A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
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A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, and Transgender History
in the United States
Adapted with permission from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (Byard, E. 1997,
www.pbs.org/outofthepast) with additions and updates from Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth
(NYAC & Lambda Legal); The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation
and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition).
Additional materials and study guide by GSAFE (www.gsafewi.org)2
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
READ MORE WATCH Ways to Use this Timeline
This resource has primarily been adapted Six of the people featured on the PBS timeline are This timeline was designed as a starting point for
from PBS Online’s Out of the Past: 400 Years profiled in the documentary Out of the Past and classroom and student club discussions, exploration, and
Lesbian and Gay History in America (Byard, have been marked with the bolded words WATCH research. A sample lesson plan is included. However,
E., 1997, www.pbs.org/outofthepast/). The on this document. These individuals are: there are many additional ways to use this resource.
interactive timeline online allows users to
click on dates to read details about people, • Michael Wigglesworth The timeline can be printed, copied, and posted in full or in
policies, and events that have shaped the • Sarah Orne Jewett part in the classroom, on a bulletin board, or in a display
lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and • Henry Gerber case.
transgender (LGBT) people living in the • Bayard Rustin
United States. • Barbara Gittings Another option is to search the timeline and build smaller
• Kelli Peterson timelines based around themes (“Famous Lesbian,” “LGBT
Several items on the PBS timeline online People of Color,” “LGBT People and the Military”) or time
expand to reveal more details and in-depth The documentary is available for purchase through periods (“The Modern Gay Rights Movement,” “Early Gay
descriptions. These have been marked with various retail and online stores for about $10. It is American History”).
the bolded words READ MORE on this an excellent resource for your GSA and school
document. library. Make your own version of LGBT Jeopardy and divide your
class or club into teams. Create a multiple choice quiz
Three examples of the expanded readings The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network from the timeline and post the group results in your room.
you will find online are shared at the end of (GLSEN) published a teachers’ guide to accompany Consider taking the quiz as a school staff.
this document. We encourage you and your the documentary. The 31-page resource contains
students to go online to READ MORE about historical context, ideas for discussion, and Use the timeline as the starting point for research projects.
the people, places, and events that capture suggested assignments for each of the video’s six Another class or group project could involve researching
your attention. segments. A glossary, bibliography and resource and presenting local LGBT history and/or gathering oral
section are also included. The teachers’ guide is histories.
Each item on this timeline, of course, offers available as a free download from the GLSEN
an opportunity to read more. The PBS site website (www.glsen.org). Hold a movie night or show segments of films or
includes an extensive bibliography for documentaries in your classroom that profile people and
further research and exploration. GSA for Many additional films and documentaries have events from the timeline.
Safe Schools also offers a bibliography of captured the events, individuals, and issues that
suggested reading in LGBT history. have shaped and defined the progress of the LGBT Create a library display feature books with LGBT themes or
community in the U.S. by LGBT authors.
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)3
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1677 1698
1652
1642 The sodomy trial of A French explorer among the
Nicholas Sension of Illinois Indians remarks on the
1624 Joseph Davis of
In Essex County, Windsor, number of "berdaches" (men
Haverhill, New
Massachusetts, Connecticut, living as women) and the
Richard Cornish is Hampshire, is fined
Elizabeth Johnson reveals that prevalence of homosexual
executed in for "putting on
is fined and Sension has been activity. Note: “berdache” is
Virginia for women's apparel"
whipped for open about his considered and offensive term
alleged and made to admit
"unseemly desire for men for by Native American and
homosexual acts his guilt to the
practices with more than 30 Two-Spirit people.
with a servant. community.
another maid years.
attempting to do READ MORE
READ MORE READ MORE
that which man READ MORE “Native American
“Sodomy Laws” “Colonial European
and woman do." “Act v. Identity” Sexuality”
Cross-Dressing”
1636 1649 1662 1691
In Massachusetts, Sara Norman and The first edition of Michael In Massachusetts,
the Reverend Mary Hammon of Wigglesworth's The Day of Doom is Deborah Byar is
John Cotton Yarmouth, published. This epic poem about the Day fined and publicly
proposes Plymouth Colony, of Judgement quickly becomes America's humiliated for
including sexual are taken to court first best seller, with 1800 copies sold wearing men's
relations between for "leude during the first year. clothes.
women in the behaviour each
definition of with [the] other READ MORE
"sodomy" for the upon a bed." “Michael Wigglesworth”
first time.
WATCH
The Diary of Michael Wigglesworth
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)4
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1756 1779
Steven Gorton, a In an example of "romantic
married Baptist friendship" between men,
minister, is suspended Alexander Hamilton writes to
1704 from his position in his friend, John Laurens, "I
New London, wish, my dear Laurens, that
Connecticut, for it might be in my power, by 1782
Lord Cornbury, the
royal governor of "unchaste behavior action, rather than words, to
with his fellow men convince you that I love Deborah
New York and New
when in bed with you." Sampson,
Jersey, is accused
them." Gorton disguised as
by his critics of
confessed and the READ MORE "Robert
dressing as a
congregation voted to “Romantic Friendships Shurtleff," enlists
woman to hold
reinstate him. Among Men” in the Continental
court.
Army.
1752 1777 1780 1798
"Dr. Charles Thomas Jefferson A Native American Moreau de St.
Hamilton" is revises Virginia "joya" (a man living as Mery, a Frenchman
arrested in Chester, law to make a woman) and her living in
Pennsylvania, and sodomy husband visit a Spanish Philadelphia, writes
revealed to be (committed by mission near Santa that the women he
Charlotte Hamilton, men or women) Barbara, California. A has met "are not at
who confessed to punishable by priest notes how all strangers to
having lived in mutilation rather common joya are in being willing to
disguise as a man than death. local villages. seek unnatural
for several years. pleasures with
persons of the
same sex."
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)5
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1863
1826 1857
Colonel Conrad of the 15th Missouri
Jeff Withers and Charlotte Cushman, an discovers that two women passing (being
James Hammond, 1850 actress famous for 1860 regarded as a sociological group other than
two young playing male roles, a person’s own) as men have enlisted as
Southerners who Crow nation Woman begins living with New edition of soldiers in his detachment, and that "an
would become Chief Barcheeampe is sculptor Emma Walt Whitman's intimacy had sprung up between them." At
prominent spotted by appalled Stebbins. It was the Leaves of Grass least 400 women passed as men and
citizens, write white travelers in last in Cushman's long includes the served as soldiers in the Civil War,
playfully and Wyoming and sequence of homoerotic according to a 20th-century researcher
graphically erotic Montana; she is relationships with Calamus Poems. working with wartime medical records.
letters about their renowned for her war women. The two
past involvement exploits and for remained together until READ MORE READ MORE
with each other. having several wives. Cushman's death in “Walt Whitman” “Passing Women”
1876.
1846 1856 1859 1861
A white traveler in Woman Chief, a Addie Brown and Rebecca Franklin Thompson, born
Wyoming records the woman warrior of Primus, two African- Sarah Emma Edmonds,
deep friendship of two the Crow Nation, American women living in fights for the Union Army
Sioux men, Hail-Storm is killed on a the North, begin their in the Civil War. During
and Rabbit, who "ate, peacemaking loving correspondence. the war, Franklin serves as
slept, and hunted expedition. She Brown writes to Primus, "If a spy, nurse, dispatch
together, and shared left behind four you was a man, what carrier and later is the only
almost all that they wives. would things come to? woman mustered into the
possessed." Such They would come to Grand Army of the
romantic friendships, he something very quick." Republic.
noted, were "common
among many of the
prairie tribes."
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)6
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1875
1886
1890 1895
In San Francisco,
passing woman Jeanne 1878 We’Wha, an accomplished
Frances Willard, a Angelina Weld
Bonnet leads an all- Zuni Weaver and potter, is
white temperance Grimke, a young
woman gang of former "Mrs. Nash," a two spirit – born male but
activist, writes in her woman who would
prostitutes who swear laundress with the 7th living as a woman. She
autobiography: "The become a celebrated
off men and support US Cavalry who had spends six months in
loves of women for poet of the Harlem
themselves through several soldier Washington, DC, and meets
each other grow more Renaissance, writes
theft and shoplifting. In husbands, dies in the President Grover Cleveland,
numerous each day. to Mamie Burrill, "If
1876, Bonnet was Dakota Territory and is who never realizes this six-
That so little should be you only knew how
murdered by an angry revealed to have been foot Zuni maiden was born
said about them my heart beats when
pimp while sleeping a man. Her last male.
surprises me, for they I think of you. Your
with her lover, Blanche husband, a corporal,
are everywhere." passionate lover,
Buneau. committed suicide after READ MORE
Angelina."
the revelation. “We’Wha”
1876 1882 1889 1894 1896
Fitz-Green Halleck, a A young Oscar Wilde Jane Addams and her "devoted companion," "Frank Blunt," a Writer Sarah Orne Jewett
popular poet whose calls on Walt Whitman Ellen Gates Starr, found Hull House in Chicago. married man, is publishes "Martha's Lady," a
defenses of love in Camden, New convicted of theft in short story celebrating the
between men Jersey, in the midst of READ MORE Font du Lac, Wisconsin, redemptive power of love
influenced Walt a triumphant cross- “Women’s Independence and Sexual and is revealed to be a between women. Jewett lived
Whitman, is honored country speaking tour. Possibility” woman named Anna for nearly 30 years in a "Boston
with the first statue Widespread press Morris. Gertrude Field, Marriage" (romantic friendship)
commemorating an coverage of the tour Dr. G. Frank Lydston reports that "there is in Morris' wife, vows to with Annie Adams Fields.
American poet, noted Wilde's every community of any size a colony of male appeal the conviction.
unveiled in New effeminacy, and one sexual perverts known to each other, likely to WATCH
York's Central Park newspaper wrote, congregate together, and characterized by Scenes From a Boston
by President "There is a school of effeminacy of voice, dress, and manner." Marriage
Rutherford B. Hayes. gilded youths eager to
embrace his peculiar READ MORE
tenets." “Sarah Orne Jewett”
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)7
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1907 1926
1915
1925
A German paper supportive of Crow warrior hero Osh-Tish, a "bade"
On a speaking tour crossing the
homosexuals prints an Blueswoman Ma Rainey is (man who dressed as a woman), dies.
anonymous "Letter from country Emma Goldman defends White Indian agents had attacked Osh-
lesbianism and homosexuality. arrested in her house in Harlem
Boston," which reports: "Here, for having a lesbian party. Her Tish and the bade tradition for years,
Goldman's appearances prompted and no other Crow men took up the bade
as in Germany, homosexuality protege, Bessie Smith, bails her
extends throughout all classes, many women, unhappy with having to role after his death.
hide their lesbianism, to share their out of jail the following morning.
from the slums of the North End Rainey and Smith were part of an
to the highly fashionable Back stories with her.
extensive circle of lesbian and The Broadway performance of The
Bay. Reliable homosexuals have bisexual African-American women Captive, a play about a lesbian
told me names that reach into Havelock Ellis notes customs of "sexual relationship, prompts a New York State
in Harlem.
the highest circles of Boston, inverts." law making the performance of any play
New York, and Washington, DC, READ MORE depicting "sex perversion" a
names which have left me READ MORE misdemeanor. The law remained on the
“Blueswomen in Harlem”
speechless with astonishment." “Gay Codes” books until 1967.
1914 1917 1924 1925 1928
Medical article links US immigration Henry Gerber and six other Eva Kochever, a Polish-Jewish Radclyffe Hall's Well of
women's participation law is modified men in Chicago found the immigrant, opens "Eve Addam's Loneliness, a novel banned
in the suffrage to ban "persons Society for Human Rights, Tearoom" in Greenwich Village. The in England for its lesbian
movement with with abnormal the United States' first lesbian gathering place had a sign content, is published in the
"repressed sexual instincts" known gay-rights at the door which read, "Men are United States and becomes
homosexuality." from entering organization. admitted but not welcome." In an immediate best-seller.
the United 1926, the tea room was raided, and In 1929, an appellate court
READ MORE States. WATCH Eva Kochever was deported, holds that the book is not
”Medical Theory and Henry Gerber’s charged with "disorderly conduct" obscene, and the book is
Homosexuality” Declaration and writing an "obscene" book, even more widely
Lesbian Love. distributed.
READ MORE
“Henry Gerber”
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)8
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1948
1933
1941 1944
1931 1935 Kinsey's study of sexuality
Eleanor Roosevelt and her lover, in the US reveals that 50
journalist Lorena Hickok, begin Gay men and The Army
The Baltimore Afro- Sigmund Freud writes percent of American men
their voluminous lesbians become part conducts an
American covers a "Letter to an and 28 percent of
correspondence as Roosevelt of the massive investigation of
local drag ball, American Mother," American women have
moves into the White House. mobilization for World lesbian activity at
describing the urging compassion "homosexual tendencies,"
During one separation Hickok War II, transforming the Women's
"coming out of new and tolerance for shocking the American
writes: "I've been trying today lesbian and gay life in Army Corps
debutantes into gay homosexuality. public.
to bring back your face. Most the United States. training center in
society." Georgia. Its
clearly I remember your eyes,
READ MORE READ MORE findings lead to a Gore Vidal's novel The City
with a kind of teasing smile in
READ MORE “Freud’s Letter to “World War II and call for more and the Pillar is published,
them, and the feeling of that
“Coming Out” an American the Growth of Gay stringent providing readers with an
soft spot just north-east of the
Mother” Communities” screening of WAC insider's portrait of gay
corner of your mouth against
my lips." recruits. life.
1932 1934 1939 1942 1947
Molly Dewson, a close Hollywood adopts the so- The Jewel Box Revue, a Working with The State Department begins
friend of Eleanor called "Hayes Code," which troupe of female psychiatrists, the firing suspected homosexuals
Roosevelt, is appointed stipulates, among other impersonators, begins military develops under President Truman's
head of the Women's things, that "sex touring the US from its guidelines for National Security Loyalty
Division of the Democratic perversion or any base at the Jewel Box in recruiters in order Program. By 1955, anti-gay
Party by President Franklin inference to it is forbidden Miami. The show is to identify and witch hunts cost more than
D. Roosevelt. Dewson had on the screen." integrated, featuring exclude gay men 1,200 men and women their
a life partnership with lesbianism, to share their African-American, Latino, from the services. jobs with the federal
another woman, and was stories with her. Native American, and government.
one of many women in white performers, and is
such partnerships who introduced by Storme READ MORE
held positions in the DeLarverie in drag as a “Government Witch Hunts
Roosevelt administration. man. and Military Discharges”
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)9
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1950 1955
1953
1957
The Mattachine Society, a Del Martin, Phyllis Lyon, and six
"homophile" organization President Dwight D. Eisenhower issues other women found Daughters A Navy report concludes that there is no
aimed at promoting Executive Order #10450, banning the of Bilitis, the first national evidence that "homosexuals cannot
tolerance of homosexuality, employment of homosexuals by the lesbian rights group, in San acceptably serve in the military" or that
is founded in Los Angeles by federal government. Many state and local Francisco. they are security risks. The report is
Harry Hay. governments soon adopted similar
suppressed until 1967.
policies.
Allen Ginsberg gives a public
READ MORE reading of Howl in San
‘The Mattachine Society” The American Civil Liberties Union
One, the first openly lesbian and gay Francisco. The police charge him declares that "homosexuality is a valid
national publication in the United States, with obscenity but lose in court. consideration in evaluating the risk factor
The lesbian-themed novel puts out its first issue. In 1958, the US
in sensitive positions," and advises
Women's Barracks becomes Supreme Court ruled that the publication READ MORE lesbians facing official discrimination to
a bestseller. was not obscene and could be distributed “Allen Ginsberg” become heterosexual.
through the US mail.
1952 1954 1956 1958
Christine Jorgensen is The Army-McCarthy James Baldwin, Barbara Gittings forms
hearings include the African-American the first East Coast
the first American gay-baiting of novelist and Chapter of the Daughters
whose sex reassignment Wisconsin Senator intellectual, publishes of Bilitis.
surgery became public. Joseph McCarthy's aide Giovanni's Room, a
Her surgery causes an Roy Cohn and Army male love story. READ MORE
international sensation, attorney Jack Welch “Daughters of Bilitis”
and for many, she is the before a national
first visible transsexual television audience.
in the media.
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)10
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1967
The Student Homophile
League at Columbia
University becomes the
1964
first lesbian and gay
1960 campus group to gain
1962 Just before the election,
official recognition.
Walter Jenkins, President
Daughters of
Illinois becomes first Lyndon Johnson's chief of
Bilitis hold the The Oscar Wilde
state to decriminalize staff, is arrested in a
first "national Memorial Bookshop, the
homosexual contact bathroom two blocks from
lesbian first gay book store in
between consenting the White House for
convention" in the United States, opens
adults. "indecent gestures." He
San Francisco. in Greenwich Village.
resigns immediately.
1961 1963 1965 1969
Hollywood studios alter the Senator Strom Thurmond attempts to Barbara Gittings, Frank Kameny and Transgender and gender-
production code to allow derail the Civil Rights March on other homophile activists stage the first nonconforming people are
the depiction of gay men Washington by accusing March organizer public picketing to protest government among those who resisted
and lesbians again, as long Bayard Rustin of being a Communist and a discrimination against lesbians and gay arrest in a routine bar raid by
as the subject is treated "pervert." Thurmond failed, and in August, men. Pickets are held at the White police on June 28 on the
with "care, discretion, and more than 250,000 people converged on House, the State Department, the Stonewall Inn in New York
restraint." the nation's capital to demand jobs and Pentagon, and Independence Hall in City’s Greenwich Village, thus
freedom for African-Americans. Philadelphia. helping to ignite the modern
LGBT rights movement.
WATCH WATCH
The Baiting of Bayard Rustin Barbara Gittings: A Fate on the Front READ MORE
“The Stonewall Riots”
READ MORE READ MORE
“Bayard Rustin” “Barbara Gittings”
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)11
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1975
1970
US Civil Service Commission announces it will no
Lesbians stage longer exclude homosexuals from government
"Lavender Menace" employment. 1977
protest action at a
feminist conference, Anita Bryant founds
Elaine Noble becomes the first openly lesbian or "Save Our Children,"
pressing The National
gay legislator as she takes her seat in the and starts organized
Organization for
Massachusetts House of Representatives. opposition to the
Women, and the 1973 1979
women's movement in movement for lesbian
general, to change its The American Psychiatric Minneapolis, Minnesota becomes the first U.S. city and gay rights. Over 100,000 people
stance on lesbianism. Association declares that to protect transgender people by amending its take part in the first
homosexuality per se is local non-discrimination law to include the phrase READ MORE March on Washington
READ MORE not a psychiatric "having or projecting a self-image not associated “Anti-gay Organizing for Lesbian and Gay
“Lesbian Feminism” disorder. with one's biological maleness or one's biological on the Right” Rights.
femaleness.”
1972 1974 1976 1978
In Baker v. Nelson the Minnesota The Lesbian Herstory The first Michigan Womyn's Harvey Milk, gay San
Archives open to the public Music Festival is held in Francisco city supervisor and
Supreme Court rules that state law in the New York apartment Hart, Michigan. The festival "Mayor of Castro Street,"
limits marriage to opposite-sex couples of Joan Nestle and Deborah is one of the largest and and Mayor George Moscone
and that this limitation does not violate Edel. In 1993, the Archives' most visible lesbian events are murdered in City Hall by
the United States Constitution. The large and growing collection in the United States. former city supervisor Dan
United States Supreme Court dismisses moved to a Brooklyn White.
an appeal, thereby establishing the brownstone.
precedent on same-sex marriage. READ MORE
“Harvey Milk”
Disco introduces gay culture
to the mainstream.
READ MORE
“Disco Decade”
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)12
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1981
1987
Doctors identify first cases of what they term "Gay-
Related Immune Deficiency" (GRID). Soon the disease's 1985 ACT UP (Aids Coalition to Unleash
name is changed to AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Power) is founded in New York City.
Syndrome). Rock Hudson acknowledges The group's tactics rejuvenate
that he has AIDS, prompting lesbian and gay activism. 1989
The Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press is founded by widespread public attention
to the epidemic. READ MORE Celebrated jazz musician Billy
Barbara Smith, Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde, Hattie
“AIDS and ACT UP” Tipton dies in Spokane,
Gossett, and Myrna Bain in New York City. That same
year, Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua co-edit This Bridge The Times of Harvey Milk, a Washington, revealing that he
Called My Back: The Writings of Radical Women of Color. documentary about the is a woman. Tipton, who
career and the murder of the The Second National March on played in big bands in the ‘40s
gay San Francisco city Washington for gay and lesbian and ‘50s, lived for 56 years as
READ MORE
supervisor, wins an equality draws 500,000. a man, marrying several times
“AIDS” and
“Woman of Color Organize” Academy Award. and raising children.
1982 1986 1988
Wisconsin passes the In Bowers v. Hardwick, the Supreme The first National Coming Out Day is observed
first lesbian and gay Court rules that the Constitution allows on October 11 to celebrate the one-year
civil rights bill in the states to pass and enforce sodomy laws anniversary of the 2nd National March on
United States. The law targeting homosexuals. Washington.
prohibits bias in
housing, employment, READ MORE The governing board of the City College of San
and public “Bowers v Hardwick” Francisco approves the creation of the first gay
accommodations. and lesbian studies department in the United
Conservative activist Terry Dolan dies of States.
AIDS. His funeral is attended by
conservative political associates such as READ MORE
Senator Orrin Hatch and Pat Robertson, “Lesbian and Gay Studies”
as well as by Dolan's gay friends.
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)13
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1990
The Gay and Lesbian Independent School Teachers
Network (GLSTN) is founded. Only two known high
school student clubs, known as Gay-Straight Alliances
(GSAs), exist in the US at the time.
Term "outing" is coined by Time magazine to describe
Michelangelo Signorile's campaign to identify closeted 1992 1995
celebrities and elected officials.
Black lesbian poet Audre Lorde President Bill Clinton signs an executive
dies of breast cancer. At the order forbidding the denial of security
Policies restricting the immigration of lesbians and gays
time of her death, she was the clearances on the basis of sexual orientation.
to the United States are rescinded. Immigration
poet laureate of New York Being closeted and vulnerable to blackmail,
restrictions on people with HIV and AIDS, however,
State. however, is still a possible grounds for a
remain in place.
clearance denial.
1991 1993
FTM activist Jamison “James” Green takes over Lou The Minnesota state legislature enacts the first statwide law banning discrimination against transgender people.
Sullivan’s FTM newsletter and transforms it into FTM
International, Inc., the world’s largest information and Cheryl Chase founds the Intersex Society of North America to build awareness and offer support to intersex people.
networking group for female-to-male transgender
people and transsexual men.
Transgender youth Brandon Teena is raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska. This crime brings attention to
transgender discrimination and violence and becomes the subject of the award-winning film, Boys Don’t Cry.
Karen Thompson is named legal guardian of her lover,
Sharon Kowalski, eight years after a car accident left
Kowalski paralyzed and speech-impaired. Kowalski's Senator Sam Nunn's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy for the US military becomes law. The law includes the determination
family had refused to recognize the pair's relationship, that "persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" are an "unacceptable risk" for
and the ruling was a major victory for lesbian and gay inclusion in the military. Witch hunts against gay men and lesbians in the military continue to this day.
couples.
The third lesbian and gay March on Washington draws over 1 million participants.
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)14
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1996 1998
President Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act, denying federal benefits to same-sex spouses Wisconsin Congresswoman Tammy
should gay marriage ever become legal, and creating an exception to the US Constitution to allow Baldwin becomes the first openly gay
states to disregard same-sex marriages performed in other states. person to win election to a first-term seat
in Congress.
Kelli Peterson founds a Gay-Straight Alliance at East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. The city
school board bans all "non-curricular" student clubs in order to keep the group from meeting. Matthew Shepard is tied to fence, beaten,
and left to die by Aaron McKinney and
WATCH Russell Henderson outside Laramie, WY on
Kelli Peterson and a New Generation of Activists October 7th. The incident gains national
media attention and sparks vigils around
READ MORE the world. Shepard dies five days later.
“Kelli Peterson” His death inspires the award-winning play
The Laramie Project
1996 (cont) 1997 1999
Students at the University of Virginia organize the first Day of Silence in response to a class Trans Activist Leslie Feinberg The American Counseling
assignment about non-violent protests. published Transgender Warriors: Association Governing Council
Making History from Joan of Arc adopts a position “opposing
to Dennis Rodman, a who’s who ‘reparative therapy’ as a ‘cure’
A federal appeals court issues the first judicial opinion in US history finding that a public school could of transgender people throughout for individuals who are
be held constitutionally accountable for not stopping antigay abuse. Ashland, WI school officials knew world history that traces the roots homosexual.” Numerous
of anti-gay abuse directed at student Jamie Nabozny but did not intervene. Those officials later offer of transgender oppression. medical, health, and mental
a settlement of nearly $1 million to Nabozny. health organizations –
representing over 480,000
professionals – adopt position
In Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court strikes down Colorado's Amendment 2, which denied gays the “homosexuality is not a
and lesbians protections against discrimination, calling them “special rights.” According to Justice mental disorder and thus not
Anthony Kennedy, “We find nothing special in the protections Amendment 2 withholds. These something that needs to be or
protections . . . constitute ordinary civil life in a free society.” can be ‘cured.’”
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)15
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
2000
Vermont becomes the first state in
the country to legally recognize civil
unions between gay or lesbian
2008
couples. The law states that these
“couples would be entitled to the
The California Supreme Court
same benefits, privileges, and 2004 rules that same-sex couples
responsibilities as spouses.” It stops
have a constitutional right to
short of referring to same-sex unions Massachusetts legalizes same- marry. California becomes the
as marriage, which the state defines sex marriage, officially second state in the U.S. to
as heterosexual. becoming the first state in the legalize same-sex marriages
U.S. to do so. later that year.
2003
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v Texas that sodomy laws in the U.S. are unconstitutional. Justice Anthony Kennedy
wrote, “Liberty presumes an autonomy of self that includes freedom of thought, belief, expression, and certain intimate
conduct.”
V. Gene Robinson is elected bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
He enters office in 2004, becoming the first openly gay, non-celibate priest to be ordained a bishop in a major Christian
denomination.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court rules that barring gays and lesbian from marrying violates the state constitution. The
Massachusetts Chief Justice concludes that to “deny the protections, benefits, and obligations conferred by civil marriage” to gay
couples is unconstitutional because is denies “the dignity and equality of all individuals” and makes them “second-class citizens.”
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)16
A Timeline of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States
1624 - Sodomy Laws 1652 - Colonial European Cross-dressing 1677 - Acts v. Identity
European colonial governments sought to control Men dressing as women (and, to a lesser extent, women Looking at historical evidence of homosexual
the sexual behavior of the people within their dressing as men) was not uncommon in European society, behavior, it is hard to figure out how people in the
settlements. The British, French, and Spanish all usually among common people in the context of social past understood and interpreted same-sex
passed laws regarding sex outside of marriage protests and Carnival celebrations. Men who cross- sexuality. In New England, for example, laws and
and "sodomy" - a range of same-sex sexual dressed were more likely to be in disguise or making a religious thinkers condemned many different kinds
activities. In early British colonies, as under political statement than expressing anything about their of sexual activity (both heterosexual and
English law, sodomy was a capital crime sexual identity in the manner of a modern-day "drag homosexual) as sinful acts, but it is not clear
(punishable by death). One of the earliest queen." Colonial laws actually made it a crime to cross- whether people who engaged in sexual activity with
recorded convictions for sodomy in the colonies dress, usually imposing a fine and some form of public people of the same sex were considered to be a
was that of Richard Cornish, a sea captain contrition for the offense. Laws about what people could different kind of person - like a "gay man" or a
executed in Virginia for an alleged sexual assault wear were generally intended to preserve social order and "lesbian" in modern society. It is also unclear
on another man. maintain a hierarchy within society, and were not directly whether all members of the society shared the
concerned with homosexuality. However, evidence from official attitude toward homosexuality expressed by
Colonial authorities were not always certain which England in the early 1700s indicates that there was some harsh anti-sodomy laws.
sexual acts fell under the category of "sodomy." link between cross-dressing and male homosexuality in
Religious leaders debated the point in the early British popular culture. In London, observers wrote about a The 1677 sodomy trial of Nicholas Sension offers
1600s, and the laws adopted by different colonies type of man referred to as a "mollie," who enjoyed sex some interesting clues as to popular attitudes
varied in what specific acts were punishable by with other men. Some mollies wore women's clothes. The toward and perceptions of homosexual activities in
death. Most only dealt with sexual acts between accusations of cross-dressing lodged against New York's colonial society. Historian Richard Godbeer points
men. One law also covered sexual activity royal governor in 1704 may have been meant to make this out that Sension had been open about his desire for
between women. Despite the severity of the laws, association in order to ruin his reputation. other men for many years, and had not faced any
however, we know of only a few instances of serious punishment for his behavior despite his
executions in sodomy cases during the colonial Women's motives for dressing as men were also probably notoriety. His neighbors who testified in court had
period. People were more likely to be tried for the mixed - to lodge a protest or to be in disguise. However, resisted his advances, but hadn't felt the need to
lesser offense of "lewd behavior," which did not the possible sexual aspects of women's cross-dressing report him to the authorities. Godbeer notes that
incur the death penalty. Sodomy was a difficult should not be overlooked. A writer describing Deborah witnesses at the trial also used language which
charge to prove - two witnesses were required, Sampson's career as a male soldier during the might suggest that they understood Sension to be a
and there was no possibility of a tell-tale Revolutionary War took great pains to explain Sampson's different kind of person who was attracted to other
pregnancy - and people may have been reluctant reported affairs with other women while disguised: "It men.
to place their neighbors' lives in jeopardy with must be supposed that she acted more from necessity
such a dire accusation. than voluntary impulse of passion; and no doubt
succeeded beyond her expectations, or desires."
Adapted and updated from Out of the Past: 400 Years of Lesbian and Gay History in America (PBS Online); Bending the Mold: An Action Kit for Transgender Youth (NYAC & Lambda Legal);
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline; Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators, and School Personnel (Just the Facts Coalition)You can also read
