1989: In a response to politcal outcries over a Robert Mapplethrope exhibit, Jesse Helms leads a fight in the U.S. Scnate 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 is overwhelmingly adopted … Read More
1973: Infuriated and disgusted by “all those young punks who have been beating up” gay men in San Francisco, a gay Pentecostal Evangelist, the Rev. Ray Broshears, founds the so-called Lavender Panthers, a group of street vigilantes who patrol the city’s gay meeting areas to ward off potential attacks from “fag-bashers.” Shortly after their founding, the … Read More
1962: The United States Supreme Court rules in MANual Enterprises v. Day that photographs of nude or semi-nude men designed to appeal to homosexuals are not obscene and may be sent through the mail. 1972: The United Church of Christ becomes the first mainstream U.S. denomination to ordain an openly gay man, William Johnson. 1978: San Francisco artist … Read More
1967: The U.S. Suprme Court strikes down Loving v. Virginia, a Virginia law against interracial marriages declaring that marriage is a “fundamental civil right” and that decisions in this arena are not those with which the State can interfere unless they have good cause. 1970: In what is described as “the first marriage in the nation … Read More
1954: Alan Turing, considered to be the father of modern computer science, commits suicide by cyanide poisoning, 18 months after being given libido-reducing hormone treatment for a year as a punishment for homosexuality. He is only 41 years old. 1977: Florida Governor Reubin Askew signs a law prohibiting gay men and lesbians from adopting children. … Read More
1987: Michael Bennett, choreographer of A Chorus Line and Dreamgirls, dies of AIDS at the age of forty-four in Tucson, Arizona. 1989: Lambda Book Report presents the first Lambda Literary AWARDS as part of the American Booksellers Association convention in Washington, DC Armistead Maupin emcees; “Lammy” winners include Dorothy Allison, Paul Monette, Michael Nava, Karen … Read More
1987: Prominent gay actor, director and playwright Charles Ludlam dies of AIDS at age 44. 1989: Guy Baldwin of Los Angeles becomes the 11th International Mr. Leather at the contest at the Vic Theatre in ChicagoT 1998: U.S. President Bill Clinton signs Executive Order 13087 to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the competitive service … Read More
1973: An officially sanctioned gay student dance at Princeton University draws three hundred participants. 1975: Gay porn phenomenon “Jack Wrangler” is born when a sometimes struggling twenty-eight-year-old actor, Jack Stillman, steps onstage between porn films at the Paris Theater in Los Angeles and performs a live striptease in Western drag. The son of an established … Read More
1989: Pioneering transsexual Christine Jorgensen dies of lung and bladder cancer at the age of sixty-two.
1980: “Young, Gay and Proud”-the first gay-themed title from the Boston-based publisher Alyson Publications-arrives in bookstores. The publishing house, founded by gay activist Sasha Alyson, goes on to become the country’s principal gay small press giving many prominent gay writers their start. 1983: More than eighteen thousand people fill Madison Square Garden for what is … Read More