1920 – “Gay” first used to refer to homosexuals in the publication
Underground
1921 – U.S. Naval report on entrapment of “perverts” within its ranks
1924 – First commercially produced play with a lesbian theme, “God of
Vengeance,” opens on Broadway; theatre owner and 12 cast members found
guilty of obscenity (later overturned)
1924 – Illinois charters the Society for Human Rights
1925 – After a year of police raids, New York City’s roster of 20 gay and
lesbian restaurants and “personality clubs” is reduced to 3
1926 – The Hamilton Lodge Ball of Harlem attracts thousands of crossdressing
men and women
1927 – New York state legislature tries to ban gay-themed plays
1927 – “Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall published, all British copies
destroyed as “obscene”
1930 – Encyclopedia of Sexual Knowledge illustrates first “sex-change”
procedures
1932 – Man Into Woman, the Story of Lili Elbe’s Life, published
1933 – Hitler bans gay and lesbian groups, burns the Institute of Sexual
Science library
1934 – Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour opens on Broadway to rave
reviews
1935 – “Successful” electric shock therapy treatment of homosexuality
reported at American Psychological Association meeting
1937 – Morris Kight organizes the Oscar Wilde Study Circle at Texas
Christian University
1939 – New York City “cleans up” in preparation for the World’s Fair, closing
most of the city’s best-known gay bars
1940s – Revealed that Holocaust victims include LGTs
1940 – Courts rule New York State Liquor Authority can legally close down
bars that serve “sex variants”
1941 – “Transsexuality” first used…in reference to homosexuality and
bisexuality
1942 – Switzerland decriminalizes adult homosexuality (men only; lesbianism
wasn’t outlawed to begin with)
1943 – U.S. military bars gays and lesbians from serving in the Armed Forces
1945 – The Quaker Emergency Committee of New York City opens the first
social welfare agency for gay people, serving young people arrested on
same-sex charges
1945 – First known female-to-male sex change surgery, on Michael Dillon in
Britain
1947 – “Lisa Ben” publishes the first Vice Versa
1948 – New York Times refuses advertisements for Gore Vidal’s The City and
the Pillar
1948 – The Kinsey Report says homosexual behavior among men is
widespread
1948 – Hollywood Ten and the Blacklist
1950 – A Senate hearing reveals the majority of State Department dismissals
are based on accusations of homosexuality; Senate approves wide-ranging
investigation of homosexuals “and other moral perverts” in national
government
1951 – The Mattachine Society founded
1951 – “Donald Webster Cory” publishes The Homosexual in America
1952 – Christine Jorgensen comes to public attention
1952 – British mathematician and computer pioneer Alan Turing sentenced to
a year of hormonal treatments causing impotence and breast development
for “gross indecency with males.” He commits suicide in 1954.
1952 – American Psychiatric Association includes homosexuality under
“sociopathic personality disturbance” in its first official list of mental disorders
1952 – Immigrants banned from U.S. if they have “psychopathic personality,”
including homosexuality
1953 – Twenty-nine out of 30 men arrested during an 8 day period, charged
with engaging in homosexual acts in the Atlanta public library restroom, lost
their jobs after newspapers printed their names and addresses at least 6
times
1953 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower orders dismissal of all federal
employees guilty of “sexual perversion”
1953 – Kinsey report on women’s sexuality, including lesbian behavior,
released
1954 – Dr. Evelyn Hooker presents a study showing gay men are as welladjusted
as straight men, at an American Psychological Association meeting
1955 – Howl! published; Allen Ginsberg unsuccessfully prosecuted for
obscenity
1955 – Daughters of Bilitis formed; publication “The Ladder” launched the
next year
1955 – In the wake of the murder of a boy, 29 Sioux City, Iowa men
suspected of homosexuality are committed to mental asylums as a
preventive measure
1956 – James Baldwin publishes Giovanni’s Room
1957 – “Transsexual” coined by Harry Benjamin
1957 – Ann Bannon publishes Odd Girls Out
1957 – American Civil Liberties Union approves a policy statement saying
laws against sodomy and federal restrictions on employment of lesbians and
gay men are constitutional
1958 – U.S. Supreme Court rules ONE magazine is not obscene and can be
sent through the postal system
1960 – First U.S. public gathering of lesbians, at San Francisco’s Daughters
of Bilitis national convention
1961 – First openly gay person runs for U.S. public office (drag queen Jose
Sarria, running for San Francisco city supervisor)
1961 – First use of the term “homosexual” in a feature film shown in the US
(British movie Victim); motion picture code seal of approval is denied
1962 – Illinois becomes first state to make consensual same-sex acts legal
1962 – First known positive radio program about homosexuality (Randy
Wicker and 7 gay people, on WBAI in New York City)
1963 – American Civil Liberties Union opposes government interference in
the private sex lives of consenting adults
1964 – Life magazine runs positive cover story on “Homosexuality in
America”
1964 – The first openly gay person appears on national television (Randy
Wicker, on The Les Crane Show)
1964 – Series of public demonstrations held in Washington, D.C. by the East
Coast Homophile Organizations to protest U.S. government discrimination
against lesbians and gay men
1966 – “Lesbian” heard for the first time in a Hollywood movie (The Group)
1966 – First U.S. gay community center opens, in San Francisco, led by The
Society for Individual Rights
1966 – Harry Benjamin publishes The Transsexual Phenomenon
1966 – First transgender public uprising at San Francisco’s Compton’s
Cafeteria
1967 – England and Wales legalize male homosexuality
1967 – Bisexual rap group held in San Francisco
1967 – New York and New Jersey decide that state liquor commissions can
no longer forbid bars from serving gay men and lesbians
1967 – First gay bookstore in the U.S. opens: Oscar Wilde Memorial
Bookshop
1967 – “John” turned into “Joan” at John Hopkins Hospital after a
circumcision accident; published case widely impacts gender theory
1968 – Metropolitan Community Church formed
1968 – The American Psychiatric Association moves homosexuality from
“sociopathic” category to “sexual deviation”
1968 – Bi Alliance begins at the University of Minnesota
1969 – Betty Friedan warns feminist movement of the “lavender menace”
within its ranks
1969 – Stonewall Riots
1969 – National Institute of Mental Health study chaired by Dr. Evelyn Hooker
urges decriminalization of private sex acts between consenting adults
1970 – Boys in the Band, first major Hollywood movie on gay life, premieres
1970 – Gay “zaps” begin; first against New York City Mayor John Lindsay
1970 – Unitarian Universalist Association becomes first U.S. mainstream religious group
to recognize LGB clergy and laity within its ranks and to demand an end to anti-gay
discrimination
1970 – The Vatican issues a statement reiterating that homosexuality is a moral
aberration
1972 – “Ithaca Statement on Bisexuality,” by the Quaker Committee of Friends on
Bisexuality, is published in The Advocate; National Bisexual Liberation Group forms in
New York
1972 – East Lansing, Michigan, becomes first city to ban anti-gay bias in city hiring
1972 – First openly gay man ordained, by the United Church of Christ (William Johnson)
1972 – First time a U.S. national political convention (the Democrats) addressed by gay
leaders
1973 – American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list of mental
illnesses
1973 – U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear case on the firing of an Oregon teacher for
lesbianism
1973 – Lesbian Herstory Archives founded
1974 – First state-level openly gay person elected: Elaine Noble of Massachusetts
1974 – Ohio Supreme Court rules that even though homosex is legal, the state can
refuse to incorporate a gay organization because “the promotion of homosexuality as a
valid life style is contrary to the public policy of the state.”
1974 – AT&T becomes first major American corporation to agree to an equal opportunity
policy for lesbians and gay men
1974 – Time and Newsweek run “bisexual chic” articles
1975 – U.S. Civil Service Commission stops banning gay men and lesbians from federal
jobs
1975 – Footballer David Kopay is first major sports start to come out (voluntarily) publicly
1976 – First openly gay police officer hired (by San Francisco)
1976 – “Tales of the City” published by the San Francisco Chronicle, includes LGB and T
characters
1976 – Doonesbury is the first mainstream comic strip to feature a gay male character
1976 – Lynn Ransom of California is one of the first openly lesbian mothers to win
custody of her children in court
1976 – Renee Richards outed as MTF and barred from a women’s tennis tournament
1976 – San Francisco Bisexual Center opens
1977 – Anita Bryant and Save Our Children succeed in repealing Miami law against
discrimination based on sexual orientation
1977 – 80% of surveyed Oregon doctors say they would refuse to treat a known
homosexual
1977 – Arkansas recriminalizes gay sex after two years without such a law
1977 – Florida forbids adoption by gays and lesbians
1977 – White House sponsors first-ever meeting with gay activists
1978 – Openly gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk murdered by colleague
1978 – National Coalition of Black (later Lesbians and) Gays formed in New York City
1978 – Rainbow flag debuts in San Francisco
1979 – First National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights; 100,000 attend
1979 – Moral Majority founded
1979 – First openly gay judge appointed (Los Angeles, CA)
1980 – First Harry Benjamin Standards produced for therapists working with
transgender persons
1980 – BBC broadcasts “A Change of Sex” about an MTF
1980 – Aaron Fricke takes Paul Guilbert to his high school prom after winning
a lawsuit against the school
1980 – Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence debuts
1981 – First reported cases of what came to be called AIDS
1981 – The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies published
1982 – Wisconsin enacts first statewide gay civil rights legislation
1982 – Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) founded
1982 – Gay Men’s Health Crisis formed
1983 – Congressman Gerry Studds comes out; first federal official to come
out as gay while in office
1984 – FBI releases 7,500 pages of information gathered over 30 years of
watching gay groups
1984 – Martina Navratilova’s female lover publicly sits in her “box” at
Wimbledon and the French Open
1984 – Berkeley (CA) becomes first U.S. city to extend domestic partnership
benefits to lesbian and gay employees
1984 – San Francisco Department of Public Health closes the city’s
bathhouses
1985 – NAMES Project memorial quilt for AIDS victims launched
1985 – First school for openly lesbian and gay teenagers opens in New York
City (Harvey Milk School)
1985 – Rock Hudson comes out, admits he has AIDS
1986 – U.S. Supreme Court rejects challenge to state sodomy laws
1987 – Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights;
Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt shown
1987 – What becomes BiNet USA formed
1987 – ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) is formed
1988 – National Coming Out Day launched
1989 – Jazz musician Billy Tipton dies and is revealed to be FTM
1989 – BiPAC New York successfully challenges Hetrick-Martin Gay and
Lesbian Health Clinic to remove a “Bisexual men: Fact or fiction?” workshop
from curriculum.
1989 – First Lambda Literary Awards given
1990 – First National Bisexual Conference held in San Francisco
1990 – Federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act passed; first law extending federal
recognition of gay men and lesbians
1990 – U.S. restrictions against gay immigrants lifted
1991 – First Black Lesbian and Gay Pride celebration held in Washington,
D.C.
1991 – Amnesty International decides to work on behalf of those imprisoned
for consensual same-sex acts
1991 – Karen Thompson named Sharon Kowalski’s legal guardian after an
eight-year fight
1992 – World Health Organization removes homosexuality from its
classification of illnesses
1992 – Press for Change founded in Britain to work for trans people’s equal
rights
1992 – Colorado voters ban state and municipal rights laws for lesbians and
gay men
1993 – Intersex Society of North America founded
1993 – “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” U.S. military policy adopted
1993 – Brandon Teena and two SOFFAs murdered in Nebraska
1993 – March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and
Liberation held
1994 – Olympic gold winner swimmer Greg Louganis comes out
1994 – At U.S. insistence, United Nations suspends observer status of the
International Lesbian and Gay Association
1995 – First U.S. conference for FTMs
1995 – President Clinton names the first-ever White House liaison to the gay
and lesbian communities
1995 – Million Man March has no openly gay speakers
1996 – Congress passes Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), forbidding
federal recognition of (and benefits for) married same-sex couples
1997 – South Africa becomes the first country to enact a constitutional ban
outlawing sexual orientation discrimination
1997 – Rolling Stones article details failure of John Money’s John/Joan case
from the 1960s
1998 – Matthew Shepard murdered in Wyoming
1998 – First open lesbian elected to federal legislative office (Tammy
Baldwin)
1999 – Britain bans discrimination against trans people
1999 – Texas post-op MTF Christine Littleton ruled legally male and not the
legal widow of her husband
2000 – British ban against lesbians and gay men serving in the military is
lifted
2000 – Britain outlaws discrimination against lesbians and gay men
2000 – Vermont offers civil unions to same-sex couples
2002 – MTF teenager Gwen Araujo murdered by sex partners, in California
2003 – Massachusetts Supreme Court rules it is unconstitutional to deny
marriage to gay and lesbian couples
2003 – U.S. Supreme Court strikes down remaining state sodomy laws
2004 – United Kingdom: trans people allowed to change the gender on their
birth certificates
2005 – New Zealand first country to outlaw employment discrimination and
hate crimes on the basis of gender identity
2006 – South Africa begins recognizing gay marriages
http://www.forge-forward.org/handouts/LGBT_elder_timeline.pdf
