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Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans History Timeline

1905: Freud Invents Sexuality

1912: Steinach Alters Sexuality with Hormones

1924: Gerber Starts Society for Human Rights

1940: New York City: A bar called Gloria's goes to court to fight being closed down, citing recent scientific studies and arguing that "there is no rule or regulation" preventing a "sex variant" from being served at a bar. Courts reject the argument, however, allowing the State Liquor Authority to continue closing bars frequented by gay men and lesbians.

1941: Henry Publishes "Sex Variants"; The US. Military orders the first "blue" discharges of gay and lesbian service people.

1945: New York City: The Quaker Emergency Committee meets to work for the establishment of a center where young people arrested on same-sex charges can go for assistance and counseling. The Readjustment Center that results from the Quakers' efforts is believed to be the first social welfare agency for gay men and lesbians in the US.

June 1947: Los Angeles: Lisa Ben (a pseudonym that is an anagram for "lesbian") types and mails 12 copies of Vice Versa - "America's Gayest Magazine." The first lesbian newsletter, Vice Versa includes book and movie reviews, poems, and upbeat essays encouraging lesbians to persevere in their quest for a more satisfying life.

1948: Kinsey Publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Male

January 3. 1948: The Kinsey Report on men is published, shocking the nation with its revelation of the high incidence of same-sex acts among American men.

February 28, 1950: Testifying before the US Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Department (whose members include Joseph R. McCarthy), Undersecretary of State John Peurifroy reveals that the majority of dismissals of State Department employees are based on accusations of homosexuality. Over the next few months, McCarthy and other conservatives accuse the Turban administration of laxity in rooting out homosexuals in government, bringing the Mccarthy Era into high gear.

April 1, 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.

November 11, 1950: Los Angeles: Chuck Rowland; Harry Hay and his lover, Rudi Gernreich; Dale Jennings; and Bob Hull hold the first of a series of weekly gatherings leading to the formation of a homophile organization the men will call the Mattachine Society.

April 1953: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10450, mandating the dismissal of all federal employees determined to be guilty of "sexual perversion." As a result, more than 640 federal employees lose their jobs over the next year and a half. Many more are allowed to resign quietly.

August 1953: The Kinsey Report on women is released.

September 21, 1955: San Francisco: Four lesbian couples, including Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, found the Daughters of Bilitis, the first homophile organization exclusively for women.

May 1960: San Francisco: The Daughters of Bilitis sponsors a national convention of lesbians, probably the first public gathering focused on the topic of lesbianism in the US.

November 7. 1961: Legendary San Francisco drag queen Jose Sarria runs for city supervisor. The first openly gay person to run for public office in the US, Sarria receives almost 6,000 votes.

1960: Cuba: the police begin Operacion P, arresting prostitutes, pimps, and "pederasts" and herding them into concentration camps. Although same-sex relations are not illegal, large numbers of gay men and smaller numbers of lesbians are arrested as part of a wide-ranging campaign against people whom Fidel Castro's government believes are inimical to the revolution.

May 1960: San Francisco: The Daughters of Bilitis sponsors a national convention of lesbians, probably the first public gathering focused on the topic of lesbianism in the US.

May 12, 1960: United Kingdom:The first public meeting of the Homosexual Law Reform Society is attended by more than 1,000 people.

July 30, 1960: France: The National Assembly adds homosexualite to a list of fleaux sociaux ("social plagues") that the government is charged to combat.

October 3, 1961: Hollywood: The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) announces a revision of its production code. "In keeping with the culture, the mores and the values of our time," the revision advises, "homosexuality and other sexual aberrations may now be treated with care, discretion and restraint." The new ruling paves the way for the release of films like The Children's Hour and Advise and consent, but the MPPDA later amends the revision to specify that "sexual aberration" may be "suggested but not actually spelled out."

November 5, 1961: New York Times critic Howard Taubman launches an attack on "the increasing incidence of homosexuality on the New York stage" in an article headlined "Not What It Seems: Homosexual Motif Gets Heterosexual Guise."

November 7. 1961: Legendary San Francisco drag queen Jose Sarria runs for city supervisor. The first openly gay person to run for public office in the US, Sarria receives almost 6,000 votes.

November 15, 1961: A Washington, DC, chapter of the Mattachine Society is formed. Activist Frank Kameny is elected president.

December 1961: The release of the British movie Victim in the US marks the first use of the word "Homosexual" in a feature film. It is denied motion picture code seal of approval as a result.

1962: James Baldwin publishes Another Country, a groundbreaking novel constructed around issues of race and sexual orientation.

San Francisco: A group of gay bar owners and employees fori-lis the Tavern Guild, believed to be the first gay business association in the US

January 1962: Illinois criminal code reform passed last year takes effect this month, making Illinois the first state in US history in which consensual same-sex acts are legal between adults.

July 15, 1962: New York City: Randy Wicker 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 US

1963: Five women found the Minorities Research Group in London, the first lesbian organization in the United Kingdom. Similar to the American Daughters of Bilitis, the group aims to provide isolated lesbians with counseling, education, and opportunities for socializing. Some members of the organization go on to found Kenric in 1965.

Also in the United Kingdom, the English Society of Friends publishes Towards a Quaker View of Sex. The Quakers are the first mainstream Christian church to issue a public statement expressing tolerance of same-sex relationships. Also see 1945.

Grove Press publishes John Rechy's City of Night to generally positive reviews, pioneering a new level of sexual explicitness both in the text and in the book's packaging: the cover features a photograph of Times Square male prostitutes.

January 1963: At Frank Kamenys suggestion, the New York and Washington, DC, chapters of the Mattachine, the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, and Philadelphia's Janus Society join to found the East Coast Homophile Organizations. Nicknamed ECHO, the association marks the beginning of a new era of activism for the US. Homophile movement.

1964: Canada's first homophile magazine, Two (inspired by), is issued by Kamp Publishing Company in Toronto.

Philadelphia: Clarke P. Polak begins publishing Drum magazine under the auspices of the city's Janus Society, a Homophile group founded in 1960. The first US gay publication to combine serious news coverage with unabashedly erotic content, Drum reflects a growing spirit Of Activism among American gay men.

United Kingdom: Women associated with the Minorities Research Group begin publishing Arena Three, the country's first lesbian magazine.

The national convention of the American Civil Liberties Union modifies the organization's position on sexual rights. Henceforth, the organization opposes government interference in the private sex lives of consenting adults.

April 1964: The Association for Social Knowledge, Canada's first homophile organization, is founded in Vancouver.

June 1964: Life magazine entitles a cover story "Homosexuality in America." The article, which features photographs taken at a leather BAR called the Tool Box in San Francisco, challenges the gay male "pansy" stereotype at the same time it helps build awareness of the emerging American gay and lesbian subculture.

September 1964: San Francisco: Bib Plath, William Beardemphl, Mark Forrester, Jim Foster, and others found the Society for Individual Rights (SIR). In addition to activities in support of a gay man's "right to his own sexual orientation," SIR will become one of the first gay male groups to provide community support systems as well as a wide range of social and educational programs.

September 19, 1964: New York City: Randy WickeR, Renee Cafiero, other activists, and representatives of the New York League for Sexual Freedom picket the Whitehall Induction Center in protest of the Military's anti gay and -lesbian policies. Many consider this the first public gay and lesbian rights demonstration in the US

November 16, 1964: Randy Wicker is a guest on The Les Crane Show, becoming the first openly gay person to appear on national television. Following the show, Wicker is barraged by hundreds of letters from isolated lesbians and gay men across the country.

December 1964: San Francisco: after several months of talks and a tour of local gay and lesbian gathering spots, a group of Protestant ministers Join with lesbian and gay male activists to form the Council on Religion and the Homosexual.

December 31, 1964: San Francisco police attempt to intimidate some 600 guests attending a New Year's Ball sponsored by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, photographing each of the guests as they arrive and demanding entry without a search warrant. The ball is the first time many liberal heterosexuals have witnessed police harassment of lesbians and gay men. Three lawyers and Nancy May, a straight volunteer, are arrested.

1965: Antwerp, Belgium: Activists form the Belgische Vereiniging voor Sexuale Rechtvaardigheid COC, the country's first homophile organization, on the model of the COC in the Netherlands.

United Kingdom: Dr. C. Barker reports on the development of new aversion therapy methods to "treat" homosexuality in the British Journal of Psychiatry. Barker claims his method-injecting drugs every two hours for six days and nights to produce dizziness and nausea in the patient while he views pictures of nude males-is highly effective in helping gay men achieve "recovery."

San Francisco: the Society for Individual Rights begins publishing Vector, a slick, lively, community-oriented publication sold on newsstands throughout the city.

January 2, 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.

February 11, 1965: At the San Francisco trial of the four people arrested at the Council on Religion and the Homosexual's New Year's Ball, the judge orders the jury to find the defendants not guilty. The decision is widely seen as a turning point in the homophile movement's fight for gay and lesbian civil rights.

April 17-18, 1965: New York City: Craig Rodwell, Randy Wicker, and other activists protest discrimination in the US and CUBA against gay men and lesbians in small but visible demonstrations in front of the United Nations building.

May 29, 1965: The East Coast Homophile Organizations stages the first demonstration in front of the White House in protest of US government discrimination against gay men and lesbians. Seven men, including Jack Nichols, and three women, including Judy Grahn, picket. ABC and wire services report on the event.

July 4. 1965: A small group of conservatively dressed lesbians and gay men picket Independence Hall in Philadelphia in one of the first public demonstrations for gay rights. Among those marching is Barbara Gittings.

July 31, 1965: Lesbian and gay demonstrators picket the Pentagon to protest discrimination in the military.

August 28, 1965: The State Department is picketed by gay and lesbian demonstrators for the first time.

October 23, 1965: The East Coast Homophile Organizations a second demonstration at the White House. The FBI reports 35 picketers.

January 1, 1967: Los Angeles: Police conduct brutal raids on several gay bars. Enraged by the sight of a few men exchanging customary New Year's kisses at ml midnight at the Black Cat in Silver Lake, LAPD undercover agents attack patrons and employees, leaving several severely injured and arresting 16.

August 1967: The board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union passes a resolution urging the decriminalization of consensual sex between adults.

1968: In its official listing of mental disorders, the American Psychiatric Association re-categorizes homosexuality as a "sexual deviation" or a non-psychotic mental disorder" Previously, the group has considered homosexuality a "sociopathic" disorder.

December 3, 1968: At the Metropolitan Community Church in Los Angeles, the Reverend Troy Perry officiates at what is probably the first public same-sex union ceremony in the US.

July 2. 1969: New York City: 500 marchers confront police in the first "gay pride" demonstration, a march down Christopher Street.

July 9. 1969: The Mattachine Society of New York invites activists to gather in Greenwich Village for the first "gay power" meeting.

March 17, 1970: The film version of The Boys in the Band, the first major Hollywood look at gay life, premieres.

December 4, 1970: New York City's first gay Community Center opens in Greenwich Village.

November 8, 1977: Harvey Milk is elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He is the first openly gay elected official of a large US. city.

October 14, 1979: An estimated 1 00,000 people, with delegations representing every state and tell foreign countries, participate in the first-ever March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

November 10, 1980: New York City: a former policeman fires a submachine gun into two Greenwich Village gay bars, killing two men and wounding six others.

February 25, 1982: Wisconsin becomes the first state to approve civil rights protection for lesbians and gay men.

July 25, 1985: Paris: a spokesperson for Rock Hudson 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.

November 17, 1985: New York City: More than 700 people concerned about negative publicity surrounding AIDS, bathhouses, and gay promiscuity attend a town meeting that leads to the founding of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

March 14, 1987: New York City: The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (Act Up) is formed as a direct action group by Larry Kramer and some 300 other activists.

October 11, 1987: Washington, DC: The largest lesbian and gay rights rally to date convenes. According to organizers, more than half a million people participate in the second March on Washington.

The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is shown publicly for the first time as part of the March on Washington. Stretched out over two city blocks, the Quilt integrates 1,920 panels, commemorating more than 2,000 persons who have died of AIDS.

May 1989: United Kingdom, Ian McKellen, fellow actor Michael Cashman, and dozens of other gay men and lesbians found the Stonewall Group to monitor legislation in Parliament and lobby for equal rights for lesbians and gay men.

April 28, 1990: New York City: Queer Nation stages its first public action. Almost 500 members of the recently formed organization march in Greenwich Village in protest of a pipe bomb attack on a local gay bar.

April 24, 1993: Washington, DC: The third gay and lesbian March on Washington is prefaced by a mass wedding ceremony held outside the Internal Revenue Service building. Metropolitan Community Church founder Reverend Troy Perry conducts the service, joining 1,500 lesbian and gay couples in marriage, just before midnight, Lesbian Avengers march on the White House in what organizers claim is the largest lesbian demonstration ever.

April 25, 1993: The third gay and lesbian March on Washington draws more than 1 million participants, according to organizers. Extensive television and newspaper coverage makes it the most widely publicized march yet.

May 7, 1993: The Hawaii Supreme Court rules that the state must prove a "compelling interest" for denying same-sex Partners a marriage license.

September 21, 1993: Amanda Bearse talks about being a lesbian in an Advocate interview. She is the first prime time television star to come out.

August 4, 1995: US President Bill Clinton signs an executive order forbidding the federal government from denying security clearances on the basis of a person's sexual orientation. Administration spokespersons advise reporters, however, that individuals Ought still be denied clearance if they were in the closet and feared exposure to family or friends.

October 1996: Washington, DC: 1.2 million people view The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt; Jimbo arrives in DC.