Tag: 1981

May 15 in LGBTQ History

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: … Read More

May 5 in LGBTQ History

1971: Andy Warhol’s play Pork opens at the La Mama Experimental Theater in New York City. Among the cast, making his acting debut, is an extremely talented, sixteen-year-old drag queen named Harvey Fierstein. 1981: After customs officials at New York’s JFK Airport find a gay love letter in his luggage, British traveler Phillip Fotheringham is … Read More

April 28 in LGBTQ History

1978: Following the recent gay rights defeat in Dade County, Florida,voters in St. Paul, Minnesota, vote to repeal their four year-old gay rights ordinance by a margin of 2 to 1. 1981: Former Beverly Hills hairdresser Marilyn Barnett files a multimillion-dollar “palimony” suit against tennis pro Billie Jean King, claiming the two had a lesbian … Read More

April 21 in LGBTQ History

1966: Members of the Mattachine Society stage a “sip-in” at the Julius Bar in Greenwich Village, where the New York Liquor Authority prohibits serving gay patrons in bars on the basis that homosexuals are “disorderly.” Society president Dick Leitsch and other members announce their homosexuality and are immediately refused service.  Following the sip-in, the Mattachine Society … Read More

April 12 in LGBTQ History

1975: The Arizona State House of Representatives votes 37 to 3 to pass an “emergency measure” specifically banning same-sex marriages.  Two weeks later, the Colorado Attorney General also rules that gay and lesbian marriages are illegal and orders Clela Rorex, the Boulder, Colorado county clerk who had issued a marriage license to two gay men … Read More

April 4 in LGBTQ History

1971: Four “reformed” homosexuals go on The David Susskind Show to tout their conversions to heterosexuality and praise the therapy of sometime poet and literary critic Eli Siegel, whose doctrine of “Aesthetic Realism” teaches that homosexuality is the result of a distorted philosophical view of the world. Aesthetic Realists-who never use the word “homosexuality” but … Read More

April 1 in LGBTQ History

1970: The Advocate estimates there are approximately 6,817,000 gay men and lesbians living in the United States. 1971: The French leftist newspaper, Tout, edited by Jean-Paul Sartre, calls for complete  sexual liberation in France, including the right of individuals to be freely and openly homosexual.  French police begin massive seizures of the publication on the grounds that it is … Read More

March 4 in LGBTQ History

1971: Village Voice columnist Jill Johnston comes out in her article, “Lois Lane is a Lesbian,” sparking a controversy between feminism and lesbianism that results in various Johnston antics, including simulating an orgy during a panel discussion moderated by Norman Mailer. 1972: The California DMV reports that while the majority of the 65,000 vanity license plates … Read More

February 5 in LGBTQ History

1981: Toronto police stage a massive raid on four local gay bathhouses, arresting 305 men (the largest mass arrest in Canadian history).  The raids prompt a riot the following night, causing more than one participant to consider this the Canadian Stonewall. 1982: The film Personal Best opens in New York City.  It depicts two women … Read More

February 4 in LGBTQ History

1973: Twenty year old French actress and star of the The Last Tango in Paris, Maria Schneider, admits to the New York Times that she is bisexual, stating “I’ve had quite a few lovers for my age. More men than women . . . women I love more for beauty than for sex.  Men I … Read More

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