harvey Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978).

1981

Sen. Roger Jepson (R-IA) introduced the Family Protection Act in Congress. It specified that anyone who was homosexual or openly supportive of homosexuals could not receive student aid, social security, or veterans’ benefits; and regulated what public school textbooks could say about human sexuality. It never passed, and Jepson lost his bid for re-election when it was revealed he had a membership at a brothel.

2006, Brazil

An estimated 2.4 million people took to the streets of Sao Paulo to celebrate the Brazilian city’s 10th annual Gay Pride parade. The record attendance, the largest in the world, was 1.8 million.

2008

All-American University of Missouri diver Greg DeStephen comes out on Gay.com. In May of his sophomore year, DeStephen read a story on Gay.com about Maryland-Baltimore County swimmer Fred Deal announcing he was gay. DeStephen sent the website an email that he liked the Deal story and that he was a gay diver himself. The site responded asking if it could tell his story, the gay All-American diver in the heartland.

2011, South Africa

A resolution submitted by South Africa requesting a study on discrimination and sexual orientation (A/HRC/17/L.9/Rev.1) passed, 23 to 19 with 3 abstentions, in the United Nations Human Rights Council. This is the first time that any United Nations body approved a resolution affirming the rights of LGBT people.

 

June 18

1779

On this date Thomas Jefferson prepares a draft of Virginia’s criminal statute, envisioning that the punishment for sodomy should be castration.

1903

French author Raymond Radiguet (18 June 1903 – 12 December 1923) is born. French poet Jean Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was his lover and mentor. Hemingway wrote that Radiguet employed his sexuality to advance his career. He wrote his first French masterpiece The Devil in the Flesh at the age of fifteen, his second novel Count d’Orgel’s Ball at nineteen and died from typhoid at twenty.

1967

Big Brother & The Holding Company plays the Monterey Pop Festival introducing Janis Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) to the world. Janis Lyn Joplin was an American rock singer and songwriter and one of the biggest female rock stars of her era. After releasing three albums, she died of an accidental heroin overdose at age 27. A fourth album, Pearl, was released in January 1971, a little more than three months after her death. It reached number one on the charts. Time magazine called Joplin “probably the most powerful singer to emerge from the white rock movement. Janis was bisexual, having an ongoing romantic relationship with Peggy Caserta, who, like Janis, was an intravenous addict. Joplin’s death in October 1970 at age 27 stunned her fans and shocked the music world, especially when coupled with the death just 16 days earlier of another rock icon, Jimi Hendrix, also at age 27.

1970

Jane Rule’s second novel This is Not for You is published (Doubleday Canada). Jane Rule (March 28, 1931 – November 27, 2007) was a Canadian writer of lesbian-themed novels and non-fiction. Rule died at the age of 76 on November 28, 2007 at her home on Galiano Island due to complications from liver cancer, refusing any treatment that would take her from the island, opting instead for the care and support that could be provided by her niece, her partner, her many Galiano friends and neighbors. The ashes of Jane Vance Rule were interred in the Galiano Island Cemetery next to those of her beloved Helen Hubbard Wolfe Sonthoff (1916-2000).

1977

An anti-discrimination law is passed by Miami-Dade County. The ordinance that would make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation passes by a vote of 5-3. Anti-gay singer and Florida Orange Juice Queen Anita Bryant leads the successful effort to repeal it later that year.

1981

The McDonald Amendment passes the U.S. House of Representatives. The amendment would bar the Legal Service Corporation from assisting in any case which seeks to “promote, defend or protect” homosexuality.

1982

Lesbian author Djuna Barnes (June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) dies at age 90 in New York. She was an American writer and artist best known for her novel Nightwood (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist literature. Barnes has been cited as an influence by writers as diverse as Truman Capote, William Goyen, Karen Blixen, John Hawkes, Bertha Harris, Dylan Thomas, David Foster Wallace, and Ana√Øs Nin. Writer Bertha Harris described her work as “practically the only available expression of lesbian culture we have in the modern western world” since Sappho.

1983

Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space on the space shuttle Challenger. When she died in 2012, she was outted as a lesbian in her obituary. Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American physicist and astronaut. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983. Ride was the third woman in space overall, after USSR cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). Ride remains the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32. After flying twice on the Orbiter Challenger, she left NASA in 1987. She worked for two years at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Arms Control, then at the University of California, San Diego, as a professor of physics, primarily researching nonlinear optics and Thomson scattering. She served on the committees that investigated the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, the only person to participate in both. Ride died of pancreatic cancer on July 23, 2012. Her partner of 27 years was Tam O’Shaughnessy, a professor emerita at San Diego State University and childhood friend, who met her when both were aspiring tennis players.

1992

The soap opera One Life to Live airs the first openly gay teen character. Billy Douglas, a high school student, tells his best friend, Joey Buchanan, that he is gay. Newcomer actor Ryan Phillippe played the role from April 1992 until May 1993. The character is the first openly gay teenager featured in a television series, and Phillippe’s breakthrough role is considered groundbreaking in daytime television.

1994

The exhibition “Becoming Visible: The Legacy of Stonewall” opens at the New York Public Library. It is a history of New York’s lesbian and gay life. It is history told through unorthodox artifacts, beginning with a blue neon “Stonewall” sign and banks of public telephones at which visitors can hear oral recollections of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street, and of the nights in June 1969 when patrons battled the police rather than acquiesce to another raid.

2006

Mary Cheney (born March 14, 1969), lesbian daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, released her memoir My Turn in which she attempts to make sense of her inaction and silence during the Bush/Cheney administration and its anti-gay record. The book’s sales were miserable, prompting author Andrew Sullivan to write: “There are flops, almighty flops and then there are books by Mary Cheney.” Mary Cheney has been with her partner, Heather Poe, since 1992. Cheney is openly lesbian, has voiced support for same-sex marriage, and has been credited with encouraging her father’s approval of same-sex marriage which he has publicly supported since leaving the vice presidency.

2022

US Department of Labor Raises PRIDE Flag for the First Time

June 19

1312, UK

Piers Gaveston (1284 – June 19, 1312) is killed. He was the 1st Earl of Cornwall and  an English nobleman of Gascon origin, and the favorite of King Edward II of England. It was alleged by medieval chroniclers that Edward II and Piers Gaveston were lovers, a rumor that was reinforced by later portrayals in fiction such as Christopher Marlowe’s late 16th-century play Edward II. This assertion has received the support of some modern historians. According to Pierre Chaplais, the relationship between the two was that of an adoptive brotherhood, and Gaveston served as an unofficial deputy for a reluctant king. Other historians, like J. S. Hamilton, have pointed out that concern over the two men’s sexuality was not at the core of the nobility’s grievances which, rather, centered on Gaveston’s exclusive access to royal patronage. Two Welshmen ran him through with a sword and beheaded him.

1566, UK

King James I of England and Ireland and VI of Scotland (June 19, 1566-March 27, 1625) is born. Responsible for the version of the bible that bears his name, some of James’s biographers conclude that Esme Stewart (later Duke of Lennox), Robert Carr (later Earl of Somerset), and George Villiers (28 August 1592 – 23 August 1628) (later Duke of Buckingham) were his lovers. Restoration of Apethorpe Hall, undertaken in 2004, revealed a previously unknown passage linking the bedchambers of James and Villiers. James’ father was murdered in bed with his lover.

1790, France

Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Gr√¢ce, baron de Cloots (June 24, 1755 – March 24, 1794) is better known as Anacharsis Cloots, a Prussian nobleman who was a significant figure in the French Revolution. He was nicknamed “orator of mankind” and “a personal enemy of God”. On this day, he led a delegation of 36 men to declare allegiance to the Declaration of the Rights of Man. He believed there should be no sexual offenses except rape, adultery, seduction, and abduction.

1900

Laura Zametkin Hobson (June 19, 1900 – February 28, 1986) is born today. She was an American writer, best known for her novels Gentleman’s Agreement  (1947) and Consenting Adult (1975). Consenting Adult is about a mother dealing with her son’s homosexuality and was based on her experience with her son Christopher.

1913

Allen Irvin Bernstein (June 19, 1913 – September 8, 2008) was a gay Jewish American World War II veteran who in 1940 wrote a defense of homosexuality entitled Millions of Queers (Our Homo America), a 149-page unpublished typescript that was discovered in the National Library of Medicine in 2010 by Randall L. Sell, associate professor at Drexel University School of Public Health, and was published online at OutHistory in March 2014. The essay is notable for its argument that homosexuals should not be stigmatized or condemned by society, at a time when homosexual acts were crimes in all parts the country. It also provides insight into gay life and relationships in the United States during the 1930s and before, based on what Bernstein learned from his gay friends and acquaintances as well as on his wide reading and research in literary and sociological sources.[1] LGBT historian and author Jonathan Ned Katz calls the extended essay “a rich document of homosexual American history” and notes that “as a sociological, anthropological, and historical survey and personal polemic, [it] anticipates and most resembles a book published eleven years after it: The Homosexual in America: A Subjective Approach (1951), by the married sociologist Edward Sagarin, using the pseudonym Donald Webster Cory. Like Sagarin, Bernstein accepted many of the negative clich√©s about homosexuals, but argued that they should not be persecuted under the law.”[2] n September 1940, Bernstein enlisted in the United States Army, initially being stationed in Staten Island, New York, and then was assigned to write training manuals for the Quartermaster Corps in Camp Lee, Virginia, with the rank of staff sergeant, and was eventually awarded a Good Conduct Medal. In January 1944, following an attempt to pick up a fellow soldier after attending a performance of the Ballets Russes in Richmond, Virginia, Bernstein was arrested by military police and summarily jailed, and then transferred to a psychiatric ward on base, pending his less-than-honorable blue discharge for homosexuality four weeks later.[3][4]

After his discharge, Bernstein eventually took a job teaching at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, and later worked as a labor market analyst for the Maine Department of Labor, settling in Augusta, Maine, a job from which he retired in 1978. In 1946, Bernstein married Anne Fine, and subsequently had two sons, Gerald and Robert. Bernstein came out to his fianc√©e when he proposed to her. Although Congress scrapped the blue discharges in 1947, veterans who had received them were still ineligible for any G. I. Bill benefits or assistance from the Veterans Administration. Beginning in March 1944, Bernstein began a series of appeals of his blue discharge, doggedly refiling his appeals after repeated rebuffs from the Army, until he was finally granted a retroactive honorable discharge in 1981. After Anne’s death in 1991, Bernstein came out to his sons and for the next two decades was an active volunteer in numerous service organizations and gay-rights groups, including the Red Cross, American Veterans for Equal Rights, and the Maine Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance (now EqualityMaine), among others.[4]

In 1948, Bernstein had begun work at Harvard on a doctoral degree in education, but when university officials questioned his blue discharge and he told them it was for homosexuality, he was asked to leave the program. Not long before his death in 2008, Bernstein told his sons that he had willed his brain to Harvard Medical School, saying “If I could not get into Harvard when I was alive, at least my brain will get in.”[4]

1971

The first gay pride week in Ann Arbor, Michigan begins. It had been decreed by the city council.

1975

The American Medical Association passes a resolution urging all states to repeal laws criminalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults.

1976, Canada

The largest gay demonstration in Canada to date is organized in Montreal by Comit√© homosexuel anti-r√©pression (Gay Coalition Against Repression) to protest pre-Olympic “clean-up” raids on gay bars and baths.

1983

Rapper and song writer Macklemore (June 19, 1983) is born. Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, known by his stage name Macklemore and formerly Professor Mack Lemore, is an American hip hop recording artist from Kent, Washington. His stage name, originating from his childhood, was the name of his made-up superhero. He has significantly collaborated with producer Ryan Lewis as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Macklemore voiced his support of LGBT rights and same-sex marriage in the song “Same Love” which condemns homophobia in mainstream hip-hop, society, and mass media.

1983

In Lynchburg, Virginia, hate-monger Jerry Falwell told his followers that AIDS is a punishment from God, and that no medication could halt the judgment of God. Episcopal Bishop Paul Moore of New York criticized Falwell for using an epidemic as a political weapon.

1995

On this date, the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston unanimously votes to allow Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade organizers to ban gay groups from marching in the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Hurly is considered a landmark decision regarding the right to assemble and for groups to determine what message is actually conveyed to the public. The Court rules that private organizations, even if they were planning on and had permits for a public demonstration, were permitted to exclude groups if those groups presented a message contrary to the one the organizing group wanted to convey.

2007

Mike Jacobs (born May 15, 1975) was a Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives representing District 80, which includes portions of Brookhaven, Georgia in DeKalb County and Sandy Springs, Georgia in Fulton County. On June 19, 2007, he switched to the Republican Party. In 2018, Jacobs became the first sitting judge in the United States to come out as bisexual.

2009

Juneteenth is an international holiday (official in 29 U.S. states) that commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the U.S. were notified of their independence. Wikipedia explains it this way, “Though the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863, it had minimal immediate effect on most slaves’ day-to-day lives, particularly in Texas, which was almost entirely under Confederate control. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its slaves.” While not a gay-related event, no doubt there were many enslaved LGBT people.

2014

The Presbyterian Church votes to allow pastors to marry same-sex couples.

June 20

1732

The Georgia Colony was established with English Law automatically set up, including the buggery statute. Officials of the colony would later re-affirm their acceptance of the statute.

1909, Australia

Errol Flynn (June 20,1909 – October 14, 1959) is born. He was an Australian-born American actor who achieved fame in Hollywood after 1935. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, as well as frequent partnerships with Olivia De Havilland. He became an American citizen in 1942. Known as one of the greatest of Hollywood womanizers, it was a surprise when biographers revealed that he also slept with men. They include author Truman Capote (September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) and American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, film director, and philanthropist Howard Hughes (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976).

.

1917

Donald Vining (June 20, 1917 – January 24, 1998) was a diarist. At best, Vining had minor success as a playwright and short story writer. His importance rests in the five volumes of his published diary, appearing between 1979 and 1993. In his review of the first volume of the diary in Body Politic, John D’Emilio said that “A Gay Diary is, unquestionably, the richest historical document of gay male life in the United States that I have ever encountered‚Ķ. It chronicles a whole life in which homosexuality is but one part and an ever-changing part at that‚Ķ. It illuminates a critical period in gay male American history.” D’Emilio discusses the earlier years of the diary at some length in his Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority. Many of Vining’s original diaries for the 1932-1958 period are now at Yale University. There is a substantial archive of Vining’s playscripts, correspondence, and related material in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library of the New York Public Library. He died in New York City on January 24, 1998 at the age of 80, and is buried alongside Richmond Purinton at Forest Grove Cemetery, Augusta, Maine.

1923

Fred G. Thompson was arrested and tried for the murder of Richard Tesmer. Thompson had posed as Mrs. Frances Carrick for the previous 14 years. Thompson/Carrick was found not guilty. The judge ruled that Frank Carrick, husband of Fred/Frances, did not have to testify due to spousal immunity. The jury acquitted her after two hours. Fred G. Thompson was born in Columbus, Ohio. At age thirteen, his father kicked him out, and he went to Chicago, started living as female and took a job as a chambermaid. Later Frances used her high soprano voice to become a singer in a cabaret. In 1912 Frances married Frank Carrick, a chauffeur, in Crown Point, Indiana. The two of them were arrested on suspicion that there was something amiss in their relationship, but they were able to produce a valid marriage license and so were let go.

1940

John Mahoney (June 20, 1940 – February 4, 2018) is a British-American actor born on this day in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. Mahoney started his career on the stage in 1977 as the body double for Steve McQueen and moved into film in 1980. He also worked as a voice actor, and performed on Broadway and in Chicago theatre. He is best known for his role as the retired police officer father of Kelsey Grammer’s character, Dr. Frasier Crane, in the popular American TV series “Frasier.” Along with David Hyde Pierce, Mahoney is godfather to Frasier co-star Jane Leeves’ son Finn. Mahoney scarcely talked about his private life, but in a 2002 article he revealed he has been in several relationships, although he has never married. Mahoney lived in Oak Park, Illinois. He died in a Chicago hospice on February 4, 2018, of complications from throat cancer, originally diagnosed in 2014. He was 77 years old.

1950

Ellen Ratner (born June 20, 1950) is a publicly gay American news analyst on the Fox News Channel and appears on The Strategy Room and

The Long and Short of It. She is also White House correspondent and bureau chief for Talk Media News which she also manages, covering the White House and is heard on more than 400 radio stations across the U.S. Her brothers are New York City-based developer Bruce Ratner and the late human rights attorney Michael Ratner. Ratner attended Goddard College and Harvard for a Master’s in Education. She is married to Dr. Cholene Espinoza (born 1964), the second woman to fly the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft in the U.S. Air Force. She is a military correspondent for Talk Radio News Service.

1952

Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children’s writer, biographer and memoirist Vikram Seth (June 20, 1952) is born. He has received several awards including Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crossword Book Award. Seth’s collections of poetry such as Mappings and Beastly Tales are notable contributions to the Indian English language poetry canon. One of the most celebrated writers of his generation, Seth has expressly acknowledged his ten-year relationship with his former partner violinist Philippe Honore (born March 21, 1967).

1955

Everette Lynn Harris (June 20, 1955 – July 23, 2009) was born on this day. He was an American author and openly gay, best known for his depictions of African American men who were on the down-low and closeted. He authored ten consecutive books that reached The New York Times Best Seller list, making him among the most successful African American or gay authors of his era. His best-selling novels explored the lives of black men in gay relationships. Harris was born in Michigan and worked as a computer salesman before taking up writing. He self-published his first book Invisible Life in 1991. After struggling with his sexuality, he became one of the pioneers of gay black fiction. He died of heart disease in Los Angeles in 2009.

1966

A four-part series on Chicago’s homosexuals began in the Chicago Daily News. It presented gays as deviants and transvestites.

1974

The Lesbian Herstory Archives is founded. Lesbian members of the Gay Academic Union had organized a group to discuss sexism within that organization. Co-founders (born May 12, 1940), Deborah Edel, Sahli Cavallo, Pamela Oline, and Julia Stanley wanted to ensure that the stories of the lesbian community were protected for future generations. The LHA is a New York City-based archive, community center, and museum dedicated to preserving lesbian history, located in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The Archives contain the world’s largest collection of materials by and about lesbians.

1980

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence make their debut in San Francisco’s annual Gay Freedom Day Parade. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), also called Order of Perpetual Indulgence (OPI) is a charity, protest, and street performance organization that uses drag and religious imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirizes issues of gender and morality. At their inception in 1979, a small group of gay men in San Francisco began wearing the attire of nuns in visible situations using high camp to draw attention to social conflicts and problems in the Castro District. In San Francisco alone where they continue to be the most active, between 1979 and 2007 the Sisters are credited with raising over $1 million for various causes, or almost $40,000 on average per year. Over the years the Sisters have named as saints hundreds of people who have helped on various projects behind the scenes organizing, coordinating actions or projects, performing at events as an artist or emcee or even serving the greater LGBT community. Rarely but sometimes they canonize community heroes who have recently died. It is customary for the Sisters to award sainthood with the addition of an elaborate “saint name”.

1988

Tucson, Arizona mayor Thomas J. Volgy declares Lesbian/Gay Pride Week. He was the first mayor in the southwest to publicly issue such a proclamation.

1990

President George W. Bush declines an invitation to attend the 6th International Conference on AIDS and instead sponsors a fundraising event for homophobe hate-monger Jesse Helms.

1993

Carl Nassib (born April 12, 1993), a defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders, has come out as gay on this day. He said he made the announcement to increase visibility, and in doing so, made history as the first openly gay active player in the NFL.

1998, France

50,000 people demonstrate in Paris to demand the legalization of same-sex marriage.

2003, Egypt

An Israeli tourist, charged with homosexuality, is held for 15 days in an Egyptian jail.

2009

World Refugee Day. “World Refugee Day will go unnoticed by the majority of the world ‚Ķ Many are running for their lives on this day or dying. But whether it is noticed or not, today stands as one of the most important days of the year. It is a day of respect and remembrance for the most vulnerable people in the world.” – Angelina Jolie, Goodwill Ambassador, UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the U.N. refugee agency)

2013

Exodus International, a group that claims it could cure same-sex attraction through prayer and therapy, announces it will close its doors after more than three decades. The organization’s leader, John Paulk (born April 13, 1963), who admitted to his own “ongoing same-sex attractions,” apologizes to gays, saying, “I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn’t change.”

June 21

1939

Charlie Brydon born on June 21, 1939,, pioneering Seattle LGBTQ+ activist and entrepreneur, dies at 8. Brydon when the latter, a master networker, established the game-changing Dorian Group in Seattle in the mid-1970s. The organization brought together gay professionals in public luncheons. The idea for participants was to share experiences and ideas about how to make Seattle a more friendly place for those who are LGBTQ+. (LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning, with the + denoting everything along the gender and sexuality spectrum.) At the time, inviting LGBTQ+ Seattleites out of the closet was a novel step toward equality.Brydon and the Dorian Group built bridges at those gatherings with such local leaders as Mayor Wes Uhlman, police Chief Robert Hanson, Seattle City Council members and Catholic Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen. Brydon arrived in Seattle in 1974, focused on advancing specific goals toward LGBTQ+ rights by building coalitions with politicians, the business community and civic activists. He and his associates eventually built million-dollar operations with broad-based support to defeat efforts to roll back hard-won protections against housing and employment discrimination aimed at gays and lesbians. The first of these was Initiative 13, a measure on the fall 1978 ballot in Seattle, aimed at repealing ordinances prohibiting discrimination. Brydon fought back with Citizens to Retain Fair Employment, which handled fundraising, polling and media messaging. I-13 was soundly defeated.In 1993, a statewide campaign to restrict LGBTQ+ rights met resistance from Hands Off Washington, which Brydon co-founded, and which encouraged state residents not to sign petitions to put the proposed measure on the ballot. The tactic worked.Charles Frederick Brydon was born on June 21, 1939, in Summit, New Jersey, to Robert and Anna Brydon. His sister, Barbara, was the other member of their blue-collar family. When he reached the 11th grade, Brydon was sent to a prep school in Georgia. After graduating, he spent a year at the University of Miami before transferring to The Citadel, a military academy in South Carolina. Three years later, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, earning two Bronze Star medals for his service in Vietnam.  Brydon arrived in Seattle in time to help Uhlman defeat a recall vote in 1975. Brydon raised funds and organized a rally on a Washington state ferry. His alliance with the mayor, a supporter of gay rights, paid dividends in his mission to improve Seattle for LGBTQ+ people.

1975

The Texas Gay Conference was held in San Antonio with approximately 125 gay men and lesbians in attendance. It was sponsored by the Texas Gay Task Force, and speakers included Carolyn Innis, founder of the Gay Nurses Alliance and Mary Jo Risher, who was fighting for custody of her two sons.

1977

Faisal Alam ( bron June 21, 1977) is a gay Pakistani American who founded the Al-Fatiha Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing the cause of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Muslims.[1]Alam arrived in the United States from Pakistan in 1987, at the age of ten, and resided in the rural middle-class town of Ellington, Connecticut. In 1997, he started an email listserv for LGBT Muslims that led to the founding of Al-Fatiha in 1998.[2] He served as its President from 1998 until stepping down in 2004.[3] In 2011, Alam and other LGBTQ Muslim activists were invited by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to form a Queer Muslim Working Group to evaluate the needs of the LGBTQ Muslim community. Alam was instrumental in bringing together a diverse group of seasoned leaders to undertake this project. In 2013, the Queer Muslim Working Group launched a new organization: the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD).[4]He is a former member of the Advisory Committee of the LGBT Program at Human Rights Watch.[2]

1997

The first Women’s National Basketball Association game is played, and the lesbians were happy! Sheryl Swoopes (March 25, 1971) is the first lesbian player to come out, in 2005, followed by Brittney Griner, Seimone Augustus, Cappie Pondexter, Angel McCoughtry, Janel McCarville, Sue Wicks, and Sue Bird (born October 16, 1980) who is an American-Israeli player for the Seattle Storm and partner of soccer’s Megan Rapinoe (born July 5, 1985).

1997

Rebecca Black (born June 21, 1997) is born. In April, 202, the “Friday” singer came out as queer. “Every day is different, it’s something that over the past few years I’ve obviously been having a lot of conversations with myself about,” she said in an appearance on the “Dating Straight” podcast. “To me, the word ‘queer’ feels really nice. I have dated a lot of different types of people, and I just don’t really know what the future holds. Some days, I feel a little more on the ‘gay’ side than others.”

2000, Scotland

Section 28 is repealed. It was the law that said that homosexuality may not be taught in schools and that homosexual couples are not a pretend family.

2000

Coca-Cola announces that it will extend spousal health care benefits to the same-sex partners of its U.S. gay and lesbian employees effective January 1, and that it was considering extending the benefit to its international workforce in almost 200 other countries as well.

2001

Two gay male couples made history by publicly holding the first gay wedding in Cuba. Four local men, Michel and Ángel, and Juanito and Alejandro, ranging in ages from 17 to 22, exchanged symbolic vows before their families and friends at a neighborhood recreation center in one of the poorest sections of San Miguel del Padrón, a working-class suburb southeast of Havana. The wedding created such a stir in the neighborhood that some people climbed on their roofs to get a better view. It was a first in Cuba where there was no organized gay community and no public Pride celebrations.

June 22

431, Rome

Paulinus of Nola  (354 – June 22, 431 AD) or Pontius Meropius Anicius Paulinus died on this date. He was a Roman Senator who converted to a severe monasticism in 394. Paulinus was from a notable senatorial family with possessions in Aquitaine, northern Spain, and southern Italy. He was educated in Bordeaux, where his teacher, the poet Ausonius, also became his very special friend. Letters from Paulinus to Ausonius have led to speculation that they had a homosexual relationship. He was a patron of the arts and eventually became Bishop of Nola. He helped to resolve the disputed election of Pope Boniface I, and was canonized as a saint.

1910, UK

Peter Pears (June 22, 1910 – April 3 1986) is born. He was a classical singer and devoted partner of composer and conductor Benjamin Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976). Pears died in Aldeburgh at the age of 75. He was buried beside Britten in the churchyard of the parish church of St Peter and St Paul, Aldeburgh.

1958

Transgender Jennifer Finney Boylan (born June 22, 1958) is an American author and political activist. In 2014, she joined the faculty of Barnard College, Columbia University, having previously been professor of English at Colby College in Maine. Her autobiography She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders was the first book by an openly transgender American to become a bestseller.

1961, Scotland

Jimmy Somerville (June 22, 1961) is born on this day. He is the lead singer of Bronski Beat. The group’s biggest hit, “Small Town Boy,” was considered groundbreaking because of its lyrical content regarding homophobia. Somerville played the song’s titular character in the music video, leaving his hostile hometown for the city.

1969

Gay icon Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) dies of an overdose of barbiturates barely two weeks after her 47th birthday. Garland began performing in vaudeville with her two older sisters and was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. She made more than two dozen films with MGM, including nine with Mickey Rooney. Garland’s most famous role was as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Her other roles at MGM included Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), The Harvey Girls (1946) and Easter Parade (1948). Some sources say that the mourning of her death may be partly what led to the Stonewall Riots a week later.

1977

In San Francisco, Robert Hillsborough (March 10, 1944-June 22, 1977), 33, and his friend Jerry Taylor, 27, left a disco and stopped for a burger on the way home. In the parking lot, they were attacked by four young men. Taylor managed to escape to phone 911 but Hillsborough was stabbed 15 times by 19 year-old John Cordova who yelled “Faggot! Faggot!” Witnesses also reported that Cordova yelled, “This one’s for Anita!” Cordova was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to ten years in prison. Three other young men were also held – Thomas J. Spooner (21), Michael Chavez (20) and a 16-year-old boy whose name was not released by officials. Both Mayor Mascone and Hillsborough’s mother blamed Anita Bryant and Sen. John Briggs for Hillsborough’s death. The parents of Robert Hillsborough filed a $5 million lawsuit accusing Bryant for conducting a hate campaign against homosexuals.  Hillsborough’s parents claimed – and rightfully so – that Bryant’s public comments constituted “a campaign of hate, bigotry, ignorance, fear, intimidation and prejudice” against their son and other homosexuals. This, they said, amounted to a conspiracy to deprive Hillsborough of his civil rights. U.S. District Judge Stanley A. Weigel dismissed the case saying that he lacked jurisdiction because Bryant lives in Florida.

1978

Jai Rodriguez (June 22, 1979) is born. He is an American TV personality and best known as the culture guide on the Emmy-winning TV show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

1982

Singer Johnny Mathis (September 30, 1935) comes out in an interview with Us magazine on this day. He is an American singer of popular music and jazz. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status and 73 making the Billboard charts to date. Mathis has sold over 100 million records worldwide.

1985, New Zealand

Heterosexuals Unafraid of Gays (HUG) was founded on this date in Wellington.

1988

Technical Sergeant Leonard P. Matlovich (July 6, 1943 – June 22, 1988) died on this day. He was a Vietnam War veteran, race relations instructor, and recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He was one of the earliest service members to challenge the U.S. military’s exclusion of homosexuals. On June 22, 1988, less than a month before his 45th birthday, Matlovich died in Los Angeles of complications from HIV/AIDS beneath a large photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. His tombstone, meant to be a memorial to all gay veterans, does not bear his name. It reads, “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.” Matlovich’s tombstone at Cemetery in Washington, D.C. is in the same row as that of (not-so-closeted) FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972).

1998, Canada

British Columbia passes legislation granting same-sex couples access to pension benefit rights equal to those to which straight married couples are entitled.

2005

Homophobe Jerry Falwell adds his voice to an anti-gay movement to punish Kraft Foods for its sponsorship of the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago. Kraft contributed $25,000 to Gay Games VII.

2007, Jerusalem

Participants in the Jerusalem Pride Parade encounter hundreds of Haredi, Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox sect, who arrived with eggs and bags of human excrement to hurl. Just prior to the parade, police arrested a 32 year-old man carrying a bomb which he said he’d planned to detonate near the parade. Two hundred hate-mongering Haredi were arrested by the 7000 police officers brought in from all over Israel to protect the marchers, who numbered only 1000.

2008, Egypt

The first Egyptian film to portray gay life premiers, called All My Life by Maher Sabry. Sabry (April 11, 1967) is an Egyptian theater director, playwright, film director, producer and screenwriter, poet, writer and cartoonist. A gay activist, he was the first director to portray gay and lesbian love in lyrical and sympathetic manner on the Egyptian stage and pioneered with other gay forums for Egyptian LGBT on the internet, using the pseudonym “Horus”. In 2003, he appeared in a documentary by John Scagliotti entitled Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World. The documentary focusses on the Cairo 52 case and features a Maher Sabry interview in addition to various insights from activists from Brazil, Honduras, Namibia, Uganda, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Vietnam, Fiji and the Philippines.

2011, Nepal

Sunil Babu Pant (born 1972) is Nepal’s only openly gay member of Parliament. He is an activist and former politician who was the first openly gay federal level legislator in Asia. He created the Blue Diamond Society, a shelter for battered LGBT people from surrounding countries.

2022

The first National Park Service visitor center focused on teaching LGBTQ history will open right next door to New York City’s historic Stonewall Inn. Pride Live, the LGBTQ advocacy group spearheading the project, announced Tuesday that the Stonewall Inn – the site of a June 1969 uprising that’s widely considered a major milestone in the modern gay rights movement – will be reunited with its neighboring building in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood to “commemorate the events of the Stonewall Rebellion in their authentic locations,” according to a news release.The nearly 3,700-square-foot building is set to open in summer 2024.

June 23

1629

Five “Sodomitical Boys” are caught aboard the Puritan ship Talbot set for Salem, MA. The boys are sent back to England. In England, sodomy was a crime for which males over fourteen could be hanged. The boys’ fate is unknown.

1882

Dr. William Hammond delivers a paper to the American Neurological Association on a “disease” which makes males believe themselves to be females. As an example, he told of Native Americans who lived as the opposite sex.

1894

Biologist and pioneer of human sexuality Alfred Kinsey is born. Alfred Charles Kinsey (June 23, 1894 – August 25, 1956) was an American biologist, professor of entomology and zoology, and sexologist who in 1947 founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. He is best known for writing Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), also known as the Kinsey Reports, as well as the Kinsey scale. Kinsey’s research on human sexuality, foundational to the field of sexology, provoked controversy in the 1940s and 1950s. His work has influenced social and cultural values in the United States, as well as internationally.

1912, UK

British mathematician and computer pioneer, Alan Turing (June 23, 1912 – June 7, 1954) is born near London. Turing designed some of the world’s first computers during WWII, and during the early 1950’s further experimented with artificial intelligence. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He played a pivotal role in cracking the German code that enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial engagements including the Battle of the Atlantic, and in so doing helped win the war. He was sentenced to a year of hormonal treatments causing impotence and breast development for “gross indecency with males.” Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts, when the Labouchere Gross Indecency Amendment was still criminal in the UK. He accepted chemical castration treatment with DES as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning.  Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013. The Alan Turing law is now an informal term for a 2017 law in the United Kingdom that retroactively pardoned men cautioned or convicted under historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts.

1948, Denmark

The first Danish gay society, F-48, was founded by Axel Axgil. Soon after, a Norwegian and Swedish section under F-48 followed. F-48 was very successful and had 1,339 members by 1951. When Axgil stepped down as chairman in 1952 it had reached 2,600. Axel Axgil (April 3, 1915 – October 29, 2011) and Eigil Axgil (April 24, 1922 – September 22,1995) were Danish gay activists and a longtime couple. They were the first gay couple to enter into a registered partnership anywhere in the world following Denmark’s legalization of same-sex partnership registration in 1989, a landmark law which they were instrumental in bringing about. They adopted the shared surname, Axgil, a combination of their given names, as an expression of their commitment.

1952

Dale Jennings (October 21, 1917 – May 11, 2000), a founder of the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles, admits in court that he is a homosexual and accuses the officer who arrested him of entrapment. The jury deadlocked, and the case was dismissed. William Dale Jennings was an American LGBT rights activist, playwright and author. In November 1950, Jennings accompanied his then-boyfriend Bob Hull, to a meeting with Harry Hay (April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) and Chuck Rowland to discuss a prospectus that had called on the “androgynies of the world” to unite. This meeting began the first official meeting of the International Bachelors Fraternal Order for Peace and Social Dignity, which would later be renamed as the Mattachine Society. The Society sought to gain acceptance through greater communication between homosexuals

and heterosexuals. The group began to grow and by the summer of that year they had adopted official missions and purposes which proclaimed homosexuals to be one of the largest minorities in America.

1957

Theater director John Tasker (25 May 1933 – 18 June 1988) writes to novelist Colin Spencer  (born 1933) , “I was afraid to say-I want to be with you-because I really want to say, I love you.” They became lovers after they met in Brighton in 1957. Their off-and-on two-year relationship dramatically changed when Spencer married archaeologist Gillian Chapman in October 1959. Tasker went to Australia where he became a theatre director and died of cancer in 1988. Tasker had arranged for his letters to be returned to Spencer. Upon re-reading them, Spencer published his book Which of Us Two as a form of atonement.

1962

The Mansfield, Ohio Gay Sex Sting of 1962, happens. In the summer of 1962, the Mansfield, Ohio Police Department photographed men having sex in a public restroom under the main square of the city.  A cameraman hid in a closet and watched the clandestine activities through a two-way mirror. The police  filmed over a three-week period, and the resulting movie was used to obtain the convictions of over 38 local men on charges of sodomy.  All of the 38 men were convicted of sodomy.  They were publicly humiliated and  found themselves ensnared by the state’s Ascherman Act which ordered all felons deemed a danger to society to be institutionalized for a potentially indefinite period; all were required to serve the minimum sentence, even those judged by medical professionals to be “cured” prior to that time. Treatment then involved a number of now-discredited methods, including electroshock and various other aversion therapy techniques, and drugs with known severe side effects.  After their release few recovered from the trauma and many were ostracized from families and friends and  some committed suicide.  It wasn’t until 1973 that the American Psychiatric Association struck homosexuality from its list of mental disorders; until that moment, the psychiatric profession had essentially lent its tacit endorsement to these laws and practices. The footage itself is chilling and stark.  One must always remember that it was not only the fact that these men were having sex in a public bathroom that got them arrested.  It was the fact that they were gay.  The sex act on film was the evidence.  With some of the footage the Mansfield Police even went so far to produce Camera Surveillance, an instructional film circulated in law enforcement circles.  It showed how to set up a sting operation to film and arrest the criminal “sex deviants.” Shortly after these stings took place, the city of Mansfield bulldozed the men’s room and filled it in with concrete to remove the homosexual scourge.

1972

Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance. ALFA held its first official meeting 50 years ago on June 23, 1972. ALFA was the first out lesbian organization in Georgia and was formed by a group of lesbian and feminist sisters who had been activists in a multitude of movements of the time, including those for Civil Rights/Black Empowerment, Women’s Liberation, anti-war/anti-imperialism, and Workers Rights/socialism/anti-capitalism. Lesbian & Gay Liberation joined these movements. ALFA was a combination social and political organization which held, and valued, women-only space. Over the years, many other lesbian groups and organizations found their roots in ALFA and the lesbian network she created. We celebrate its history as part of queer history and the ongoing struggle for human rights in our world.

1976

The FBI acknowledges that it had been keeping files on the gay newsmagazine The Advocate.

1990, Prague

Activists organize SOHO, the country’s first national network of lesbian and gay organizations.

1994

The Gay Officers Action League of New York (GOAL) was founded by Charles Henry “Charlie” Cochrane, Jr. (August 5, 1943-May 5, 2008), a sergeant of the New York City Police Department, who after delivering a public testimony on anti-gay discrimination legislation pending before the New York City Council, became the first openly gay officer of the NYPD. On this day GOAL creates and hosts the first International Conference Of Gay And Lesbian Criminal Justice Professionals. Held in New York City at the exclusive Merchants Club, it was the first time that GLBT law enforcement personnel from all over the world met to collectively address issues that they have in common and, in the spirit of unity, offer each other mutual support. The conference also included the premier of an exhibit in the lobby of the NYPD headquarters covering the history of LGBT professionals working within criminal justice arena. Carroll M. Hunter, a longtime pioneer in the equality movement serving LGBT criminal justice and law enforcement professionals, convened the conferenced. He had a distinguished career in law enforcement spanning over thirty years.

2000

President Bill Clinton issues Executive Order 13160 prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in federally conducted education and training programs.

2001, Canada

John Herbert (13 October 1926 – 23 June 2001), drag queen, pioneering gay playwright and “mordant gadfly” of the Canadian theatre scene in the 1960s and 70s, dies at his Toronto home. He was 74 and had been ill for a month after undergoing a biopsy for prostate cancer Herbert was best known as the author of Fortune and Men’s Eyes, his 1964 play that mercilessly exposed the homosexual reality of prison culture

2003

The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down state laws that criminalize sodomy in Lawrence v. Texas. Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) is a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court, invalidating sodomy laws in 13 other states, making same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state and territory. The Court, with a five-justice majority, overturned its previous ruling on the same issue in the 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick, where it upheld a challenged Georgia statute and did not find a constitutional protection of sexual privacy.

2003

The first U.S. memorial to solely honor lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Holocaust victims was dedicated in San Francisco. Pink Triangle Park is located near the heart of the city’s Castro district. The Pink Triangle Park is a triangular shaped mini-park located in the Castro District of San Francisco, California, at the intersection of 17th Street and Market Street, directly above the Castro Street Station of Muni Metro. It is the first permanent, free-standing memorial in America to the thousands of persecuted homosexuals in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust of World War II.

2005

NBC announces that same-sex couples are eligible for “Today Throws a Hometown Wedding,” the popular series in which Today viewers plan and watch the wedding of the contest winners.

2005

A Missouri high school promised the American Civil Liberties Union it will no longer censor students for wearing t-shirts supporting gay rights. According to the ACLU, Webb City High School students can freely enjoy their First Amendment rights.

June 24

1730, Amsterdam

Five men who had been found guilty of sodomy two days earlier are executed. Pietr Marteyn, Janes Sohn, and Johannes Keep are strangled and burned. Maurits van Eeden and Cornelis Boes are drowned in a barrel of water.

1895

An article in the New York Times about intimacy between women states that fidelity could not exist between women because “there are no Davids and Jonathans among women.” The author claims that fundamental antagonism exists between women, and it is in woman’s nature to lack humanity.

1952

Dale Jennings is arrested in his own home in Los Angeles for lewd conduct. Harry Hay and other Mattachine members create the Citizens Committee to Outlaw Entrapment to raise funds for Jennings’ legal defense and to publicize the case. William Dale Jennings (October 21, 1917 – May 11, 2000) was an American LGBT rights activist, playwright and author.

1970

Police in New York City arrest Gay Activists Alliance members Tom Doerr (1947 – August 2, 1987), Arthur Evans (October 12, 1942- September 11, 2011), Jim Owles, Phil Raia, and Marty Robinson for staging a sit-in at the headquarters of the Republican State Committee. The men, who wanted to present their demands for “fair employment” practices to New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller, become known as the Rockefeller Five.

1970

Myra Breckinridge, starring Mae West and Raquel Welch, debuts. Myra Breckinridge is a 1970 American comedy film based on Gore Vidal ‘s  (October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012)1968 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Michael Sarne, and featured Raquel Welch in the title role. It also starred John Huston as Buck Loner, Mae West as Leticia Van Allen, Farrah Fawcett, Rex Reed, Roger Herren, and Roger C. Carmel. Tom Selleck made his film debut in a small role as one of Leticia’s “studs.” Theadora Van Runkle was costume designer for the film, though Edith Head designed West’s costumes. Like the novel, the picture follows the exploits of Myron Breckinridge, a gay man who has a sex change and becomes Myra Breckinridge. She goes to Hollywood to turn it inside out. The picture was controversial for its sexual explicitness but unlike the novel, Myra Breckinridge received little to no critical praise and has been cited as one of the worst films ever made.

1971

The Gay Activists Alliance hold a candlelight march to City Hall in New York to support a bill that would have added sexual orientation to New York City’s Human Rights Law.

1973

In the final day of New Orleans Pride Weekend, the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar located on the second floor of the three-story building at 141 Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, was arsoned. Thirty-two people died as a result of fire or smoke inhalation. The official cause is still listed as “undetermined origin.” The most likely suspect, a gay man who had been thrown out of the bar earlier in the day, was never charged. He took his own life in November of 1974. Until the 2016 Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting, it was the deadliest known attack on a gay club in U.S. history.

1976, Canada

Gay activist Stuart Russell and four others are fired from the Olympic organizing committee in Montreal for political activity and sexual orientation.

1978, Australia

Two thousand people march for gay rights in Sydney. Police revoke their permission to march and people were arrested and outed in the newspapers. This event is the beginning of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

1980, Canada

In Vancouver the Gay Alliance Toward Equality (GATE), one of Canada’s oldest and most active gay rights organizations, announces dissolution.

1984, The Netherlands

Rev. Herman Verbeek (17 May 1936 – 1 February 2013) of The Netherlands, the first openly gay member of the European Parliament, takes office. He was a priest in the diocese of Groningen, but in 1999, he was openly in conflict with the Groningen bishop about his views on sexuality, becoming openly gay.

1990

Activists associated with Queer Nation distribute a manifesto emblazoned with the words “Queers Read This” at New York City’s annual Pride Celebration march. Headlined “I Hate Straights” and signed “Anonymous Queers,” the broadsheet is a harbinger of revitalized militancy among lesbian and gay activists.

1994, Philippines

The first Gay Pride march in Asia is celebrated in the Philippines.

2011

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signs a law legalizing same-sex marriage. The law takes effect July 24th. The law more than doubles the number of Americans living in gay marriage states.

2016

President Barack Obama announces the designation of the first national monument to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. The Stonewall National Monument encompasses Christopher Park, the Stonewall Inn and the surrounding streets and sidewalks that were the sites of the 1969 Stonewall uprising.

June 25

1844

Thomas Eakins (July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator who is born on this day. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important artists in American art history. No less important in Eakins’ life was his work as a teacher. As an instructor he was a highly influential presence in American art. The difficulties which beset him as an artist seeking to paint the portrait and figure realistically were paralleled and even amplified in his career as an educator, where behavioral and sexual scandals truncated his success and damaged his reputation. Eakins was a controversial figure whose work received little by way of official recognition during his lifetime. Since his death, he has been celebrated by American art historians as “the strongest, most profound realist in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American art.” The nature of Eakins sexuality and its impact on his art is a matter of intense scholarly debate. Strong circumstantial evidence points to Eakins having been accused of homosexuality during his lifetime, and there is little doubt that he was attracted to men, as evidenced in his photography, and three major paintings where male buttocks are a focal point: The Gross Clinic, William Rush, and The Swimming Hole. The latter, in which Eakins appears, is increasingly seen as sensuous and autobiographical.

1945

Rictor Norton (born June 25, 1945 ) is an American writer of literary and cultural history, particularly gay history. The first individual in the United States to receive a PhD for work dealing with the history of homosexuality, Norton, was a graduate student in English at Florida State University in Tallahassee from 1967 to 1972. He worked as an instructor at Florida State University from 1970 to 1972, where he taught a course on gay and lesbian literature in 1971, one of the earliest gay courses in the United States. He was an active member of the Gay Liberation Front from and was involved in campaigning for the repeal of Florida’s sodomy statute. In 1973, he moved to London where he has lived since, working as a journalist, publisher, researcher and freelance scholar. He was a research editor for the fortnightly London news journal Gay News from 1974 to 1978 and wrote articles on gay history and literature for publications such as Gay Sunshine and The Advocate throughout the 1970s, and for Gay Times later. In December 2005 he formed a civil partnership with his partner of nearly thirty years. The second PhD in the United States on the history of homosexuality went to Salvatore Licata (1939-1990), a graduate student in history at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, from 1971 to 1978. The third American doctoral dissertation that discusses the history of homosexuality is the work of Ramon Gutierrez, a graduate student in the History Department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, from 1974 to 1980.

1962

U.S. Supreme Court rules in MANual v. Day that photos of nude and semi-nude men designed to appeal to homosexuals are not obscene and may be sent through the U.S. mail. It was the first case in which the Court engaged in plenary review of a Post Office Department order holding obscene matter “nonmailable.”

1963

Openly gay pop star George Michael is born on this day in 1963. Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (June, 25 1963 – December 25, 2016), known professionally as George Michael, was an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and philanthropist who rose to fame as a member of the music duo Wham! He was best known for his work in the 1980s and 1990s, including hit singles such as “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Last Christmas”, and albums such as Faith  (1987) and Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (1990). Since 2012, Michael had been in a relationship with Fadi Fawaz, an Australian celebrity hairstylist and a freelance photographer of Lebanese descent based in London. It was Fawaz who found Michael’s body on Christmas morning 2016.

1970

The Vatican issues a statement reaffirming its stance that homosexual unions are a “moral aberration that cannot be approved by human conscience.”

1972

The Rev. Dr. William R. Johnson (born June 12, 1946 in Houston, Texas) was the first openly gay person ordained in the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the first such person ordained in the history of Christianity.  His ordination took place on June 25, 1972 at the Community UCC in San Carlos, California, authorized by the Golden Gate Association of the Northern California/Nevada Conference UCC.  His ordination is the subject of the Michael Rhodes documentary film, A Position of Faith (1973; released on video in 2005). Throughout his career, Bill provided counsel and support to hundreds of LGBT seminarians and clergypersons in the UCC and ecumenically.  Bill was the primary author of the extensive body of social justice policies regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons adopted by UCC General Synods and the UCC Executive Council dating back to 1973. Bill Johnson retired from active ministry on July 1, 2013 at the 29th UCC General Synod in Long Beach, CA, having served in ministry for 41 years.

1972

Jeanne Manford (December 4, 1920 – January 8, 2013) marches with her son Morty in the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade in New York City. She carries as sign that reads: Parents of Gays: Unite in Support of Our Children. She is a co-founder of PFLAG, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays for which she was awarded the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal.

1977, Toronto

The newly formed Coalition to Stop Anita Bryant organizes demonstration in Toronto. It is the first of several coalitions and public actions across Canada reacting to Bryant’s anti-gay crusade.

1978

The first Rainbow Flag, designed by Gilbert Baker (June 2, 1951 – March 31, 2017) flies at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day parade. Baker’s flag became widely associated with LGBT rights causes, a symbol of gay pride that has become ubiquitous in the decades since its debut. In 2015, the Museum of Modern Art ranked the rainbow flag as an internationally recognized symbol as important as the recycling symbol. Baker died at home in his sleep on March 31, 2017 at age 65, in New York City. The New York City medical examiner’s office determined cause of death was hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Upon Baker’s death, California state senator Scott Wiener said Baker “helped define the modern LGBT movement”. In Baker’s memory, NewFest and NYC Pride partnered with a design team to create ‘Gilbert’, a rainbow font inspired by the Rainbow Flag. As well, on June 2, 2017, the 66th anniversary of his birth, Google released a Google Doodle honoring Baker.

1979

The opening of the movie Cruising in New York is greeted by protests due to the nature of the depiction of “gay life” within the film. Cruising is an American crime thriller film written and directed by William Friedkin, and starring Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino and Karen Allen. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by The New York Times reporter Gerald Walker, about a serial killer targeting gay men, in particular those associated with the leather scene. The title is a play on words with a dual meaning, as “cruising” can describe police officers on patrol and also cruising for sex.

1984, France

Michel Foucault dies of AIDS in Paris. He was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, social theorist, and literary critic. Foucault’s theories primarily addressed the relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a post-structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels, preferring to present his thought as a critical history of modernity. His thought has influenced academics, especially those working in sociology, cultural studies, literary theory and critical theory. Activist groups have also found his theories compelling. Foucault died in Paris of neurological problems compounded by HIV/AIDS; He became the first public figure in France to die from the disease, his partner sociologist Daniel Defert (born 10 September 1937) founded the AIDES charity in his memory.

1985

It is revealed that actor Rock Hudson is battling AIDS. Born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr. (November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985), he was an American actor, generally known for his turns as a leading man during the 1950s and 1960s. Viewed as a prominent ‘heartthrob’ of the Hollywood Golden Age, he achieved stardom with roles in films such as Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955) and Giant (1956), and found continued success with a string of romantic comedies co-starring Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). After appearing in films including Seconds (1966), Tobruk(1967) and Ice Station Zebra (1968) during the late 1960s, Hudson began a second career in television through the 1970s and 1980s, starring in the popular mystery series McMillan & Wife and the soap opera Dynasty. According to the 1986 biography Rock Hudson: His Story by Hudson and Sara Davidson, Hudson was good friends with American novelist Armistead Maupin. The book also names certain of Hudson’s lovers, including Jack Coates, Tom Clark (who published a memoir about Hudson, Rock Hudson: Friend of Mine), actor and stockbroker Lee Garlington, and Marc Christian who later won a suit against the Hudson estate. Following Hudson’s death, Marc Christian sued his estate on grounds of “intentional infliction of emotional distress”. Christian claimed that Hudson continued having sex with him until February 1985, more than eight months after Hudson knew that he had HIV. Although he repeatedly tested negative for HIV, Christian claimed that he suffered from “severe emotional distress” after learning from a newscast that Hudson had died of AIDS. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Hudson was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (located at 6116 Hollywood Blvd). Following his death, Elizabeth Taylor, his co-star in the film Giant, purchased a bronze plaque for Hudson on the West Hollywood Memorial Walk. In 2002, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.

1993

President Bill Clinton appoints Kristine Gebbie (born June 26, 1953) as the nation’s first AIDS coordinator. Dr. Gebbie is best known for being the first U.S. AIDS Czar, from 1993 to 1994, during the Clinton Administration. She was a member of the President’s Commission on the HIV Epidemic, formed by President Reagan, and an outspoken opponent of the Reagan Administration policies on AIDS testing.

1998

Actress Kathy Najimy  (February 6, 1957) is an American actress and comedian. She thanks the participants in San Diego gay pride for “being here because your being here gives me the chance to help my daughter love whoever the f**k she wants.”

2006

First Transgender Pride March with over 2000 people is held, in San Francisco.

2021

President Joe Biden signed H.R. 49 which designates the site of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando as the National Pulse Memorial.

June 26

1892

Newspapers across the U.S. report on the murder of 17-year-old Freda Ward by her lover, 19-year-old Alice Mitchell ( February 23, 1892- March 31, 1898). Both members of upper-class Memphis society, the two women had vowed never to separate. When Ward’s family refused to allow Mitchell to have contact with her, Mitchell waylaid Ward on a train and slashed her throat. Besides being one of the first times lesbianism is discussed in the nation’s media, the Mitchell-Ward case becomes a frequently cited example of the dangerous “pathology” of same-sex love. Mitchell is later found insane and committed to an asylum. The case was headlined as “A Very Unnatural Crime” across the country. The case influenced the popular literature of the era which began to depict lesbians as “murderous” and “masculine”. One identity that came to be through lesbians was the “mannish lesbian” creating dialogue of gender expression.

1941

Virginia “Ginny” Apuzzo (born June 26, 1941) is an American gay rights and AIDS activist. She is a former executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force. She served as executive deputy of the New York State Consumer Protection Board and as the vice chair of the New York State AIDS Advisory Council. She was also President of the New York State Civil Service Commissionand Commissioner of the New York State Department of Civil Service. In 1996, she became the Associate Deputy Secretary of Labor at the United States Department of Labor, and in 1997 she became the Assistant to the President for Management and Administration under the Clinton administration. In 2007, she began serving on the Commission on Public Integrity, where she worked until her retirement.

1964

Life magazine runs a twelve-page feature of gay men’s culture in an article called “Sordid World of Homosexuality in America.”

1969

A group of New York drag queens organize a memorial for the next night for Judy Garland who died several days earlier. Little did they know the wake would turn into a riot and give birth to the gay liberation movement.

1977

Gay Pride celebrations across the country, including the original Stonewall-inspired New York City march, are held today, attract record numbers of participants. The heavy turnout is a response to the backlash against gay and lesbian rights inspired by anti-gay Anita Bryant’s campaign.

1988

Art Agnos is the first San Francisco mayor to ride in a Gay Pride celebration parade.

2003

The U.S. Supreme Court overturns Bowers v. Hardwick, the 1986 case that upheld sodomy laws. The case was overturned in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas, though the statute had already been struck down by the Supreme Court of Georgia in 1998. Justice Anthony  Kennedy said for the court, according to The New York Times, “The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime.”

2005, Greece

The first LGBT Pride parade is held in Athens.

2006

Longtime gay activist and author Eric Rofes (August 31, 1954 – June 26, 2006) dies of a heart attack in Provincetown, Massachusetts. A former executive director of the Los Angeles Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, Rofes also wrote 12 books on the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the gay community. He was an associate professor of education at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California and a major contributor to the NGLTF annual Creating Change conference. Humboldt State established the Eric Rofes Center after his death as a new program in honor of his legacy and to continue his work in queer-feminist activism. The Eric Rofes Multicultural Queer Resource center is a student-run, student-funded initiative that provides programming and resources for Humboldt State University’s LGBTQIA community.

2013

The U. S. Supreme Court heard a challenge to DOMA on March 27, 2013. President Bill Clinton, who signed the legislation, came out against the law and asked the Supreme Court to repeal it. On June 26, SCOTUS declares the law unconstitutional and also holds that defenders of California’s same-sex marriage ban did not have the right to appeal lower court rulings striking down the ban.

2015

The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5 to 4 in Obergefell et al v. Hodges that the Constitution requires that same-sex couples be allowed to marry no matter where they live in the United States. With this ruling, the United States becomes the 17th country to legalize same-sex marriages entirely.

June 27

National HIV Testing Day

1869, Russia

Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) is born. She was an anarchist, political activist and writer and played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century. In 1910, an outspoken critic of prejudice against homosexuals, she begins speaking publicly in favor of homosexual rights. Her belief that social liberation should extend to gay men and lesbians was virtually unheard of at the time, even among anarchists. As German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld wrote, “she was the first and only woman, indeed the first and only American, to take up the defense of homosexual love before the general public.” In numerous speeches and letters, she defended the right of gay men and lesbians to love as they pleased and condemned the fear and stigma associated with homosexuality. As Goldman wrote in a letter to Hirschfeld, “It is a tragedy, I feel, that people of a different sexual type are caught in a world which shows so little understanding for homosexuals and is so crassly indifferent to the various gradations and variations of gender and their great significance in life.” She was married to activist Alexander Berkman and advocated passionately for the rights of women.

1952

The McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act bars immigrants “afflicted with psychopathic personality,” a phrase that is interpreted to include all homosexuals.

1972, UK

The fortnightly Gay News, the first and best-known British gay newspaper, is founded in collaboration between former members of the Gay Liberation Front and members of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE). At the newspaper’s height, circulation was 18,000 to 19,000 copies. Gay News Ltd ceased trading on 15 April 1983.

1987

The NAMES Project displays the first 40 panels of The Quilt from the Mayor’s balcony at San Francisco City Hall. Each panel measured 3’x6‚Ä≤, the size of a human grave, and bore the name of an individual lost to AIDS. The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is an enormous quilt made as a memorial to celebrate the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes. Weighing an estimated 54 tons, it is the largest piece of community folk art in the world as of 2016. The idea for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was conceived in 1985 by AIDS activist Cleve Jones (born October 11, 1954) during the candlelight march, in remembrance of the 1978 assassinations of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk(May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) and Mayor George Moscone.

1994

Deborah Batts (April 13, 1947- February 3, 2020) becomes the first openly lesbian or gay U.S. federal judge. She  is a senior judge of the  District Court for the Southern District of New York. She is also the nation’s first openly  African American federal judge. On January 27, 1994, following the recommendation of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, President Bill Clinton nominated Batts to the seat. Batts was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 6, 1994 and received her commission on May 9, 1994. She took senior status on April 13, 2012. She continues to serve concurrently as an adjunct professor at Fordham University.

2006, Iceland

Iceland’s Parliament approves parenting equality.

2010, Iceland

Iceland legalizes same-sex marriage. The first legal wedding of an LGBT world leader occurs when Johanna Siguardardottir (October 4, 1942), Iceland’s prime minister, marries her partner of 30 years, Jonina Leosdottir. She became Iceland’s first female Prime Minister and the world’s first openly gay head of government on February 1, 2009.

2011, Brazil

The first same-sex civil union is converted into same-sex marriage by Sao Paolo State Judge Fernando Henrique Pinto.

2015

The first-ever conference of LGBT College and University presidents is held in Chicago.

2021

Filipino-American Kataluna Enriquez (born 1993) – and for the Miss Nevada USA pageant, too. Miss Nevada USA winner makes history as 1st transgender woman to hold the title. first transgender woman and the first trans woman of color to be named Miss Nevada USA. First openly transgender woman to compete in the Miss Universe pageant  = Spain’s Angela Ponce (born 1991) in 2018. Kataluna Patricia Enriquez is an American beauty pageant titleholder, healthcare administrator, and fashion designer. In March 2021, she won the Miss Silver State USA pageant. On 27 June 2021, she was crowned Miss Nevada USA.[2] With her wins, she became the first openly transgender woman to earn the titles and to become qualified to compete in the Miss USA pageant.[3][4] She is also the owner of a clothing line, Kataluna Kouture. In addition to her work as a model and fashion designer, she also works as a healthcare administrator[15] with a focus on healthcare needs for LGBTQ+ patients.

June 28

1934, Germany

Approximately 300 Nazi Party members are arrested and murdered in a purge ordered by Adolf Hitler that comes to be known as the Night of the Long Knives. The most prominent victim of the purge is SA (Brown Shirts) chief Ernst Rohm, a gay man whom Hitler accused of having formed a subversive “homosexual clique.”

1934, Germany

The Nazi government expands Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code to read: “A male who commits a sex offence with another male or allows himself to be used by another male for a sex offence shall be punished with imprisonment. Where a party was not yet twenty-one years of age at the time of the act, the court may in especially minor cases refrain from punishment.” The law did not include so-called “Aryan” women who loved women since the Nazis asserted that Aryan lesbians could still produce Aryan children for the “New Germany.” Paragraph 175a was also instituted: “Penal servitude up to ten years or, where there are mitigating circumstances, imprisonment of not less than three months shall apply to‚Ķa male over twenty-one years of age who seduces a male person under twenty-one years to commit a sex offence with him or to allow himself to be abused for a sex offence‚Ķ.” Arrests skyrocket from under 1000 in 1932 to over 8500 by 1938.

1942

James Thomas Kolbe (June 28, 1942 – December 3, 2022) was an American politician who served as a Republicanmember of the United States House of Representatives. He represented Arizona’s 5th congressional district from 1985 to 2003 and its 8th congressional district from 2003 to 2007. A moderate, pro-abortion rights Republican, he came out as gay in 1996 after voting in support of the Defense of Marriage Act; his subsequent re-elections made him the second openly gay Republican elected to Congress after Steven Craig Gunderson (born May 10, 1951). served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented Arizona’s 5th congressional district from 1985 to 2003 and its 8th congressional district from 2003 to 2007. A moderate, pro-abortion rights Republican, he came out as gay in 1996 after voting in support of the Defense of Marriage Act; his subsequent re-elections made him the second openly gay Republican elected to Congress.After leaving Congress, Kolbe served on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations under Democratic president Barack Obama. Kolbe left the Republican Party and became an independent in 2018 after the election of Donald Trump. He endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Kolbe came out as gay in August 1996 after his vote in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act spurred efforts by some gay rights activists to out him.[43][44]He won re-election that year. In 2000, he became the first openly gay person to address the Republican National Convention, although his speech did not address gay rights.[45] He was the second openly gay Republican to serve in Congress, the first being Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin.[46]In 2013, Kolbe married his partner, Hector Alfonso.[47] That year, Kolbe was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Courtin support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case.[48]On December 3, 2022, Kolbe died from a stroke at age 80.[49] Arizona Governor Doug Ducey ordered flags in the state to be lowered until the evening of December 4 in honor of Kolbe.[50]

1959

In New York City, Ardouin Antonio, a 49-year-old Jamaican-American shipping clerk dies of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, a disease closely associated with AIDS. Dr. Gordon Hennigar, who performed the postmortem examination of the man’s body, found “the first reported instance of unassociated Pneumocystis carinii disease in an adult” to be so unusual that he preserved Ardouin’s lungs for later study. The case was published in two medical journals at the time, and Hennigar has been quoted in numerous publications saying that he believes Ardouin probably had AIDS.

1969

A St. Louis teenager, identified as Robert Rayford, dies of an illness that baffles his doctors. Eighteen years later, molecular biologists at Tulane University in New Orleans test samples of his remains and find evidence of HIV.

1969

Late night and into the early morning hours the next day, patrons of the Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher Street in New York’s Greenwich Village, fight back during a police raid, sparking three days of riots and the modern gay pride movement. Police raid the bar on the charge of selling alcohol without a license. Storm√© DeLarverie (December 24, 1920 – May 24, 2014), a butch lesbian, is said to have been responsible for starting the riot at 1:20 am. A brave woman of color, she was hit on the head with a billy club and handcuffed. She was bleeding from the head when she brazenly turned to the crowd and hollered, “WHY DON’T YOU DO SOMETHING!?” Patrons, and the crowd gathered outside, fight back. The American Gay liberation movement begins. Clientele fling bottles, rocks, bricks, and trash cans at the police and use parking meters as battering rams on this day and for the next five days and nights. Transgender Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002) and Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992) are also ringleaders of the Stonewall Riot. Rivera is a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance, but the role of Rivera and her Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in helping to initiate the modern gay rights movement is quickly forgotten as gay activists seek to enter the mainstream.

1970

Christopher Street Liberation Day marks the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City with the first Gay Rights Parade in U.S. History. Simultaneous marches take place in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. Community members in New York City march through the local streets to recognize the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Named the Christopher Street Liberation Day, it is now considered the first gay pride parade. About 15,000 people participate.

1970

Los Angeles celebrates the Stonewall anniversary with a march down Hollywood Boulevard that draws about 1,000 people. Smaller marches take place in Chicago and San Francisco. The anniversary is also marked by special celebrations at gay bars around the world, including clubs in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Lima, Peru; and Managua, Nicaragua.

1975

The first reports of wasting and other symptoms, later determined to be AIDS, are reported in residents of Africa. The daughter of Norwegian sailor Arvid Noe dies in January 1975. It is later determined that Noe contracted HIV/AIDS in Africa during the early 1960s. Margrethe (Grethe) P. Rask (1930 – 12 December 1977) was a Danish physician and surgeon in Za√Øre (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). She returned to Denmark in 1977 after developing symptoms of an unknown disease which was later discovered to be AIDS. Rask is one of the first non-Africans to die of AIDS.

1978, Canada

The Sixth National Gay Conference is hosted by the Gay Alliance for Equality in Halifax. At this meeting the National Gay Rights Coalition changed its names to the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Rights Coalition.

1982, Columbia

The first Pride parade takes place. Thirty-two marchers and 100 police officers attended.

1999

The labrys lesbian flag was created in 1999 by graphic designer Sean Campbell, and published in June 2000 in the Palm Springs edition of the Gay and Lesbian Times Pride issue.[1][2] The design involves a labrys, a type of double-headed axe, superimposed on the inverted black triangle, set against a violet background. Among its functions, the labrys was associated as a weapon used by the Amazons of mythology.[3][4] In the 1970s it was adopted as a symbol of empowerment by the lesbian feminist community.[5][6] Women considered asocial by Nazi Germany for not conforming to the Nazi ideal of a woman, which included homosexual females, were condemned to concentration camps[7] and wore an inverted black triangle badge to identify them.[8] Some lesbians reclaimed this symbol as gay men reclaimed the pink triangle (many lesbians also reclaimed the pink triangle although lesbians were not included in Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code).[8] The color violet became associated with lesbians via the poetry of Sappho.[9]

2000

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Boy Scouts of America can discriminate against gays and bisexuals saying it is a private organization and not bound by local human rights laws. Boy Scouts of America et al. v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000) was a case of the Supreme Court of the United States decided on June 28, 2000, that held that the constitutional right to freedom of association allows a private organization like the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to exclude a person from membership when “the presence of that person affects in a significant way the group’s ability to advocate public or private viewpoints”. In a five to four decision, the Supreme Court ruled that opposition to homosexuality is part of BSA’s “expressive message” and that allowing homosexuals as adult leaders would interfere with that message. It reversed a decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court that had determined that New Jersey’s public accommodations law required the BSA to readmit assistant Scoutmaster James Dale(born August 2, 1970) who had made his homosexuality public and whom the BSA had expelled from the organization.

2005

Brenda Howard (December 24, 1946 – June 28, 2005) dies. She was an American bisexual rights activist, sex-positive feminist, polyamorist and BDSM practitioner. Howard was an important figure in the modern LGBT rights movement. In 1987 Howard helped found the New York Area Bisexual Network to help co-ordinate services to the region’s growing Bisexual community. She was also an active member of the early bisexual political activist group BiPAC, a regional organizer for BiNet USA, a co-facilitator of the Bisexual S/M Discussion Group, and a founder of the nation’s first Alcoholics Anonymous chapter for bisexuals.  Brenda Howard is known as the “Mother of Pride” for her work in coordinating the first LGBT Pride march, and she also originated the idea for a week-long series of events around Pride Day which became the genesis of the annual LGBT Pride celebrations that are now held around the world every June. Additionally, Howard, along with fellow LGBT rights activists Robert A. Martin (aka Donny the Punk) and L. Craig Schoonmaker, are credited with popularizing the word “Pride” to describe these festivities. As LGBT rights activist Tom Limoncelli (born December 2, 1968) put it, “The next time someone asks you why LGBT Pride marches exist or why [LGBT] Pride Month is June tell them ‘A bisexual woman named Brenda Howard thought it should be.

2010

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez that public universities may refuse to recognize student organizations with discriminatory membership policies. Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 561 U.S. 661 (2011) is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld, against a First Amendment challenge, the policy of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law governing official recognition of student groups, which required the groups to accept all students regardless of their status or beliefs in order to obtain recognition.

2012, Jamaica

On this day Diana King (born Nov. 8, 1970) declared “Yes I am a Lesbian” to her fans from her official Facebook page thus becoming the first Jamaican artist to ever publicly come out.

2022

Sequim, WA hosted what organizers believe is the city’s first Pride Celebration.

June 29

LGBTQ PRIDE DAY

1626, Vatican City

Pope Urban the Eighth gives Catalina de Erauso (Feb. 10, 1592-1650) the right to live as a man named Francisco de Loyola who became a conquistador. Catalina de Erauso (in Spanish) or Katalina Erauso (in Basque), also known in Spanish as La Monja Alf√©rez  was a personality of the Basque Country, Spain and Spanish America in the first half of the 17th century. For nearly 400 years, Catalina Erauso’s story has remained alive through historical studies, biographical stories, novels, movies and comics. New scholarship has questioned Erauso’s sexual orientation and gender identity. While Erauso never mentions specifically in his memoir being attracted to a man, there are numerous instances of relationships with other women.

1892, Germany

Henry Gerber (June 29, 1892- December 31, 1972) is born in Bavaria. He emigrated to the United States in 1913. He and others in his family settled in Chicago because of its large German immigrant population. In 1917, Gerber was briefly committed to a mental institution because of his homosexuality. When the United States declared war on Germany, Gerber was given a choice: be interned as an enemy alien or enlist in the Army. Gerber chose the Army and was assigned to work as a printer and proofreader with the Allied Army of Occupation in Coblenz. During his time in Germany, Gerber learned about Magnus Hirschfeld  (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) and the work he and his Scientific-Humanitarian Committee were doing to reform anti-homosexual German law, especially Paragraph 175which criminalized sex between men.  Gerber traveled to Berlin which supported a thriving gay subculture and subscribed to at least one homophile magazine. He absorbed Hirschfeld’s ideas, including the notion that homosexual men were naturally effeminate. Following his military service, Gerber returned to the United States and went to work for the post office in Chicago. He created the first gay rights organization in the United States, the Society for Human Rights which received a charter from the State of Illinois, and produced the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom. A few months after being chartered, the group ceased to exist in the wake of the arrest of several of the Society’s members including Henry. Despite its short existence and small size, the Society has been recognized as a precursor to the modern gay liberation movement.

1936, Germany

In preparing Berlin for the Olympics, 52 gay men were taken to Mauthausen concentration camp.

1968, West Germany

The anti-gay Paragraph 175, adopted in 1871, is eased. After WWII, gay men liberated from the concentration camps were sent to prison rather than set free. Those still alive in 1968 were finally released. Paragraph 175 was repealed in 1994.

1969

New York City’s Mattachine Action Committee issues a flier urging organized demonstrations in protest of the previous night’s police raid on the Stonewall Inn.

1972, Canada

Gays demonstrate at Queen’s Park (site of the Ontario legislature in Toronto) to protest the omission of sexual orientation from amendments to Ontario Human Rights Code then being considered by legislature. It is the first public gay action around rights code reform.

1973

The first bisexual religious organization, The Committee of Friends of Bisexuality, is founded by Stephen Donaldson (July 27, 1946 – July 18, 1996) (aka Donny the Punk) in Ithaca, New York. They issue the “Ithaca Statement on Bisexuality” supporting bisexuals. The Statement, which may have been “the first public declaration of the bisexual movement” and “was certainly the first statement on bisexuality issued by an American religious assembly,” appeared in the Quaker Friends Journal and The Advocate in 1972.

1977

Coors Beer Company takes out a full-page ad in The Advocate announcing that the Coors family did not contribute in any way to the defeat of Miami’s gay rights ordinance. Coors was already reeling from a union boycott.

1977, Canada

A Gallup Poll shows that 52 percent of Canadians believe gay people should be protected against discrimination under new Canadian Human Rights Act.

1989

The Washington Times reports that VIP officials in the Reagan and Bush administrations were implicated in a federal investigation into a gay prostitution ring. After being identified as one of those under investigation, Elizabeth Dole’s adviser Paul Balach was forced to resign. Republican National Committee chairman Lee Atwater stated that it was wrong for people to be forced out of their jobs because of something that is strictly a personal matter.

1993, Ireland

Ireland decriminalizes same-sex relations for consenting adults and sets the age of consent at 17 for all sexual activities.

1998

Researchers at the 12th World Conference on AIDS report that a drug-resistant strain of HIV had been identified.

1999

California adopts a domestic partner law allowing same-sex couples equal rights, responsibilities, benefits, and protections as married couples. Enacted in 1999, the domestic partnership registry was the first of its kind in the United States created by a legislature without court intervention. Initially, domestic partnerships enjoyed very few privileges-principally just hospital-visitation rights and the right to be claimed as a next of kin of the estate of a deceased partner.

2002, Croatia

The first Croatian Pride parade, in Zagreb, occurs.

2008

Thomas Beatie (January 20, 1974), a transman, gives birth. Born Tracy Lehuanani LaGondino, he is an American public speaker, author, and advocate of transgender and sexuality issues with a focus on trans fertility and reproductive rights. Beatie had gender reassignment surgery in 2002 and became known as ‘The Pregnant Man’ after he became pregnant through artificial insemination in 2007. Beatie chose to become pregnant because his wife Nancy was infertile. Beatie’s first pregnancy resulted in an ectopic pregnancy with triplets, requiring emergency surgery and resulting in the loss of all three fetuses. Beatie has since given birth to three children. The couple filed for divorce in 2012. The Beatie case is the first of its kind on record, where a documented legal male gave birth within a traditional marriage to a woman, and for the first time, a court challenged a marriage where the husband gave birth.

2009

The U.S. government apologizes to openly gay Frank Kameny (May 21, 1925 – October 11, 2011) for firing him in 1957. John Berry, Director of the Office of Personnel Management in the Obama administration, formally apologizes and presents Kameny with the Theodore Roosevelt Award, the department’s most prestigious honor. Kameny was an American gay rights activist, referred to as “one of the most significant figures” in the American gay rights movement. In 1957, Kameny was dismissed from his position as an astronomer in the U.S. Army’s Army Map Service in Washington, D.C. because of his homosexuality, leading him to begin “a Herculean struggle with the American establishment” that would “spearhead a new period of militancy in the homosexual rights movement of the early 1960s.” Kameny formally appealed his firing by the U.S. Civil Service Commission. Although unsuccessful, the proceeding was notable as the first known civil rights claim based on sexual orientation pursued in a U.S. court.

2012

Fred Karger (January 31, 1950) ends his bid for president, making him the nation’s first openly gay Republican presidential candidate. He did not get far. Karger is an American political consultant, gay rights activist and watchdog, former actor, and politician. His unsuccessful candidacy for the Republican nomination for the 2012 U.S. Presidential election made him the first openly gay presidential candidate in a major political party in American history. Although he had not held elected or public office, Karger has worked on nine presidential campaigns and served as a senior consultant to the campaigns of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Gerald Ford. Karger was a partner at the Dolphin Group, a California campaign consulting firm. He retired after 27 years and has since worked as an activist on gay rights causes including protecting the gay bar The Boom by using his organization Californians Against Hate to investigate The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) as well as the National Organization for Marriage’s campaigns to repeal the state’s same-sex marriage law.

JUNE 30

1865

Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) is fired from his job in the U.S. Dept. of the Interior on moral grounds after his boss finds an 1860 copy of Leaves of Grass. He was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality. Though biographers continue to debate Whitman’s sexuality, he is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual in his feelings and attractions. His poetry depicts love and sexuality in a more earthy, individualistic way common in American culture before the medicalization of sexuality in the late 19th century. Though Leaves of Grass was often labeled pornographic or obscene, only one critic remarked on its author’s presumed sexual activity: in a November 1855 review, Rufus Wilmot Griswold suggested Whitman was guilty of “that horrible sin not to be mentioned among Christians.” Peter Doyle (June 3, 1843- April 19, 1907) was most likely the love of Whitman’s life.

1919, Germany

The film entitled Different from the Others is released. It’s one of the first sympathetic portrayals of homosexuals. It was produced during the Weimar Republic, starring Conrad Veidt and Reinhold Sch√ºnzel. The story was co-written by Richard Oswald and Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld who also had a small part in the film and partially funded the production through his Institute for Sexual Science, with the aim of presenting the story as a polemic against the then-current laws under Germany’s Paragraph 175which made homosexuality a criminal offense.

1957

Ilene Chaiken (born June 30, 1957) is an American television producer, director, writer, and founder of Little Chicken Productions. Chaiken is best known as the co-creator, writer and executive producer of the television series The L Word and is an executive producer on the hit television series Empire. Chaiken has been married to LouAnne Brickhouse, a former executive at Disney, since 2013. Chaiken is co-parent to twin daughters Tallulah and Augusta with her former partner, English architect Miggi Hood.

1969

In Kew Gardens, Queens, New York, a vigilante group cuts down trees and bushes in a local park popular as a gay male cruising area. Lamenting the loss of greenery, The New York Times runs nine different articles on the ensuing controversy. The Stonewall Uprising and the protests that follow are mentioned a total of three times.

1969

Ben Patrick Johnson (June 30, 1969) is born. He is a model and voice-over actor. Johnson’s first national exposure came in 1994 when he was chosen as co-host for Extra, the TV entertainment magazine show. Extra demoted Johnson to Senior Correspondent shortly after he came out as gay in the LGBT press and on KABC talk radio where he had been director of production prior to Extra. Warner Bros. Television, the producers of Extra, declined to comment on the demotion.

1973, Canada

The first lesbian conference in Canada is held at the YWCA in Toronto.

1979

A group of 40 people in Cincinnati Ohio who had reserved a city park pool for a gay pride party were outnumbered and attacked by local residents who threw rocks and bottles at them. Police arrived, watched for a while, and then drove away. One man had to be rescued by a television news crew. Police refused to return even after several calls reporting a riot.

1981

Florida governor Bob Graham signs the Bush-Trask Amendment into law. It denies state funding (including football money and scholarships) to any university or college that allows gay student organizations. The Florida (Gay and Lesbian Civil Right) Task Force, led by Ronni Sanlo  (born March 20, 1947) and several teachers’ organizations fought the amendment in the Florida Supreme Court where it was unanimously struck down as unconstitutional.

1984

The Unitarian Church votes to approve ceremonies uniting same-sex couples.

1986

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the sodomy law in the Bowers v. Hardwick decision that criminalizes sex in private between consenting homosexual adults. The ruling is overturned in 2003 in the Lawrence v. Texas decision.

1990

A wreath is laid at the London Cenotaph in memory of gays killed during the Holocaust. Estimates are that 250,000 gay men were murdered in the death camps, with an unknown number of lesbians killed.

2005, Spain

In Madrid, the Parliament legalizes same-sex marriage, defying conservatives and clergy who opposed making traditionally Roman Catholic Spain the third country to allow same-sex unions.

2006 U.K.

Gay and lesbian naval personnel march in full uniform for the first time at the inaugural EuroPride parade. More than 40 sailors, ranging from able seamen to Royal Navy reserve commanders, led the parade in London. It was the first time that any military organization in the world allowed gay and lesbian service personnel to march in uniform at such an event. In 2000, the UK passed a landmark ruling to allow gay people to serve openly in the British armed forces.

2013, Russia

Putin signs an anti-gay propaganda law. The Russian federal law “for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Values”, also known in English-language media as the gay propaganda law and the anti-gay law, is a bill that was unanimously approved by the State Duma on June 11, 2013, with MP Ilya Ponomarev as the only abstention.

2016

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announces that the Pentagon is lifting the ban on transgender people serving openly in the US military. The decision removes one of the last remaining barriers to LGBT participation in the armed forces.

2016

The United Nations Human Rights Council, in a defining vote, adopted a resolution on June 30, 2016, on “Protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation, and gender identity,” to mandate the appointment of an independent expert on the subject. It is a historic victory for the human rights of anyone at risk of discrimination and violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, a coalition of human rights groups said today. This resolution builds upon two previous resolutions, adopted by the Council in 2011 and 2014.

2019

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signs a law banning the use of the so-called gay and trans panic legal defense strategy. The tactic asks a jury to find that a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity is to blame for a defendant’s violent reaction. New York follows California, Rhode Island, Illinois, Nevada and Connecticut as the sixth state to pass such a law.

Published May 2, 2023

THIS DAY IN LGBTQ HISTORY – MAY

MAY 1

1915, UK

Laurence Michael Dillon (May 1, 1915 – May 15, 1962) was a British physician and the first trans man to undergo phalloplasty. In 1946 Dillon published Self: A Study in Endocrinology and Ethics, a book about what would now be called transgender though that term had not been coined yet. He described “masculine inverts” as being born with “the mental outlook and temperament of the other sex,” using Stephen Gordon in the novel The Well of Loneliness as an example. Self brought him to the attention of Roberta Cowell who would become the first British trans woman to receive male-to-female sex reassignment surgery. Though Dillon was not yet a licensed physician, he himself performed an orchidectomy on Cowell, since British law made the operation illegal. Cowell’s vaginoplasty was later performed by pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies.

1960

Andy Thayer (born May 1, 1960) is an American socialist, LGBTQ rights and anti-war activist. He is co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, one of the largest LGBTQ direction-action groups in Chicago. He is also the co-founder of Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism. Thayer founded the Gay Liberation Network in September 1998 under the original name Chicago Anti-Bashing Network which was changed to the Gay Liberation Network in 2004. The group is one of the largest and most-active LGBTQ direct-action groups in Chicago. Thayer is openly gay and lives in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Thayer got engaged in November 2013 and married in the summer of 2014.

1970

At the Second Congress to Unite Women in New York City, lesbian feminists stage the Lavender Menace action in protest of lesbophobia in the women’s movement and particularly in the National Organization for Women. Lavender Menace members included Karla Jay (born February 22, 1947), Martha Shelley, Rita Mae Brown (born November 28, 1944), Lois Hart, Barbara Love (born 1937), Ellen Shumsky, Artemis March, Cynthia Funk, and Michela Griffon, and were mostly members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the National Organization for Women (NOW).

1972

On this day John Waters’ (born April 22, 1946) outrageous movie Pink Flamingos opens in theaters. Written, produced, filmed, and edited by Waters. It is part of what Waters labelled the “Trash Trilogy”, which also includes Female Trouble(1974) and Desperate Living (1977). The film stars the countercultural drag queen Glen Milstead as Divine (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988) as a criminal living under the name of Babs Johnson, “the filthiest person alive” Waters had plans for a sequel, titled Flamingos Forever. Troma Entertainment offered to finance the picture but it was never made because Divine refused to be involved. When the film was initially released, it caused a huge degree of controversy due to the wide range of “perverse” acts performed in explicit detail. It has since become one of the most notorious films ever made and is rated as #29 on the list of 50 Films to See Before You Die.

1974, Portugal

Gay activists march in Porto for the first time, demanding an end to the country’s sodomy laws and a repeal of all statutes that discriminate against gays and lesbians, following the overthrow of the long-installed Salazar regime.

1974

One Disco opens in West Hollywood, CA. Started in an old World War II-era bomb-sight manufacturing building, Studio One has a long history that played a big part in the lives, politics and gay rights movement. Don Kilhefner wrote: For most gay men living outside West Hollywood, it represented bigotry, racism and sexism. Scott Forbes, its owner, wanted to limit the number of gay men of color and women. His doormen used every racist excuse possible to keep black gay men out, requiring two or three pieces of photo ID from African Americans and none or one piece from white men. To limit the number of women, excuses were made up on the spot based on what they were wearing, like no open-toe shoes. Rather than being a beacon of pride, countless gay community protests were held there. For most conscious gay and lesbian people of that period, Studio One stood for racist discrimination and white male privilege.

1975

The Parliament House in Orlando officially opened as a gay resort on May 1, 1 975. Bill Miller and Mike Hodge had taken control of the almost bankrupt run-down motor lodge and turned it into “a Disney World for gays.”

1975

Maine Legislators decriminalize homosexuality between consenting adults by repealing its sodomy laws. It also lowers the age of consent to 14.

1975

Reports confirm that Paul Newman is having financing trouble with his attempt to bring The Front Runner, a 1974 novel by Patricia Nell Warren (June 15, 1936 – February 9, 2019) to the big screen. Newman eventually allows his option to lapse. The book is considered now to be a classic in LGBT literature.

1976

Christopher Street magazine, a gay-oriented magazine published in New York City, debuts. Known both for its serious discussion of issues within the gay community and its satire of anti-gay criticism, it was one of the two most-widely read gay-issues publications in the U.S.  Christopher Street covered politics and culture and its aim was to become a gay New Yorker.  Christopher Street printed 231 issues before closing its doors in December, 1995.

1976

Joel Simkhai (born May 1, c. 1976) is an Israeli-American tech entrepreneur and founder and former CEO of geosocial networking and dating apps Grindr and Blendr. His original goal in starting Grindr was for people with similar interests to find new friends nearby. Simkhai was born in Tel Aviv, Israel to Iranian Jewish and Yemenite Jewish parents. His mother sold jewelry, and his father was a diamond dealer. When he was three years old, his family moved to New York City. He received his bachelor of arts degree in International Relations & Economics from Tufts University in May 1998. After starting college, he came out to his parents and friends. He has two brothers,who are also gay.

1977

Wyoming decriminalizes private consensual adult homosexual acts.

1982

The journal Scientific American publishes an ad from the Lesbian and Gay Associated Engineers and Scientists. Science News Journal refused to run the ad.

1984

Advocate Men magazine debuts.

1986

Lesbian Ann Bancroft (born September 29, 1955) is an author, teacher, and adventurer. On this day, she becomes the first woman to reach the North Pole by dogsled. The trip, which started from Ellesmere Island, took her two months. She was also the first woman to cross both polar ice caps to reach the North and South Poles, as well as the first woman to ski across Greenland. In 1993 Bancroft led a four-woman expedition to the South Pole on skis, the first all-female expedition to cross the ice to the South Pole. In 2001, Ann and Norwegian adventurer Liv Arnesen (born June 1, 1953) became the first women to ski across Antarctica. Ann currently co-owns an exploration company, Bancroft Arnesen Explore, with Liv Arnesen. Bancroft is openly gay and in 2006, she publicly campaigned against a proposed amendment to the Minnesota Constitution to prohibit any legal recognition of marriages or civil unions between members of the same sex.

1991

Lesbian Visibility Day, which is now Lesbian Visibility Week, was created in 1991 in Los Angeles to celebrate lesbians. It is a voice for unity and lifts up lesbians who, research shows, are more likely than gay men to be closeted in the workplace. Lesbian Visibility Day celebrates lesbians across the globe to celebrate our identity and seek help and guidance from those who have overcome similar challenges in life. Apart from freedom, the movement represents sisterhood and provides a platform for our voices. International Lesbian Day is a related observation that is observed on April 26 annually as well. It started in New Zealand in the 1980’s and is celebrated mainly in New Zealand and Australia. On this day and every day, it is important for us to honor, respect and uplift one another, and be truly proud of our lesbian identities. I, for one, am thrilled to hear the word ‘lesbian’ being said over and over again with absolute pride.

2002, Colombia

A grenade is thrown at home of gay politician Manuel Antonio Velandia.

2013, Samoa

Samoa’s Sodomy Crimes Act goes into effect with a sentence of up to five years in prison. “Keeping a place of homosexual resort” is also a crime.

2020

David Carter (1953-May 1, 2020), author and historian, dies on this day. His best-known book Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution was published in 2004, about the Stonewall Inn uprising of 1969. He was 67.

MAY 2

1895

Lorenz Hart (May 2, 1895 – November 22, 1943) was born in New York. He was the lyricist half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include Blue Moon, The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, Where or When, Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered, My Funny Valentine. They became some of the best songs of the ’20s and ’30s. It was a closely guarded secret that Hart was gay. No one knew until a biography came out 30 years after his death.

1902

Mabel Hampton (May 2, 1902 – October 26, 1989) was an American lesbian activist, a dancer during the Harlem Renaissance, and a philanthropist for both black and lesbian/gay organizations. In addition to her financial contributions to gay and lesbian organizations, Hampton marched in the first National Gay and Lesbian March on Washington in 1979, and she appeared in the films Silent Pioneers and Before Stonewall. In 1919, while attending a women-only party in Harlem, Hampton was falsely imprisoned for sex-work. She viewed her imprisonment as being lesbian encoded. After serving 13 months of a three-year sentence in Bedford Hills, Hampton was released on condition she stayed away from New York. In the 1920s, Hampton danced in all-black productions for Harlem Renaissance notables, including Jackie “Moms” Mabley. This artistic, political and cultural milieu provided Hampton access to other dancers, artists, and gays and lesbians. Mabel Hampton enjoyed a romantic and sexual relationship with Lillian B. Foster (November 13, 1894 – August 7, 1978), whom Hampton met in 1932. The two remained a couple until Foster’s death in 1978. In 1992, Joan Nestle delivered the first Kessler Lecture for the CUNY Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, titled I Lift My Eyes to the Hill: The Life of Mabel Hampton as Told by a White Woman. In 1984 she said, “I, Mabel Hampton, have been a lesbian all my life, for 82 years, and I am proud of myself and my people. I would like all my people to be free in this country and all over the world, my gay people and my black people.”

1948

Cal Anderson (May 2, 1948 – August 4, 1995) is born. Cal grew up in Tukwila, Washington, graduated from Foster High School, served in Vietnam and became the first openly gay member of the Washington State legislature. There, Anderson worked for civil rights for gay, lesbian and bisexual people as well as on such issues as campaign finance reform and easier voter registration. He died of complications from AIDS on August 4, 1995. On April 10, 2003, Seattle’s Broadway Park was renamed Cal Anderson Park in his honor.

1972

Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972), the homophobic first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dies and leaves the bulk of his estate to Clyde Tolson (May 22, 1900 – April 14, 1975), his “companion” of over 40 years.

1993

Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, a two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner (born July 16, 1956), opens on Broadway. Angels in America received numerous awards, including the 1993 and 1994 Tony Awards for Best Play. The play’s first part, Millennium Approaches, received the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

1994

One of the oldest LGBT magazines, The Metro Weekly in Washington DC, is published.

1998, UK

Justin Fashanu (19 February 1961 – 2 May 1998), the first Black soccer player to earn a million dollars and the first pro soccer player to come out while playing, dies by suicide. After moving to the United States in 1998, he was questioned by police when a seventeen-year-old boy accused him of sexual assault. He was charged and an arrest warrant for him was issued in Howard County, Maryland on 3 April 1998, but he had already left his flat. According to his suicide note, fearing he would not get a fair trial because of his homosexuality, he fled to England where he killed himself in London in May 1998. His suicide note stated that the sex was consensual.

2020

Jacksonville, Florida’s anti-discrimination ordinance which banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity was deemed unenforceable in a unanimous appellate court decision on this day and struck down. The reason for the court’s decision had to do with Jacksonville’s City Council and the way it handled the ordinance saying that it would amend the anti-discrimination laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity, but the council never actually did that.

MAY 3

1912, Belgium

Writer May Sarton  (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995) is born in Wendelgem. She wrote some of the most lyrical poetry of the 20th century. When publishing her novel Singing in 1965, Sarton feared that writing openly about lesbianism would lead to a diminution of the previously established value of her work. “The fear of homosexuality is so great that it took courage to write a novel about a woman homosexual who is not a sex maniac, a drunkard, a drug-taker, or in any way repulsive” wrote Sarton in Journal of a Solitude.  After the book’s release, many of Sarton’s works began to be studied in Women’s Studies classes. She died of breast cancer on July 16, 1995.

1948

Miriam Ben-Shalom (born May 3, 1948) is an American educator, activist and former staff sergeant in the United States Army. After being discharged from the military for homosexuality in 1976, she successfully challenged her discharge in court and returned to military service in 1987, the first openly gay person to be reinstated after being discharged under the military’s policy excluding homosexuals from military service. She served until 1990 when the Army succeeded in terminating her service after prolonged judicial proceedings. She is a member of the New England Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans and of the California Alexander Hamilton American Legion Post 448. A resident of Milwaukee with her partner Karen Weiss, she also serves as a full-time tenured instructor of English with the Milwaukee Area Technical College.

1976

A Chorus Line wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A Chorus Line is a musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban and a book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante. Centered on seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line, the musical is set on the bare stage of a Broadway theatre during an audition for a musical. A Chorus Line provides a glimpse into the personalities of the performers and the choreographer as they describe the events that have shaped their lives and their decisions to become dancers. Following several workshops and an Off-Broadway production, A Chorus Line opened at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway July 25, 1975, directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett (April 8, 1943 – July 2, 1987). An unprecedented box office and critical hit, the musical received twelve Tony Award nominations and won nine, in addition to the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Bennett was bisexual. He had numerous affairs with both men and women. He died from AIDS-related lymphoma at the age of 44.

1978, Canada

In Toronto, the Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario distributes Discrimination and the Gay Minority to the members of the Ontario Legislature. Liberal leader Stuart Smith supports inclusion of sexual orientation in human rights code.

1989

Mary Lambert (born May 3, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter and spoken word artist. She worked with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis on a track on their album The Heist. Lambert is the featured artist of their rights single Same Love. Lambert’s contributions to Same Love draw upon her experiences as “a lesbian growing up in a tumultuous, Christian upbringing.” Lambert took the content she created for Same Love and used it to develop the song She Keeps Me Warm which she released on July 30, 2013. Lambert performed at the 2016 Gay Christian Network Conference in Houston, Texas, an annual conference that draws over 1,300 LGBT people from all over the world. Lambert was raised as a Pentecostal, but her family was expelled from the church when she was six after her mother came out as lesbian. Her girlfriend Michelle Jacqueline Chamuel (born 1986) is an American singer, songwriter and producer. She has released several albums and EPs as a solo artist and in partnership with others. She was the lead singer of the band Ella Riot and the runner-up on season four of The Voice. Chamuel released an EP titled I Am in November 2015 under The Reverb Junkie moniker. She co-wrote and produced Hang out with You with Mary.

1989

Christine Jorgenson (May 30, 1926 – May 3, 1989), pioneering transsexual, dies of cancer at age sixty-two.  Jorgensen was the first person to become widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery-in this case, male to female. Jorgensen grew up in the Bronx area of New York. Upon returning to New York aft er military service and increasingly concerned over (as one obituary called it at the time) her “lack of male physical development” Jorgensen heard about sex reassignment surgery and began taking the female hormone ethinyl estradiol on her own. She researched the subject with the help of Dr. Joseph Angelo, a husband of one of Jorgensen’s friends. Jorgensen had intended to go to Sweden, where at the time the only doctors in the world performing this surgery were located. During a stopover in Copenhagen to visit relatives, however, she met Dr. Christian Hamburger, a Danish endocrinologist and specialist in rehabilitative hormonal therapy. Jorgensen stayed in Denmark, and under Dr. Hamburger’s direction, was allowed to begin hormone replacement therapy. She then got special permission from the Danish Minister of Justice to undergo the series of operations for sex re-assignment. Jorgensen chose the name Christine in honor of Dr. Hamburger. She became the most famous and outspoken figure for transsexual and transgender community.

1992

Hope Williams (1898-May 3, 1992) dies. She was a debutante with a carefree manner, boyishly clipped blond hair and a humorous walk who was a leading Broadway actress in the late 1920’s and 30’s. She was part of the lesbian “sewing circle” of actresses in New York.

2003, Japan

Aya Kamikawa (born January 25, 1968) becomes Japan’s first openly transgender official.

2013

After same-sex marriage legislation passes in both houses of Rhode Island’s legislature, Governor Lincoln Chafee signs it into law. The new law, legalizing same-sex marriage, goes into effect on August 1, 2013

MAY 4

1497, Italy

Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican friar, gives the Ascension Day sermon in which he preaches the suppression of sodomy and the burning of men who are “sodomites.”

1895, UK

The Regina v. Wild trial is depicted on front page of The Illustrated Police News. It shows the drama of Oscar Wilde’s second trial of the year for sodomy.

1958

Keith Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) is born. He was an American artist whose pop art and graffiti-like work grew out of the New York City street culture of the 1980s. Haring’s work grew to iconic popularity from his exuberant spontaneous drawings in New York City subways – chalk outlines on blank black advertising-space backgrounds – depicting radiant babies, flying saucers, and deified dogs. After public recognition he created larger scale works such as colorful murals, many of them commissioned. His imagery has become a widely recognized visual language. His later work often addressed political and societal themes – especially homosexuality and AIDS – through his own unique iconography. Haring’s work very clearly demonstrates many important political and personal influences. Ideas about his sexual orientation are apparent throughout his work and his journals clearly confirm its impact on his work. Heavy symbolism speaking about the AIDS epidemic is vivid in his later pieces. Haring was a gay man who died of complications from AIDS at age 31.

1993

Angels in America: Millennium Approaches opens on Broadway. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is a two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner (born July 16, 1956). The work won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play. Part one of the play premiered in 1991 and its Broadway opening was in 1993. The two parts of the play are separately presentable and entitled Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, respectively. The play has been adapted into a 2003 miniseries of the same title as well as a 2004 opera by Peter Eotvos.

2004, Canada

David Peter Reimer (August 22, 1965 – May 4, 2004) is born. He was a Canadian man born male but reassigned as a girl and raised female following medical advice and intervention after his penis was accidentally destroyed during a botched circumcision in infancy. Psychologist John Money oversaw the case and reported the reassignment as successful and as evidence that gender identity is primarily learned. Academic sexologist Milton Diamond later reported that Reimer’s realization he was not a girl crystallized between the ages of 9 and 11, and he transitioned to living as a male at age 15. Well known in medical circles for years anonymously as the “John/Joan” case, Reimer later went public with his story to help discourage similar medical practices. He later died by suicide after suffering years of severe depression, financial instability, and a troubled marriage.

2010, El Salvador

The President of El Salvador issues a decree banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

MAY 5

2400 BCE, Egypt

In 1964 in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Moussa discovered the burial chambers of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, servants and royal confidants at the Palace of King Niuserre during the Fifth Dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs, and are believed to be the first same-sex couple in recorded history. They were ancient Egyptian royal servants who shared the title of Overseer of the Manicurists in the Palace of King Nyuserre Ini, sixth pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, reigning during the second half of the 25th century BC. They were buried together at Saqqara and are listed as “royal confidants” in their joint tomb.

1725, UK

Leendert Hasenbosch (c.1695- c. 1725) was an employee of the Dutch East India Company who was set ashore as a castaway on uninhabited Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean as a punishment for sodomy. He wrote a diary until his presumed death six months later. The diary is published in 1726 under the title Sodomy Punish’d. In 2006 the full story was published by Alex Ritsema with the book A Dutch Castaway on Ascension Island in 1725; a second, revised edition was printed in 2010.

1911

Albert Cashier’s (December 25, 1843 – October 10, 1915) doctor discovers that Albert is female during a broken leg repair. The doctor keeps the Civil War veteran’s secret. Albert is moved on this day to the Soldier and Sailors Home in Quincy, Illinois, and lives there as a man. In 1913, he’s moved to the Watertown State Hospital for the Insane. Nurses there discover he is female-bodied while giving him a bath after which he was forced to wear a dress. Born Jennie Irene Hodgers, Cashier was an Irish-born immigrant who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Cashier adopted the identity of a man before enlisting and maintained it for most of the remainder of his life. She became famous as one of a number of female soldiers who served as men during the Civil War, although the consistent and long-term commitment to the male identity has prompted some contemporary scholars to suggest that Cashier was a transgender man.

1913

Tyrone Power (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958) was an American film, stage and radio actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan, Prince of Foxes, Witness for The Prosecution, The Black Rose, and Captain from Castile. Power’s own favorite film among those that he starred in was Nightmare Alley. Though largely a matinee idol in the 1930s and early 1940s and known for his striking looks, Power starred in films in a number of genres from drama to light comedy. In the 1950s he began placing limits on the number of films he would make in order to devote more time for theater productions. He received his biggest accolades as a stage actor in John Brown’s Body and Mister Roberts. Power died from a heart attack at the age of 44. Power led an active bisexual life in Hollywood and kept the studio busy keeping his name out of the papers. He had a huge gay following and was involved with several men over the years, among them composer Lorenz Hart (May 2, 1895 – November 22, 1943) and actor Cesar Romero  (February 15, 1907 – January 1, 1994). Tyrone Power is one of the top 100 box-office moneymakers of all time.

1974

The Community Homophile Association of Newfoundland (CHAN) is formed becoming the first gay organization in the province.

1979, Canada

In Saskatoon, the Saskatchewan Division of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) at their annual convention supports legislation banning discrimination on basis of sexual orientation.

1993

The Hawaii Supreme Court rules that denying marriage to same-sex couples violates the Equal Protection Clause of the State Constitution.

2011, Brazil

Supreme Federal Court votes 10-0 for civil unions with the same 112 legal rights as married couples.

2016

Transgender male boxer Patricio “El Cacahuate” Manuel, a Southern California fighter, became the first pro boxer to fight as a man after having fought as a woman. He was the highly decorated amateur female boxer Patricia Manuel who fought at the U.S. women’s Olympic Trials boxing in 2012, but was sidelined by an injury. He started his transition in 2013 and had surgery in 2014.

MAY 6

1868, Germany

The term homosexual is written for the first time by Karl-Maria Kertbeny (February 28, 1824 – January 23, 1882) in a letter to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (28 August 1825 – 14 July 1895). He derived it from the Greek homos (“the same”) and the Latin root sexualis. Kertbeny, a Hungarian-German doctor who is an early sympathizer of Ulrichs’, uses both homosexual and heterosexual, terms he has recently coined as part of his system for the classification of sexual types as replacements for the pejorative terms “sodomite” and “pederast” that were used in the German- and French-speaking world of his time. In addition, he called the attraction between men and women heterosexualism.

1895, Italy

Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguella (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), professionally known as Rudolph Valentino, was an Italian naturalized American actor who starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle, and The Son of the Sheik. He was an early pop icon and a sex symbol of the 1920s who was known as the “Latin lover” or simply as “Valentino.” His death at 31 caused mass hysteria among his female fans and further propelled him to iconic status. From the time he died, in 1926 until the 1960s, Valentino’s sexuality was not generally questioned in print. At least four books including the notoriously libelous Hollywood Babylon suggested that he may have been gay despite his marriage to actress Natacha Rambova. For some, his marriages to actress and lesbian Jean Acker (the marriage was never consummated) and Rambova (divorced in 1925), as well as the relationship with Pola Negri, add to the suspicion that Valentino was gay and that these were “lavender marriages.”

1933, Germany

In Berlin young Nazis attack and destroy the Institute of Sexual Research. A few days later, the Institute’s priceless collection of more than 20,000 publications and 5,000 photographs is burned in a public ceremony. The Institute was founded by Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935), a German Jewish physician and sexologist in Berlin-Charlottenburg. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee. Historian Dustin Goltz characterized this group as having carried out “the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights”. Under the more liberal atmosphere of the newly founded Weimar Republic, Hirschfeld purchased a villa not far from the Reichstag building in Berlin for his new Institut fer Sexualwissenschaft (Institute of Sexual Research), which opened on 6 July 1919. In Germany, the Reich government made laws, but the governments enforced the laws, including enforcing Paragraph 175, which they simply didn’t do. After the Nazis gained control of Germany in the 1930s, the Institute and its libraries were destroyed as part of a Nazi government censorship program by youth brigades, who burned its books and documents in the street. On 28 June 1934 Hitler conducted a purge of gay men in the ranks of the SA wing of the Nazis, which involved murdering them in the Night of the Long Knives. This was then followed by stricter laws on homosexuality and the round-up of gay men. The address lists seized from the Institute are believed to have aided Hitler in these actions. Many tens of thousands of arrestees found themselves, ultimately, in slave-labor or death camps.

1947

Jon Reed Sims (May 6, 1947 – July 16, 1984) is born. He was the founder of the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corp, world’s first openly gay musical group. Sims was an American choir conductor born in Smith Center, Kansas. Sims studied music composition at Wichita State University, and received his master’s degree in music from Indiana University. Moving to San Francisco, he became a music teacher by profession, serving for a time as a high school band teacher in Daly City but soon became involved in the developing gay community. He formed the San Francisco band in response to Anita Bryant’s anti-gay campaign in the late 1970s. Upon its founding in 1978, it became the first openly gay musical group in the world. In successive years, Sims created the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, Lambda Pro Musica orchestra (now defunct), and encouraged the formation of the Big Apple Corps GLBT band in New York by Nancy Corporon and The Great American Yankee Freedom Band of Los Angeles by Wayne Love. He died from complications of AIDS at the age of 37.  As one friend said in Sims’ newspaper obituary, he gave gays “an alternative to the baths and the bars.”

1959

The Cooper’s Donuts riot is the first documented LGBT uprising in the U.S. A group of drag queens and hustlers fought the police in the donut shop in downtown Los Angeles, furious that LAPD officers were arresting their friends for legally congregating in Cooper’s, a popular gay meeting place. Cooper’s was located on Main Street, the Los Angeles “gay ghetto” of the 1950s and ’60s. The event is chronicled in detail in Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians, by Lillian Faderman (born July 18, 1940) and Stuart Timmons (January 14, 1957 – January 28, 2017), a meticulously researched book that positions Los Angeles-and not New York-as the most influential gay city of modern times. By Harry Hay’s (April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) recollection, there were even earlier riots and uprisings in which gay and transgender Angelenos were instrumental in resisting police, but Cooper’s was the first such uprising specifically against police treatment of LGBT people.

1976, Canada

Two Members of the Ontario Provincial Parliament, Margaret Campbell (Liberal – St George – downtown Toronto) and Ted Bounsell (NDP – Windsor), introduce private members’ bills to amend Ontario Human Rights Code to include sexual orientation. The bills are defeated.

1994

Noah Egidi Galvin (born May 6, 1994) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for playing Kenny O’Neal in the ABC sitcom The Real O’Neals and the titular role in the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. He came out as gay at the age of 14.

2012

The Family Equality Council hosted its first International Family Equality Day. All over the world, more and more children are growing up in families where one or both of their parents identify as LGBTQ. Yet, each of these “rainbow families” have very different lived equality experiences, often depending not only on what country they live in but what street they live on. In some countries, our families enjoy equal rights and social recognition but in far too many others both parents and their children face overt discrimination and have to live under a constant threat of violence. By celebrating IFED, Family Equality Council and our partners across the globe raise awareness among politicians and the general public about the need for equal treatment and recognition for all families, regardless of the sexual orientation or gender identity of their family’s members.

MAY 7

1365, Italy

Fifteen year-old Giovanni de Giovanni is castrated and killed for having sex with other men. He is one of the youngest victims of the campaign against sodomy waged in 14th-century Florence.

1840, Russia

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) is born in Votinsk. He was a Russian composer of the romantic period, whose works are among the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. He was honored in 1884 by Emperor Alexander III and awarded a lifetime pension. Discussion of Tchaikovsky’s personal life, especially his sexuality, has perhaps been the most extensive of any composer in the 19th century and certainly of any Russian composer of his time. It has also at times caused considerable confusion due to Soviet efforts to expunge all references to same-sex attraction and portray him as a heterosexual. Russian violinist Iosif Iosifovich Kopek (6 October 1855 – 4 January 1885) was probably Tchaikovsky’s lover at some point.

1977, Canada

Ten groups attend the first Manitoba Gay Conference in Winnipeg and form the Manitoba Gay Coalition.

1986, Russia

A former Soviet deputy health minister tells readers of Literaturnaya Gazeta, a popular weekly newspaper, that AIDS is not a concern in the USSR because homosexuality and drug use are both illegal.

1988

In Sacramento, California, 8,000 activists mark the National Day of Protest with the largest gay and lesbian rights rally in the state’s history.

1988

In New York City, some 500 ACT UP activists protest the nation’s lethargic response to the AIDS crisis by blocking traffic in the financial district.

1993

The Hawaii Supreme Court rules that the state must prove a “compelling interest” for denying same-sex partners a marriage license.

1990

Premier of the first Washington D.C. area gay and lesbian television program called Gay Fairfax. The content is political. It airs for four years with a sign-off: “Remember to keep the pride alive.”

2001, China

Leslie Cheung (September 12, 1956 – April 1, 2003), a Hong Kong-born Canadian singer and actor, is credited as the parent of modern Cantonese and Mandarin pop music. He comes out as bisexual in Time Magazine. Cheung dies by suicide on April 1, 2003 by jumping off the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hong Kong. A suicide note left by Cheung stated that he had been suffering from depression.

2009, Argentina

Civil Union law is approved by the city council of Rio Cuarto, Cordoba.

MAY 8

1828, Switzerland

Jean-Henri Dunant (8 May 1828 – 30 October 1910) is born. He was a Swiss businessman and social activist, the founder of the Red Cross, and the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The 1864 Geneva Convention was based on Dunant’s ideas. In 1901 he received the first Nobel Peace Prize together with Fredric Passy, making Dunant the first Swiss Nobel laureate. His birthday, May 8th, is celebrated as the World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day. Following his death his family burned his personal papers in an effort to suppress the fact he was bisexual.

1920, Finland

Tom of Finland, Touko Laaksonen, (May 8, 1920 – November 7, 1991) is born. He is a sex-positive artist who went from the “pornography” underground in the 1950s to the mainstream present. His handsome, outrageously virile and endowed men challenged the perception that all homosexuals were effeminate, at the same time allowing that all types coexisted in the same sexual and social landscape. The nation of Finland issued stamps celebrating his art in 2014.

1953

Susan Feniger (born May 8, 1953) is an American chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and radio and TV personality. She is known for her cooking show Too Hot Tamales on the Food Network and for several influential restaurants in Los Angeles including City Cafe (1981), Border Grill (1985), and Ciudad (1998). In December 2013, Feniger, with Executive Chef Kajsa Alger, opened Mud Hen Tavern at the former location of Street Cafe. Feniger was awarded the Elizabeth Burns Lifetime Achievement Award by the California Restaurant Association. Feniger is a lesbian and her partner is writer, director, composer Liz Lachman.

1978, Canada

The trial begins of those in the Montreal Truxx Bar raid, charged with being keepers of a common bawdyhouse (house of prostitution). In 1976 the City of Montreal launched a pre-Olympic cleanup of gays and prostitutes, a new wave of persecution that shocked the gay community out of its complacency, both francophone and anglophone, and wholescale organizing started up again, energized by the simple exigency of self-defense. The police responded in October 1977 by swooping with machine-guns into the Stanley Street bar Truxx and made the largest mass arrest since the October Crisis. 146 men were forcibly given VD tests, crammed incommunicado all night into tiny cells with standing room only, and charged the next day under the familiar vague and discriminatory bawdy-house and gross indecency laws. That night, 3000 protesters blocked the streets of what was then the West End Peel-Stanley gay ghetto for several hours, and as the Journal de Montreal headline screamed, “Les Homos et la police: c’est la guerre!” No more than 300 demonstrators had ever shown up for a gay lib demo before, and two months later an embarrassed and still idealistic PQ government (only one year in office) passed Loi 88, the first human rights legislation protecting lesbians and gays anywhere in the world (Norway joined Quebec in 1981). The charges hung over the heads of the accused for several years thereafter before finally being dropped.

1981

Tennis great Billie Jean King (November 22, 1943) becomes the first prominent professional athlete to come out as a lesbian when her relationship with her secretary, Marilyn Barnett, becomes public in a May of 1981 “palimony” lawsuit filed by Barnett. As a result, King loses all of her endorsements. King is an advocate for gender equality and has long been a pioneer for equality and social justice. In 1973, at age 29, she won the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match against the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. King was also the founder of the Women’s Tennis Association and the Women’s Sports Foundation.

1996, South Africa

South Africa becomes the first country in the world to adopt language in its constitution protecting the civil rights of lesbians and gay men (Section 2 of the State Duty to Protect Human Rights) That same day, anti-apartheid campaigner Edwin Cameron  (born 15 February 1953) becomes the world’s first openly gay Supreme Court judge. Cameron is well known for his HIV/AIDS and gay-rights activism and was hailed by Nelson Mandela as “one of South Africa’s new heroes.”

2010, Lithuania

The Gay Pride parade takes place amid violence by anti-gay protestors. With the number of police officers in the street almost outnumbering the participants the Latvian capital of Rig a hosted its most successful and peaceful Gay Pride Parade to date. Police presence was heavy as religious groups and some Neo-Nazis had announced their resistance to the Baltic Pride in Riga ahead of the event. But the counter demonstrators were not to be seen and between 300 and 400 people marched through the cobblestone streets of the Latvian capital.

2010

Chaz Bono’s (born March 4, 1969) new name is legally recognized by the court. He is an American advocate, writer, musician and actor. His parents are entertainers Sonny Bono and Cher. Bono is a transgender man. In 1995, several years after being outed as lesbian by the tabloid press, he publicly self-identified as such in a cover story in a leading American gay monthly magazine, The Advocate, eventually going on to discuss the process of coming out to oneself and to others in two books. Family Outing: A Guide to the Coming Out Process for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Families(1998) includes his coming-out account. The memoir The End of Innocence (2003) discusses his outing, music career, and partner Joan’s death from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Between 2008 and 2010, Bono underwent female-to-male gender transition. A two-part Entertainment Tonight feature in June 2009 explained that his transition had started a year before. In May 2010, he legally changed his gender and name. A documentary on Bono’s experience, Becoming Chaz, was screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and later made its television debut on the Oprah Winfrey Network. A year after his name change, he appears on the 13th season of the U.S. version of Dancing with the Stars. This was the first time an openly transgender man starred on a major network television show for something unrelated to being transgender.

2020

Roy Horn (October 3, 1944 – May 8, 2020) of Siegfried (Fischbacher, June 13, 1929-January 10, 2021) & Roy died on this day of Covid-19. Siegfried & Roy was a duo of German-American magicians and entertainers, best known for their appearances with white lions and white tigers.

MAY 9

1726, UK

Gabriel Lawrence, William Griffin, and Thomas Wright are hanged at Tyburn following a raid on Margret Clap’s molly house. A molly house in 18thcentury England was a tavern or private room where men could meet other men with shared interests such as cross-dressing or potential sex partners.

1860, Scotland

James M. Barrie (9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937), the creator of Peter Pan, was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland. Married, he never consummated the union and preferred to spend his time with a group of young boys. Before his death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, which continues to benefit from them.

1943

Openly gay Emile Ardolino (May 9, 1943 – November 20, 1993) was an American film director, choreographer, and producer, best known for his films Dirty Dancing (1987) and Sister Act (1992). Ardolino died in California on November 20, 1993 of complications from AIDS.

1972 , Canada

The first issue of The Other Woman is produced in Toronto. It is a combination of several feminist newspapers with input is from lesbian feminists.

1977, Canada

In Ottawa, Private Barbara Thornborrow  (born 1951) is confronted by officials in the Canadian Armed Forces about her lesbianism. She decides to go public and fight before she is fired. She later challenged the decision, becoming the first person who was discharged based on their sexual orientation to do so publicly. In honor of her role as a significant builder of LGBT culture and history in Canada, a portrait of Thornborrow by artist Barbara Augustine is held by the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in its National Portrait Collection.

1970

Mark Bingham (May 22, 1970 – September 11, 2001), a gay San Francisco businessman and rugby enthusiast, is born. Bingham helps lead and participates in the attempt to retake control of United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, which crashes in a field in Pennsylvania before reaching terrorists’ target on a day that changed America forever. Both for his presence on United 93 as well as his athletic physique, Bingham has been widely honored posthumously for having “smashed the gay stereotype mold and opened the door to many others who came after him.” He is buried at Madronia Cemetery, Saratoga, California. At the 9/11 Memorial Bingham and other passengers from Flight 93 are memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-67.

2012

In an ABC interview, Barack Obama becomes the first sitting U.S. president to publicly support the freedom for LGBT couples to marry. It marks a reversal from his 2008 campaign when he said he opposed same-sex marriage but favored civil unions as an alternative. His announcement came one day after voters in North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage as well as civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.

2012, Argentina

Gender Identity Law 26,743 is approved. Transgender people may register by their chosen name and gender identity.

MAY 10

320 BC, Greece

Theocritus is born in Syracuse. He developed the verse form known as the pastoral, a stylized and artful form usually about shepherds or cowherds who sing of love and friendship. They were highly homoerotic.

1933 – Germany’s

Institute of Sex Research’s library archives are publicly hauled out and burned in the streets. There were many other books burnings throughout Germany on this day as well. Student groups at universities across Germany carried out a series of book burnings of works that the students and leading Nazi party members associated with an “un-German spirit.” The largest of these book bonfires occurred in Berlin, where an estimated 40,000 people gathered to hear a speech by the propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, in which he pronounced that “Jewish intellectualism is dead” and endorsed the students’ “right to clean up the debris of the past.”

1951

Steven Craig Gunderson (born May 10, 1951) is an American former politician who was a Republican U.S. Representative for representing Wisconsin’s 3rd congressional district from 1981 to 1997, when he was succeeded by Democrat Ron Kind. After leaving office, he was president and CEO of the Council on Foundation and then of Career Education Colleges and Universities. In 1994, Gunderson was outed as gay on the House floor by representative Bob Dornan (R-CA) during a debate over federal funding for gay-friendly curriculum, making him one of the first openly gay members of Congress and the first openly gay Republican representative. In 1996, Gunderson was the only Republican in Congress to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act. He has been a vocal supporter of gay rights causes since leaving Congress. During his time in the House, Gunderson was one of only two openly gay Republicans serving in Congress, the other being Jim Kolbe (June 28, 1942 – December 3, 2022) of Arizona.

1978

Todd Gloria (born May 10, 1978) was elected as San Diego’s first openly gay mayor. He is a member of the Democratic Party and is the first person of color (Tinglit-Haida, Puerto Rican and Filipino) and the first openly gay person to serve as San Diego’s mayor. Gloria was then elected to represent California’s 78th State Assembly district, which encompasses much of San Diego. While on the Assembly, he served as House Majority Whip.

1990, UK

OutRage!, the British LGBTQ  rights group, is formed by a broad-based group of queers committed to radical, non-violent direct action and civil disobedience. OutRage! was an all-volunteer, non-hierarchical grassroots, democratic movement, with no officers, leaders or paid staff. Weekly meetings were open to any LGBT person to attend, speak and vote. It was funded entirely by donations from activists and supporters. It lasted for 21 years, disbanding in 2011.

MAY 11

1739 & 1755, UK

Eleanor Butler (11 May 1739 – 2 June 1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (May 11, 1755 -December 9, 1831) celebrated joint birthdays and shared their lives for a half century. The “Ladies of Llangollen” were two upper-class Irish women whose relationship during the late 18th and early 19th century scandalized and fascinated their contemporaries. The subject of several excellent books, they seem to have impressed their neighbors as well as London high society. Eleanor was a member of the Butlers, the Earls (and later Dukes) of Ormond. Considered an over-educated bookworm by her family, she resided at the Butler family seat Kilkenny Castle. She was educated in a convent in France. Her mother tried to make her join a convent because she was remaining a spinster. Sarah lived with relatives in Woodstock, County Kilkenny, Ireland. She was a second cousin of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough, and thus a second cousin once removed of his daughter Lady Caroline Lamb. Eleanor’s and Sarah’s families lived two miles apart. They met in 1768 and quickly became close. Over the years they formulated a plan for a private rural retreat. Butler and Ponsonby lived together for over 50 years. Eleanor Butler died in 1829 at the age of 90. Sarah Ponsonby died two years later. They are buried together at St Collen’s Church in Llangollen.

1933

Mychal Judge (May 11, 1933 – September 11, 2001) is born. Father Judge was a self-identified gay man though celibate due to Catholic restrictions for priests. A long-term supporter of Dignity (a Catholic LGBT activist organization advocating for change in the Catholic Church’s policies/teachings on homosexuality), he was well known and beloved in New York City. He considered himself an “agent of change in both church and society.” He died while administering last rites to a fallen firefighter at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. In 2002, the United States Congress passed The Mychal Judge Police and Fire Chaplains Public Safety Officers Benefit Act into law. The law extended federal death benefits to chaplains of police and fire departments, and also marked the first time the federal government extended equal benefits for same-sex couples by allowing the domestic partners of public safety officers killed in the line of duty to collect a federal death benefit. This act was signed into law on June 24, 2002, but was retroactive only to September 11, 2001.

2001, Egypt

Fifty-two men are arrested on a floating gay nightclub called the Queen Boat moored on the Nile in Cairo. Of fifty-two men arrested, fifty were charged with “habitual debauchery” and “obscene behavior” under Article 9c of Law No. 10 of 1961 on the Combat of Prostitution. Another two were charged with “contempt of religion” under Article 98f of the Penal Code. All fifty-two men pleaded innocent. The trials of the “Cairo 52” lasted five months and the defendants were vilified in the Egyptian media which printed their real names and addresses and branded them as agents against the State.

2003

African American New Jersey high school sophomore Sakia Gunn (May 26, 1987 – May 11, 2003) was murdered after trying to get a man to leave her and her friends alone by explaining that they were lesbian. Gunn was returning from a night out in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, with her friends. While waiting for the #1 New Jersey Transit bus at the corner of Broad and Market Streets in downtown Newark, Gunn and her friends were propositioned by two African American men. The women rejected their advances and declared themselves to be lesbians. The men attacked; Gunn fought back, and one of the men, Richard McCullough, stabbed her in the chest. Both men immediately fled the scene in their vehicle. After one of Gunn’s friends flagged down a passing driver, she was taken to nearby University Hospital, where she died. Gunn’s death sparked outrage from the city’s gay and lesbian community. The community, in conjunction with GLAAD, rallied the mayor’s office, requesting, among other things, the establishment of a gay and lesbian community center, that police officers to patrol the Newark Penn Station/Broad Street corridor 24-hours a day, the creation of a LGBT advisory council to the mayor, and that the school board be held accountable for the lack of concern and compassion when dealing with students at Westside High School (which Gunn attended) immediately following the murder. The Newark Pride Alliance, an LGBT advocacy group, was founded in the wake of Gunn’s murder. In 2008, a documentary was released about Gunn’s murder, titled Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project.

2010

Hundreds of veterans from around the country descend on Washington D.C. to lobby Congress on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Over a hundred U.S. military veterans gather on Capitol Hill to press Congress for quick repeal of the law banning gays from serving in the military. Gay, lesbian and straight veterans and supporters converged on steps of the U.S. Capitol for a group photograph with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Connecticut, who is the main sponsor of a bill that would officially repeal the law known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT). Event participant Andre Sauvageot, 77, served in the Army during World War II. He described himself as straight and “happily married to a Vietnamese woman for 40 years,” but said he came from nearby Virginia to show solidarity with gay and lesbian veterans. Eric Alva (born April 1, 1971), a retired Marine, is one of the event’s organizers. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was the official United States policy on military service by gays, bisexuals, and lesbians, instituted by the Clinton Administration on February 28, 1994. The Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 was issued on December 21, 1993, and lasted until September 20, 2011, when it was repealed by President Obama.

MAY 12

1812, UK

Edward Lear (12 May 1812-29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, and is known now mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularized. His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to illustrate birds and animals; making colored drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poems. As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes, and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson’s poetry. Lear’s most fervent and painful friendship was with Franklin Lushington. He met the young barrister in Malta in 1849 and then toured southern Greece with him. Lear developed an infatuation for him that Lushington did not wholly reciprocate. Although they remained friends for almost forty years, until Lear’s death, the disparity of their feelings constantly tormented Lear. Indeed, Lear’s attempts at male companionship were not always successful; the very intensity of Lear’s affections may have doomed these relationships.

1820, Italy

Florence Nightingale (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) is born in Florence. She is the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager of nurses trained by her during the Crimean War where she organized the tending to wounded soldiers. She gave nursing a highly favorable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of “The Lady with the Lamp,” making rounds of wounded soldiers at night. She often referred to herself in the masculine, as for example “a man of action” and “a man of business” and wrote about having romantic/erotic relationships with women.

1937, Luxembourg

Heinz Neddermeyer (April 20,1914-1984), the first great lover of Christopher Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986), is expelled from Luxembourg. The couple lived together in Berlin until they were forced to flee due to the rise of the Nazis. The day after he was expelled from Luxembourg, Heinz was arrested by the Gestapo. He was sentenced to three and a half years of forced labor and military service. He survived the forced labor and was conditionally free if he married. He married a woman named Gerda in 1938 and had a son named Christian, his only child, in 1940. He died in 1984.

1940

Joan Nestle (born May 12, 1940) is a Lambda Award winning writer and editor and a founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, which holds, among other things, everything she has ever written. She sees her work of archiving history as critical to her identity as “a woman, as a lesbian, and as a Jew”. After the Stonewall riots in 1969, gay liberation became a focus of her activism. She joined the Lesbian Liberation Committee in 1971 and helped found the Gay Academic Union (GAU) in 1972. The following year, she and other members of the GAU began to gather and preserve documents and artifacts related to lesbian history. This project became the Lesbian Herstory Archives, which opened in 1974 in the pantry of the apartment she shared with her then-partner Deborah Edel and later with her family friend Mabel Hampton (May 2, 1902 – October 26, 1989), then moved it to a brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn in 1992. Today its holdings include more than 20,000 books, 12,000 photographs, and 1,600 periodical titles.

1960, UK

The first public meeting of the Homosexual Law Reform Society is attended by more than 1,000 people.

1975

Robert Reed (October 19, 1932 – May 12, 1992), best known as Mike Brady on the sitcom The Brady Bunch, dies of AIDS-related causes. Reed was gay but kept this fact private, choosing to marry a woman instead. He feared news of his sexual orientation would damage his career. In July 1954, Reed married fellow Northwestern student Marilyn Rosenberger. The couple had one daughter, Karen, before divorcing in 1959. Shortly before his death, Reed appeared in the touring production of Love Letters opposite Betsy Palmer, and taught classes on Shakespeare at UCLA. He died on May 12, 1992 at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, at age 59.

1975

Jared Schutz Polis (born May 12, 1975) is an American politician, entrepreneur, and businessman, serving as the 43rdgovernor of Colorado since January 2019. He served one term on the Colorado State Board of Education from 2001 to 2007 and five terms as the U.S. representative from Colorado’s 2nd congressional district from 2009 to 2019. He was the only Democratic member of the libertarian conservative Liberty Caucus and was the third-wealthiest member of the United States Congress with an estimated net worth of $122.6 million. He was elected governor of Colorado in 2018, defeating Republican nominee Walker Stapleton. As an openly gay man, Polis has made history several times through his electoral success. In 2008, he became the first same-sex parent elected to the United States Congress. In 2018, he became the first openly gay man and second openly LGBT person, after Kate Brown (born June 21, 1960) of Oregon), elected governor of a U.S. state. He is also the first Jewish governor of Colorado. In 2020, he became the first U.S. governor to be engaged to a same-sex partner; they wed in 2021.

1975

California decriminalizes same-sex acts between consenting adults. Assembly member Willie Brown and state Senator George Moscone (who later in his career was assassinated along with LGBT civil rights great Harvey Milk in San Francisco) co-sponsor AB 489, the “Consenting Adults Bill,” which decriminalizes sexual activity between consenting adults. Governor Jerry Brown signs the bill into law on May 12, 1975, and it goes into effect January 1, 1976. Prior to 2003, Sodomy was not legal in California. And could not be made so while it was illegal on the Federal level. The monumental Supreme Court 2003 case Lawrence v Texas ruled that systematically criminalizing sodomy is unconstitutional. The case serves as a precedent, and most U.S. states responded by decriminalizing gay sex.

1982, Canada

Police once again raid The Body Politic, the country’s leading gay and lesbian newspaper, on charges of publishing allegedly obscene material.

1999

Billy Bean (born March 29, 1962), former outfielder and left-handed hitter for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres, becomes the second baseball player to publicly come out, three years after his retirement. As a closeted pro athlete, he struggled to juggle his secret and his career. He divorced his wife in 1993 and secretly moved in with his first lover. When his lover died of AIDS, Bean didn’t attend the funeral because he was too frightened that his secret would be revealed. Since 2014, he has served as Major League Baseball’s first Ambassador for Inclusion. He is currently a real estate agent in Miami. Glenn Burke (November 16, 1952 – May 30, 1995) was the first baseball player to come out to his teammates and employers during his playing days, though Burke did not come out to the public at large until his career was over. Burke died from AIDS-related causes in 1995.

2013, Israel

Israel’s Supreme Court allows same-sex parental rights with a court order only, without the lengthy adoption process.

2017

Jon Penton-Robicheaux (1978 -May 12, 2017), the lead plaintiff in a case that challenged Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriages, dies at a New Orleans hospice of liver failure after a battle with bacterial meningitis. He was 39. “Though Jon was a very beloved figure in the gay community, he was low-key. He wasn’t a big publicity person at all. But he is definitely part of history now,” said Frank Perez, a tour guide and chronicler of the city’s gay history. His husband, Derek Penton-Robicheaux, was by his side. Together they founded the nonprofit called Louisiana Equality Foundation to further their gay-advocacy work.

2018

Raquel Pennington (born September 5, 1988) faced Amanda Nunes (born May 30, 1988) on May 12, 2018 at UFC 224 in a UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship bout. Pennington lost the fight via TKO in the fifth round. This was the first event in UFC history to be headlined by two openly gay fighters. Nunes is a Brazilian mixed martial artist who currently fights for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) where she is the reigning champion in both the women’s Bantam weight and Featherweight divisions. Pennington (born September 5, 1988) is an American mixed martial artist who competes in Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s bantamweight division

MAY 13

1941

Queer holocaust: “We saw barracks surrounded by a double circle of high fences… A torrent of blows awaited us. We were instantly overcome with terror.” With these words in his 1994 memoir, Pierre Seel—one of the few gay Holocaust survivors to publicly share his experience—described his arrival at the Schirmeck-Vorbrück concentration camp on May 13, 1941. Having been arrested because of his homosexuality in Nazi-occupied France, Seel was interrogated, tortured and forced to watch his lover being mauled by a pack of dogs, all before he’d turned 18. Eighty years later, while Holocaust remembrance has become an integral part of our civic duties, stories like those of Seel and other LGBTQ victims are often missing from that collective memory. This, however, isn’t the consequence of an accidental historical oversight. The truth is that for the queer survivors of Nazi oppression, 1945 did not bring about any kind of liberation; rather, it marked the beginning of a systematic process of persecution and willful suppression—one that would result in their erasure from the pages of popular history. Within the National Socialist vision, homosexuality represented an insidious “threat” to the “Aryan” race’s survival that needed to be stamped out. Although male homosexual activity had been technically illegal in Germany since the 19th century, it was generally tolerated and even celebrated within certain urban circles prior to Adolf Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933. Weimar-era Berlin came to be labeled as the “gay capital of the world,” a city where a booming queer nightlife scene was wedded with the budding dissemination of new academic ideas calling for greater acceptance of homosexuality and gender non-conformity.

1944

Novelist Armistead Maupin (born May 13, 1944) is born. Maupin is best known for his Tales of the City novels. Published by Harper Collins, Tales places Maupin’s gay characters within a large framework of humanity, creating a social history of San Francisco during the tumultuous decades of the 1970s and 1980s. Maupin is called the Charles Dickens of San Francisco. He is married to Christopher Turner, a website producer and photographer. Maupin’s life and work, and the settings and the themes therein, are the subject of the documentary The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin.

1974

Time Magazine reports of “The New Bisexuals.” The magazine says “bisexuals, like homosexuals before them, are boldly coming out of their closets, forming clubs, having parties and stalking out discotheques.” The article cites Kinsey and feminism as causes for the rise in visibility.

1976, Canada

Montreal police raid gay clubs including the Taureau d’Or, Studio One, the Stork Club, the Crystal Baths, and Jilly’s, a lesbian bar.

1979, Canada

In London, Ontario, the Ontario division of Canadian Union of Public Employees, at its annual conference, opposes discrimination on basis of sexual orientation and urges local affiliates to include it in non-discrimination clauses of collective agreements.

2013

Sex-sex marriage is legalized in Minnesota becoming the twelfth state to do so.

MAY 14

1868, Germany

Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) is born. He was a German Jewish physician and sexologist educated primarily in Germany though he based his practice in Berlin-Charlottenburg. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, the first group to advocate for homosexual and transgender rights. On his 67th birthday, May 14, 1935, Hirschfeld died of a heart attack in his apartment at the Gloria Mansions I building at 63 Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research established the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal in 1990. The Society awards the Medal in two categories, contributions to sexual research and contributions to sexual reform.

1881

Julian Eltinge (May 14, 1881 – March 7, 1941) is born.  He was an American stage and screen actor and female impersonator. After appearing in the Boston Cadets Revue at the age of ten in feminine garb, Eltinge made his first appearance on Broadway in 1904. As his star began to rise, he appeared in vaudeville and toured Europe and the United States, even giving a command performance before King Edward VII. Eltinge appeared in a series of musical comedies written specifically for his talents starting in 1910 with The Fascinating Widow, returning to vaudeville in 1918. In 1917 he appeared in his first feature film, The Countess Charming. By the time Eltinge arrived in Hollywood, he was considered one of the highest paid actors on the American stage. Aside from the graceful femininity he exhibited onstage, Eltinge used a super-masculine facade in public to combat the rumors of his homosexuality. But with the arrival of the Great Depression and the death of vaudeville, Eltinge’s star began to fade. He continued his show in nightclubs but found little success. On February 25, 1941, Eltinge fell ill while performing at Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe nightclub. He was taken home and died in his apartment ten days later on March 7th. He leaves a legacy as one of the greatest female impersonators of the 20th century.

1897, Germany

Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, the first-ever gay rights organization, was formed in Berlin by Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) to campaign for social recognition of gay, bisexual and transgender men and women, and to fight for the repeal of the anti-gay law called Paragraph 175 which allowed their legal persecution.

1910, Germany

In Berlin, Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) publishes his ground-breaking study of gender variant people Die Transvestiten, a title which literally translates as the Transvestites. The term is used by Hirschfeld to denote a much wider understanding of sexual and gender variation than the cross-dressing which the term often implies today.

1919, Germany

In Berlin, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (May, 14 1868 – May, 14 1935) co-founds the Institut fer Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sex Research), a pioneering private research institute and counseling office. On July 20, 1932, the Chancellor Franz von Papen carried out a coup that deposed the Braun government in Prussia and appointed himself the Reich commissioner for the state. A conservative Catholic who had long been a vocal critic of homosexuality, Papen ordered the Prussian police to start enforcing the anti-gay Paragraph 175 and to crack down in general on “sexual immorality” in Prussia. The Institut fer Sexualwissenschaft remained open, but under Papen’s rule, the police began to harass people associated with it. On January 30, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as chancellor. Less than four months after the Nazis took power, Hirschfeld’s Institute was ransacked. On the morning of May 6th, a group of university students belonging to the National Socialist Student League stormed into the institution, shouting “Brenne Hirschfeld!” (“Burn Hirschfeld!”) and began to beat up the staff and smash up the premises. That afternoon, the SA came to the institute, carrying out a more systematic attack, removing all volumes from the library for a book-burning event four days later. In the evening, the Berlin police arrived to announce that the institution was now closed forever. Its library of thousands of books was destroyed by the Nazis.

1922

Richard Lewis Deacon (May 14, 1922–August 8, 1984) was an American television and motion picture actor, best known for playing supporting roles in television shows such as The Dick Van Dyke Show, Leave It To Beaver, and The Jack Benny Program along with minor roles in films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963). Deacon never married. According to academic writers David L. Smith and Sean Griffin, Deacon was gay and was among a number of actors and actresses who were closeted homosexuals working in Hollywood and often employed in Disney films.

1930

Maria Irene Formes (born May 14, 1930) is born. She is a Cuban-American avant garde playwright and director who was a leading figure of the Off-Off-Broadway movement in the 1960s. Always an iconoclast, each of Formes’ plays was its own world, all vastly different from each other. Whereas contemporary playwrights developed a signature style, the critical factor identifying a Formes play is not tone or structure, but an intense, relentless and compassionate examination of the human condition-especially the way intimate personal relationships are impacted and infected by economic conditions. In 1959, Formes met the writer Susan Sontag (January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) at a party and began a relationship that lasted several years. It was while Formes was with Sontag that she began to write plays.

1969, Canada

Canada decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults with the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69.

1970

American Psychiatric Association meeting in New York City includes a presentation advocating the use of electro-convulsive therapy as a “cure” for homosexuality. Three years later it rules that homosexuality is not an illness. The Gay Liberation Front activists ZAP a special session of the American Psychiatric Association dealing with “sex problems.” The activists protest an Australian doctor’s paper on the use of electroshock aversion therapy to “treat” homosexuality.

1974

U.S. Congress members Bella Abzug and Ed Koch introduce the first national gay civil rights bill, the predecessor to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The Equality Act of 1974 would have amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act by adding “sexual orientation” to the list of protected from discrimination. As of the date of this publication in 2021, it has yet to pass though was re-introduced to Congress on February 17, 2021.

1976, Canada

Montreal police raid Montreal’s Neptune Sauna and arrest nineteen men, charging them with being “found-ins” in common bawdyhouse.

1981

The Reagan administration cancels the White House subscription to The Advocate.

1983

Serial killer Randy Kraft is arrested. He is known as “the Scorecard Killer” and “the Freeway Killer.” Kraft is described as one of the “deadliest and most depraved serial killers” in the California’s history, He murdered 61 young men before being caught on this day. He is currently on death row in California.

1996

Blake Brockington (May 14, 1996- March 23, 2015) was an American transman whose suicide attracted international attention. He had previously received attention as the first openly transgender high school homecoming king in North Carolina, and had since been advocating for LGBT youth, the transgender community, and against police brutality. Brockington was enrolled at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, majoring in music education. At the time of his death, he was on medical leave and not attending classes. He stated that his plans were to become a band director and composer. Brockington died on March 23, 2015 after being struck by several vehicles on the outer loop of Interstate 485 near Pavilion Boulevard in Charlotte. The incident was considered a suicide and similar in nature to the suicides of Ash Haffner (1999-Feb. 26, 2015) and Leelah Alcorn (November 15, 1997 – December 28, 2014).

2013, Brazil

The National Council of Justice rules 4-1 to allow same-sex marriage nationally.

2021

Former actor and stunt man Michael B. Watts A 37-year-old man known as an “icon of the local queer community” in Oregon was found dead in the Willamette River on this day. Watts went by the stage name Freddie Hollywood which stemmed from his impersonation of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.

MAY 15

1855

Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) registers Leaves of Grass with the U.S. Copyright agency. The collection is considered an expression of homosexuality and leads to years of controversy.

1871, Germany

Paragraph 175 is added to the German Criminal Code. It made homosexual acts between males a crime. The Nazis broadened the law in 1935 and gay men were forced to wear a pink triangle to indicate their homosexuality. In the prosecutions that followed, thousands died in Nazi concentration camps. It was repealed on March 10, 1994.

1897

Founding of the first homosexual emancipation organization, including what they termed “sexual intermediates” (trans* people) in Germany called the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, which by two decades later, had about 25 chapter in cities throughout Germany. They were continually harassed and beaten by members of the growing Nazi party and outlawed after the rise of Adolph Hitler to power.

1969, Canada

The House of Commons votes to decriminalize private same-sex acts between consenting adults. The new law goes into effect in August.

1972

Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu, (born 15 May 1972) also known as Kumu Hina, is a Native Hawaiian māhū – a traditional third gender person who occupies “a place in the middle” between male and female as well as a modern transgender woman. She is known for her work as a kumu hula (“hula teacher”), a filmmaker, artist, activist and as a community leader in the field of Kanaka Maoli language and cultural preservation. She teaches Kanaka Maoli philosophy and traditions that promotes cross-cultural alliances throughout the Pacific Islands. Kumu Hina is known as a “powerful performer with a clear, strong voice” andhas been hailed as “a cultural icon.”

1977

CBS’ 60 Minutes broadcasts a segment on child pornography, concentrating on “adult homosexuals who prey on small boys.” As a result, teenagers from a conservative New York Catholic high school go on a bashing spree, beating one victim to death. They are later sentenced to 35 and 40 years in prison.

1979, Canada

Teacher Don Jones is dismissed by the Smeaton, Saskatchewan school board because of a complaint that he is gay.

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

Having tied up, tortured, and robbed one gay man the night before, two Hartford, Connecticut, teenagers – Sean Burke and Marcos Perez – bludgeon Richard Reihl to death. Despite attempts by the defense to portray the two teenaged assailants as star athletes and “All-American boys” who deserve leniency and compassion, a judge sentences them to forty and thirty-five years in prison, respectively, for the killing.

1990

Stella Maynes Maxwell (born 15 May 1990) is a British fashion model. She is a New Zealander model known for being a Victoria’s Secret Angel and the face of Max Factor. Since late 2016, she has been dating actress Kristen Stewart (born April 9, 1990).

1996

The Episcopal Church court rules that there is no “core doctrine” against ordaining a gay man as a deacon, the clergy rank below that of priest.

2008

The California Supreme Court rules that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. By November 3rd, 2008, more than 18,000 same-sex couples have married. On November 4, California voters approve a ban on same-sex marriage called Proposition 8.

2010, Greenland

The country’s first LGBT Pride parade takes place. It’s the second largest public gathering in Greenland with over 2% of the country’s population attending.

2013

Dr. Saul Levin was named the new chief executive officer and medical director of the American Psychiatric Association, making him the first known openly gay person to head the APA. Levin was born in South Africa and received his medical degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1982. He then moved to the United States to complete a residency in psychiatry at UC Davis Medical Center. He completed a master’s degree in public administration at the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University in 1994.

MAY 16

218, Italy

Elagabalus (203 – 11 March 222) is declared the 25th emperor of the Roman Empire. He was married to five women and a male athlete named Zoticus whom he wed in a public ceremony. However, his most stable relationship seems to have been with his chariot driver, a blond enslaved man from Caria named Hierocles to whom he referred as his husband. Herodian commented that Elagabalus enhanced his natural good looks by the regular application of cosmetics. He was described as having been “delighted to be called the mistress, the wife, the queen of Hierocles” and was reported to have offered vast sums of money to any physician who could equip him with female genitalia. Elagabalus has been characterized by some modern writers as transgender or transsexual. He was assassinated at the age of 18.

1919

Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) is born Walter Valentino Liberace. For decades, he was known for his flamboyant gender bending style, his music, candelabra, charisma, rhinestones and dazzle. Pianist and entertainer, Liberace enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures, and endorsements. At the height of his fame, from the 1950s to the 1970s, Liberace was the highest-paid entertainer in the world, with established concert residencies in Las Vegas and an international touring schedule. Liberace embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off stage, acquiring the nickname “Mr. Showmanship”. Liberace always denied he was gay. In 1982, Scott Thorson, Liberace’s 22-year-old former chauffeur and live-in lover of five years, sued the pianist for $113 million in palimony after he was let go by Liberace. In a 2011 interview, actress and close friend Betty White stated that Liberace was indeed gay and that she was often used as a beard by his managers to counter public rumors of the musician’s homosexuality. Liberace died as a result of AIDS on February 4, 1987, at his retreat home in Palm Springs, California. He was 67 years old.

1929

Adrienne Rich (May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and radical feminist. She was called “one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century,” and was credited with bringing “the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse.” In 1976, Rich began her partnership with Jamaican-born novelist and editor Michelle Cliff (2 November 1946 – 12 June 2016) which lasted until her death. In her controversial work Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, published the same year, Rich acknowledged that, for her, lesbianism was a political as well as a personal issue, writing, “The suppressed lesbian I had been carrying in me since adolescence began to stretch her limbs.” Her first collection of poetry A Change of World was selected by iW. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. Auden went on to write the introduction to the book. Rich famously declined the National Medal of Arts to protest House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s vote to end funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Rich died from long-term rheumatoid arthritis on March 27, 2012 at the age of 82 in her Santa Cruz, California home. Her last collection was published the year before her death. Rich was survived by her sons, two grandchildren and her partner Michelle Cliff (2 November 1946 – 12 June 2016).

1981

The Fifth BiNational Lesbian Conference in Vancouver draws women from across Canada and organizes the first known lesbian pride march in the world.

1987

HIV-Positive people are banned from entering the United States by the U.S. Public Health Service. President Barack Obama lifts the ban in 2009.

1991, Bahamas

Same-sex sexual activity is legalized in the Bahamas.

2005, Hong Kong

The First Gay Pride Parade in Hong Kong takes place.

2007, Baltic Region

Pride events in the Baltic region faced threats of violence and attempts to be banned by local authorities. In 2006, an LGBT Pride march in Riga was banned because of security threats against the participants. On this day in 2007, the Pride march was allowed to go ahead but inside an enclosed park. Outside of the park, crowds of counter-demonstrators shouted abuses at the Pride marchers and threw two devices which exploded in the park. Amnesty International has been supporting Pride events in the Baltic region through campaigning, participation and monitoring since 2008.

2013, Puerto Rico

Senate approves a non-discrimination bill 15-11.

2019

The film Rocketman premiered on this day. It was the first major film to show gay male sex onscreen. Rocketman is an epic musical fantasy about the incredible human story of Elton John’s breakthrough years. The film follows the fantastical journey of transformation from shy piano prodigy Reginald Dwight into international superstar Elton John. This inspirational story, set to Elton John’s most beloved songs and performed by Taron Egerton, tells the universally relatable story of how a small-town boy became one of the most iconic figures in pop culture.

2020

The Pulse Nightclub Massacre memorial mural on the walls of the local LGBT Center in Orlando, FL community is vandalized and is likely the work of the white supremacists group The Patriot Front. The Patriot Front is identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “white nationalist hate group.” Orlando Weekly reported that The Center’s phone lines had been cut. On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen opened fire at Pulse Nightclub leaving 49 dead and 53 injured. He later pledged allegiance to ISIS, saying that the shooting was motivated by Islamic extremism.

MAY 17

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia

1606, Russia

Tsar Pseudo-Demetrius I is the Czar of Russia from June 10, 1605 until his death on May 17, 1606 when he is killed by a mob that stormed the Kremlin. His mutilated body was displayed next to his lover Petr Basmanov.

1863

Charles Robert Ashbee (17 May 1863 – 23 May 1942) was a British architect and designer who was a prime mover of the Arts and Crafts movement that took its craft ethic from the works of John Ruskin and its co-operative structure from the socialism of William Morris. Ashbee has been described by as “half-Jewish, Anglican, bisexual, married, Socialist, conservationist, romantic, rebel, fop, and self-described “practical idealist.” Ashbee was homosexual at a time when sex between men was a criminal offence. He is thought to have been a member of the Order of Chaeronea, a secret society founded in 1897 by the poet and penal reformer George Ives (1 October 1867– 4 June 1950) for the cultivation of a homosexual ethos. He certainly belonged to groups that provided support and understanding to homosexuals. In 1898, seemingly to cover his homosexuality, Ashbee married the daughter of a wealthy London stockbroker, Janet Elizabeth Forbes (1877–1961) to whom he admitted his sexual orientation soon after she accepted his proposal. During thirteen years of rocky marriage, which included his wife’s serious affair, they had four children. Ashbee was influenced in his life by the theories of homosexuality developed by poet Edward Carpenter (29 August 1844 – 28 June 1929).

1866, France

Composer Erik Satie (17 May 1866 – 1 July 1925) is born in Honfleur, Calvados. Throughout his life he lived in a small Paris room. Dissatisfied with his compositions, he returned to school when he was forty to study music formally. Still his untutored works are among his most popular. An eccentric, Satie was introduced as a “gymnopedist” in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopodies. Satie’s behavior seemed to indicate that he was asexual; he tended to be dismissive when the topic of sexuality arose.

1929

Jill Johnston (May 17, 1929 – September 18, 2010) is born. She authored the book Lesbian Nation (1973). Johnston’s self-described “east west flower child beat hip psychedelic paradise now love peace do your own thing approach to the revolution” (as she called it in Lesbian Nation) often confounded her feminist allies as much as it did the conservative foes of gay and lesbian liberation. In 1973, she predicted “an end to the catastrophic brotherhood and a return to the former glory and wise equanimity of the matriarchies.” In 1977, Johnson became an associate of the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP), an American nonprofit publishing organization. In 1993, in Denmark, she married Ingrid Nyeboe. The couple married again, in Connecticut, in 2009. On September 10, 2010, Johnston suffered a stroke in Hartford, Connecticut, and died. She was 81.

1972

John Waters’ Pink Flamingos opens starring DIVINE!

1978

The Toronto Board of Education committee rehires John Argue as swimming instructor, overruling the principal of his school. Argue had been fired because he was gay.

1990, Switzerland

Homosexuality is removed from the list of mental illnesses by the World Health Organization, declaring this day the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHO).  WHO established the IDAHO Committee to coordinate grass-roots actions in different countries, to promote the day and to lobby for official recognition on May 17th. The date was chosen to commemorate the decision to remove homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1990. For a long time in Germany, May 17th had been unofficially labelled as a sort of “Gay Day.” Written in the date format 17.5, it had a natural affinity with the anti-gay Paragraph 175. The main purpose of the May 17 mobilizations is to raise awareness of violence, discrimination, and repression of LGBT communities worldwide, which in turn provides an opportunity to take action and engage in dialogue with the media, policymakers, public opinion, and wider civil society.

1990

Queer Nation’s name is officially adopted, reclaiming the word queer. Queer Nation is an LGBTQ activist organization founded in March 1990 in New York City  by HIV/AIDS activists from ACT UP. The four founders were outraged at the escalation of anti-gay and lesbian violence on the streets and prejudice in the arts and media. The group is known for its confrontational tactics, its slogans, and the practice of outing. The direct-action group’s inaugural action took place at Flutie’s Bar, a straight hangout at the South Street Sea Port on April 13, 1990. Queer Nation Chicago was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1995.

1992, Switzerland

Voters approve a wide-ranging reform of the country’s laws, including the deletion of all discriminatory language related to homosexuality, with 73 percent voting in favor.

1995

The first Lavender Graduation took place at the University of Michigan with three graduates. Lavender Graduation is an annual ceremony conducted on numerous campuses to honor lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and ally students and to acknowledge their achievements and contributions to the University. The Lavender Graduation ceremony was created by Dr. Ronni Sanlo, a Jewish Lesbian, who was denied the opportunity to attend the graduations of her biological children because of her sexual orientation.  It was through this experience that she came to understand the pain felt by her students. Encouraged by Dr. Royster Harper, the Dean of Students at the University of Michigan, Dr. Sanlo designed the first Lavender Graduation in 1995. The first Lavender graduate was Ryan Bradley. Lavender Graduation is a cultural celebration that recognizes LGBT students of all races and ethnicities and acknowledges their achievements and contributions to the university. Through such recognition LGBT students may leave the university with a positive last experience of the institution thereby encouraging them to become involved as mentors for current students as well as financially contributing alumni.

2004

Massachusetts legalizes same-sex marriage, becoming the first U.S. state to do so after the state Supreme Court ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Marcia Hams and Sue Shepard are the first same-sex couple to marry. Robyn Ochs (born 1958) and her long-time partner Peg Preble were also among the first same-sex couples to get legally married that day.

2005, Mauritius

The Rainbow Collective is founded, working against homophobia.

2009, Russia

A rainbow flash mob happens in St. Petersburg. It is the largest LGBT demonstration in Russia with about 250 people. Nobody was arrested.

2009

Annise Parker (born May 17, 1956) was elected mayor of Houston, making her the first LGBT mayor of a U.S. city with a population over 1 million. She is an American politician who served as the 61st Mayor of Houston, Texas, from 2010 until 2016. She also served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 1998 to 2003 and city controller from 2004 to 2010. Parker was Houston’s second female mayor (after Kathy Whitmire), and one of the first openly gay mayors of a major U.S. city. Houston is the most populous U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor. Parker and her partner, Kathy Hubbard, have been together since 1990. On January 16, 2014, Parker and Hubbard were married in Palm Springs, California. They have three foster children together as well as a then-teenage boy who they offered a home and who they consider their son.

2016

The Senate confirms Eric Fanning  (born July 2, 1968) to be secretary of the Army, making him the first openly gay secretary of a U.S. military branch. Fanning previously served as Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s chief of staff and also served as undersecretary of the Air Force and deputy undersecretary of the Navy. He was nominated by President Barack Obama and removed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2017.

MAY 18

1921

Patrick Dennis (May 18, 1921 – November 6, 1976), pseudonym of Edward Everett Tanner, the writer who created Auntie Mame, was born in Chicago. An out bisexual man, he is the only author to have had three novels on the New York Times best-seller list at the same time. Auntie Mame’s first edition spent 112 weeks on the bestseller list (for 8 weeks in 1956), selling more than 2,000,000 copies in five different languages. The manuscript was turned down by fifteen publishers before being accepted by Vanguard Press. Dennis also wrote several novels under the pseudonym Virginia Rowans. On December 30, 1948, Dennis married Louise Stickney, with whom he had two children. He led a double life as a conventional husband and father, and as a bisexual in later life becoming a well-known participant in Greenwich Village’s gay scene.

1969

Fight Repression of Erotic Expression (FREE), later to be called the Queer Student Cultural Center, is formed at the University of Minnesota. In 1971, an original officer of FREE, Jack Baker, was the first openly gay man elected student body president at a major university. By winning this election he became the first openly gay man to win any public office in the U.S. In 1970, Jack Baker and Mike McConnell also became the first gay couple to seek legal marriage and were featured in Life Magazine. Jack was also re-elected in 1972. FREE pressed for equality and crafted a new University policy. The Administrative Committee approved a final draft 22 May 1972. Complaints could now be filed with the Campus Committee on Placement Services for discrimination by employers recruiting on campus. When challenged, Honeywell admitted that its objection to known homosexuals “still holds.” Facing expulsion from University facilities, Honeywell “quietly reversed its hiring policy.” No longer would it refuse to employ people because they are gay. FREE is the second such organization in the United States, following the Student Homophile League recognized by Columbia University in 1967.

1970

Jack Baker and Mike McConnell file for a marriage license in Minnesota. The clerk of the Hennepin County District Court, Gerald Nelson, said he had “no intention of issuing a marriage license,” because it would “result in an undermining and destruction of the entire legal concept of our family structure in all areas of law.” In mid-August 1971, Baker and McConnell took up residence in Blue Earth County and applied to the District Court in Mankato for a license to marry which was granted once the waiting period expired. Rev. Roger Lynn, a Methodist minister, solemnized their marriage on September 3rd. They were the first legally married couple and remain together to this day.

1974, Canada

The first prairie conference of gay organizations is hosted by Saskatoon Gay Action.

1978, Canada

In Toronto, the second annual conference of MCC (Metropolitan Community Church) in Canada sees the election of a new Canadian coordinator and installation of Rev. Brent Hawkes  (born June 2, 1950) as pastor of MCC Toronto.

1981

Lawrence D. Mass, MD (born June 11, 1946) is the first person to report about AIDS. Many believe that June 5, 1981 is the date of the first published report on the new disease which would later become known as AIDS when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a notice concerning five previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles who died from rare infections which were normally easily curable. But the first published report actually appeared in the New York Native, a gay newspaper, three weeks earlier, on page seven. Dr. Mass went on the help found the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and was the principal author of the organization’s Medical Answers about AIDS through four revisions spanning ten years. Dr. Mass still works as a physician in New York City, where he resides with his life partner, writer and activist Arnie Kantrowitz (born November 26, 1940). Arnold (Arnie) Kantrowitz was an early secretary and vice-president of the pioneering New York City Gay Activists Alliance and is a co-founder of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). He is the author of Under the Rainbow: Growing Up Gay, one of the first autobiographies by a gay activist. From 1999 until his 2004 retirement, Kantrowitz was chair of the English department at the College of Staten Island, where he taught for 41 years. The personal papers of Kantrowitz and Mass are designated for deposit with the New York Public Library.

1987

Mondaire Jones (born May 18, 1987) is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York’s 17th congressional district since 2021. The district includes most of central and northwestern Westchester County and all of Rockland County. A member of the Democratic Party, he and Ritchie Torres are the first openly gay Black members of Congress.

2006, Belgium

The Belgium Parliament votes to allow same-sex couples to adopt children.

2021

Jonathan Ned Katz’ (born 1938) new book The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams is released. Eve Adams was a rebel. Born Chawa Zloczewer into a Jewish family in Poland, Adams emigrated to the United States in 1912. The young woman befriended anarchists, sold radical publications, ran lesbian- and gay-friendly speakeasies in Chicago and New York, and took on her new name. Then, in 1925, Adams risked all to write and publish a book titled Lesbian Love, presenting brief portraits of two-dozen women. In a repressive era, Adams’s bold activism caught the attention of the young J. Edgar Hoover and the U.S. Bureau of Investigation, leading to her surveillance and arrest. In a case that pitted immigration officials, the New York City police, and a biased informer against her, Adams was convicted of publishing an obscene book and of attempted sex with a policewoman sent to entrap her. Adams was jailed and deported back to Europe, ultimately murdered by Nazis in Auschwitz. In The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams, historian Jonathan Ned Katz has recovered the extraordinary story of an early, daring activist. Drawing on startling evidence, carefully distinguishing fact from fiction, Katz presents the first biography of Adams, and his publisher reprints the long-lost text of Adams’s rare, unique book Lesbian Love.

MAY 19

1897, UK

Gay author Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) is released from prison. A short time later, he leaves England to spend the remaining three years of his life in self-imposed exile in France and Italy.

1891

John Vernou Bouvier III (May 19, 1891 – August 3, 1957), father of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, was born in New York City. Though a well-known womanizer, he was also known for his man-izer within some circles. A noted narcissist, his Manhattan apartment was covered wall to wall with pictures of himself. Among his lovers was composer Cole Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964).

1923, UK

Peter Wildeblood (19 May 1923 – 14 November 1999) is born. He was an Anglo-Canadian journalist, novelist, playwright and gay rights campaigner. He was one of the first men in the UK to publicly declare his homosexuality. His lover was Edward McNally (born 1928).

1927

Wings, the first feature film with a male/male kiss, premiers in Texas! The actors were Richard Arlen and Jack Powell. It is also the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It’s an American silent film set during the First World War, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman.

1930

Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an African American playwright and writer. Hansberry was the first Black female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of Black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago. Hansberry’s family had struggled against segregation, challenging a restrictive covenant and eventually provoking the Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee. The title of the play was taken from the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” At the young age of 29, she won the New York’s Drama Critic’s Circle Award making her the first African American dramatist, the fifth woman, and the youngest playwright to do so. She was an activist for gay rights and wrote about feminism and homophobia, joining the Daughters of Bilitis and contributing two letters to their magazine, The Ladder, in 1957 under her initials “LHN.” She died in 1965.

1960

Mark Christian Ashton (19 May 1960 – 11 February 1987) was a British gay rights activist and co-founder of the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) support group. He was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and general secretary of the Young Communist League. Diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, Ashton was admitted to Guy’s Hospital on 30 January 1987 and died 12 days later. His death prompted a significant response from the gay community, particularly in publication and attendance at his funeral at Lambeth Cemetery. The LGSM’s activities were dramatized in Pride, a film released in September 2014 featuring Ben Schnetzer as Ashton.

1979

A Bi-national Lesbian Conference is held at University of Toronto.

2005

The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services officially recognizes May 19th as the National Asian and Pacific-Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

2006

U.S. District Judge Robin J. Cauthron rules that the state of Oklahoma must, under the full faith and credit clause of the U.S. Constitution, recognize the validity of adoptions approved by courts in other states, regardless of whether the adoptive parents are same-sex couples.

2009

Glee premiers on television featuring LGBT characters and themes.

2011

Rachel Isaacs is the first LGBT person to be ordained in the Jewish Conservative movement. She is now the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Waterville, Maine, which is a Conservative synagogue as well as the Dorothy “Bibby” Levine Alfond Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at Colby College. In 2014 Isaacs was named one of “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis” by the Jewish Daily Forward. In 2016, she delivered the evening Hanukkah benediction at the White House

MAY 20

1782

On this day Deborah Sampson (December 27, 1760- April 29, 1827) enlisted as a Continental soldier using the name of her late brother, Robert Shurtliff Sampson, who also served. She was in the Light Infantry Company of the 4thMassachusetts Regiment. She is one of a small number of women with a documented record of military combat experience in that war, serving for months. She was wounded in 1782, and was honorably discharged at West Point, New York in 1783. In January 1792, Sampson petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature for pay which the army had withheld from her because she was a woman. The legislature granted her petition and Governor John Hancock signed it. The legislature awarded her 34 pounds plus interest back to her discharge in 1783.In 1802, Sampson began giving lectures about her wartime service. She began by extolling the virtues of traditional gender roles for women, but toward the end of her presentation she left the stage, returned dressed in her army uniform. Sampson died of yellow fever at the aged 66 on April 29, 1827.

1885, Germany

Karl M. Baer (20 May 1885 – 26 June 1956) was a German-Israeli author, social worker, reformer, suffragette and Zionist. Assigned female at birth and named Martha Baer, Karl became one of the first people to undergo sex-change surgery, and one of the first, on this day in 1907, to gain full legal recognition of his gender identity and to have a new birth certificate issued reflecting his new gender, confirmed by the German courts. Baer also gained the right to marry and did so in October 1907.He began living as a man in 1905 and underwent multistage rudimentary sex-change surgery in October of 1906. He was released from the hospital that December with a medical certificate certifying his male identity. From 1908 to 1911 Baer was an insurance sales agent. On January 1, 1911 he took up a post as Consul for Jewish Life in Berlin. In December 1920, he became director of the Berlin section of the loge B’nai B’rith, a post he held until the Section’s forcible closure by the Gestapo on April 19, 1937. Baer was by then an important figure in Jewish society, and his influence on cultural life brought him into conflict with the Nazi administration. He was allowed to emigrate with his wife in June, 1938, to Palestine, later to become Israel, where he worked between 1942 and 1950 as an accountant. By 1950 he was going blind and had to give up his job. Nothing more is documented about him up to his death in 1956. He is buried in the Kiryat-Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv under the name Karl Meir Baer.

1906

Valentine Ackland (born Mary Kathleen Macrory Ackland; 20 May 1906 – 9 November 1969) was an English poet, and life partner of novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner (6 December 1893 – 1 May 1978). Ackland was responsible for involving Warner in the Communist Party, which both joined in 1934Their relationship was strained by Ackland’s infidelities and alcoholism but survived for nearly forty years. Both were closely involved with communism, remaining under continued scrutiny by the authorities. Ackland’s poetry did not become widely noticed until after her death, when her reflective, confessional style was more in vogue, and left-wing writers of the 1930s had become a popular topic. Ackland died at her home in Maiden Newton, Dorset, on 9 November 1969 from breast cancer that had metastasized to her lungs.

1936, Germany

The German actress Therese Giehse (March 6,1898 – March 3,1975) had been lovers with Erika Mann  (November 9, 1905 – August 27, 1969) in 1933. Born in Munich to German-Jewish parents, she first appeared on the stage in 1920. She became a major star on stage, in films, and in political cabaret. In the late 1920s through 1933, she was a leading actress at the famous Munich Kammerspiele. On 20 May 1936 she married the homosexual English writer John Hampson in order to obtain a British passport and thereby avoid capture by the Nazis. She returned to Germany after World War II and performed in theaters on both sides of the Iron Curtain, but mostly in her native Bavaria, until her death in 1975.

1974

Singer v. Hara was a lawsuit filed by John F. Singer (October 21, 1944 – June 5, 2000) and Paul Barwick (born 1946) after being refused a request for a marriage license at the King County Administration Building in Seattle, Washington on September 20, 1971. The suit ended with a unanimous rejection by the Washington State Court of Appeals

1979

The first Mr. International Leather contest is held. The winner is David Klos. International Mister Leather (IML) is an international, though largely American, conference and contest of leathermen held annually in May in Chicago, Illinois.

1996

In the case of Romer v. Evans, the United States Supreme Court decides that Colorado’s Amendment Two, denying gays and lesbians protections against discrimination, is unconstitutional.

2008

Sam Adams (born September 3, 1963) is the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city, Portland, OR. He wins with 58% of the vote. Richard Heyman (c. 1935 – September 16, 1994) was the first openly gay person to be elected mayor of any city, in Key West in 1983, stepped down after serving a two-year term, then ran again and won in 1987.

2012, Ukraine

In Ukraine’s capital city, Kiev, rights activists planned that country’s first Pride march. Over 500 Neo-Nazi nationalists attacked and insured some of the marchers, in plain view of police officers merely watching. The march was cancelled.

2017, Bucharest

Some 1,000 people joined a gay pride march in the Romanian capital of Bucharest demanding greater rights amid government moves they say will curtail their rights. Some 30 ambassadors expressed support for the march and for protecting the rights of the LGBT community and U.S. Ambassador Hans G. Klemm was among those taking part, despite the pouring rain. The gay pride march, now in its 13th year in Romania, comes after lawmakers approved an initiative that could amend Romania’s constitution to explicitly state that marriage is a union between a man and woman. The wording now is a union between “spouses.” Romania decriminalized homosexuality in 2001.

2021

 Gay circuit party impresario Jeffrey Sanker (1966-May 20, 2021), owner of the Los Angeles based White Party Entertainment company, died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital with family members in attendance after a long battle with liver cancer. The 65 year old West Hollywood resident had built his company and reputation on hosting large scale parties in exotic places, including Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco, Mexico, Las Vegas, Nevada and Miami, Florida although his trademark extravaganza, White Party Palm Springs, had evolved into the nation’s largest gay dance music festival, attracting more than 30,000 attendees from every corner of the globe. Sanker also staged and produced fundraising events on behalf of numerous charities and community organizations, including Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing (GLEH), The Trevor Project, and Desert AIDS Project.

MAY 21

1916

Harold Robbins (May 21, 1916 – October 14, 1997) is born in New York. His original name was Francis Kane. Robbins is the author of some of the best-selling blockbusters in publishing history. Dreams Die First, a novel featuring a bisexual hero, was considered a landmark at the time.

1917

Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917 – September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. Burr’s early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television, and film, usually as the villain. His portrayal of the suspected murderer in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Rear Window (1954) is his best-known film role, although he is also remembered for his role in the 1956 film Godzilla, King of the Monsters! which he reprised in the 1985 film Godzilla 1985. He won Emmy Awards for acting in 1959 and 1961 for the role of Perry Mason, which he played for nine seasons (1957–1966) and reprised in a series of twenty-six Perry Mason TV movies (1985–1993). His second TV series, Ironside, earned him six Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations. Burr died of cancer in 1993, and his personal life came into question as many details of his biography appeared to be unverifiable. He was ranked number 44 of the 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time by TV Guide magazine in 1996. In 1960, Burr met Robert Benevides (born 1930), an actor and Korean War veteran, on the set of Perry Mason. Benevides gave up acting in 1963, and became a production consultant for twenty-one of the Perry Mason TV movies. They owned and operated an orchid business and then a vineyard in California’s Dry Creek Valley. They were domestic partners until Burr’s death in 1993. Burr bequeathed his entire estate to Benevides, and Benevides renamed the Dry Creek property Raymond Burr Vineyards (reportedly against Burr’s wishes) and managed it as a commercial enterprise. In 2017, the property was sold. Although Burr had not revealed his homosexuality during his lifetime, it was reported in the press upon his death.

1966

A coalition of homophile organizations across the country organize simultaneous demonstrations for Armed Forces Day. The Los Angeles group holds a 15-car motorcade which has been identified as the nation’s first gay pride parade, and activists picket in the other cities. The protest grew out of the first meeting of the organization that would become the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations. (The term homophile emphasized love rather than sex and was in common use in the 1950s and 1960s by LGBT organizations and publications; the groups of this period are now known collectively as the homophile movement.)

1968

Ron Buckmire (born 1968) is born. Buckmire is a mathematician, a professor and a queer activist. He is the founder of the Queer Resources Directory, the largest and oldest website on gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/AIDS issues on the Internet. He was born on the Caribbean island nation of Grenada.

1969

The Committee for Homosexual Freedom pickets a Tower Records store in San Francisco for several weeks following the firing of Frank Denaro, believing him to be gay. Denaro was reinstated. The CHF ran similar pickets of Safeway stores, Macy’s and the Federal Building.

1969, South Africa

The Immorality Amendment Act of 1969 introduces Section 20A, the infamous “men at a party” clause, which criminalizes all sexual acts committed between men “at a party,” where “party” is defined as any occasion where more than two people are present. The amendment also raises the age of consent for male homosexual activity from 16 to 19, although “sodomy” and “unnatural acts” were already criminal.

1970

Bella Abzug becomes one of the first major U.S. politicians to openly court the gay vote as she addresses a meeting of the Gay Activists Alliance while running for Congress in New York City. She was one of the first members of Congress to support gay rights, introducing the first federal gay rights bill, known as the Equality Act of 1974, with fellow Democratic New York City Representative, Ed Koch, a future mayor of New York City.

1976

Candidate Jimmy Carter announces that if elected he will support and sign a federal civil rights bill outlawing discrimination against gays and lesbians. “I never knew of any word or action of Jesus Christ that discriminated against anyone,” Carter said. The Carter administration was in the midst of extensive meetings with the new National Gay Task Force (NGLTF), founded in 1973. The talks, initiated by Carter aide Midge Costanza (November 28, 1932 – March 23, 2010) and her Office of Public Liaison (OPL), sought to end antigay discrimination. An NGLTF negotiating team had been meeting with agencies like the FCC to persuade them that they could intervene against forms of discrimination that restricted gay and lesbian economic citizenship. They took the position that the Carter administration could open the door to equality by enforcing existing nondiscrimination policies that spoke to human rights principles already endorsed by the president. The group publicly suggested that an executive order establishing gay civil rights would be desirable, they accepted that the president had distanced himself from them as a constituency.

1977, Canada

The largest Canadian Gay Rights of Ontario demonstration to date converges on Queen’s Park (The Ontario Legislature) with civil rights demands. The Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario presents the brief The Homosexual Minority in Ontario to the Ontario Human Rights Commission. The Canadian Human Rights Act, which created the Canadian Human Rights Commission, was finally passed on June 2, 1977, by the Federal Parliament; but homosexuals were not included.

1979

Dan White is found guilty of lesser charges (voluntary manslaughter) but acquitted on murder charges stemming from his assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978). Protests following the verdict turn into a riot with over 3,000 people. It became known as the White Night Riots. Dozens were hospitalized.

2013, Nepal

Cason Crane (born 1992) becomes the first openly gay man to summit Mt. Everest. He does it as part of his Rainbow Summit Project to raise awareness for the Trevor Project. In 2013, he became the first gay mountaineer to scale the Seven Summits.

2020

San Francisco’s oldest surviving gay bar, The Stud, which opened in 1966, is forced to close, becoming another victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. In November, 2020, Oil Can Harry’s in Los Angeles permanently closed as well.

MAY 22

337 C.E.

During the declining years of the imperial Roman Empire, a climate of intolerance increased. In this year, Emperor Constantine I (May 22, 337 AD) made Christianity the official religion, with its pronouncements against same-sex sexuality. Christian teachings influenced Roman law.

1879, Russia

Alla Nazimova (May 22 , 1879 – July 13, 1945) was a Russian actress who immigrated to the United States in 1905. Nazimova openly conducted relationships with women, and her mansion on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard was believed to be the scene of outlandish parties. She is credited with having originated the phrase “sewing circle” as a discreet code for lesbian or bisexual actresses. From 1917 to 1922, Nazimova wielded considerable influence and power in Hollywood. Nazimova helped start the careers of both of Rudolph Valentino’s wives, actress Jean Acker (October 23, 1893 – August 16, 1978) and film costume and set designer Natacha Rambova (January 19, 1897 – June 5, 1966). Although she was involved in an affair with Acker, it is debated as to whether her connection with Rambova ever developed into a sexual affair. Nevertheless, there were rumors that Nazimova and Rambova were involved in a lesbian affair (they are discussed at length in Dark Lover, Emily Leider’s biography of Rudolph Valentino) but those rumors have never been definitely confirmed. She was very impressed by Rambova’s skills as an art director, and Rambova designed the innovative sets for Nazimova’s film productions of Camille and Salome. Of those Nazimova is confirmed to have been involved with romantically, the list includes actress Eva Le Gallienne (January 11, 1899 – June 3, 1991), director Dorothy Arzner (January 3, 1897 – October 1, 1979), writer Mercedes de Acosta (March 1, 1893 – May 9, 1968), and Oscar Wilde’s niece Dolly Wilde (July 11, 1895 – April 10, 1941). Magic realist artist and surrealist painter Bridget Bate Tichenor (November 22, 1917 – died on October 20, 1990) was also rumored to be one of Nazimova’s favored lovers in Hollywood during the World War II years of 1940 to 1942. The two had been introduced by the poet and art collector Edward James, and according to Tichenor, their intimate relationship angered Nazimova’s longtime companion actress Glesca Marshall (September 19, 1906 – August 21, 1987). However, the fact that Tichenor was pregnant most of 1940, giving birth to her son on Dec. 21, 1940, along with the 40-year age gap between the two women, casts some doubt on this rumor. Nazimova lived with Glesca Marshall from 1929 until her death in 1945. Glesca was also the longtime companion of Emily Woodruff, theatrical benefactor and main patron of the Springer Opera House in Columbus, Georgia. Marshall and Woodruff are buried together at Parkhill Cemetery, Columbus, Georgia.

1967

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Clive Michael Boutilier v. the Immigration and Naturalization Service (1967) is handed. It is a long-forgotten ruling that upheld the deportation of a legal resident from Canada who was classified by the U.S. government as having a “mental or physical defect.” According to the INS’s Annual Report for 1967, the United States excluded or deported more than 100,000 people on this basis from 1892 to 1967, but this represented a small fraction of the total number of foreign “defectives” rejected by the United States for immigration, residency, and citizenship. U.S. immigration law barred the entry of “lunatics, idiots, epileptics, imbeciles, feeble-minded people, constitutional psychopathic inferiors, and anyone likely to become a public charge.” Physical “defects” that were grounds for exclusion and deportation included “arthritis, asthma, blindness, bunions, deafness, deformities, flat feet, heart disease, hernia, spinal curvature, and varicose veins.” Influenced by eugenics, nativism, and racism, policymakers were determined to promote their (limited) vision of national strength. “Sexual perversion” was the “critical consideration” for Boutilier. Guy Carleton Boutilier was a Canadian politician. Born in 1933, he had moved from Nova Scotia to New York in 1955. By the time he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1963, his mother and most of his siblings also lived in the United States and he was working as a building maintenance man; ironically, he had earlier worked as an attendant for a man who was mentally ill. Boutilier’s immigration troubles began when he noted on his citizenship application that in 1959 he had been arrested, but not convicted, on a sodomy charge in New York. This prompted an interrogation by the INS in which Boutilier revealed that he had engaged in sex with men and women before entering the United States and that he had continued to engage in same-sex sex with his partner Eugene O’Rourke and with other men, after moving to New York. Based on this information, the INS rejected his citizenship application and ordered him deported as a “psychopathic personality.” Boutilier’s lawyers, affiliated with the American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Homosexual Law Reform Society, challenged his deportation with multiple arguments. They submitted medical affidavits indicating that Boutilier was not a psychopathic personality. They raised procedural objections because the Public Health Service had not examined Boutilier. They offered expert testimony that challenged the government’s claim that homosexuality was psychopathic. They questioned whether the intent of Congress was to exclude and deport all homosexual aliens. They argued that even if it was, the law was unconstitutionally vague because the average person would not know that the government regarded homosexuality as evidence of psychopathic personality. The American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973 but Congress did not eliminate the “psychopathic personality” provision in U.S. immigration law until 1990. Boutilier died in a home for people with disabilities in 2003, two months before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned state sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas. 

1940

Mary Dispenza (born May 22, 1940) is born in Chicago. Sister (nun), teacher, principal and archdiocesan administrator, Mary became one of the highest ranking Roman Catholics ever to lose her job with the Church over her sexual orientation. A survivor of abuse at the hands of a priest, Mary Dispenza is on a mission to protect children from harm and end abuse within the Catholic Church. Mary volunteers at Lambert House and for countless other Washington State LGBT community organizations. She is the author of SPLIT, her courageous memoir which reveals the shocking story of her rape by the parish priest at seven years of age.

1954

Barbara May Cameron (May 22, 1954 – Feb. 12, 2002) was a photographer, poet, writer and a nationally recognized human rights activist in the fields of gay women, women’s rights and Native American rights. She was a member of the Hunkpapa Lakota part of the Fort Yates band of the Standing Rock Nation in Fort Yates, North Dakota. Cameron was in a 21-year relationship with Linda Boyd with whom she raised a son, Rhys Boyd-Farrell. Cameron co-founded the Gay American Indians (GAI) in 1975 with Randy Burns (born 1955), a Native Alaskan. GAI was the first gay Indian organization. The reason for founding GAI, according to Cameron, was that Native American gay people had different needs and struggles than the gay white community. Moreover, there was in general a lack of support for people of color within the Gay and Lesbian community. In 1978, she contributed to the anthology Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book.

2008

Democrat Maryland governor Martin O’Malley signs two bills into law legalizing same-sex domestic partnerships. Full same-sex marriage becomes legal on Jan. 1, 2013.

2009

Harvey Milk Day, organized by the Harvey Milk Foundation, is celebrated each year on May 22 in memory of Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist assassinated in 1978. The day was established by the California legislature and signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009 after a series of petitions led by gay rights activist Daren I. Ball and in the wake of the award-winning feature film Milk retracing Milk’s life. It is recognized by California’s government as a day of special significance for public schools.

MAY 23

1791, France

France creates a new law system where rape is the only punishable sex crime. Sodomy, a former capital offense, is not included, leading France to be the first country to decriminalize sex between men.

1908, Switzerland

Annemarie Minna Schwarzenbach (23 May 1908 – 15 November 1942) is born. She was a Swiss writer, journalist, photographer and traveler. From an early age she began to dress and act like a boy, a behavior not discouraged by her parents, and which she retained all her life. In fact, in later life she was often mistaken for a young man. In 1930 she made contact with German actress Erika Mann (November 9, 1905 – August 27, 1969). She was fascinated by Erika’s charm and self-confidence. A relationship developed which, much to Annemarie’s disappointment, did not last long because Erika had her eye on another woman: the actress Therese Giehse (6 March 1898 – 3 March 1975). Erika and Annemarie always remained friends. In 1935 she returned to Persia where she married the French diplomat Achille-Claude Clarac (31 August 1903 – 11 January 1999), a gay man. They had known each other for only a few weeks It was a marriage of convenience for both of them since she obtained a French diplomatic passport which enabled her to travel without restrictions. They lived together for a while in Teheran but when they fled to an isolated area in the countryside to escape the summer heat, their lonely existence had an adverse effect on Annemarie. She turned to morphine, which she had been using for years for various ailments, but to which she now became addicted. She is reported to have had affairs with the daughter of the Turkish Ambassador in Teheran and a female archaeologist in Turkmenistan.

1910

Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was an American writer of children’s books, including Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd. She has been called “the laureate of the nursery” for her achievements. In the summer of 1940, Brown began a long-term relationship with Blanche Oelrichs (nom de plume Michael Strange) (October 1, 1890 – November 5, 1950), poet/playwright, actress, and the former wife of John Barrymore. The relationship, which began as a mentoring one, eventually became romantic and included co-habiting at 10 Gracie Square in Manhattan beginning in 1943. As a studio, they used Cobble Court, a wooden house later moved to Charles Street. Oelrichs, who was almost 20 years Brown’s senior, died in 1950. Brown went by various nicknames in different circles of friends. To her Dana School and Hollins friends she was “Tim,” as her hair was the color of timothy hay. To Bank Street friends she was “Brownie.” To William Gaston she was “Goldie,” in keeping with the use of Golden MacDonald as the author of The Little Island. In 1952, Brown met James Stillman ‘Pebble’ Rockefeller Jr. at a party and they became engaged. Later that year, while on a book tour in Nice, France, she died at 42 of an embolism, shortly after surgery for an ovarian cyst. Kicking up her leg to show her nurses how well she was feeling caused a blood clot that had formed in her leg to dislodge and travel to her heart. By the time of Brown’s death, she had authored well over one hundred books. Her ashes were scattered at her island home, “The Only House,” in Vinalhaven, Maine.

1920

Harvard establishes a committee to investigate homosexual activity on campus. The tribunal becomes known as the Secret Court of 1920. Records of the tribunal are discovered in 2002. Many of those interrogated were never charged and have not been identified. In 2002, a researcher from The Crimson, the school’s undergraduate daily newspaper, came across a box of files labeled “Secret Court” in the University Archives. After a protracted campaign on the part of the paper’s staff, the university released five hundred documents relating to the Court’s work. An article by Amit R. Paley in The Crimson’s weekly magazine Fifteen Minutes reported the 1920 events on November 21, 2002.

1953

When the Mattachine Society reconvenes to approve a constitution, it refuses to seat delegates associated with the Communist Party, including Chuck Rowland (Aug. 24, 1917-Dec. 27, 1990), one of the original 1950 Mattachine founders. For the remainder of the decade, the society pursues a low profile, non-confrontational approach to winning societal acceptance of lesbians and gay men. Rowland founded Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles. The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was one of the earliest LGBT (gay rights) organizations in the United States, probably second only to the short-lived Society for Human Rights in Chicago (1923). Communist and labor activist Harry Hay(April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) formed the group with a collection of male friends including Chuck Rowland in Los Angeles to protect and improve the rights of gay men. Branches formed in other cities and by 1961 the Society had splintered into regional groups. In 2002, Mattachine Midwest was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. A new Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. was formed in 2011 and is dedicated to original archival research of LGBT political history.

1969

In this day’s issue of the American porno magazine Screw, a column appears by Jack Nichols and Lige Clarke using the term homophobia to refer to straight men’s fear that they might be gay. Screw is usually a straight man’s magazine. John Richard “Jack” Nichols Jr. (March 16, 1938 – May 2, 2005) was a gay rights activist who co-founded the Washington, D.C. branch of the Mattachine Society in 1961 with Franklin Kameny (May 21, 1925 – October 11, 2011). Nichols and his partner Lige Clarke (February 22, 1942-February 10, 1975) began writing the column “The Homosexual Citizen” for Screw magazine in 1968. It was the first LGBT-interest column in a non-LGBT publication. As a result of this column, Nichols and Clarke became known as “The most famous gay couple in America.”

1973

Prescott Townsend (June 24, 1894 – May 23, 1973) was an American cultural leader and gay rights activist from the 1930s through the early 1970s. In the 1950s. He held meetings at his home/bookstore which he described as “the first social discussion of homosexuality in Boston”. He founded a Boston chapter of the Mattachine Society though after the group grew, he was forced out. Townsend had been suffering from failing health brought on by Parkinson’s Disease.

2013

The Boy Scouts of America’s national council votes to remove the ban against gay scouts, causing conflict with some faith-based supporters. The policy for adult leaders remained in place until July 27, 2015.

MAY 24

Pansexual and Panromantic Awareness and Visibility Day

1610

The Virginia Colony passes the first anti-sodomy law of the American colonial period.

1905

Jimmie Shields (May 24, 1905 – March 5, 1974) was the longtime companion of William Haines (January 2, 1900 – December 26, 1973), the first openly gay Hollywood star. In 1926, on a trip to New York while on the cusp of his superstardom, Haines had a whirlwind fling with the 21-year-old former sailor Jimmy Shields. When Haines returned to L.A., he brought Shields with him, moved his new boyfriend into his house and got him work as an extra at MGM. They were one of the few couples to make it into Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst’s inner circle, meriting invitations to San Simeon nearly weekly. In 1930, Jimmie had become part owner of an antiques shop on La Brea Avenue. By that point he had already turned his own home into a showroom for his exquisite taste, and his guests were always asking where they could buy things like the ones he had, so he gave them a place to do it. Occasionally his antiques and art were borrowed for use in movies—paintings personally owned by William Haines lined the walls of Tara in Gone With the Wind. Above all else, Jimmie understood how people liked to live, and he was able to create spaces in which they could do it. William and Jimmy enjoyed a high position in Hollywood for decades. Some members of the Hollywood community shunned them for living openly but their true friends stayed loyal. They stayed together until William’s death in 1973. Jimmy Shields died by suicide on March 5, 1974. He left behind a note that said, “It’s no good without Billy.”

1919, Germany

The first gay feature film Ander Als die Andern/Different from the Others is screened for members of the press at the Apollo Theater in Berlin. The film is about a romantic relationship between two men and intended to educate viewers of the hardships faced by homosexuals under Germany’s recently enacted anti-sodomy laws. It starred Conrad Veidtand Reinhold Schunzel. It was co-written by Richard Oswald and Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) who also had a small part in the film and partially funded the production through his Institute for Sexual Science, with the aim of presenting the story as a polemic against the then-current laws under Germany’s Paragraph 175, which made homosexuality a criminal offense. The film was banned across Germany in 1920.

1953

A Mattachine Society circular estimates total membership in the society at over 2,000. There are almost 100 different discussion groups meeting in California from San Diego to the Bay Area.

1974, Russia

From the USSR comes a rare public acknowledgment of the country’s repressive policies against gay men and lesbians. American news services report that noted film director Sergei Paradzhanov (January 9, 1924 – July 20, 1990) has been given six years’ hard labor for crimes including “partial homosexuality” and “incitement to suicide.” In 1948 he was convicted of homosexual acts which were illegal in the Soviet Union with an MGB officer named Nikolai Mikava in Tbilisi. He was sentenced to five years in prison but was released under an amnesty after three months. He is one of all estimated 1,000 persons arrested each year on charges related to homosexuality.

1976

Tales of the City column by Armistead Maupin (born May 13, 1944) first appears in the San Francisco Chronicle. The stories become a play and a book. It is among the first fiction works to address a disease that initially affected gay men (it would later be identified as AIDS) and features many minority characters and homosexual relationships.

1988, UK

Section 28 is enacted. It states that local authorities “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality,” or teach of the acceptance “of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.” It was repealed on June 21, 2000 in Scotland by the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc. (Scotland) Act 2000, one of the first pieces of legislation enacted by the new Scottish Parliament, and on November 18, 2003 in the rest of the United Kingdom by section 122 of the Local Government Act 2003.

1993

Lesbian Roberta Achtenberg (born July 20, 1950) becomes Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD). She is the first openly lesbian or gay public official in the United States whose appointment to a federal position was confirmed by the United States Senate.

MAY 25

1895, UK

Author Oscar Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) is convicted of “gross indecency” and sentenced to two years’ hard labor in prison. Gross indecency is a crime under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, meaning homosexual acts not amounting to buggery. He was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death. The international publicity given his trial brings awareness of the existence of homosexuality to a new high.

1939, UK

Sir Ian McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He is the recipient of six Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BIF Award, two Saturn Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, and two Critics’ Choice Awards. He has also received two Oscar nominations, four BAFTA nominations and five Emmy Award nominations. He has been openly gay since 1988 and continues to be a champion for LGBT social movements worldwide. McKellen is a co-founder of Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom, named after the New York Stonewall riots. He was knighted in the 1991 New Year Honors for services to the performing arts, and made a Companion of Honor for services to drama and to equality in the 2008 New Year Honors.

1977

In a unanimous vote, the San Francisco school board decides to make information on lesbian and gay sexuality a part of the city schools’ sex education programs.

1977

The Everard Baths was a Turkish bath founded by financier James Everard in 1888 in a former church building at 28 West 28th Street. It operated from 1888 to 1986. Everard’s originally intended it to be for general health and fitness. But 30 years later that would change. On January 5, 1919, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice encouraged a police raid in which the manager and nine customers were arrested for lewd behavior. It was raided again in 1920 with 15 arrests. On May 25, 1977, nine patrons (ages 17 to 40) were killed in a fire: seven from smoke inhalation, one from respiratory burns, and one who had jumped from an upper floor. Contributing factors were the deteriorating conditions and the lack of sprinklers. Firefighters said they were thwarted in rescue efforts by paneling covering the windows. Between 80 and 100 patrons left the building; the indefinite number was because the club did not have registration at the time. Most of the victims were identified by friends rather than family. Despite total destruction of the top two floors, the two floors were rebuilt, and the baths reopened. However, it was closed in April 1986 by New York City mayor Ed Koch during the city’s campaign to close such venues during the AIDS epidemic.

1978

The first “Gay Day” is held at Disneyland in Southern California. A group entity calling itself The Tavern Guild rented Disneyland for a private party. More than 15,000 people attended, making it the largest private party ever held at Disneyland. It represented one of the first times gay people congregated in these numbers outside a gay pride parade. The current “Gay Day” at Disney World in Orlando began in 1991 and is held on the first Sunday in June. The first documented event, in 1991, had 3,000 gays and lesbians from central Florida going to area theme parks on one day wearing red shirts to make their presence more visible.

MAY 26

1968

Transgender Kim Coco Iwamoto (born May 26, 1968) runs in Hawaii’s August 11, 2018, primary election as a Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Iwamoto has been recognized as an activist, editorialist, policymaker, advocate, and philanthropist, with recent positions including her role as a commissioner on the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission and as a member of the Hawaii Board of Education. Iwamoto was also recognized as a Champion of Change by President Barack Obama. She was elected as a member of the Hawaii Board of Education, making her at that time the highest ranking openly transgender elected official in the United States, as well as the first openly transgender official to win statewide office.

1977

Officers of the National Gay (later: and Lesbian) Task Force Bruce Voeller (1934-Feb. 13, 1994) and Jean O’Leary  (March 4, 1948 – June 4, 2005) and other leaders including Pokey Anderson, Charles Brydon, Charlotte Bunch (born October 13, 1944), Frank Kameny (May 21, 1925 – October 11, 2011),  Cookie Lutkefedder, Mary Mendola, Elaine Noble (born January 22, 1944), Rev. Troy Perry (July 27, 1940), Betty Powell, George Raya (born April 23, 1949), Myra Riddell (1927 -Jan. 11, 2008), and Charlotte Spitzer meet with President Carter aide Midge Costanza  (November 28, 1932 – March 23, 2010). The meeting marks the first official discussion of gay and lesbian rights in the White House.

1988

Start of the first national HIV education campaign in the U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop oversees the mailing of a booklet titled Understanding AIDS to all American households.

2009

The California Supreme Court upholds Prop 8 but legally recognizes 18,000 same-sex marriages that took place before its enactment.

2019, Kenya

The government of Kenya reaffirms imprisonment of 5 to 14 years of LGBT people. Nearly every country in Africa is vehemently anti-gay, some with calls for penalty of death. The exception is South Africa which has full inclusion of LGBT people.

2019

Daniel Atwood becomes the first openly gay Orthodox person to be ordained as a Rabbi. He was ordained by the respected Israeli Rabbi Daniel Landes in Jerusalem.

2021

On this day White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (born August 13, 1974) became the first openly gay woman and only the second Black woman to ever lead a White House press briefing. Karine Jean-Pierre is an American political campaign organizer, activist, political commentator, and author. Since January 2021, she has been White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary in the Biden Administration. Jean-Pierre served as the chief of staff for Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris on the 2020 United States presidential campaign and was the first Black woman to ever hold that position. Previously, Jean-Pierre was the senior advisor and national spokeswoman for MoveOn.org and a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Jean-Pierre is a former lecturer in international and public affairs at Columbia University. As of 2020, Jean-Pierre lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her partner, CNN correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, and their daughter.

MAY 27

1911

Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor best known for his performances in horror films, although his career spanned other genres. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television. Price’s first film role was as leading man in the 1938 comedy Service de Luxe. He became well known as a character actor, appearing in films such as The Song of Bernadette (1943), Laura (1944), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Dragonwyck (1946), and The Ten Commandments (1956). He established himself as a recognizable horror-movie star after his leading role in House of Wax (1953). He subsequently starred in many other horror films. He was also known for his collaborations with Roger Corman on Edgar Allan Poe adaptations such as House of Usher(1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), and The Masque of the Red Death (1964). Price occasionally appeared on television series, such as in Batman as Egghead.

In his later years, Price voiced the villainous Professor Ratigan in Disney’s classic animated film The Great Mouse Detective (1986), then appeared in the drama The Whales of August (1987), which earned him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male nomination, and in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands (1990), his last theatrical release. For his contributions to cinema, especially to genre films, he has received lifetime achievement or special tribute awards from Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, Fantasporto, Bram Stoker Awards, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Victoria Price’s biography Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography (1999) details Price’s early antisemitism and initial admiration for Adolf Hitler. However, Price became a liberal after becoming friends with New York intellectuals such as Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman in the 1930s, so much so that he was “greylisted” under McCarthyism in the 1950s for having been a prewar “premature anti-Nazi”, and after being unable to find work for a year, agreed to requests by the FBI that he sign a “secret oath” to save his career.. His daughter also confirmed that he was bisexual as were at least one of his wives.

1917, UK

Major Michael Augustus Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers (27 May 1917 – December 1999) was a West Country landowner who gained notoriety in Britain in the 1950s when he was put on trial for buggery. This trial was instrumental in bringing public attention-and opposition-to the laws against homosexual acts as they then stood.

1919, Germany

Berlin doctor Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) co-founds the Institut fir Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sex Research), a pioneering private research institute and counseling office. Its library of thousands of books was destroyed by the Nazis in May of 1933.

1927

Lesbian author Marijane Meaker (born May 27, 1927 – 1995) is born. In 1952 she wrote Spring Fire, the first lesbian paperback novel which was the beginning of the lesbian pulp fiction genre. Her publisher made her change its ending from happy to tragic. The book sold 1.5 million copies. Marijane used the pseudonym Vin Packer among others. Using her own observations of lesbians, she wrote a series of nonfiction books about lesbians under the pen name Ann Aldrich from 1955 to 1972. She died in 1995. In 1972 she switched genres and pen names once more to begin writing for young adults, and became quite successful as M.E. Kerr, producing over 20 novels and winning multiple awards including the American Library Association’s lifetime award for young-adult literature, the ALA Margaret Edwards Award. She was described by The New York Times Book Review as “one of the grand masters of young adult fiction.” As Mary James, she wrote four books for younger children. Meaker was involved romantically with author Patricia Highsmith for two years. She wrote about this relationship in the 2003 nonfiction memoir Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s and discussed it and her own pulp fiction novels in interviews around the time of the book’s release. Meaker explained her reasons behind writing about their relationship: “I knew Pat when she was young and not yet so jaded and bigoted. The internet is filled with stories of her meanness, and prejudice, and also of her introversion, of her being a loner. I re-met that Pat many years after we broke up.” Meaker died in 1995.

1937

Approximately 200,000 bridge walkers attend the opening day of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The bridge was considered a symbol of the gay community.

1987

Lambda Book Report, the first periodical devoted exclusively to lesbian and gay literature, makes its debut.

1993, Russia

President Boris Yeltsin publishes a decree decriminalizing consensual adult male sodomy.

1994

Canadian Olympic pole vaulter and world champion Shawnacy “Shawn” Campbell Barber (born 27 May 1994) is born. He came out publicly on Face Book on April 24, 2017, when he wrote: “Gay and proud! Thank you to my parents for being such a great support. I continue to grow as a person and have a great support group. My parents are my greatest support and have helped me through a lot recently. To my friends, you are always my friends and I love you too!”

2006, Russia

First attempt at Moscow pride. The march accompanying a gay rights forum was banned. Some activists try to march despite the ban. Neo-Nazi groups and Orthodox protesters threaten the gay activists and beat the marchers. About 50 marchers and 20 protesters are arrested. In 2016, arrests took place during Moscow’s 10th Gay Pride Parade, an event that officials have banned every year of its existence. In previous years, police quickly dispersed the demonstrations, and again protesters were quickly arrested and hauled into waiting vans.

2018

Connie Kurtz (1936-May 27, 2018) died in West Palm Beach, Florida. Ruthie Berman (born 1934) and Connie Kurtz are American LGBT rights activists. As a couple, they successfully sued the New York City Board of Education for domestic partner benefits, winning such benefits for all New York City employees. Both women were born in Brooklyn, Berman in 1934 and Kurtz in 1936. They met in the late 1950s and became friends, both married to men and had children at the time. Kurtz moved to Israel with her family in 1970. When she returned to visit America in 1974, she and Ruthie fell in love. They divorced their husbands and became a couple. “Forty-two years we have been ‘significant others,’ we have been ‘life partners,’ we have been any name at the time fitting couples of the same sex,” Connie said. “We now are ‘spouses.’ ” They married on July 26, 2011 in New York City – two days after the state legalized same-sex marriage. Known in the gay world as “Ruthie and Connie,” they received the SAGE Pioneer Award in 2016, presented by Services & Advocacy For GLBT Elders, the country’s largest and oldest organization for LGBT seniors. The 2017 Ruthie and Connie LGBT Elder Americans Act was endorsed by SAGE USA, National Center for Transgender Equality, and National LGBTQ Task Force. In 2002 a documentary titled Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House, directed by Deborah Dickson, was made about their lives. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2002, and won six best documentary awards within a year.

MAY 28

1912

Joseph Israel Lobdell (December 2, 1890 – May 28, 1912) was a 19th-century transgender person who was assigned female at birth but lived as a man for sixty years. Author William Klaber wrote an historical novel The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell which was based on Lobdell’s life. An 1883 account by P. M. Wise, which cast Lobdell as a “lesbian,” was the first use of that word in an American publication. Lobdell was born into to a working-class family Albany County, New York. Lobdell married George Washington Slater who was reportedly mentally abusive and abandoned Lobdell shortly after the birth of their daughter Helen. Lobdell was known for marksmanship and nicknamed “The Female Hunter of Delaware County, writing a memoir about hunting adventures, the disastrous marriage and feelings about God, ending with a plea for equal employment for women. Lobdell  became engaged to a young woman but a rival for her affection learned Lobdell was assigned female at birth and threatened to tar and feather him. Lobdell’s fiancé warned him and he escaped. Lobdell married Marie Louise Perry in 1861 in Wayne County, Pennsylvania. They spent years roaming the woods together with their pet bear, living in nomadic poverty. They were arrested for vagrancy and sent to Stroudsburg jail where “discovery that the supposed man was a woman was made.” Lobdell was later arrested again for wearing male clothes. In 1879, Lobdell was taken to the Willard Insane Asylum in Ovid, New York where he became a patient of Dr. P.M. Wise, who published a brief article, A Case of Sexual Perversion. The doctor noted Lobdell said “she considered herself a man in all that the name implies.” Lobdell was presumed to have died on May 28, 1912, and is buried in the Binghamton State Hospital Cemetery.

1960

First U.S. public gathering of lesbians, at San Francisco’s Daughters of Bilitis national convention. Daughters of Bilitis formed in San Francisco in 1955 by Del Martin (May 5, 1921 – August 27, 2008) and Phyllis Lyon (November 10, 1924 – April 9, 2020) as a social alternative to lesbian bars which were subject to raids and police harassment. The DOB endured for 14 years as an educational resource for lesbians, gay men, researchers and mental health professionals. Bilitis is the name given to a fictional lesbian contemporary of Sappho by the French poet Pierre Louys in his 1894 work The Songs of Bilitis in which Bilitis lives on the Isle of Lesbos alongside Sappho.

1987

Barney Frank (D. Mass) (born March 31, 1940) is the first U.S. Congressperson to come out. In July 2012, he married his long-time partner James Ready, becoming the first sitting member of Congress to marry someone of the same sex.

1989

The Leather Pride flag, designed by Tony DeBlase (1942-July 21, 2000), debuts at the International Mister Leather event in Chicago.

1990, Tallinn, Estonia

The Estonian Academy of Sciences History Institute sponsors the first international conference on homosexuality and other sexual minorities to be held in the USSR. Gay British historian Jeffrey Weeks (born 1945) and Dutch sociologist Gert Hekma are among the attendees.

1997, France

Ma Vie En Rose (My Life in Pink) is released, telling the story of a transgender child. The film was directed by Alain Berliner and depicts Ludovic’s family struggling to accept this transgressive gender expression. The film was selected as the Belgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. In the United States the film received an R rating by the Motion Picture Association of America, an unusual decision because the film has minimal sexual content, minimal violence, and mild language. Those opposed to the rating believe that the rating was the result of transphobia. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film as well as the Crystal Globe award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

1999

Yahoo! takes over GeoCities for $357 billion from GeoCities developer and openly gay man David Bohnett (born April 2, 1956). Bohnett launched NetZero, PlanetOut and other internet companies. In addition, he has donated computers and accompanying funds for college and university LGBT centers. The first campus David Bohnett Cyber Center was launched at UCLA in 2004.

MAY 29

1947

Rev. Gene Robinson (born May 29, 1947) is a former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire.  Robinson was elected bishop coadjutor in 2003 and succeeded as bishop diocesan in March 2004. Before becoming bishop, he served as Canon to the Ordinary for the Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson is widely known for being the first priest in an openly gay relationship to be consecrated a bishop in a major Christian denomination believing in the historic episcopate, a matter of significant controversy. After his election, many theologically conservative Episcopalians in the United States abandoned the Episcopal Church, formed the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and aligned themselves with bishops outside the Episcopal Church in the United States, a process called the Anglican realignment. Rev. Robinson’s story has appeared in print and film. After resigning as bishop of New Hampshire in 2013, Robinson moved to Washington, D.C. to join the Center for American Progress as a senior fellow and serve as bishop-in-residence at St. Thomas’ Parish. In 2014, Robinson and his husband Mark Andrew divorced. In 2017, Robinson was named Vice-President and Senior Pastor of the Chautauqua Institution, a center for arts, education, recreation and religion in upstate New York. He was married to Isabella “Boo” Martin and has children and grandchildren. They divorced in 1986.

1950

Melvin Dixon (May 29, 1950 – October 26, 1992) was an American Professor of Literature, and an author, poet and translator. He was a Professor of Literature at Queens College from 1980 to 1992. He was the author of several books. In 1989, Trouble the Water won the Charles H. and N. Mildred Nilon Excellence in Minority Fiction Award. Vanishing Rooms won a Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Literature in 1992. Dixon died of complications from AIDS, which he had been battling since 1989, in his hometown, one year after his partner Richard Horovitz did.

1959

Rupert James Hector Everett (/born 29 May 1959) is an English actor, director and producer. Everett first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell’s play and subsequent film Another Country (1984) as a gay pupil at an English public school in the 1930s; the role earned him his first BAFTA Award nomination. He received a second BAFTA nomination and his first Golden Globe Award nomination for his role in My Best Friend’s Wedding(1997), followed by a second Golden Globe nomination for An Ideal Husband (1999). As of 2020, Everett lives with his partner Henrique, a Brazilian accountant.

1961

Melissa Etheridge (born May 29, 1961) is born on this day. In 1993 she came out as a lesbian when she released what would become her mainstream breakthrough recording Yes I Am. Etheridge came out publicly at the Triangle Ball, a gay celebration of President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration. In October 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the 2005 Grammy Awards (the same ceremony for which Breathe was nominated), she made a return to the stage and, although bald from chemotherapy, performed a tribute to Janis Joplin with the song Piece of My Heart.Etheridge has had relationships with filmmaker Julie Cypher with whom she has two children, actress Tammy Lynn Michaels with whom she has two children, and  actress Linda Wallem who she married on May 31, 2014 in San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, California, two days after they both turned 53.

1965

Organized by the East Coast Homophile Organizations, seven men and three women picket the White House. It was the first of a series of pickets held throughout the summer, which also targeted the Civil Service Commission, the State Department and The Pentagon. Although the June 28, 1969, Stonewall riots are generally considered the starting point of the modern gay liberation movement, a number of demonstrations and actions took place before that date. A favorite technique of early activists was the picket line, especially for those actions organized by such Eastern groups as the Mattachine Society of New York, the Mattachine Society of Washington, Philadelphia’s Janus Society and the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis. These groups acted under the collective name East Coast Homophile Organizations or ECHO.

1987

U.S. Congressman Barney Frank (born March 31, 1940) (D., Massachusetts), publicly came out as gay after coming out to family, friends and close associates a few years prior, becoming the first sitting member of Congress to do so voluntarily.

2013

Robert Hampton “Robbie” Rogers III (born May 12, 1987) is an American professional soccer player.  On this day, he signed with the LA Galaxy, making him the first openly gay man to compete in a top North American professional sports league when he played his first match for the Galaxy. Rogers is the second male soccer player to come out worldwide. Britain’s soccer star Justin Fashanu (9 February 1961 – 2 May 1998) came out in 1990.

MAY 30

1431 CE

The English under King Henry VI urged the Catholic church to condemn Joan of Arc for the “crime” of wearing “men’s” clothing: “It is sufficiently notorious and well- known that for some time past, a woman calling herself Jeanne the Pucelle (the maid) leaving off the dress and clothing of the feminine sex, a thing contrary to divine law and abominable before God, and forbidden by all laws, wore clothing and armor such is worn by men.” Joan asserted her style of dressing was her religious duty and higher than Church authority. She asserted: “For nothing in the world will I swear not to arm myself and put on a man’s dress.” Catholic Inquisitors condemn her to death for wearing men’s clothing and armor and burned at the stake as a heretic on May 30, 1431. The Hundred Years’ War waged on until 1453, with the French finally beating back the English invaders. Joan of Arc was nineteen years of age. She is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years’ War and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint. Over the years it has been suggested that her “crimes” included cross-dressing and inappropriate relationships with women. Around the age of 12 or 13, she began hearing voices and experiencing visions which she interpreted as signs from God. During her trial, she testified that angels and saints first told her merely to attend church and live piously; later, they began instructing her to deliver France from the invading English and establish Charles VII, the uncrowned heir to the French throne, as the country’s rightful king. Joan’s trial was described as so “unfair” that the trial transcripts were later used as evidence for canonizing her in the 20th century.

1593, UK

English poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe, (February 26, 1564 – May 30, 1593) is killed in a fight. Like William Shakespeare, Marlowe is occasionally claimed to have been gay. Others argue that the question of whether an Elizabethan was gay or homosexual in a modern sense is anachronistic. For the Elizabethans, what is often today termed homosexual or bisexual was more likely to be recognized as a sexual act rather than an exclusive sexual orientation and identity.

1926

Christine Jorgensen (May 30, 1926 – May 3, 1989) is born George William Jorgensen, Jr., the first American to undergo sexual reassignment surgery, in 1952, and becomes a champion for the rights and the dignity of transgender people. Shortly after graduating from high school in 1945, she was drafted into the U.S. Army for World War II. After her service she attended several schools, worked, and around this time heard about sex reassignment surgery. She traveled to Europe and in Copenhagen, Denmark, obtained special permission to undergo a series of operations starting in 1951.  She returned to the United States in the early 1950s. Her transition was the subject of a New York Daily News front-page story. She became an instant celebrity, using the platform to advocate for transgender people and became known for her directness and polished wit. She also worked as an actress and nightclub entertainer and recorded several songs. Jorgensen said in 1989, the year of her death, that she had given the sexual revolution a “good swift kick in the pants.” She died of bladder and lung cancer four weeks short of her 63rd birthday. Her ashes were scattered off Dana Point, California.

1950, France

Betrand Delanoe (born 30 May 1950) is a retired French politician who was mayor of Paris from March 25, 2001 to April 5, 2014. He is a member of the Socialist Party. Delanoe was one of the first major French politicians to announce that he was gay, during a 1998 television interview before being elected mayor.

1968

On Memorial Day of 1968, men and women gathered at the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round for a “gay-in” to hear Mike Hannon, a policeman turned lawyer and Civil Rights activist, speak to the challenges of being gay in a homophobic society. Hannon, who was straight, expressed support for civil rights despite the given the leadership of the police department at the time. He showed that there was broad support to protect the rights of those who demonstrate in the streets. Hannon died at the age of 77 in 2014.

1977

In an essay in Newsweek, applauding the efforts of Anita Bryant in Florida, columnist George Will condemns gay rights ordinances as “part of the moral disarmament of society,” and predicts that if the current trend continues, homosexual marriages will soon flourish across the United States and gay people will be allowed to adopt children.

1980

After winning a landmark lawsuit suit against his high school, Aaron Fricke (born January 25, 1962) takes Paul Guilbert to his senior prom. The suit brought by Aaron Fricke against his school is considered a major milestone in the history of gay rights. Each year cases of young same-sex couples being discriminated against by their schools happen around the world, and when these cases are brought to court, the suit first brought by Aaron Fricke and Paul Guilbert is invariably cited by the plaintiff’s counsel. Aaron later wrote of his experience in a book, Reflections of a Rock Lobster: A Story about Growing Up Gay.  He later collaborated with his father, Walter Fricke, on a book about their relationship and of the elder Fricke’s coming to terms with his son’s homosexuality. That book, Sudden Strangers: The Story of a Gay Son and His Father, was published shortly after Walter Fricke’s death from cancer in 1989.

1980

Alaska state-wide human rights conference on sexual orientation is held, sponsored by the Alaska Women’s Resource Center. It lasts for three days and features a keynote by Miriam Ben-Shalom, (born May 3, 1948). Ben Shalom is an American educator, activist and former staff sergeant in the United States Army. After being discharged from the military for homosexuality in 1976, she successfully challenged her discharge in court and returned to military service in 1987, the first openly gay or lesbian person to be reinstated after being discharged under the military’s policy excluding homosexuals from military service. She served until 1990 when the Army succeeded in terminating her service after prolonged judicial proceedings.

1984

The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a New York state law that prohibits loitering in a public place for the purposes of soliciting for or engaging in “gay sex.

1986

American fashion designer Perry Ellis (March 3, 1940 – May 30, 1986) dies of AIDS related diseases at the age of forty-six. In 1981, Ellis began a relationship with attorney Laughlin Barker (1948-Jan. 2, 1986). Later that year, Ellis appointed Barker as president of the licensing division of Perry Ellis International. They remained together until Barker’s death in January of 1986. Barker died of AIDS related diseases as the age of 37.  Ellis’ influence on the fashion industry has been called “a huge turning point” because he introduced new patterns and proportions to a market which was dominated by more traditional men’s clothing.

 

May 31

 

1819

Poet Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892), author of Leaves of Grass, is born. He wrote of love between men, nearly thirty years before the word “homosexual” was coined. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

1989, Spain

Pablo Alboran (born 31 May 1989) is a Spanish singer-songwriter who opened up about his sexuality for the first time in June 2020, telling fans that he is gay. One of Spain’s most successful pop acts, Alboran is known to audiences for his soaring ballads.

2011, Nepal

Nepal adds a third-gender option to the national census. It is an identity-based category for people who do not identify as either male or female, including those who present as a gender that is different than the one assigned to them at birth based on genitalia or other criteria. It also includes people who do not feel that their male or female gender roles match their true social, sexual, or gender role identity. In the case of Sunil Babu Pant and Others v. Nepal Government and Others, Supreme Court of Nepal (21 December 2007),the Blue Diamond Society, MITINI Nepal, Cruse AIDS Nepal, and Parichaya Nepal, all organizations representing lesbians, gays, and “people of the third gender,” filed a writ petition under Article 107(2) of the Interim Constitution of Nepal seeking recognition of transgender individuals as a third gender, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and reparations by the State to victims of State violence and discrimination. India has used a third gender category in several administrative capacities, and in 2005, India’s third gender citizens could start registering for passports as eunuch, denoted by an “E.”

2012

Same-sex marriage is unanimously approved by the Conservative Jewish movement allowing U.S. rabbis to perform same-sex weddings. Two model wedding ceremonies are approved along with guidelines for same-sex divorce. Called the “Covenant of Loving Partners,” the Conservative same-sex marriage document bases the ceremonies on Jewish partnership law. In the covenant, the couple pledges to be faithful and a ring ceremony binds the pair.

2014, Cyprus

More than 3500 people march through the nation’s capital of Nicosia in the first Cypress pride parade as police blocked a small contingent of Eastern Orthodox Christian protesters from entering the celebration grounds. Homosexuality was decriminalized in most of Cyprus in 1998, though the jurisdiction of Northern Cyprus – formally known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus – did not repeal its colonial-era law against consensual gay sex until January 27 of 2014, making it the last European jurisdiction to abandon such laws.

Please consider making a donation to help us with the continuing researac og this work.

Historical information obtained from a variety of sources including:

Lavender Effect http://www.thelavendereffect.org
Out History https://outhistory.org

Quist http://www.quistapp.com

Safe Schools Coalition http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_history

Back to Stonewall http://www.back2stonewall.com

GLBT History https://www.glbthistory.org

Published April 1, 2023

THIS DAY IN LGBTQ HISTORY – APRIL

THIS DAY IN LGBTQ HISTORY: Supporting the ongoing preservation of our stories without fear of being banned. Protected by old lesbians (do NOT mess with old lesbians!!), supported by donations. Students always free. Preserve our stories HERE.

 

APRIL 1

1896, Germany

The first issue of Der Eigene (Self-Ownership), an openly homosexual publication, appears from 1896 to 1932. Adolf Brand (14 November 1874 – 2 February 1945) writes in this first issue: “This journal is dedicated to Eigen people, such people as are proud of their Eigenheit and wish to maintain it at any price.” Brand was a German writer, individualist anarchist, and pioneering campaigner for the acceptance of male bisexuality and homosexuality.

1930

The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) introduces a self-regulatory code of movie ethics, discouraging filmmakers from including frank depictions of sex and sexuality. Nicknamed the Hays Code after the head of the MPPDA, former Republican National Committee chairman Will H. Hays, the regulations become mandatory on July 1, 1934.

1943, The Netherlands

Fifteen men including three gay men had attacked a Nazi-held building on March 27th. An unknown betrayer causes their arrest on this day. The leader of the group, Willem Arondeus (22 August 1894 – 1 July 1943), declares, “Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.” Arondeus was a Dutch artist and author, who joined the Dutch anti-Nazi resistance movement during World War II. He participated in the bombing of the Amsterdam public records office to hinder the Nazi German effort to identify Dutch Jews and other wanted by the Gestapo. Arondeus was caught and executed soon after his arrest.

1950

Bowing to McCarthy-era pressure from anti-Communist conservatives, the Civil Service Commission intensifies its efforts to locate and dismiss lesbians and gay men working in government. Over the next six months, 382 are fired, compared with 192 for the preceding two and a half years.

1970

The Advocate estimates that there are approximately 6,817,000 gays in the U.S.

1971, France

Police confiscate copies of Jean Paul Sartre’s newspaper Tout when it publishes an editorial advocating social acceptance of homosexuality, which was not criminalized in France.

1972

Delaware decriminalizes private consensual adult homosexual acts.

1973

Rachel Anne Maddow (born April 1, 1973) is an American television host and political commentator. Maddow hosts The Rachel Maddow Show, a nightly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network’s special event co-anchor alongside Brian Williams. Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio. Maddow holds a doctorate in politics from the University of Oxford and is the first openly gay anchor to host a major prime-time news program in the United States. Maddow splits her time between Manhattan, New York and West Cummington, Massachusetts with her partner, artist Susan Mikula (born 1958).

1974

In Michigan, Kathy Kozachenko wins a seat on the Ann Arbor City Council. Though overlooked, she is the first openly lesbian or gay person elected to public office in the U.S. On the day after the election in 1974, The New York Times ran an article that ignored the election of Kozachenko and instead focused on the marijuana tax referendum. When listing the winning candidates, the Times depicted her as “a student at University of Michigan who described herself as a lesbian.” Kozachenko ran on the ticket of the local, progressive Human Rights Party (HRP) which had already succeeded in winning two Ann Arbor council seats in 1972.

1975

Mandate, an openly gay nudie magazine, makes its debut.

1976

South Dakota decriminalizes private consensual adult homosexual acts.

1979

The Village People ‘s song In the Navy begins a thirteen-week run on the nation’s Top 40. The U.S. Navy briefly considers using the song as a recruitment theme until the full implications of the lyrics are explained.

1981

Ebony magazine poses the question, “Is Homosexuality a Threat to the Black Family?” The article concludes that it is not.

1985

The Hetrick-Martin Institute opens the Harvey Milk School for 20 openly lesbian and gay teenagers in the basement of a Greenwich Village, NY, church. The city-funded high school provides a place of refuge for the students, many of whom have dropped out of other schools to escape repeated abuse and harassment. In 1979, life partners and educators on gay and lesbian issues, Dr. Emery Hetrick (1946-1987, a psychiatrist, and Dr. Damien Martin (1934-1991), a professor at New York University, heard the heartbreaking story of a homeless 15-year-old boy who had been beaten and thrown out of his emergency shelter because he was gay. They were so moved that they gathered a group of concerned adults and created what was then called the Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth (IPLGY) to assist this group of young people who desperately needed support. In 1988, the organization was renamed Hetrick-Martin Institute in honor of its founders and their lifelong commitment to service.

1986, Netherlands

Ireen Wüst (born 1 April 1986) is a Dutch long-track all round speed skater and the youngest Dutch Olympic champion in the history of the Winter Games. At the age of nineteen, on 12 February 2006, she won the gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games 3000 metre event; four years later at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games she won the 1500 metre event; at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games she won two gold and three silver medals, making her the most decorated athlete at the Sochi Games. Following her victory in the 1500 metres at the 2018 Winter Olympics, she has won a record ten Olympic medals, more than any other speed skater, making her the most successful athlete from the Netherlands at the Olympics. She is also a six-time world all round champion, a twelve-time world single distance champion, and a five-time European all round champion. In 2014, she was elected by Reuters as the Sportswoman of the World. Wust came out as bisexual in 2009. In March 2017, Wüst confirmed she is in a relationship with fellow skater Letitia de Jong.

1987

The first National Gay and Lesbian Youth Conference is held in Los Angeles.

1990

Madonna announces in Vanity Fair that she is not a lesbian and that Sandra Bernhard (born June 6, 1955) is not her lover. Bernhard is openly bisexual and a strong supporter of gay rights. On July 4, 1998, Bernhard gave birth to a daughter, Cicely Yasin Bernhard, whom she raises with her longtime partner, Sara Switzer.

1997

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Commissioners strips the Arts and Science Council of $2.5 million in funding stemming from a community-wide debate over Angels in America.

1998

Coretta Scott King, widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., calls on the civil rights community to join the struggle against homophobia. She receives criticism from members of the black civil rights movement for comparing civil rights to gay rights.

2001, The Netherlands

First legal same-sex weddings in the world take place in Amsterdam City Hall after The Netherlands becomes the first country to legalize same-sex marriage. The wedding took place at midnight on 1 April 2001, when Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen married four same-sex couples. Denmark was already recognizing civil unions, but no country had extended to gay and lesbian couples all the protections, rights and responsibilities of marriage until now.

APRIL 2

1956

David C. Bohnett (born April 2, 1956) is born. He is an American philanthropist and technology entrepreneur and founder and chairman of the David Bohnett Foundation, a non-profit, grant-making organization devoted to improving society through social activism. Bohnett founded the pioneering social networking site GeoCities in 1994 with John Rezner as co-founder and chief technical officer. The highly successful site went public via an IPO in 1998, and was acquired by Yahoo! in 1999. GeoCities was the first social networking site on the internet, an early forerunner of MySpace and Facebook. Bohnett has funded numerous LGBT CyberCenters including the first university LGBT cyber center, at UCLA. In 1983, Bohnett entered into a long-term rela-tionship with fellow activist and openly gay judge Rand Schrader (May 11, 1945 – June 13, 1993). In the 2000s, he lived for over a decade with entertainment and socio-political commentator and columnist Tom Gregory (April 24, 1960). They are no longer to-gether.

2005

NAACP Chair Julian Bond states in a national speech that “gay rights are civil rights.”

2013, Uruguay

Uruguay senate approves same-sex marriage by a vote of 23-8, becoming the fourteenth country in the world to legalize marriage equality.

APRIL 3

1895, UK

The opening of the Oscar Wilde v. the Marquis of Queensbury trial. The Marquis accused Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) of being “a sodomite,” a criminal activity. Wilde sued the Marquis for criminal libel. The Marquis had to prove that the allegation was true in order to escape conviction. The court decided the accusation was true and the Marquis was acquitted. Wilde had to pay the Marquis’ legal fees which left him bankrupt.

1931

William Bast (April 3, 1931 – May 4, 2015) was an American screenwriter and author. In addition to writing scripts for motion pictures and television, he was the author of two biographies of the screen actor James Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955). He often worked with his lover author Paul Huson (born 19 September 1942).

1959

The Florida legislative Investigation Committee (the John’s Committee) conducts witch-hunts from 1958 to 1964 at the state’s universities and public school systems. On this day in 1959, the University of Florida fires 14 employees and removes 50 students for being gay.

1972

Nancy Wechsler and Jerry DeGrieck become the first openly LGBT elected officials in America. They were graduate students at the University of Michigan, and both were elected to the Ann Arbor City Council. DeGrieck and Wechsler were elected to the Ann Arbor City Council as members of the Human Rights Party on April 3, 1972.

2009

Iowa is the first state to allow legal same-sex marriages via an Iowa Supreme Court decision.

APRIL 4

1932

Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) is born. He was an American actor and singer. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his second film Friendly Persuasion but is best known for playing Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and its three sequels. According to the posthumous biography Split Image by Charles Winecoff, Perkins had exclusively same-sex relationships until his late 30s, including with actors Rock Hudson (November 17, 1925- October 2, 1985), Tab Hunter (born July 11, 1931), artist Christopher Makos (born 1948), dancer Rudolf Nureyev (17 March 1938 – 6 January 1993), composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim (born March 22, 1930), and dancer-choreographer Grover Dale (born July 22, 1935). Perkins has been described as one of the two great men in the life of French songwriter Patrick Loiseau. Perkins died at his Los Angeles home on September 12, 1992, from AIDS-related pneumonia.

1938, Germany

The Gestapo decrees that men convicted of homosexuality will be sent to the concentration camps. Between 1933 and 1945 when WWII ended, an estimated 100,00 men were arrested as homosexuals; 50,000 were sentenced and sent to prison. Between 5,000 and 15,000 were in concentration camps. After WWII many remained in jail until 1968 because homosexuality was still a crime in Germany under Paragraph 175 which as not repealed until 1994.

1972

The world’s first LGBT synagogue, Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC), is founded, in Los Angeles. On April 4, 1972, four Jews – Selma Kay, Jerry Gordon, Jerry Small, and Bob Zalkin – went to a weekly Wednesday night meeting at Los Angeles’s Metropolitan Community Church (MCC). In less than four years MCC, the first church with an outreach to gays and lesbians, had grown to 15,000 members in 40 U.S. cities. In Los Angeles, the “mother church,” led by Rev. Troy Perry and located near USC, had 725 members. The presence of Jews at the church was understandable. In 1972 the existence of lesbian and gay Jews was virtually unheard of. It was a time when same-sex activity was illegal, homosexuality was still classified as a mental illness, and to be openly gay or lesbian usually meant loss of employment and rejection by family and Jewish community. The Stonewall Riots in New York’s Greenwich Village, often considered the watershed event in the modern gay liberation movement, had occurred less than three years earlier. Fifteen people came to the first service, held June 9, 1972 in Jerry Gordon’s home. Beth Chayim Chadashim (“House of New Life”) was founded in Mid-City Los Angeles in 1972 as a synagogue primarily for lesbians and gays. Affiliated with Reform Judaism, it has been acknowledged by the Los Angeles Conservancy as being “culturally significant” as both the first LGBT synagogue in the world, the first LGBT synagogue recognized by the Union for Reform Judaism and, in 1977, as the first LGBT synagogue to own its own building. In 1973, BCC received a Torah scroll from the town of Chotebor, Czechoslovakia, on permanent loan from Westminster Synagogue in London. It continues to be a cherished guest at BCC.

1974

In New York City, more than 1,000 people gather in Greenwich Village to demonstrate support for a gay and lesbian municipal rights ordinance currently under debate in the City Council. The bill had been strongly opposed by, among others, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association.

1976, Italy

Pope Paul VI publicly denies press reports that he has had affairs with men.

2017

The 7th District Court of Appeals rules that the Civil Rights Act prohibits workplace discrimination against LGBT employees, after Kimberly Hively sues Ivy Tech Community College for violating Title VII of the act by denying her employment. In the groundbreaking 8-3 decision, the full Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation violates federal civil rights law. This came after Lambda Legal urged the Court to reverse a lower court ruling and allow Kimberly Hively to present her case alleging that Ivy Tech Community College, where she worked as an instructor for 14 years, denied her fulltime employment and promotions and eventually terminated her employment because she is a lesbian.

APRIL 5

1972

My Fair Lady, from gay director George Cukor (July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983), wins the academy award for best picture and best director. It was an open secret in Hollywood that Cukor was gay at a time when society was against it, although he was discreet about his sexual orientation. His home, redecorated in 1935 by gay actor-turned-interior designer William Haines (January 2, 1900 – December 26, 1973) was the scene of many gatherings for the industry’s homosexuals. The close-knit group reputedly included Haines and his partner Jimmie Shields (January 2, 1900 – December 26, 1973), writer Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965), director James Vincent (July 19, 1882 – July 12, 1957), screenwriter Rowland Leigh (1902 – 1963), costume designers Orry-Kelly (31 December 1897 – 27 February 1964) and Robert Le Maire, and actors John Darrow (17 July 1907 – 24 February 1980), Anderson Lawler (May 5, 1902 – April 6, 1959), Grady Sutton (April 5, 1906 – September 17, 1995), Robert Seiter and Tom Douglas.

1982

Newsweek Magazine reports on “Gays on Campus” which highlights how accepted gay organizations and lifestyles are on campuses around the county.

 

APRIL 6

1895

The New York Times covers the Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) sodomy trial.

1954, Germany

Monika Treut (born April 6, 1954) is a German lesbian filmmaker. Famous for her queer films, Treut also makes documentaries. Her films have explored many interests around the world. The subject matter varies from film to film; whether queer-themed, or about one woman’s efforts to help street kids in Rio de Janeiro, or about the culinary arts of Taiwan, her documentaries find interesting, real people to focus on. Since 1990, Treut has been teaching, lecturing and curating retrospectives of her work at colleges across the United States.

1983, Zimbabwe

Rick Cosnett (born April 6, 1983) is born. The Zimbabwean-Australian actor, whose credits include The Flash and The Vampire Diaries, revealed to fans in February of 2020 that he is gay.

2007

Transgender musician Alexander James Adams (born November 8, 1962), formerly known as Heather Alexander, has his first performance using his new name, in Seattle at Norwescon 30. He is an American singer, musician and songwriter in the Celtic and World music genres. He blends mythical, fantasy, and traditional themes in performances, switching between instrumental fiddle and songs accompanied by guitar, bodhr√°n, and fiddle playing. He has also been a popular and influential artist in the field of folk music and won multiple Pegasus awards. Adams performed as Heather Alexander for 25 years before beginning to tour as Alexander James Adams. His website refers to him as the ‘heir’ to Heather Alexander and continues to credit songs originally released as Heather Alexander under that name.

2009

Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover (1998-2009), 11, hangs himself after daily harassment for being perceived as gay.

APRIL 7

529, Italy

Justinian I re-writes Roman Law making it distinctly Christian and states that all same-sex acts are contrary to nature and punishable by death.

1837, Denmark

The Little Mermaid was written by Hans Christian Andersen (2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) as a love letter to Edvard Collin (1808-1896).

1891

Martha May Eliot (April 7, 1891 – February 14, 1978) was a foremost pediatrician and specialist in public health, an assistant director for WHO, and an architect of New Deal and postwar programs for maternal and child health. Her first important research, community studies of rickets in New Haven, Connecticut, and Puerto Rico, explored issues at the heart of social medicine. Together with Edwards A. Park, her research established that public health measures (dietary supplementation with vitamin D) could prevent and reverse the early onset of rickets. Eliot shared her personal life in a long emotional and domestic partnership with Ethel Collins Dunham (1883-1969), also a pioneering female pediatrician, who was made the first female member of the American Pediatric Society and was awarded its highest award, the Howland Medal, in 1957.

1907, France

Violette Leduc (7 April 1907 – 28 May 1972) was born in Arras Pas de Calais. She continually went after gay men. One of them, Maurice Sachs told her to write just to get rid of her. She did. Her book Le Batarde was the story of her upbringing as an illegitimate child which she blamed on the sexuality of her mother. She once told a friend she wanted to wear a tight body stocking to hold in her breasts and then attach a “strap on” in order to bed gay writer Jean Genet. Leduc’s formal education began in 1913 but was interrupted by World War I. After the war, she went to a boarding school, the College de Douai, where she experienced a lesbian affair with her classmate “Isabelle,” which Leduc later adapted into a novel, Therese and Isabelle. In 1968, Radley Metzger made a film of that novel. The film was a commercial feature about adolescent lesbian love starring Essy Persson and Anna Gael.

1912

Harry Hay (April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) is born. He was a prominent American gay rights activist, communist, labor advocate, and Native American civil rights campaigner. He was a co-founder of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States, as well as the Radical Faeries, a loosely affiliated gay spiritual movement. Hay passed away in 2002, survived by his partner of 40 years, John Burnside (born 19 March 1955).

1916

Oreste Francesco Pucciani (April 7, 1916 – April 28, 1999) was a pioneer teacher of Jean-Paul Sartre’s philosophy at UCLA. He was the last partner of Rudi Gernreich (August 8, 1922 – April 21, 1985), fashion designer, and at the latter’s death, established the ACLU Rudi Gernreich-Oreste Pucciani Endowment Fund to support the fight for LGBT rights.

1966

The first Gay Community Center in the United States opens. It is located in San Francisco, led by The Society for Individual Rights.

1974

Pacific Center for Human Growth is founded in Oakland in response to a brutal gay bashing in Berkeley.

1997

Musician George Michael (25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) comes out. He was an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and philanthropist who rose to fame as a member of the music duo Wham! He was best known for his work in the 1980s and 1990s, including hit singles such as Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Last Christmas, and albums such as Faith (1987) and Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (1990). Michael, who came out as gay in 1998, was an active LGBT rights campaigner and HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser. Michael’s personal life and legal troubles made headlines during the late 1990s and 2000s, as he was arrested for public lewdness in 1998 and was arrested for multiple drug-related offenses after that time. The 2005 documentary A Different Story covered his career and personal life. In the early hours of 25 December 2016, Michael, aged 53, was found dead at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. A coroner’s report attributed his death to natural causes.

2013, South Africa

First traditional African legal same-sex wedding. Tshepoi Cameron Modisane and Thoba Calvin Sithole marry in the town of KwaDukuza.

APRIL 8

1787, Russia

The Russian Empire annexes the Crimean Khanate thus legalizing same-sex intercourse in the annexed territory.

1942

In 1978 comedian Robin Tyler (born April 8, 1942) becomes the first out lesbian on U.S. national television, appearing on a Showtime comedy special hosted by Phyllis Diller. The same year she released her comedy album, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Groom, the first comedy album by an out lesbian. Robin was the main stage producer of the 1979, 1987, and 1993 Marches on Washington for LGBT rights. In 2000, she was the co-founder and national rally coordinator for StopDrLaura.com, a campaign against the quackery of Dr. Laura Schlesinger, a radio personality who routinely spread homophobia over the airwaves. Canadian-born, Tyler was also the first North American speaker to address major LGBT rallies in England, Canada, France, Mexico, and South Africa. She performed her comedy show in Moscow in 1990, at the first LGBT international conference in Russia. Robin was the executive director of The Equality Campaign, and the first lesbian plaintiff to sue the state of California challenging the state’s ban on same-sex marriage (2004-2008). After a successful win, she and her partner Diane Olsen were the first to receive their marriage license in the state.

1949

In 2007 Theresa Sparks (born on April 8, 1949) was elected president of the San Francisco Police Commission by a single vote, making her the first openly transgender person ever to be elected president of any San Francisco commission, as well as San Francisco’s highest ranking openly transgender official. Sparks is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and was a candidate for San Francisco Supervisor for District 6 in the November 2010 election. She is a former president of the San Francisco Police Commission and former CEO of Good Vibrations. She was a Grand Marshal in the 2008 San Francisco Pride Parade.

1974

The American Psychiatric Association removes its “sickness” definition of homosexuality, outraging homophobic bigots across America.

1990

Ryan White (December 6, 1971 – April 8, 1990), 18, dies from complications of AIDS after a five-year battle with the disease.  Ryan became the national child for HIV/AIDS in the United States, after being expelled from middle school in Kokomo, Indiana, because of his infection. As a hemophiliac, he became infected with HIV from a contaminated blood treatment and, when diagnosed in December 1984, was given six months to live. Doctors said he posed no risk to other students, but AIDS was poorly understood at the time, and when White tried to return to school, many parents and teachers in Kokomo rallied against his attendance. A lengthy legal battle with the school system ensued, and media coverage of the case made White into a national celebrity and spokesperson for AIDS research and public education. Surprising his doctors, Ryan lived five years longer than predicted but died in April 1990, one month before his high school graduation.

2013, Zambia

Gay rights activist Paul Kasonkomona is arrested after appearing on live TV calling for same-sex relations to be decriminalized.

2014, Spain

The Galician Parliament passes LGBT anti-discrimination law.

APRIL 9

1476, Italy

Leonardo Da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) and three other young men are accused of sodomy anonymously, subsequently acquitted. Da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of paleontology, ichnology, and architecture, and he is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, and tank, he epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal.

1966

Cynthia Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an American actress known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series, Sex and the City (1998-2004) for which she won the 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She reprised the role in the films Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010). Her other film credits include Amadeus (1984), James White (2015), and playing Emily Dickinson in A Quiet Passion(2016). On March 19, 2018, Nixon announced her campaign for governor of New York as a challenger to Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo. She lost in the Democratic primary to Cuomo with 34% of the vote to his 66%. Nixon and Christine Marinoni (born March 14, 1967) became engaged in April 2009, and married in New York City on May 27, 2012, with Nixon wearing a custom-made, pale green dress by Carolina Herrera.

1984

The San Francisco Department of Public Health closes the city’s bathhouses in the belief that they contribute to the spread of AIDS. The decision comes after a heated, divisive debate between gay men who believe the baths can be used as a forum for safe(r) sex education and those who see them as contributing to the spread of the epidemic.

1986

On this day Bayard Rustin (March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) gives a speech entitled “The New N*ggers Are Gays.” The civil rights leader was arrested more times for being gay than for his civil disobedience. In this speech he says, “Today, Blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new ‘n*ggers’ are gays. It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.”

1990

Kristen Stewart (born April 9, 1990) is born. She is an American actress and model who received widespread recognition in 2008 for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga film series. Since late 2016, she has been dating New Zealander Victoria’s Secret  model Stella Maxwell (born 15 May 1990). In her February 4, 2017 appearance on Saturday Night Live, Stewart described herself as “so gay.” In an interview with The Guardian she clarified that she was bisexual.

1992

Kenneth Dawson (1947 – April 9, 1992), a leader and adviser of gay and lesbian and AIDS organizations, dies on this day in Manhattan of complications from AIDS. He was on the founding board of the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in Manhattan in 1983 and served as Executive Director of Seniors Action in a Gay Environment (SAGE).

1992, UK

Clive Betts (born 13 January 1950), a gay man, assumes office in Parliament. He’s a member of the Labour Party and lives with partner James Thomas.

1997, Singapore

The Register of Societies rejects the application of the LGBT rights group People Like Us without explanation.

1999

Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), known as Lil Nas X, comes out as gay, making him the first artist to have done so while having a number-one record. He later became the first openly gay man to be nominated at the Country Music Association Awards. He is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter who rose prominence with the release of his country rap single Old Town Road which first achieved viral popularity on the social media app TikTok in early 2019 before climbing music charts internationally and becoming diamond certified by November of that same year.

2008, South Korea

Choi Hyun-sook (born July 6, 1972) is the first openly gay political candidate who stands for election. Her bid was unsuccessful.

APRIL 10

1644, UK

Bisexual British poet John Wilmot (9 April 1647 – 26 July 1680), Earl of Rochester, is born at Ditchley Manor in Oxfordshire. Wilmot’s poems are bawdy and beautifully simple. He was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II’s Restoration court. The Restoration reacted against the “spiritual authoritarianism” of the Puritan era. Rochester embodied this new era, and he became as well known for his rakish lifestyle as his poetry, although the two were often interlinked. He died as a result of venereal disease at the age of 33.

1880

Frances Perkins (April 10, 1880- May 14, 1965) was an American workers-rights advocate who served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, the longest serving in that position, the first woman and first known LGBT person to serve in the U.S. Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her longtime friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition. She and Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes were the only original members of the Roosevelt cabinet to remain in office for his entire presidency. Perkins had a romantic and intimate relationship with Mary Harriman Rumsey (November 17, 1881 – December 18, 1934), founder of the Junior League, from 1922 to 1934. The women lived together in Perkins’ home in Washington, D.C. until Rumsey’s death in 1934.

1974

The Gay Activists Alliance publication Out -The Gay Perspective debuts with Ernest Peter Cohen as editor in chief.

1982

Chyler Leigh (born April 10, 1982), the Supergirl and Grey’s Anatomy actor, came out as a member of the LGBTQ community in June 2020, steering clear of traditional labels like “lesbian” or “bisexual.” Leigh said she was inspired to come out upon learning her Supergirl character Alex Danvers was a lesbian. “When I was told that my character was to come out in season 2, a flurry of thoughts and emotions flew through and around me because of the responsibility I personally felt to authentically represent Alex’s journey,” she wrote in a post on the “Create Change” website. “What I didn’t realize was how the scene where she finally confessed her truth would leap off the pages of the script and genuinely become a variation of my own.

1998

Golfer Patty Sheehan (born October 27, 1956) comes out as lesbian. She is the second golfer to ever make such an announcement. Sheehan, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, is a winner of six major golf championships.

2003, Argentina

Civil union law is approved by the Provincial Legislature of Rio Negro.

2006, Italy

Vladimir Luxuria (born June 24, 1965) is the first transgender member of Parliament.

APRIL 11

1780, England

William Smith and Theodosius Reed are put in the deadly revolving stockyards for sodomy. People gather to watch.

1864, Germany

Johanna Elberskirchen (11 April 1864 – 17 May 1943) was a feminist writer and activist for the rights of women, gays and lesbians as well as blue-collar workers. She published books on women’s sexuality and health among other topics. Her last known public appearance was in 1930 in Vienna where she gave a talk at a conference organized by the World League for Sexual Reform. She was open about her own homosexuality which made her a somewhat exceptional figure in the feminist movement of her time. Her career as an activist was ended in 1933 when the Nazi Party rose to power. There is no public record of a funeral but witnesses report that Elberskirchen’s urn was secretly put into her life partner Hildegard Moniac’s (1891 – 1967) grave.

1890

Marion Dickerman (April 11, 1890 – May 16, 1983) was an American suffragist, educator, and an intimate of Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1913 she moved to Fulton, New York, where she taught American history at Fulton High School. It was here that she met Syracuse classmate Nancy Cook (August 26, 1884 – August 16, 1962) who taught arts. Nancy Cook was an American suffragist, educator, political organizer, businesswoman, and also a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. The women were co-owner of Val-Kill Industries, the Women’s Democratic News, and the Todhunter School. Dickerman and Cook were lifelong partners, spending almost their entire adult lives together, although Dickerman was also involved in other lesbian relationships off and on. They are buried next to each other at Westfield Cemetery, Westfield, New York.

1901

Glenway Wescott is born in Kewaskum, Wisconsin. One of America’s clearest and lyrical writers, he is best known for The Grandmothers, published in 1927. Throughout his life Wescott kept journals about everything. He is reputed to have had affairs with photographer George Platt Lynes (April 15, 1907 – December 6, 1955) and museum curator Monroe Wheeler (13 February 1899 – 14 August 1988).

1932

Joel Grey (born April 11, 1932) is born. He is an American actor, singer, dancer, and photographer. He is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film versions of the Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won an Academy Award, Tony Award, and Golden. He also originated the role of George M. Cohan in the musical George M! in 1968, and the Wizard of Oz in the musical Wicked. He also starred as Moonface Martin in the Broadway revivals of Anything Goes and as Amos Hart in Chicago. In January 2015, Grey discussed his sexuality in an interview with People, stating: “I don’t like labels, but if you have to put a label on it, I’m a gay man.”

1949

Dorothy Allison (born April 11, 1949) is an American writer from South Carolina whose writing expresses themes of class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism and lesbianism. She is a self-identified lesbian femme. She has won a number of awards for her writing, including several Lambda Literary Awards. In 2014, Allison was elected to membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Allison remains dedicated to safer sex and is active in feminist and lesbian communities. She is one of the founders of the Lesbian Sex Mafia, along with Kirstie Friddle of Quincy, Illinois. This is an information and support group for women of all sexual orientations and identities. She lives in Monte Rio, California with her female partner, Alix Layman, and son, Wolf.

1953

The Mattachine Society holds its first constitutional convention at a church in Los Angeles. The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was one of the earliest LGBT (gay rights) organizations in the United States, probably second only to Chicago’s Society for Human Rights. Communist and labor activist Harry Hay formed the group with a collection of male friends in Los Angeles to protect and improve the rights of gay men. Branches formed in other cities and by 1961 the Society had splintered into regional groups.

1956

Michael Callen (April 11, 1955 – December 27, 1993) is born. Singer, songwriter, AIDS activist and author, Michael is recognized as a co-inventor of safe(r) sex. He was a co-founder of the People with AIDS self-empowerment movement and was the lead singer in the group The Flirtations.

1956

Christine Hallquist (born April 11, 1956) is an American politician and former CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC). She is the first openly transgender nominee for governor in the United States, winning the 2018 Democratic nomination for Governor of Vermont with over 40% of the vote. The Associated Press reported she had been getting death threats and personal attacks from all over the United States and around the world. On November 6, 2018, Hallquist lost the election to Republican candidate and incumbent Phil Scott. Drawing national attention as a pioneering example of a CEO transitioning while in office, her transition was documented by her son in an award-winning documentary Denial.

2001

GLAD files the Goodridge v. Department of Public Health case in Massachusetts which leads to Massachusetts becoming the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004.

2013, France

The French Senate in Paris approves the law for equal marriage and adoption rights for gay and lesbian couples.

APRIL 12

1526, France

Marc-Antoine Muret (12 April 1526 – 4 June 1585) is born near Limoges. The 16th century humanist was accused by the church of being a sodomist and a Protestant.

1932

The film Grand Hotel is released. Star Greta Garbo (18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) originally did not want to the role but her partner Mercedes de Acosta (March 1, 1893 – May 9, 1968) convinced her to take it. The film wins the Oscar for Best Picture

1953

Sixty-three men are arrested in Waco, Texas at a “homosexual convention.” Tommy Gene Brown, the Waco Bride, led a mock wedding when police raided the two-room private resident in South Waco.

1964

Amy Ray (born April 12, 1964) of the Indigo Girls is born. She is also a solo artist and owner of her own socially and politically conscious record label. About her song Laramie she said in a 2001 gay.com interview, “What I was trying to go for was a song about hate in general, not just about homophobia, but about classism too, about who’s to blame in society and who’s complicit. It’s also these people in the higher echelons of the financial bracket who think they are so damned progressive, but they never do anything to really help anybody out. They sort of think they are tolerant of gay people, because they have a gay person in their yoga class or something. (Laughs) It takes a lot more than that. You’ve got to speak out, you’ve got to work and vote and really try to make a difference for people. A lot of times there’s these hidden attitudes that no one ever expresses that nurture an environment of hate. And then some kid goes off and murders somebody else and they all act so surprised about it, but we all contributed to it because we didn’t do anything to change our attitude in general. I think it’s something we all need to think about and work on. So that song was supposed to deal with a lot more than (Matthew Shepard), that’s why I say, ‘This town ain’t nothing different.’ It could happen anywhere. Ray currently lives in the foothills of North Georgia. She and her partner, Carrie Schrader, have a daughter.

1982

Golden Globe-nominated film actor Lenny Baker (January 17, 1945 – April 12, 1982) succumbs to AIDS-related cancer at the age of 37. Baker was best known for his Tony Award-winning performance in I Love My Wife in 1977.

1994

In response to a Hawaii Supreme court decision questioning the state’s right to bar same-sex marriage, the state senate passes a bill declaring that the need to “foster and protect the propagation of the human” is justification for the ban.

2013

Autumn Sandeen, a U.S. veteran and transgender woman, received a letter from a Navy official stating, “Per your request the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) has  been updated to show your gender as female effective April 12th, 2013.” Allyson Robinson of Outserve declared, “To our knowledge, this is the first time that the Department of Defense has recognized and affirmed a change of gender for anyone affiliated, in a uniformed capacity-in this case a military retiree.”

APRIL 13

1947

Deborah Batts (April 13, 1947 – February 3, 2020) is born. She is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and was the nation’s first openly LGBT African American federal judge. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and confirmed by the Senate in a voice vote in 1994.  Batts was the sole openly LGBT judge on the federal bench for seventeen years until President Barack Obama appointed a series of gay and lesbian judges to the district courts. (Judge Vaughn Walker of California served from 1989 to February 2011, but did not come out until April 2011, after his retirement.)

1955

Iowa enacts its “Sexual Psychopath” law in the wake of moral panic brought on by the sexual assault and murder of a boy in 1954.

1955

Openly gay Carl-Friedrich Arp Ole Freiherr von Beust, generally called Ole von Beust (born 13 April 1955), is a German politician who was first mayor of Hamburg from October 31, 2001 to August 25, 2010. He served as President of the Bundesrat from November 1, 2007 for one year.

1970

In New York City, the Gay Activists Alliance borrows a tactic of the New Left and unleashes the first gay zap, a surprise disruption of a public event to call attention to a political issue. Activists begin shouting “gay power” during a public appearance by Mayor John Lindsay, who has resisted meeting with them.

1982

In Los Angeles, U.S. congress representatives open the first committee hearings on the disease that will come to be known as AIDS.

1990

The first public action by Queer Nation takes place at Flutie’s Bar in New York, a straight hangout at South Street Seaport. The goal is to make clear to patrons that queers will not be restricted to gay bars for socializing and for public displays of affection. This action becomes known as “Nights Out.”

1997

Comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres (born January 26, 1958) appears on TIME magazine’s cover with the words, (Yep, I’m Gay.) These words were spoken during the coming-out episode of her sitcom Ellen titled The Puppy Episode which was one of the highest-rated episodes of the show.

2014, Finland

The Finnish Post announces that Tom of Finland (Touko Valio Laaksonen, born 8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991) will appear on postage stamps.

APRIL 14

1600, Italy

Philosopher Tomasso Campanella (5 September 1568 – 21 May 1639) is jailed and spends twenty-seven years imprisoned in Naples, in various fortresses. He was a Dominican friar, Italian philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. He is overheard saying to his cellmate: “O Father Pietro, why don’t you do something so that we may sleep together, and we may get pleasure?” Pietro replied “I wish I could, and I’d even bribe the goalers with ten ducats. But to you, my heart, I would like to give twenty kisses every hour.” Campanella was finally released from prison in 1626, through Pope Urban VIII, who personally interceded on his behalf with Philip IV of Spain. Taken to Rome and held for a time by the Holy Office, Campanella was restored to full liberty in 1629. He lived for five years in Rome, where he was Urban’s advisor in astrological matters.

1865

President Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) is shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. He dies the next day. C.A. Tripp’s  (Oct. 4, 1919-2003) book Lincoln makes the case that Lincoln had several homosexual relationships throughout his life. Tripp states that Lincoln’s relationships with women were either invented by biographers (his love of Ann Rutledge) or were desolate botches (his courtship of Mary Owens and his marriage to Mary Todd). Tripp is not the first to argue that Lincoln was secretly gay. Earlier writers have parsed his friendship with Joshua Speed, the young store owner he lived with after moving to Springfield, Ill. Lincoln’s story becomes interesting when Tripp looks at the year 1831, when Lincoln was 22 and moved to New Salem, an Illinois frontier town, where he met Billy Greene. Greene coached Lincoln in grammar and shared a narrow bed with him. “When one turned over the other had to do likewise,” Greene told Herndon. Bed-sharing was common enough in raw settlements, but Greene also had vivid memories of Lincoln’s physique: “His thighs were as perfect as a human being could be.” Six years later, Lincoln moved to Springfield, where he met Joshua Speed, who became a close friend; John G. Nicolay and John Hay, two early biographers, called Speed “the only – as he was certainly the last – intimate friend that Lincoln ever had.”

1904, UK

British actor Sir John Gielgud (14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) is born in London. Perhaps the greatest actor to grace a stage in the English-speaking world, Gielgud never came out publicly. Interior designer Paul Anstee was his lover for much of the 1950s.

1912

The RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg just before midnight on April 14th.  By 2:20 AM, she broke apart and foundered, taking over one thousand three hundred people still aboard to their deaths.  Just under two hours after the Titanic foundered, the Cunard liner Carpathia arrived on the scene of the sinking, where she brought aboard an estimated 705 survivors. Among the known gay people who died on the Titanic were crew members second carpenter Michael Brice and Third Officer Sam Maxwell as well as  Archibald Willingham Butt (September 26, 1865 – April 15, 1912) who served as an influential military aide to U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.

1968

Mart Crowley’s (born August 21, 1935) play The Boys in the Band opens on Broadway in New York. Considered to be a groundbreaking work in American theater, the first truly “honest” portrayal of the lives of contemporary homosexuals. It ran for 1002 performances before being adapted to a successful motion picture. Few gay characters were seldom seen in commercial media except as crude stereotypes, although later in history some in the LGBT community would say that is indeed what Crowley’s play presented. Some LGBT advocates later denounced it as Uncle Tomism because they were worried about attempts to assimilate the community into straight society, ignoring what a groundbreaking piece of LGBT history the play was for the 1960s.

1980, Cuba

In Havana, thousands of citizens invade the Peruvian embassy to try to obtain permission to leave the country. Over the next few months, Fidel Castro lets more than 100,000 people leave from the port of Mariel on leaky boats and makeshift rafts. Among the refugees, many of whom have been released from prisons and mental institutions, are an estimated 25,000 gay men seeking asylum from persecution.

1983, UK

In the same year that Great Britain reports its first 17 cases of AIDS, the only UK gay magazine, Gay News, stops publication.

1985

The first Gay Erotic Film Awards is held in Los Angeles.

1986, France

Simone de Beauvoir (January 1908 – 14 April 1986) dies. Born in Paris, France, she was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. De Beauvoir had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory. She is known for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis on women’s oppression. It served as a foundation for contemporary feminism. Her novels include She Came to Stay and The Mandarins. She is also known for her open relationship with French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. De Beauvoir had a number of female lovers including some of her students. In 1943, de Beauvoir was suspended from her teaching job after she was accused of seducing her 17 year-old student Natalie Sorokin. Sorokin’s parents filed formal charges against de Beauvoir for debauching a minor. It resulted in her teaching license to be permanently revoked. In the early 1960s, Beauvoir began a relationship with Sylvie le Bon (born January 17, 1941) which lasted to the end of Beauvoir’s life.

2014, Malta

Malta becomes the first European state to include gender identity as a protected class in its constitution.

APRIL 15

1843

American writer Henry James (15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) is born in New York City. He was an American author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. James regularly rejected suggestions that he should marry, and after settling in London proclaimed himself “a bachelor.” As more material became available to scholars, including the diaries of contemporaries and hundreds of affectionate and sometimes erotic letters written by James to younger men, the picture of neurotic celibacy gave way to a portrait of a closeted homosexual.

1894

Singer Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) is born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She was an American blues singer. Nicknamed the Empress of the Blues, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on other jazz singers. In Foolish Man Blues Smith sang: “There’s two things got me puzzled, there’s two things I don’t understand; That’s a mannish-actin’ woman, and a skippin’, twistin’ woman-actin’ man.” Strange words for a woman whose best friend was male impersonator Gladys Fergusson and who had been introduced to the world of ‘women-lovin’ women’ by blues singer Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939). Smith married Jack Gee on June 7, 1923, just as her first record was being released. During the marriage Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of the day, heading her own shows, which sometimes featured as many as 40 troupers, and touring in her own custom-built railroad car. Their marriage was stormy with infidelity on both sides, including numerous female lovers for Bessie. Gee was impressed by the money but never adjusted to show business life or to Smith’s bisexuality. Smith ended the relationship in 1929 although neither of them sought a divorce. Smith later entered a common-law marriage with an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was Lionel Hampton’s uncle. She stayed with him until her death. Smith’s grave was unmarked until a tombstone was erected on August 7, 1970, paid for by bisexual singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green who as a child had done housework for Smith.

1931

Sally Miller Gearhart (born April 15, 1931) is an American teacher, radical feminist, science fiction writer, and political activist. In 1973 she became the first open lesbian to obtain a tenure-track faculty position when she was hired by the University of Oregon where she helped establish one of the first women and gender study programs in the country. She later became a nationally known gay rights activist. She has been controversial for her statement that “The proportion of men must be reduced to and maintained at approximately 10% of the human race”, made in her essay “The Future-If There is One-is Female.” The Sally Miller Gearhart Fund for lesbian studies was created to promote research and teaching in lesbian studies through an annual lecture series and an endowed professorship at the University of Oregon. The annual Sally Miller Gearhart Lecture in Lesbian Studies at the University of Oregon was first held on May 27, 2009; this first lecture was titled The Incredibly Shrinking Lesbian World and Other Queer Conundra, given by Arlene Stein of Rutgers University.

1972, Canada

In Ottawa, a visible gay contingent joins the Viet Nam Mobilization Committee demonstration protesting the visit of U.S. president Richard Nixon to Canada.

1979

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is founded in San Francisco by Ken Bunch (Sister Vicious PHB), Fred Brungard (Sister Missionary Position), and Baruch Golden. Their mission is “to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt.”

1987

ACT UP’s First Use of “Silence = Death,” the iconic pink triangle and slogan, is debuted to thousands waiting in line at New York City’s General Post Office to file their taxes.

1995, Argentina

Buenos Aires police raid Boicot, a lesbian disco, and arrest 10 women ostensibly to check their police records. Lesbian activist Monica Santino obtains their release after three hours during which time the women are subjected to verbal abuse and threats.

2009

GOProud, an organization representing conservative LGBT people, was founded by Christopher R. Barron (born December 15, 1973) and Jimmy LaSialvia (born December 15, 1970), two former Log Cabin Republican staffers who expressed dissatisfaction with that organization’s centrist political positions. It is now defunct. The Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) is an organization that works within the Republican Party to advocate equal rights for LGBT people in the United States. Log Cabin Republicans was founded in 1977 in California as a rallying point for Republicans opposed to the Briggs Initiative which attempted to ban homosexuals from teaching in public schools and authorize the firing of those teachers that supported homosexuality.

2014, India

Supreme Court of India recognizes third gender not as a social nor medical issues but a human right.

2019

Pete Buttigieg (January 19, 1982), the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., runs for president of the United States. Pete is openly gay and married to his husband, Chasten. However, he’s not the first openly LGBT person to run for U.S. president. In 2012, Republican Fred Karger campaigned in 26 states and beat Mitt Romney and Donald Trump in the first New Hampshire Straw Poll. He was featured in thousands of news stories around the world and constantly in the LGBTQ press. He was even interviewed by legendary journalist David Frost on Aljazeera TV. After the Republican New Hampshire primary he competed in the Michigan, Maryland, and Puerto Rico primaries where he beat Congressman Ron Paul. He appeared on his home state ballot in California and was the last candidate standing to compete against eventual nominee Mitt Romney in the June 26, 2012 Utah primary. Overall he finished in ninth place. Buttigieg made it through the primaries then lost to Biden. In December, 2020, President-Elect Joe Biden named Buttigieg as Secretary of Transportation, the first openly LGBT person to sit on a U. S. president’s cabinet.

APRIL 16

1061, Spain

The first recorded same-sex wedding occurred when two men were married by a priest at a small chapel in Rairiz de Veiga, Galicia, Spain. The records and historic documents about the church wedding were found at the Monastery of San Salvador de Celanova. It is not known whether the priest was aware of the gender of both.

1453, Italy

Leonardo da Vinci (16 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) is born. He was a prolific painter, scientist, mathematician, philosopher, architect and inventor. His most famous works are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Along with three other young men, he was anonymously accused of sodomy (and acquitted) with Jacopo Saltarelli, a notorious prostitute, which in Florence was a criminal offense, even though the general culture attached little social stigma to homosexuality. DaVinci never married and wrote in his notebooks that male-female intercourse disgusted him. His anatomical drawings naturally include the sexual organs of both genders, but those of the male exhibit much more extensive attention. Finally, Leonardo surrounded himself with beautiful young male assistants.

1934, Australia

Robert Colin Stigwood (16 April 1934 – 4 January 2016) was an Australian-born British-resident music entrepreneur, film producer and impresario. He was best known for managing Cream and the Bee Gees, theatrical productions like Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar and film productions including the extremely successful Grease and Saturday Night Fever.

1957

Essex Hemphill (April 16, 1957 – November 4, 1995) was an openly gay American poet and activist. He is known for his contributions to the Washington, D.C. art scene in the 1980s, and for openly discussing the topics pertinent to the African American gay community. He died on November 4, 1995, of AIDS-related complications. December 10, 1995 was announced to be a National Day of Remembrance for Essex Hemphill at New York City’s Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center. In 2014, Martin Duberman (born August 6, 1930) wrote Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS in which Duberman documents the life of Essex Hemphill along with author and activist, Michael Callen (April 11, 1955 – December 27, 1993). The book won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Nonfiction.

1997

Sherry Barone sues Har Jehuda Cemetery (Barone v. Har Jehuda Cemetery). Barone and Cynthia Friedman had been together for 13 years when Friedman passed away from cancer at the age of 35. In several discussions before her death, Friedman had asked that Barone include the inscription on her headstone: “Beloved life partner, daughter, granddaughter, sister and aunt.” Days after Friedman’s death, Barone signed a contract with Har Jehuda Cemetery for two adjoining plots and a headstone. Friedman’s religious principles meant the headstone should have been unveiled one year after she died, but the cemetery had refused to act on Barone’s instructions to follow her loved one’s wishes that “life partner” be included. After filing suit on Barone’s behalf, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund’s David S. Buckel (June 13, 1957 – April 14, 2018) settled with the cemetery outside of the courtroom. The cemetery agreed to erect the headstone in accordance with Friedman’s wishes and also to compensate Barone $15,000.

2012

Katie Ricks becomes the first open lesbian ordained by the Presbyterian Church. She is the Associate Pastor of the Church of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill.

2018

Donna Red Wing (1951 – April 16, 2018), a civil rights activist who campaigned for LGBTQ equality, died on this day at her home in Des Moines after an eight-month battle with cancer. She was 67.  Red Wing, who was once called as “the most dangerous woman in America” by the Christian Coalition, spent more than three decades advocating for civil rights. She was described in an obituary as a well-known national leader in the fight for LGBTQ equality. She served as executive director of One Iowa from 2012 to 2016, expanding the organization’s work into new arenas after the battle for marriage equality ended, the group said in a statement. “Donna was a force to be reckoned with and will be greatly missed by individuals across the country,” said Daniel Hoffman-Zinnel, the organization’s executive director. “Donna inspired so many, including myself.” Red Wing, the first recipient of the Walter Cronkite Award for Faith and Freedom, worked on numerous projects, initiatives and councils that included co-chairing the Obama for America 2008 LGBT Leadership Council. Donna died of lung cancer at the age of 67. She is survived by her wife and partner for more than 30 years, Sumitra.

APRIL 17

1725, South Africa

Leendert Hasenbosch  (c.1695-probably end of 1725), a Dutch East India Company employee, is convicted of sodomy on a ship in Capetown. He’s left on Ascension Island as punishment and dies of thirst six months later. He kept a diary entitled Sodomy Punish’d which was published in 1726. In 2006 the full story was published by Alex Ritsema in the book entitled A Dutch Castaway on Ascension Island in 1725. A revised edition was printed in 2010.

1863, Egypt

Constantine Peter (C.P.) Cavafy (April 17, 1863 – April 29, 1933) is born in Alexandria, Egypt. He was an Egyptian Greek poet, journalist and civil servant. His consciously individual style earned him a place among the most important figures not only in Greek poetry, but in Western poetry as well. His sensual poems are filled with the lyricism and emotion of same-sex love, inspired by recollection and remembrance. The past and former actions, sometimes along with the vision for the future underlie the muse of Cavafy in writing these poems. He died of cancer of the larynx on April 29, 1933, his 70th birthday. Since his death, Cavafy’s reputation has grown. His poetry is taught in school in Greece and Cyprus, and in universities around the world. In 1966, David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) made a series of prints to illustrate a selection of Cavafy’s poems. During his lifetime, Cavafy was considered the poet of Alexandria. Today he is primarily identified with Lawrence Durrell’s characterization of him in the Alexandria Quartet.

1897

Thornton Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes-for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and for the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teet and a U.S. National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day. Although Wilder never discussed being homosexual publicly or in his writings, his close friend author Samuel Steward (July 23, 1909 – December 31, 1993) acknowledged having sexual relations with him. The third act of Our Town was allegedly drafted after a long walk, during a brief affair with Steward in Zurich Switzerland.

1919

Isabel Vargas Lizano (17 April 1919 – 5 August 2012), better known as Chavela Vargas, was a Costa Rica-born Mexican singer. She was especially known for her rendition of Mexican rancheras, but she is also recognized for her contribution to other genres of popular Latin American music. She was an influential interpreter in the Americas and Europe, muse to figures such as Pedro Almodovar, hailed for her haunting performances, and called her “the rough voice of tenderness.” The Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, presented her with a Latin Grammy in 2007. Long considered an open secret, she publicly came out as a lesbian at age 81 in her 2002 autobiography. Her coming out was not surprising to her fans. For years Vargas refused to change the genders in her songs. In Paloma Negra(“Black Dove”), Vargas accuses a woman of partying all night long and breaking her heart. Vargas herself, as a young woman, was alleged to have had an affair with Frida Kahlo during Kahlo’s marriage to muralist Diego Rivera. In August 2019, Vargas was one of the honorees inducted in the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood noting LGBTQ people who have “made significant contributions in their fields.”

1965

Ten gay men and lesbians silently picket the White House on April 17th and the United Nations on the 18th after learning that Cuba was placing homosexuals in forced labor camps. Staged by the East Coast Homophile Organization (ECHO), it’s one of the first ever public demonstrations for gay and lesbian rights.

1999

Ellen Corby (June 3, 1911 – April 17, 1999) was an American actress. She is best remembered for the role of grandma Esther Walton on the CBS television The Waltons for which she won three Emmy Awards. She was also nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Aunt Trina in I Remember Mama. Corby died at the age of 87, survived by her partner of 45 years Stella Luchetta of Los Angeles.

2013, New Zealand

Marriage equality passes in the New Zealand Parliament 77-44.

APRIL 18

382, BC

Phillip of Macedonia (382-336 BC) is born. He was the military genius who defeated the combined armies of Athens and Thebes, conquering all of Greece. Along the way he availed himself of the 800 young eunuchs that had been brought with the army for his pleasure.

1952

The American Psychiatric Association lists homosexuality as a disturbance in its first publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Immediately following the manual’s release, many professionals in medicine, mental health and social sciences criticize the categorization due to lack of empirical and scientific data. Homosexuality was removed from the DSM in 1973. Homophobia, however, is certainly a disorder!

1990

Greta Garbo, born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson (18 September 1905 – 18 April 1990), dies. She was a Swedish-born American film actress during the 1920s and 1930s. Garbo was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress and received an Academy Honorary Award in 1954 for her “luminous and unforgettable screen performances.” In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on their list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema, after Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, and Ingrid Bergman. Recent biographers and others believe that Garbo was bisexual or lesbian, that she had intimate relationships with women as well as with men. In 1927, Garbo was introduced to stage and screen actress Lilyan Tashman (October 23, 1896 – March 21, 1934) and they may have had an affair, according to some writers. Silent film star Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) stated that she and Garbo had a brief liaison the following year. In 1931, Garbo befriended the writer and acknowledged lesbian Mercedes de Acosta (March 1, 1893 – May 9, 1968), introduced to her by her close friend, Salka Viertel and, according to Garbo’s and de Acosta’s biographers, began a sporadic and volatile romance.

APRIL 19

1929

In New York City, an appellate court rules that, contrary to a verdict reached earlier in the year by a lower court, the book The Well of Loneliness is not obscene. The decision clears the way for even wider distribution of the best-selling novel. The Well of Loneliness is a lesbian novel by British author Radclyffe Hall (12 August 1880 – 7 October 1943) that was first published in 1928 by Jonathan Cape. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose “sexual inversion” (homosexuality) is apparent from an early age. She finds love with Mary Llewellyn, whom she meets while serving as an ambulance driver in World War I, but their happiness together is marred by social isolation and rejection, which Hall depicts as typically suffered by “inverts”, with predictably debilitating effects. The novel portrays “inversion” as a natural, God-given state and makes an explicit plea: “Give us also the right to our existence”

1967

The Student Homophile League of Columbia University becomes the first gay college group to obtain a campus charter. The SHL had twelve members who fought with university administrators for a year before the group was officially recognized. Stephen Donaldson, a bisexual-identified LGBT rights activist is commemorated by a plaque in the Queer Lounge that bears his name in one of Columbia’s residence halls for spearheading the creation of the group. When the charter was ultimately granted in April 1967, it earned media attention with the New York Times printing a story on the front page. The Columbia Daily Spectator reported that some students believed that the creation of the group was an April Fool’s joke. The group is still in existence to this day and is now called the Columbia Queer Alliance

1982

The Gay Officers Action League, Inc. is founded by NYPD Sergeant Charles Cochrane (August 5, 1943 – May 5, 2008) and retired Detective Sam Ciccone (1944-May 10, 2015), establishing the first official police fraternal society in the world to represent LGBT people within the criminal justice system. Sergeant Cochrane, a 14-year veteran of the NYPD, created shock waves by testifying before a NYC Council hearing in favor of a gay rights bill. Following the testimony of a Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association Vice President, who denounced the bill and declared, “I didn’t know of any homosexual police officers.” Cochrane stunned all present as well as NYC as a whole by his testimony: “I am very proud of being a New York City Police Officer, and I am equally proud of being gay.” In 1987, at the persistent urging of GOAL, NYPD began a concerted effort to actively enlist qualified gay candidates. In 2002, GOAL was admitted into COPS, the Committee of Police Societies, an organization consisting of all recognized NYPD religious, ethnic fraternal organizations. Since its inception, GOAL has evolved not only as a fraternal organization, but also as an activist organization that represents the interests of its LGBT members in all agencies and branches within the criminal justice system.

2012

The Israeli Conservative movement joined the Reform Judaism movement in agreeing to admit LGBT students into rabbinical school.

APRIL 20

1492, Italy

Renaissance writer and dramatist Pietro Aretino (20 April 1492 – 21 October 1556) is born in Tuscany. He was an Italian author, playwright, poet, satirist and blackmailer, who wielded influence on contemporary art and politics and developed modern literary pornography. He was a lover of men, having declared himself “a sodomite” since birth.

1893, Italy

Bisexual Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (26 February 1861 – 10 September 1948) enters into a marriage of convenience with Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma, daughter of Robert I, Duke of Parma and Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, on this day at the Villa Pianore in Lucca. In his private relations, Ferdinand was a somewhat hedonistic individual. He was an author, botanist, entomologist and philatelist. Bisexual throughout his life, up until early middle age his inclination was more towards women. His regular holidays were on Capri, then a popular holiday destination with wealthy gay men. His sexuality was common knowledge in royal courts throughout Europe.

1937

George Takei (born April 20, 1937) is born. He is an American actor, director, author, and activist. He is best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the television series Star Trek. In October 2005, Takei revealed in an issue of Frontiers magazine that he is gay and had been in a committed relationship with his partner, Brad Altman, for 18 years. In May 2014, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation honored Takei with the GLAAD Vito Russo Award which is presented to an openly LGBT media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equality for the LGBT community. In May 2015, the Japanese American National Museum honored Takei with the Distinguished Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement and Public Service at the Japanese American National Museum’s 2015 Gala Dinner in Los Angeles.

1969

Frank Kameny (May 21, 1925 – October 11, 2011) orders 100 “Gay is Good” buttons, indicating a move from his position of “fitting in” to promoting and celebrating gay existence. He was an American gay rights activist and has been referred to as “one of the most significant figures” in the American gay rights movement. In 1957, Kameny was dismissed from his position as an astronomer in the U.S. Army’s Army Map Service in Washington, D.C. because of his homosexuality, leading him to begin “a Herculean struggle with the American establishment” that would “spearhead a new period of militancy in the homosexual rights movement of the early 1960s.” Kameny formally appealed his firing by the U.S. Civil Service Commission. Although unsuccessful, the proceeding was notable as the first known civil rights claim based on sexual orientation pursued in a U.S. court.

1970

The Boys in the Band movie trailer is released. The Boys in the Band is a 1970 American drama film directed by William Friedkin. The screenplay by Mart Crowley (born August 21, 1935) is based on his Off-Broadway play The Boys in the Band. It is among the first major American motion pictures to revolve around gay characters and is often cited as a milestone in the history of queer cinema.

2001, China

The Chinese remove homosexuality from list of mental disorders.

2018 Australia

Same-sex adoption becomes legal. Adoption is not a federal law but state-based. Since April 2018, same-sex couples can adopt children in all jurisdictions within Australia.

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1946

John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes (5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946) died on this day. He was a British economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. He built on and greatly refined earlier work on the causes of business cycles, and was one of the most influential economists of the 20th century and the founder of modern macroeconomics theory. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics, and its various offshoots. Keynes’s early romantic and sexual relationships were exclusively with men. Significant among his early partners was British classics scholar and code breaker Alfred Dillwyn “Dilly” Knox (23 July 1884 – 27 February 1943). Keynes was open about his affairs, and, from 1901 to 1915, kept diaries in which he tabulated his many sexual encounters.

1953

Philanthropist and Microsoft pioneer Ric Weiland (April 21, 1953 – June 24, 2006) is born. One of the first five employees of Microsoft, Weiland was a lead programmer and developer for the company’s BASIC and COBOL programming languages. After leaving Microsoft in 1988, he dedicated most of his time to philanthropy, donating millions of dollars to charities, including the Pride Foundation, the Lifelong AIDS Alliance, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, and the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Weiland committed suicide by gunshot on June 24, 2006. Besides his long-standing HIV diagnosis, he was reported to have suffered from clinical depression. His is survived by his partner Mike Schaefer.

1966

The N.Y. Mattachine Society, spearheaded by president Dick Leitsch (born May 11, 1935), staged a “Sip-In” at the Julius Bar in Greenwich Village. This led to court actions that overturned the New York State Liquor Authority’s provisions declaring it illegal for homosexuals to congregate and be served alcoholic beverages in bars. Although Leitch’s complaint to the State Liquor Authority resulted in no action, the city’s human rights commission declared that such discrimination could not continue. The National Park Service Register of Historic Places for the Julius’ Bar states that “Scholars of gay history consider the sip-in at Julius’ as a key event leading to the growth of legitimate gay bars and the development of the bar as the central social space for urban gay men and lesbians.” The bar now holds a monthly party called “Mattachine” honoring the early gay rights pioneers.

1970

Alice Wu (April 21, 1970) is born. She is a Chinese American film director and screenwriter. Wu pursued a career in computer science but began writing a novel while working at Microsoft. Deciding the story would work better as a film, she signed up for a screenwriting class, in which she penned the feature script Saving Face. Encouraged by her screenwriting teacher, she left Microsoft in the late 1990s to try to turn the script into a film, giving herself a five-year window. Production had begun when she reached the fifth year. In 2001, the script for Saving Face won the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment screenwriting award. Saving Face was released in 2004 and is her most noted work. The film was inspired by her own experiences coming out as a lesbian in the Chinese American community.

1976, Canada

In Saskatoon the Board of Governors of the University of Saskatchewan overturns recommendation of the University Council that homosexuality should not be considered in the selection of dons of residence. But it accepts that sexual orientation not be a factor in treatment of faculty or students in faculty positions

1981, Canada

In Toronto six people, including activists George Hislop (June 3, 1927 – October 8, 2005) and lawyer Peter Maloney and head of Club Bath chain in the U.S., Jack Campbell (1932-2012) are charged with conspiracy to live off avails of crime. All three were listed as owners of the Club Toronto. These were the final charges following the February 5th bathhouse raids. Almost all charges are later dropped in court. The event marked a major turning point in the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Canada; the raids and their aftermath are today widely considered to be the Canadian equivalent of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. Mass protests and rallies were held denouncing the incident. These evolved into Toronto’s current Pride Week, which is now one of the world’s largest gay pride festivals. Almost all the charges against the 300+ men including Hislop, Maloney and Campbell are later dropped in court and the Toronto Metro Police become a laughingstock.

1982, Canada

Metro Toronto Police Morality Squad officers seize two magazines, charge assistant manager Kevin Orr of Glad Day Bookshop with “possession of obscene material for purpose of resale.”

1999, Czech Republic

The first openly gay person, Vaclav Fischer (born 22 June 1954), is elected to Czech Senate. Fischer is a Czech-German businessman and politician. He was the founder of the companies CK Fischer and Fischer Air.

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1766, France –

Anne Louise Germaine de Stael-Holstein, known as Madame De Stael (22 April 1766 – 14 July 1817) is born near Paris. She was a French woman of letters of Swiss origin whose lifetime overlapped with the events of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. For many years she lived as an exile under the Reign of Terror and under Napoleonic persecution. Known as a witty and brilliant conversationalist, often dressed in flashy and revealing outfits, she participated actively in the political and intellectual life of her times. She was an active bisexual who lived for 19 years with Parisian socialite Juliette Recamier (4 December 1777 – 11 May 1849), the most celebrated beauty of her time. Upon Recamier’s death, De Stael wrote “I love you with a love that surpasses that of friendship‚ were I to embrace you with all that remains of me.” Celebrated for her conversational eloquence, she participated actively in the political and intellectual life of her times. Her works, both critical and fictional, made their mark on the history of European Romanticism.

1969

Frank Bartley is shot and killed by police in Berkeley, CA. The shooting is declared accidental. After this, gay rights groups begin to take notice of the number of shootings that were declared ‘accidental.’

2012

Jack Denton Reese (Jan. 25, 1995-April 22, 2012), a gay Mormon teen, commits suicide in Mountain Green, Utah. He was 17 years old.  According to Jack’s boyfriend, Alex Smith, Jack was bullied at school. On April 23, Alex, who didn’t know yet that his boyfriend had taken his life, spoke at a panel about the bullying Jack experienced. The panel was held in connection with the screening of the documentary film Bullied. Jack attended Morgan and Weber High Schools.

2014

Harvey Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) is the first openly gay elected official on a U.S. stamp. He was an American politician in the history of California where he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He fought and defeated the anti-gay Prop 6. Milk was assassinated in 1978 by Supervisor Dan White.

APRIL 23

1791

James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) is born near Mercerburg, Pennsylvania. The 15th president of the United States was the only bachelor to serve in that office. His closest friend and long-time live-in companion was Alabama Senator William Rufus De Vane King (April 7, 1786 – April 18, 1853) who briefly served as vice president under Franklin Pierce. Buchanan and King lived together in a Washington boardinghouse for 10 years from 1834 until King’s departure for France in 1844. King referred to the relationship as a “communion,” and the two attended social functions together. Contemporaries also noted the closeness. Andrew Jackson called King “Miss Nancy” and prominent Democrat Aaron V. Brown referred to King as Buchanan’s “better half,” “wife” and “Aunt Fancy” (the last being a 19th-century euphemism for an effeminate man). Around Washington, the pair were known as the “Siamese twins,” slang at the time for gays and lesbians. The director of Wheatland, the home and presidential library of President James Buchanan, admits that it can’t be refuted that Buchanan might have been gay. During Buchanan’s presidency, his orphaned niece, Harriet Lane, whom he had adopted, served as official White House hostess.

1859

Margaret Georgina Todd (23 April 1859 – 3 September 1918) was a Scottish doctor and writer. She coined the term isotope in 1913 in a suggestion to chemist Frederick Soddy. Todd was born in Kilrenny, Fife, Scotland. A Glaswegian schoolteacher, in 1886 Todd became one of the first students at the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women after hearing that the Scottish Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons had opened their exams to women. She took eight years to complete the four-year course because, using the pseudonym Graham Travers, during her studies she wrote a novel, Mona Maclean, Medical Student. She later published Fellow Travellers and Kirsty O’ The Mill Toun in 1896, followed by Windyhaugh in 1898, always using her male pen name, although her real identity was known by then and mentioned in reviews of her books. By 1906, even her publishers added “Margaret Todd, M.D.” in parentheses after her pseudonym. In addition to six novels, she wrote short stories for magazines. Todd was the romantic partner of Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake (21 January 1840 – 7 January 1912). After Jex-Blake’s death she wrote The Life of Dr Sophia Jex-Blake (1918) under her own name, describing the fight of women in the 19th century to enter the medical profession.

1967

The Student Homophile League of Columbia University pickets and disrupts a panel of psychiatrists discussing homosexuality.

1980, Canada

Montreal Police raid Sauna David, a gay bathhouse, and arrest sixty-one men on bawdyhouse charges.

1986

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler announces that an American scientist, Robert Gallo, has discovered the virus that causes AIDS: a retrovirus is subsequently named HTLV-3, known today as HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). AIDS was originally named called GRID – Gay Related Immune Deficiency. Heckler had announced the probable cause in 1982 and said a vaccine would be available in two years. It wasn’t.

1990

The Hate Crimes Statistic Act is signed into law by President George H. W. Bush. It is the first U.S. bill to use the phrase ‘sexual orientation.’ The act requires the Department of Justice to collect and publish statistics for five years on Hate Crime motivated by prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnic origin. It is the first law to extend federal recognition to gay men and lesbians. Bush: “We must work together to build an America of opportunity, where every American is free finally from discrimination. And I will use this noble office, this bully pulpit, if you will, to speak out against hate and discrimination everywhere it exists.” Eight years later his son’s presidential administration is one of the most anti-gay in United States recorded history.

2012

Marc Acito (born January 11, 1966) wins the Charles MacArther Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical for his play Birds of a Feather. He lives in New York City with his husband Floyd Sklaver.

2013, France

The French Senate approves same-sex marriage.

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1858, UK

Dame Ethel Smyth (24 April 1858 – 8 May 1944) is born in Surrey, England. A composer, writer, and feminist, Smyth wrote seven torrid volumes of explicit memoir. Smyth’s relationship with acclaimed British harpsichordist and clavichordist Violet Gordon-Woodhouse (23 April 1872 – 9 January 1948) is depicted satirically in Roger Scruton’s 2005 opera Violet.

1980

San Francisco resident Ken Horne, the first AIDS case in the United States to be recognized at the time, is reported to the Center for Disease Control with Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS). By the end of 1981, 270 cases had been reported among gay men. Of these, 121 had died.

1993

The third Gay and Lesbian March on Washington is prefaced by a mass wedding ceremony, conducted by Reverend Troy Perry (born July 27, 1940) at the IRS building, joining 1,500 lesbian and gay couples in marriage. In addition, twenty thousand lesbians joined in the Dyke March, organized by the Lesbian Avengers, to march on the White House in what is the largest lesbian demonstration ever.

1994, Russia

Yaroslav Mogutin (born April 12, 1974), the country’s most visible openly gay journalist, makes headlines when he attempts to register his marriage to American artist Robert Filippini. The head of Moscow’s Wedding Palace No. 4 refuses his application.

2015

In a televised interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, U.S. Olympic gold medal winner Bruce Jenner (born October 28, 1949) says, “Yes, for all intents and purposes, I’m a woman.” Jenner later reveals that she is now Caitlyn Jenner.

APRIL 25

1284, UK

King Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327) is born in Caernavon, Wales. He was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January of 1327. Ancient Christianity had tolerated homosexuality but by the mid 13th century life was harder on gays and Edward was made an example. His first lover, Piers Gaveston (c. 1284 – 19 June 1312) was murdered by courtiers. His second affair, with Hugh le Despenser (c. 1286 – 24 November 1326), ended with the Baron’s arrest and imprisonment. Le Despenser had his genitals cut off and burned in front of him and then was beheaded. Edward was murdered by having a red-hot poker inserted in his anus.

1918, South Africa

Graham Payn (25 April 1918 – 4 November 2005) is born. He was a South African English actor and singer, also known for being the life partner of the playwright Noel Coward (16 December 1899 – 26 March 1973). Beginning as a boy soprano, Payn later made a career as a singer and actor in the works of Coward and others. After Coward’s death, Payn ran the Coward estate for 22 years.

1964

Andrew Ivan Bell (born 25 April 1964) is the lead singer of the English synth-pop duo Erasure. His solo career includes the albums Non-Stop, Electric Blue, and iPop. Bell is openly gay, and had a longtime partner in Paul M. Hickey. Bell told Melody Maker in 1986, “I don’t want to go out of my way to talk about it but I’m not going to pretend I’m not [gay]. I won’t portray a heterosexual in videos and we’re consciously doing lyrics that could apply to either sex”.

1965

An estimated 150 people participated in a sit-in when the manager of Dewey’s Restaurant in Philadelphia refused service to several people he thought looked gay. Four people were arrested, including homophile rights leader Clark Polak (15 October 1937-18 September 1980) of Philadelphia’s Janus Society. All four were convicted of disorderly conduct. Members of the society also leafleted outside the restaurant the following week and negotiated with the owners to bring an end to the denial of service.

1978

St. Paul, Minnesota votes to repeal its four-year old gay-rights ordinance by a margin of 2-1, another Anita Bryant fallout.

1979

Jury selection begins in the trial of Dan White for the murder of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and gay activist Supervisor Harvey Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978).  In a controversial verdict that led to the coining of the legal slang “Twinkie defense,” White was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder in the deaths of Milk and Moscone. White served five years of a seven-year prison sentence. Less than two years after his release, he returned to San Francisco and committed suicide.

1987, Ireland

David Norris (born 31 July 1944) is the first openly gay person elected to public office. He is an Irish scholar, independent Senator and civil rights activist. Internationally, Norris is credited with having “managed, almost single-handedly, to overthrow the anti-homosexuality law which brought about the downfall of Oscar Wilde,” a feat he achieved in 1988 after a fourteen-year campaign.

1993

The 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation was a large political rally that took place in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 1993. Organizers estimated that 1,000,000 attended the March. The D.C. Police Department put the number between 800,000 and more than 1 million, making it one of the largest protests in American history. A powerful and moving piece documenting the LGBTQ movement for equality in the early 1990s, A Simple Matter of Justice: The 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberationexpresses all the emotions of the joyful protest that was the 1993 March on Washington. This feature-length film features sections on civil rights, AIDS and health care, the military, and families are woven together from coverage of the music, comedy, speeches and marchers. Performers include Melissa Etheridge, RuPaul, BETTY, Holly Near and The Flirtations. Martina Navratilova, Sir Ian McKellan, Rev. Ben Chavis, and Eartha Kitt are just a few of the speakers.

1995

Lawrence, Kansas passes an ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. The law, the culmination of a 7-year struggle, is the only one of its type in the state of Kansas.

2014, Pakistan

Pakistani Supreme Court rules in favor of a third gender.

2018

Soni Wolf (1949-April 25th, 2018), founder of Dykes on Bikes, dies at the age of 69 from complications due to pneumonia and pulmonary disease. Soni was a native of Rhode Island. She served as a medic in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, treating veterans in a Texas hospital. After she was discharged, she moved to the San Francisco Bay area in the 1970s. She lived in the Castro district and worked managing copy centers for brokerages and law firms. Wolf came to the fore when she first rode with a group of lesbians during the 1976 San Francisco’s Pride Parade. To avoid overheating their bikes, they rode in front of the parade. During the parade, someone coined the term ‘dykes on bikes’ and it stuck when The San Francisco Chronicle used it. Wolf said of the name, “It rhymes. Just kind of rolls off the tongue.” One of San Francisco’s greatest queer legends, Soni Wolf not only founded Dykes on Bikes, but also took on the U.S. Supreme Court twice in a battle over the right to trademark the group’s name. Wolf is survived by Dykes on Bikes around the world.

APRIL 26

Lesbian Visibility Day

1564

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564-23 April 1616) is born at Stratford-on-Avon. He was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.” The debate rages as to whether or not he was gay. It will likely never be resolved. The word “drag” is a stage direction coined by Shakespeare and his contemporaries meaning ‘Dressed Resembling a Girl’.

1886

Creator of “The Blues” Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) is born Gertrude Pridgett in Columbus, Georgia. Accompanied by her “Georgia Band,” which included such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong, Thomas Dorsey, and Coleman Hawkins, she belted out song after song with titles like Rough and Tumble Blues, Jealous Hearted Blues, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Blues. In spite of her marriage to “Pa” Rainey, she made no secret of her relationships with women. Indeed, her famous Prove it on Me Blues, recorded in 1928, sounds more like the testimony of a lesbian than a bisexual: “Went out last night with a crowd of my friends, They must have been women, ’cause I don’t like no men. Wear my clothes just like a fan, Talk to gals just like any old man ‘Cause they say I do it, ain’t nobody caught me, Sure got to prove it on me” The political activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis noted that Prove It on Me is a cultural precursor to the lesbian cultural movement of the 1970s, which began to crystallize around the performance and recording of lesbian-affirming songs.”

1895, UK

Author Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) is prosecuted in Regina v. Wilde. Wilde pleads not guilty to charges of sodomy and gross indecency. On the stand, he says of homosexuality, “It is beautiful. It is fine. It is the noblest of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it.”

1944

Violette Morris (18 April 1893 – 26 April 1944) is killed. She was a French athlete who won two gold and one silver medals at the Women’s World Games in 1921-1922. In 1936, she became a spy for Nazi Germany,which continued during World War II. She was killed in 1944 in a Resistance-led ambush as a traitor to France. Morris had been banned from the 1928 Olympics for her lesbianism.

1970

The first known print use of the term “transgender” appears in The V Guide describing author Gore Vidal’s (October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) Myra Breckenridge.

2000

Vermont becomes the first state in the U.S. to legalize civil unions and registered partnerships between same-sex couples.

APRIL 27

1911

Jack Cole (April 27, 1911- February 17, 1974) was an American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director known as the founder of the idiom of American show dancing called Theatrical Jazz Dance. If not for Cole, many now-immortal stage and screen actresses probably would not be remembered as dancers today. Cole’s choreography in the Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend sequence in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was reinterpreted by Madonna for her music video of Material Girl.

1951, Mexico

Luis Zapata (born April 27, 1951), Mexico’s most productive and successful gay writer, is born. Luis Zapata studied French literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). In addition to his novels (most famously, El vampiro de la colonia Roma, 1979), he also wrote plays and short stories and was active in the field of cultural journalism. He was also a specialist translator of medieval French. Zapata died in Mexico City on November 4, 2020, after being hospitalized in Morelos a month earlier.

1953

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10450 which establishes grounds for investigation and dismissal:  “Any criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct, habitual use of intoxicants to excess, drug addiction, or sexual perversion.” Without explicitly referring to homosexuality, the executive order responded to several years of charges that the presence of homosexual employees in the State Department posed blackmail risks. As a result, more than 640 federal employees lose their jobs over the next year and a half.

1967

The Student Homophile League at Columbia University is founded, making them the first college in the United States to officially recognize a gay student group. Robert Martin, Jr, known as Stephen Donaldson (July 27, 1946 – July 18, 1996), was a bisexual-identified LGBT rights activist who founded the group. He is commemorated by a plaque and a portrait in the queer student lounge that bears his name in one of Columbia’s residence halls. He is best known for his pioneering activism in LGBT rights and prison reform, and for his writing about punk rock and subculture.

1978, Canada

John Argue, a swimming instructor with Toronto Board of Education, is fired from his job at public school because he is gay. Argue, a gay activist, later becomes active in Metro Toronto New Democratic Party.

1978

Rachel Morrison (born April 27, 1978) is an American cinematographer. For her work on Mudbound (2017), Morrison earned a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, making her the first woman ever-and thus the first lesbian-nominated in that category. She has twice worked with director Ryan Coogler, first on Fruitvale Station(2013) then on Black Panther (2018).

2009, Iowa

Iowa becomes the third state to allow same-sex marriage.

APRIL 28

1929

Gay journalist John Paul Hudson (April 28, 1929 – February 20, 2002) is born.  Hudson is one of the first gay writers to take up gay rights and become involved in the media. He also wrote under the pseudonym John Francis Hunter. He wrote for the periodical Gay in 1969, the Advocate in 1970 and contributed to David, Gayweek, News West, Flash and Vector. A tireless activist, he is credited with being one of the founders of the gay rights movement that grew out of the Stonewall riots and was one of the principal organizers of the Christopher Street Liberation Day committee which put together the first Pride March in 1970 on the first anniversary of Stonewall. He died in 2002.

1954, UK

The Home Office announces that a special committee, later called the Wolfenden Committee, will be formed to study the issue of sex Law reform. The Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, better known as the Wolfenden report after Sir John Wolfenden (26 June 1906 – 18 January 1985), the chair of the committee, was published in the United Kingdom on 4 September 1957 after a succession of well-known men, including Lord Montagu of Beaulieu (20 October 1926 – 31 August 2015), Michael Pitt-Rivers (27 May 1917 – December 1999), and Peter Wildeblood (19 May 1923 – 14 November 1999) were convicted of homosexual offences.

1977, Canada

Ontario MPP Margaret Campbell’s private member’s bill to include sexual orientation in Ontario Human Rights Code, introduced April 4th, fails in legislature.

1977

Florida Governor Rubin Askew asks Miami voters to rescind a recently passed gay rights ordinance saying, “I would not want a known homosexual teaching my children.” Askew was an ally of Florida Orange Juice spokesperson Anita Bryant who conducted a national anti-gay crusade. He signed legislation prohibiting any gay or lesbian person in Florida from adopting children.

1981

Marilyn Barnett (born January 28, 1948) files a palimony suit against tennis icon Billie Jean King (born November 22, 1943). At the time, King denies that she is a lesbian, although she acknowledges the affair. King lost all her endorsements in a 24-hour period (an estimated $2 million), wins the case and comes out officially. Today King has residences in New York City and Chicago with her doubles partner Liana Kloss.

1990

Over 1000 people attend Queer Nation’s first major demonstration. Queer Nation, founded by AIDS activists from ACT UP, mobilized over a 1000 protesters in a matter of hours outside Uncle Charlie’s Downtown in New York City, responding to a pipe bomb. The explosion occurred at about 12:10 A.M, injuring three men in the very popular Greenwich Village gay bar. The protestors marched their way to the NYPD’s 6th Precinct, blocking traffic. Five years later, in 1995, it was discovered that terrorist El Sayyid Nosair, who was convicted of involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was responsible for the pipe bomb attack.

2015

The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the question of the freedom to marry in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan. The decision may bring a national resolution on the issue of same-sex marriage.

APRIL 29

1870, UK

Thomas Ernest Boulton (Feb. 2, 1848-Dec. 1904) and Frederick William Park (1849-?) were Stella and Fanny to their friends. They were drag queens who were arrested the night after a performance and charged “with conspiring and inciting persons to commit an unnatural offence”. They appear in court in women’s clothing. After the prosecution failed to establish that they had anal sex, which was then a crime, or that wearing women’s clothing was in any sense a crime, both men were acquitted.

1930

Jim Toy (April 29, 1930-January 1, 2022) is born. He was a long-time LGBT activist, considered a pioneer among LGBT activists in Michigan. Jim came out during his speech at an anti-Vietnam-War rally in Kennedy Square, Detroit, in April 1970. At the rally Toy was representing the Detroit Gay Liberation Movement, of which he was a founding member. He was also a founding member of the Ann Arbor Gay Liberation Front. In 1971 he helped establish the Human Sexuality Office (HSO) at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (later renamed The Spectrum Center). The HSO was the first staffed office in a United States institution of higher learning, and presumably the first of its kind in the world to respond to sexual orientation concerns. Jim served as its Co-Coordinator, and Gay Male advocate, from 1971 until 1994 when Dr. Ronni Sanlo (March 20, 1947) became the director of that center.

1933

Singer Rod McKuen (April 29, 1933 – January 29, 2015) is born in Oakland, California. His “new age” songs made him a celebrity in the late 60s. He told an interviewer “I have had sex with men. Does that make me gay?”

1978, Canada

Homophobic singer Anita Bryant’s visit to Edmonton prompts demonstrations.

1993, Russia

Homosexual acts between consenting adult males are legalized. Yeltsin signs the law to obtain a place in the Council of Europe, a human rights organization.

1997

The State of Hawaii creates a “domestic partners registry.”

2013

NBA player Jason Collins (born December 2, 1978) comes out in Sports Illustrated. He’s the first currently-playing pro male athlete to come out. In April 2014, Collins featured on the cover of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World.” On November 19, 2014, Collins announced his retirement from professional basketball after 13 seasons in the NBA. Since June 2014, Collins has been in a relationship with Brunson Green (born November 1967). Green is a film producer and president of Harbinger Pictures, an American feature film production company based in Los Angeles. On January 24, 2012, he was nominated for an Academy Award for the movie The Help.

APRIL 30

1877

Alice B. Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) is born in San Francisco.  Toklas becomes the lover of Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946), becoming gay history’s most legendary lesbian couple. After moving to Paris, Stein met Toklas in 1907. Their apartment on the Rue de Fleurus which became a famous meeting place for artists and writers. During the period Toklas and Stein were together, they frequently exchanged love letters. Alice was an early riser, and Gertrude, who wrote late into the night, left her tender, passionate notes to cheer up her mornings. Toklas gained wide attention with the publication of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933), which is actually Gertrude Stein’s memoir. It records Toklas’s first-person observations of Stein’s life and her friends, among them Ernest Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Georges Braque. The Alice B. Toklas Cookbookcame out when Toklas was 77. It contained 300 recipes and became famous because of one special dish, Toklas’s Haschich Fudge “which anyone could whip up on a rainy day,” she wrote.

1921, France

Marcel Proust (10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) publishes the first part of Sodome et Gomorrhe (Cities of the Plain), part of his 16-volume opus A la Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). The themes of male and female same-sex passion interwoven into the previous volumes now come to the fore in an extended essay on the homosexual.

1973, Canada

In Toronto, Newsweb Enterprises, a printing company controlled by The Toronto Star, refuses to print Issue 8 of the gay paper The Body Politic following a battle over classified ads which the printer said were “obscene.”.

1980, Canada

Two Winnipeg chain bookstores, Coles and Classics, remove copies of Joy of Gay Sex and Joy of Lesbian Sex from shelves following threats from police of obscenity charges.

1988, UK

Some 30,000 demonstrators, including rock stars and other celebrities, march in London to protest the passage of Clause 28 which affected England, Wales and Scotland. This is the largest lesbian and gay rally in the history of the UK. Clause 28 stated that a local authority “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. It was repealed on June 21, 2000 in Scotland by the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc. (Scotland) Act 2000, one of the first pieces of legislation enacted by the new Scottish Parliament, and on November 18, 2003 in the rest of the United Kingdom.

1989

In Austin, Texas, more than 20,000 people march on the state capital in the largest gay and lesbian rights demonstration in the state’s history.

1997

‘Yep, I’m gay’ – Ellen DeGeneres (born January 26, 1958) comes out on her television show Ellen in The Puppy Episodethat drew in 42 million viewers. Her ratings plunged, which she said was due to a lack of promotion, and the show was pulled the next season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Her “coming out” heralded an era of other gay celebrities following suit.

Historical information obtained from a variety of sources including:

Lavender Effect http://www.thelavendereffect.org
Out History https://outhistory.org

Quist http://www.quistapp.com

Safe Schools Coalition http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_history

Back to Stonewall http://www.back2stonewall.com

GLBT History https://www.glbthistory.org

Published March 18, 2023

THIS DAY IN LGBTQ HISTORY – MARCH

MARCH 1

1642

The Plymouth Colony Court heard a case brought against Edward Michell and Edward Preston for “lewd & sodomitical practices tending to sodomy.”

1649

The earliest known conviction for lesbian activity in North America occurs on this day when Sarah White Norman (ca. 1623-1654) is charged with “Lewd behaviour with each other upon a bed” with Mary Vincent Hammon (1633-1705) in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Since Mary was younger than 16 years old, she was only admonished, but Sarah, probably 10 years older, stood trial. Originally, Richard Berry (1626-1681), a neighbor, accused the two women and one man, Teage Joanes, of sodomy and other unclean practices. Later Berry said he had borne false witness against Joanes but he did not withdraw what he said against Sarah White Norman. Much later, the same Berry and other men, including Joanes, were prosecuted for homosexuality and ordered to “part their uncivil living together”.

1656

The New Haven, CT law is the first in the American colonies to make same-sex acts between women punishable by the death penalty. The code quotes Romans 1:26 “if any woman change the natural use into that which is against nature” as the basis for the law.

Published March 18, 2023

THIS DAY IN LGBTQ HISTORY – FEBRUARY

FEBRUARY 1

1900

Marion Barbara ‘Joe’ Carstairs (1 February 1900 – 18 December 1993) was a wealthy British power boat racer known for her speed, her eccentric lifestyle and gender nonconformity. In the 1920s she was known as the ‘fastest woman on water’. She was also given a Steiff doll by a girlfriend, Ruth Baldwin (1905 – August, 1937), naming it Lord Tod Wadley. She became exceptionally attached to this doll, keeping it with her until her death, although she didn’t take it into her speedboats for fear of losing it. She had clothes made for it in Savile Row and had its name placed with her own on the name plaque on the door of her London apartment. Carstairs died in Naples, Florida in 1993 at the age of 93. The doll Lord Tod Wadley was cremated with her. Her ashes and those of Ruth Baldwin were buried in Oakland Cemetery in Sag Harbor, New York.

1902

James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) is born. He was an African American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called poetry and best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. During his time in England in the early 1920s, Hughes became part of the Black expatriate community. Some academics and biographers believe that Hughes was homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, as did Whitman whom Hughes said influenced his poetry. Hughes’s story “Blessed Assurance” deals with a father’s anger over his son’s effeminacy and “queerness.” Unlike the generation of Black poets who came after him, Hughes approach to American racism was more wry than angry, but he helped set the mood for today’s Black movement. With his friend Countee Cullen who was also gay, he was the center of Harlem’s literary renaissance in the 1920s. On May 22, 1967, Hughes died in New York City at the age of 65 from complications after abdominal surgery related to prostate cancer. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the foyer in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.

1942, Germany

A legal amendment formally extends the death penalty to men found guilty of having sex with other men.

Published March 17, 2023

THIS DAY IN LGBTQ HISTORY – JANUARY

JANUARY 1

1849

We’wha (1849–1896) was a Zuni Native American from New Mexico, a notable fiber artist, weaver and potter. As the most famous lhamana on record, We’wha served as a cultural ambassador for Native Americans in general, and the Zuni in particular, serving as a contact point and educator for many European-American settlers, teachers, soldiers, missionaries, and anthropologists. In 1886, We’wha was part of the Zuni delegation to Washington, D.C.; during that visit, We’wha met President Grover Cleveland.

1879, UK

M. Forster (1879 – 1970) is born in London. After his brilliant novel A Passage to India in 1924, he produced no new works. His gay novel Maurice was written in 1914, but not published until after his death. For 50 years his lover was a married London police officer named Bob Buckingham.

1886, UK

English Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 takes effect. “Indecencies” between adult males in private become crimes punishable by up to two years imprisonment.

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Disclaimer: The team has thoroughly researched the items here yet it’s possible some of the information may be inaccurate or incomplete or simply in need of updating. If so, please let us know. Email Dr. Sanlo at ronni@ronnisanlo.com

If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.

— Rudyard Kipling

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