LGBTQ+ History
October is LGBTQ+ History Month. It’s a month of remembering and celebrating the major milestones since the 1969 Stonewall Riots.
The Stonewall Riots (1969)
A time of parades and celebration for the LGBTQ+ community commemorating the Stonewall Riots that started on June 28, 1969, just 51 years ago at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village in New York City. At the time, homosexuality was considered a crime with several aspects of the law restricting the existence of LGBTQ+ people.
NYPD had repeatedly raided and arrested Queer spaces throughout NYC. This particular raid on the Stonewall Inn was met with resistance from the bar patrons, like Marsha P. Johnson, Stormé DeLarverie, and Sylvia Rivera, and started a series of riots that lasted until July 3, 1969. The Stonewall Riots are often cited as the catalyst of the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement, and for the past fifty years are remembered and honored with parades and events throughout the country and the world.
LGBTQ+ History Timeline
June 28, 1970
On Christopher St. Liberation Day thousands of LGBTTQ+ community members march through NYC into Central Park for the first Gay Pride Parade.
December 15, 1973
Twenty years after listing homosexuality as a mental illness, the board of the American Psychiatric Association votes to remove the listing.
January 1974
Kathy Kozachenko becomes the first openly gay American elected to public office in the Ann Arber, Michigan City Council.
November 1977
Harvey Milk wins a seat on San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and introduces a gay rights ordinance that protects gays and lesbians from workplace discrimination. Milk is assassinated a year later.
October 14, 1979
Around 75,000 people attend the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights demanding equal civil rights and the passage of protective civil rights legislation.
July 8, 1980
Democrats become the first major political party to include a homosexual rights platform.
July 3, 1981
The New York Times prints first story regarding AIDS, inititally called Gay Related Immune Deficiency Disorder (GRID), until symptoms were found outside the gay community, and Bruce Voeller, founder of National Gay Task Force, advocated successfully for a name change.
March 2, 1982
Wisconsin is first state to ban discrimination on basis of sexual orientation.
March 10, 1987
The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is formed due to the catastrophic affects AIDS had on the LGBTQ+ community in New York and holds a ton of demonstrations to call for more attention to the AIDS crisis.
October 11, 1987
Thousands of activists participate in the National March on Washington to demand President Ronald Reagan address the AIDS crisis. It isn’t until the end of his presidency in 1989 that he speaks on it publicly.
December 1, 1988
World Health Organization holds first World AIDS Day raising awareness for AIDS pandemic.
August 18, 1990
Ryan White Care Act is signed by President George Bush and forms a federally funded program for people living with AIDS.
December 21, 1993
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy directive issued by Department of Defense. This allows gay and lesbian military applicants to serve, but still prohibits engagement in homosexual acts or making a statement of homosexual orientation.
September 21, 1996
Defense of Marriage Act is signed by President Clinton legally defining marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman, and that same sex marriage is not required to be recognized from state to state.
October 7, 1998
Matthew Shepard is tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming in a hate crime due to his sexual orientation.
April 26, 2000
Vermont is first state to legalize same-sex civil unions and registered partnerships.
June 26, 2003
US Supreme Court rules that sodomy laws are unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas.
May 18, 2004
Massachusetts is first state to legalize gay marriage. New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Iowa, and Washington D.C. follow gay marriage legalization over the next six years.
August 9, 2007
First Presidential forum focusing on LGBTQ+ issues is held by LOGO cable channel and sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign.
November 4, 2008
Proposition 8 is approved making same-sex marriage in California illegal. Passing of the ballot inspires NOH8 campaign across the nation.
June 17, 2009
Presidential Memorandum signed by President Obama granting certain benefits to federal employee’s same-sex partners.
October 28, 2009
Expanding on 1969 Federal Hate Crime Law to include crimes motivated by perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability, the Matthew Shepard Act is passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama.
August 4, 2010
Decision made by federal judge in San Francisco that Prop 8 is unconstitutional and gays/lesbians have the constitutional right to marry.
December 18, 2010
Senate votes 65-31 to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, gay and lesbian people can now serve in US Military openly.
February 23, 2011
President Obama releases administration will no longer defend 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.
June 11, 2011
New York becomes largest state to legalize gay marriage.
June 26, 2015
US Supreme Court rules same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states with 5-4 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.
June 15, 2020
US Supreme Court rules Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and transgender status with 6-3 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga., Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda, and R.G. & G.R> Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.