1982: Voters in Lincoln, Nebraska, go to the polls to decide whether or not to accept a proposed gay rights ordinance for the city. Leading the fight against the initiative is local psychologist Paul Cameron who has asserted, among other things, that gay and lesbian teachers are forty-three times more likely to molest a child than … Read More
1982: An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association claims that gay men who take the passive role in anal intercourse may have a twenty-five to fifty times greater risk of anal cancer than heterosexual men. 1986: Georgia outlaws gay bathhouses. 2009: Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signs a domestic partner benefits bill effective … Read More
1976: The owner of a Hoboken, NJ dinner theater, the Clam Broth House, cancels an upcoming production of The Boys in the Band after learning that the play is about homosexuality. “The Clam Broth House is a family restaurant,” says manager Arthur Pelaez, “and I do not feel that this kind of play is the type … Read More
1982: Victor Victoria opens nationwide to generally rave reviews. Blake Edward’s farce, based on a 1933 German film, Viktor und Viktoria features Robert Preston as perhaps the most relaxed and affable homosexual ever scripted into a major Hollywood motion picture. The movie becomes a box office hit and accomplishes what many years of gay liberation … Read More
1971: Idaho decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults, but before the law can take effect, the legislature – under pressure from conservative and religious groups – reverses itself and votes to make them a felony again. 1982: Police raid a Washington, D.C. male escort service, “Friendly Models,” and cart away more than a dozen boxes … Read More
1976: Mayor George Sullivan of Anchorage, Alaska vetoes a municipal civil rights ordinance that would have extended protections in housing and employment to LGBT people, proclaiming that the “people of Anchorage should not be forced to associate with sexual deviates.” 1982: Wisconsin becomes the first U.S. state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual … Read More
1982: Wisconsin becomes the first state in the U.S. to enact a statewide gay rights statute. 1983: Tennessee Williams dies at the age of 71 in his suite at the Hotel Elysee in New York City.
1982: Jerry Falwell is hit in the face with two fruit pies by protester at the annual convention of the Bible Baptist Fellowship. 2004: President George W. Bush announces that he supports a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
1982: An article in the medical journal “Lancet” suggests that there is evidence to show inhaling poppers damages the immune system. 2004: Victoria Dunlap, Republican county clerk of rural Sandoval County, New Mexico, began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, citing lack of legal grounds for denial. 2004: King Norodom Sihanouk, constitutional monarch of Cambodia, … Read More
1976: Gay actor, Sal Mineo, is stabbed to death in the garage of his West Hollywood apartment building at 8569 Holloway Drive. He is only 37 years old. The crime goes unsolved for a number of years until his murderer, Lionel Ray Williams, is caught and convicted. 1982: Making Love opens nationwide. Producers timed the release of the film with … Read More