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LGBTQ INFORMATION NETWORK │ RAINBOW OF RESOURCES
HISTORY
Most Popular LGBTQ News Stories of 2021
Celebrities Who Came Out in 2021
USA Today: Biggest Moments for the LGBTQ Community in
2021
Landmark Year for US Cities in Advancing LGBTQ Equality
LGBTQ Milestones We’re Thankful For This Year
Celebrity Coming-Out Stories That Moved Us In 2021
Good Things That Happened to the LGBTQ Community This
Year
Most Notable LGBTQ Films and TV Shows of 2021
Billboard: 25 Best Pride Songs of 2021
People Who Came Out in 2021
Most Notable LGBTQ Books of 2021
Recalling Influential People Who Died in 2021
Brief History of Queer Political Action
Fight for LGBTQ Rights Throughout History
Gay History Quiz
How the
Stonewall Riots Inspired the LGBTQ
Movement
Info: Archaic
Language and Images
Video: Overview of 20th Century LGBTQ
History
List: LGBTQ Firsts by
Year
Buzzfeed: This is What
Gay Liberation Looked Like in the 70s
LGBTQ Writers, Artists and
Activists of the 80s and 90s
Stonewall Forever: Past, Present, and Future Pride
LGBTQ Modern Historical
Overview
1900 -
Oscar Wilde, renowned gay author, dies
1903 - First recorded raid on a gay bath house (New York
City, 12 men charged with sodomy)
1907 -
Gertrude Stein meets Alice B. Toklas
1912 -
Portland Vice Scandal, leading to forced sterilization
for gay suspects
1916 -
Blue Discharge, or Blue Ticket, used to remove
homosexuals from US military
1919 -
Film Different From Others released, first ever
pro-gay film
1919 - Institute of Sexology founded
by Alfred Kinsey
1920 - Harvard Secret Courts, effort to purge campus
homosexuals
1923 - FBI labels Emma Goldman "most dangerous woman in
America" for her open endorsement of gay rights
1923 -
Lesbian Elsa Gidlow publishes On a Grey Thread,
first volume of openly lesbian love poems in US
1924 -
Society for Human Rights, founded by Henry Gerber, first gay rights organization
in US
1927 -
Wings becomes first film with homosexual content to
win Best Picture Academy Award
1928 -
Radclyffe Hall publishes lesbian novel, The Well of
Loneliness
1931 - In
Germany, Dora Richter (born Rudolph Richter) is first
transgender woman to undergo vagioplasty
1933 -
Hitler bans gay press
1934 - Gay people required to wear pink triangles in
Nazi Germany
1936 - Actor William Haines retires from acting to live
with his partner Jimmie Shields
1937 -
Hein Vos is first known gay member of Dutch House of
Representatives
1939 -
Frances Rummell publishes first explicitly lesbian
autobiography
1944 -
Poet Robert Duncan is first prominent American to reveal
his homosexuality, calling homosexuals an oppressed
minority
1947 - First US lesbian magazine, Vice Versa,
published
1948 - Kinsey Report released
1950 - Harry Hay founded Mattachine Society to help homosexuals
realize their collective histories and experiences
1950 -
Sen. Joseph McCarthy
begins investigation of homosexuals who work for the US
government, commencing the Lavender Scare
1951 - Roberta Cowell becomes first British trans woman to
undergo sex reassignment surgery
1952 -
American Psychiatric Association lists homosexuality as
a sociopathic personality disorder
1952 - One Incorporated was founded
1952 -
Alan Turing (WWII codebreaker and father of modern computers) convicted of
being homosexual
1952 -
Christine Jorgensen becomes first American to have
gender reassignment surgery
1952 -
Virginia
Prince, male crossdresser, publishes Transvestia:
Journal of American Society for Equality in Dress
beginning the transgender rights movement
1953 - First publication of
One Magazine appeared
1953 - President Dwight Eisenhower bans homosexuals from
federal jobs, says they are a security risk
1954 -
Bisexual Mexican painter Frida Kahlo dies
1955 - Daughters of Bilitis, a lesbian organization,
forms
Brief History of Queer Political Action
Celebrating 50 Years Since
Stonewall
Fight for LGBTQ Rights Throughout History
Video Lesson: Living History of the LGBTQ Movement
LGBTQ Film History: Early Years (1910s to 1920s)
Gay History Quiz
List: LGBTQ Firsts by Year
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
History of Gay Pride in
the United States
Wanda Sykes: Overview of LGBTQ History
Evolution of Gay Rights
Worldwide History of LGBTQ Rights |
1790-Present
1956 - Daughters of Bilitis publish first issue of The
Ladder
1956 - James Baldwin publishes Giovanni's Room,
containing gay and bisexual subject matter
1956 - Evelyn Hooker
presents research paper at APA Convention in Chicago
declaring homosexual not a clinical entity
1957 – Under new
government restrictions, Frank Kameny is fired from his
government job for being gay
1957 - Kinsey Report revealed that 10% of population is
predominantly homosexual
1958 -
Gold Coast, first gay leather bar, opens in Chicago
1960 - New
York City police begin systematic crackdown on gay bars
1960 - UK trans model April Ashley undergoes gender
affirmation surgery
1960 - Nancy Ledins (born
William Griglak) comes out as first openly transgender
ordained Catholic priest
1961 – Frank Kameny,
nicknamed the Grandfather of Gay Rights, launches one of
the first gay/lesbian protests
1961 -
First US television documentary about homosexuality
aired by local station in California
1961 -
Jose Sarria is first openly gay person to run for public
office in US (San Francisco)
1961 - Illinois becomes first state to decriminalize
homosexual acts
1962 -
Illinois becomes first state to remove sodomy laws from
criminal code
1962 -
Janus Society established in Philadelphia
1963 -
East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) formed
1964 -
Drum, LGBTQ interest magazine established by Janus
Society, began publishing
1964 - San
Franciscan Society for Individual Rights (SIR) formed
1964 -
Lynn Conway, transwoman computer scientist and engineer,
hired by IBM Research to join Advanced Computing Systems
team
1965 -
Barbara Gittings starts first picket lines for
gay/lesbian protest movement at Independence Hall,
Philadelphia
1965 -
Vanguard LGBTQ youth organization becomes first gay
liberation group in US (San Francisco)
1965 - David Kopay,
ex-NFL football player, comes out as gay
1966 - Compton's
Cafeteria Riot occurred in Tenderloin district of San
Francisco
1966 - Time Magazine publishes anti-gay article, "The
Homosexual in America"
1966 - CBS
TV airs "The Homosexuals" documentary
1966 -
National Transsexual Counseling Unit formed (peer-run
support group and advocacy organization)
1967 -
Advocate Magazine founded
1967 -
Sexual Offences Act decriminalizes sex between two men,
including "in private"
1967 - Portrait of
Jason film is released
1967 -
Craig Rodwell opens Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore,
first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors
Video List: Famous LGBTQ Folk
American Park Service Report: LGBTQ Heritage Initiative
Info:
Famous LGBTQ People
Wanda Sykes: Overview of LGBTQ History
CNN: LGBTQ Rights Milestones and Fast Facts
Timeline: LGBTQ History in the United States
Huff Post: I Wish I Had
Learned LGBTQ History in School
1968 -
Metropolitan Community Church (with special LGBTQ
ministry) founded by Troy Perry in Los Angeles
1968 -
Transgender musician Wendy (dn Walter) Carlos releases
Switch on Bach album of synthesizer music
1969 -
Stonewall Riots in New York City (Led by Marsha P.
Johnson and Sylvia Rivera)
1969 - Rev. James Lewis Stoll, a Unitarian Universalist
Minister, becomes first ordained minister to come out as
gay
1969 -
The Washington Blade, LGBTQ news publication, is
founded
1970 - First Gay Liberation March in New York City (Also
in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles)
1970 -
Christopher Street Liberation March
1970 - Chicago Gay Rally
held
1970 - Boys in the
Band film is released
1970 - Gay Activists
Alliance of New York selects Greek letter lambda as a
gay symbol
1970 - Large crowd
participates in Gay Pride Parade in the Back Bay
neighborhood of Boston
1970 - Lavender Menace,
group of radical lesbian feminists, advocate for lesbian issues at Second Congress to Unite Women in
New York City
Buzzfeed: This is What
Gay Liberation Looked Like in the 70s
Info:
Famous LGBTQ People
Signature: Essential Books on the History of LGBTQ
Rights in America
CNN: LGBTQ Rights Milestones and Fast Facts
Video: Overview of 20th Century LGBTQ History
Diversity Inc: LGBTQ
Historical Timeline
LGBTQ Writers, Artists and
Activists of the 80s and 90s
Evolution of the Gay Pride
Parade
APA: History of LGBTQ Social Movements
Celebrating 50 Years Since
Stonewall
Advocate Mag: Champions of Pride 2019
Making History: The Homophile Movement
1971 - Lambda Legal organization started
1971 -
Lesbian Tide publication by Los Angeles Chapter of
Daughters of Bilitis
1971 -
University of Michigan becomes first college in US to
establish an LGBTQ office
1971 -
Betty Berzon becomes first psychotherapist in US to
publicly come out as gay
1971 -
Frank Kameny becomes first openly gay candidate to run
for US Congress
1971 -
Lesbian group, the Furies, formed a lesbian commune
1971 -
Nightride, by Lee Barton, becomes first off-Broadway
play to discuss a romantic gay relationship
1972 -
PFLAG founded by Jeanne Manford
1972 - Jim
Foster becomes first openly gay delegate to address a
major party national convention (Democratic, Miami)
1972 -
Madeline Davis becomes first openly lesbian delegate to
address a major party national convention (Democratic,
Miami)
1972 -
William Johnson becomes first only gay person ordained
in a mainline Protestant denomination (United Church of
Christ)
1972 -
That Certain Summer aired on ABC TV, first TV show
to sensitively explore homosexuality
1972 -
Beth Chayim Chadashim founded as first LGBTQ synagogue
in the world
1973 -
American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality
from list of mental disorders
1973 - French play La
Cage Aux Folles by Jean Poiret is released
1973 - Lavender Country releases first known gay-themed
country music album
1973 - 32 people killed in an arson attack at Upstairs
Lounge gay bar in New Orleans
1974 - Society of
Janus, BDSM support and educational group, formed in San
Francisco
1974 - Gay activists in
Boston choose purple rhinoceros as a symbol of the gay
movement
1975 - Rocky Horror
Picture Show film is released
1975 -
Tennis player Renee Richards undergoes gender
reassignment surgery
1975 -
Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich discharged from US
Air Force for being gay
1976 -
Renee Richards banned from competing in Women's US Open
due to "women-born-women" rule
1976 -
Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin, appears in
San Francisco Chronicle
1976 - Tom
Gallagher becomes first US Foreign Service officer to
come out as gay
1977 -
Anne Holmes becomes first openly lesbian minister
ordained by United Church of Christ
1977 -
Ellen Barrett becomes first openly lesbian priest
ordained by US Episcopal Church (New York)
1977 -
Billy Crystal plays openly-gay character on Soap
television series
1977 - Conservative
Christian activist Anita Bryant opposes Miami-Dade
County amendment making it illegal to discriminate based
on sexual orientation; Her campaign led to the repeal of
the law
Diversity Inc: LGBTQ
Historical Timeline
The Rise of a Gay and
Lesbian Movement
Timeline: LGBTQ History in the United States
LGBTQ Writers, Artists and
Activists of the 80s and 90s
History of Gay Pride in
the United States
Info: LGBTQ Symbols
LGBTQ History Can Be Found in Everyone's Past
Great Queers of History
The
Homophile Movement
Billy Porter: Brief History of Queer Political Action
1978
- Briggs Initiative fails to pass in California; It
would have banned homosexuals from teaching in public
schools
1978 - Openly gay activist Harvey Milk is elected to
San Francisco Board of Supervisors and 20 days later is
murdered by Supervisor Dan White
1978 -
Rainbow flag, designed by Gilbert Baker, first used as a symbol of gay pride
1978 -
Village People top the pop music charts with YMCA,
Macho Man, and In the Navy
1978 -
Allen Bennett becomes first openly gay rabbi in US
1978 - San
Francisco becomes first US city to recruit gay police
officers (350 applications submitted)
1979 -
California Supreme court rules against LGBTQ discrimination
from public utility companies
1979 -100,000 attend first National Gay Rights March in Washington DC
1979 -
Sisters (Order) of Perpetual Indulgence, drag
performance activist organization, formed in San
Francisco
1979 -
Stephen Lachs becomes first openly gay judge appointed
in US (Los Angeles)
1979 -
During an interview Jane Fonda says that gays and
lesbians are discriminated against
1980 -
Human Rights Campaign founded
1980 -
Democrats become first political party to endorse gay
rights
1980 -
Adrienne
Rich writes essay,
Compulsory
Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence
1981 -
Tennis athlete Billie Jean King comes out as a lesbian
1981 - First report of what is now called AIDS
1981 - Wisconsin passes first gay rights bill
1981 - Tennis athlete Martina Navratilova comes out as a
lesbian
1981 -
Randy Shilts becomes first openly gay reporter with
gay-themed content in mainstream press (San Francisco
Chronicle)
1982 - First Gay Games
1982 - Center for Disease Control investigates what is
being called a "Gay Plague"
1982 - Boy George and Culture Club top pop music charts
with Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, I'll Tumble 4 Ya,
Church of the Poison Mind, and Karma Chameleon
Celebrating 50 Years Since
Stonewall
Info:
Famous LGBTQ People
Evolution of the Gay Pride
Parade
History of Gay Pride in
the United States
CNN: LGBTQ Rights Milestones and Fast Facts
How Stonewall Riots Sparked a Movement
Video Lesson: Living History of the LGBTQ Movement
Huff Post: I Wish I Had
Learned LGBTQ History in School
Advocate Mag: Champions of Pride 2019
1983 - Rep Gerry Studds, D-Mass, becomes first
member of US Congress to publicly acknowledge his
homosexuality
1983 -
Openly gay writer Tennessee Williams dies
1983 -
Life Magazine publishes story, "The Double Closet,"
about LGBTQ families
1983 - The American
musical version of La Cage Aux
Folles, by Harvey Fierstein, premieres on Broadway
1984 -
Federal officials announce discovery of first probable
cause of AIDS
1984 - The Wall Street Journal permits use of the word
"gay"
1985 - GLAAD founded
1985 -
First International Conference on AIDS held
1985 -
Rock Hudson dies of AIDS
1986 - Reagan administration states that treatment of
persons with AIDS was not a federal concern
1987 - AIDS Memorial Quilt unveiled
1987 - US
Rep Barney Frank, D-Mass, becomes second member of
Congress to announce he is gay
1987 - March on Washington is largest gay rights
demonstration ever
1987 - ACT-UP organization is formed
1988 - Musician Elton John comes out, saying that he is
"comfortable being gay"
1988 - 10th Annual National Coalition of Black Lesbians
& Gays takes place
1988 - Male
Homosexuality: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective,
by Richard Friedman, published
1988 - Stu
Rasmussen becomes America's first openly transgender
mayor
1989 - Actor Richard
Chamberlain is outed as gay
1989 - Longtime
Companion film is released, starring Campbell Scott,
Patrick Cassidy, Mary-Louise Parker, Stephen Caffrey
1989 - Out Week
Magazine, devoted to AIDS activism, began
publication in New York City
Important LGBTQ Moments in US History
History of Lesbian Fashion
Stonewall Forever: Past, Present, and Future Pride
Gay Actors of Hollywood's Golden Age
Info: Archaic Language and Images
Celebrating 50 Years Since
Stonewall
Best Time in History to be Gay or Lesbian
A Movement Caught Hold and Has Never Let Go
List: LGBTQ Firsts by Year
Evolution of Gay Rights
APA: History of LGBTQ Social Movements
1990 - President George H. Bush signs National Hate
Crimes Act, the first to include gays
1990 - Militant group Queer Nation founded
1990 -
AIDS Documentary wins Oscar
1990 - Gay men and Lesbians accepted as rabbis at 101st
Annual Conference of American Rabbis
1990 - Gay Games III held in Vancouver
1990 - Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement collection
displayed at Smithsonian
1991 - Amnesty International adopted jailed gay men and
lesbians as prisoners of conscience
1991 - An appeals court recognized a homosexuals
partner's rights as tantamount to those of a spouse
1991 - First television kiss between a same sex couple
(two women on LA Law)
1991 -
Homoerotic artist Tom of Finland dies
1992 - AIDS Quilt was unfolded in its entirety on the
Capitol Mall
1992 - University of Iowa extended health benefits to
domestic partners of its gay and lesbian employees
1992 - First Dyke March (Washington DC)
1992 - Canada allows gays and lesbians to serve in the
military
1992 - Massachusetts Governor Weld created Governor's
Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth
1992 - President Bill Clinton is first president to
recognize gay and lesbian rights
1992 -
Singer KD Lang comes out as a lesbian
1993 - Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy is instituted for US
military
1993 - 21
year old trans person Brandon Teena is raped and murdered
1993 -
Grammy Awards ceremony features many openly gay and lesbian
performers
1993 - Strong genetic component to homosexuality found
in study
1993 –
Tony Kushner wins Pulitzer Prize for his play
Angels in America
1993 – Philadelphia
film is released, starring Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington
1993 - National March on Washington DC saw record breaking crowds
1993 - Roberta
Achtenberg, openly lesbian, appointed Asst Secretary of
Fair Housing & Equal Oppty
1994 - Olympic diver Greg
Louganis comes out as gay
1994 - Rep Steve
Gunderson (R-Wis) is first openly gay republican in
congress
1994 - Gay Games IV took place in New York City
1994 -
Deborah Batts is first openly gay federal judge
1995 -
President Clinton signs executive order forbidding
denial of security clearances on basis of sexual
orientation
1996 - Rep Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz)
is second openly gay republican in congress
1996 - Rent musical premieres on
Broadway
1997 – Ellen DeGeneres appears on the
Oprah Wynfrey Show and comes out as a lesbian
1997 - James Hormel,
first US Ambassador to come out as gay, is nominated
1998 -
President Clinton signs Defense of Marriage Act, denying
federal benefits to same-sex spouses
1998 – Will & Grace TV show premieres
1998 -
University of Wyoming gay college student Matthew Shepherd
is killed
1998 - Miami-Dade County
reinstates human rights protection for gays and
lesbians, reversing Anita Bryant's earlier efforts
1998 - Torch Song
Trilogy film is released
1998 - Coretta Scott King
called on civil rights community to join the struggle
against homophobia
1999 - Rep Tammy Baldwin
(D-Wis) is first out lesbian US Representative when elected
Brief History of Queer Political Action
List: LGBTQ Firsts by Year
Fight for LGBTQ Rights Throughout History
Video: Overview of 20th Century LGBTQ History
American Park Service Report: LGBTQ Heritage Initiative
LGBTQ Film History: Early Years (1910s to 1920s)
Gay History Quiz
Info: Archaic
Language and Images
Buzzfeed: This is What
Gay Liberation Looked Like in the 70s
Wanda Sykes: Overview of LGBTQ History
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
2000 - Vermont becomes first state to legalize civil
unions between gay and lesbian couples
2000 - President Clinton declares June as Gay Pride
Month
2000 -
Director and writer Del Shores releases Sordid Lives
movie
2001 -
Netherlands becomes first country to legalize same-sex
marriage
2001 -
Dutch couple Gert Kasteel and Dolf Pasker make history
when they got married in the world’s first
legally-recognized same-sex wedding
2001 -
Mark Bingham, gay rugby player aboard United Airlines
flight 93, helps thwart terrorist attack
2002 -
Transgender Law Center founded
2002 - David Cicilline is
first openly gay mayor of US state capital, Providence
RI
2002 -
Laramie Project launched
2002 – Rosie O’Donnell comes out as a
lesbian on The View television show
2003 -
Gene Robinson becomes first openly gay Episcopal bishop
2003 - Belgium legalizes
same-sex marriage
2003 - Angels in
America film is released, starring Al Pacino, Meryl
Streep, Emma Thompson, Mary-Louise Parker
2003 - National Black Justice Coalition
founded
2003 -
Supreme
Court invalidates all remaining anti-sodomy laws in its
ruling in Lawrence v. Texas
2003 – Queer Eye for the Straight Guy TV
show premieres
2004 - US Senate defeats measure to create
constitutional amendment limiting marriage to
heterosexual
2004 - 11
openly gay and lesbian athletes at Olympic Games in
Athens
2004 -
Massachusetts
becomes first US
state to legalize same-sex marriage
2004 - First same-sex
wedding takes place in United States in Cambridge City
Hall, Massachusetts
2004 -
Miss International Queen Pageant forms for transgender
contestants
2005 -
Canada and Spain legalize same-sex marriage
2005 -
Deirdre Downs, from Alabama, becomes first openly gay
Miss America pageant titleholder
2005 -
Brokeback Mountain, film about gay cowboys, released
in theaters
2006 -
Brokeback Mountain wins 3 Academy Awards and 5
nominations
2007 - First American
presidential candidate forum on LGBTQ issues (6
Democrats, 0 Republicans)
2006 - Patricia Todd is
first openly gay legislator in Alabama (House seat
representing Birmingham)
2006 - South Africa
legalizes same-sex marriage
2008 – Milk, film
about life of Harvey Milk, is released, starring Sean
Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco
2008 - 10
openly gay and lesbian athletes at Olympic Games in
Beijing
2008 - Connecticut
legalizes same-sex marriage
2009 - Chastity Bono (dn),
child of Sonny & Cher, transitions from female to male to become Chaz Bono
2008 - Rachel Maddow
Show premieres on MSNBC Television
2009 -
Annise Parker
becomes mayor of Houston, largest US city with lesbian
mayor
2009 -
Norway and Sweden legalize same-sex marriage
2009 -
Iowa and Vermont legalize same-sex marriage
2009 -
First season of RuPaul's Drag Race premieres
2010 -
Repeal of US Military's Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy
2010 - Argentina,
Iceland, and Portugal legalize same-sex marriage
2010 - It Gets Better
campaign launched
2010 -
New Hampshire and Washington DC legalize same-sex marriage
2011 -
New York legalizes same-sex marriage
2011 - California mandates LGBTQ curriculum in public
schools
Diversity Inc: LGBTQ
Historical Timeline
The Rise of a Gay and
Lesbian Movement
Wanda Sykes: Overview of LGBTQ History
Gay Actors of Hollywood's Golden Age
LGBTQ Writers, Artists and
Activists of the 80s and 90s
Best Time in History to be Gay or Lesbian
Timeline: LGBTQ History in the United States
Info: LGBTQ Symbols
Stonewall Forever: Past, Present, and Future Pride
LGBTQ History Can Be Found in Everyone's Past
Great Queers of History
2012 - Sen Tammy Baldwin
(D-Wis) is first out lesbian senator
2012 - President Obama announces support for same-sex
marriage rights
2012 - Seven LGBTQ candidates win elections in the US
Senate and House
2012 - Astronaut Sally Ride dies and posthumously comes
out as lesbian
2012 - Tammy Smith
first is first out
lesbian brigadier general in US Army
2012 - Kylar Bodus is
first transgender person to testify at US Senate hearing
2012 - 21
openly gay and lesbian athletes at Olympic Games in
London
2012 -
Denmark legalizes same-sex marriage
2012 -
Punk rocker Laura Jane Grace comes out as transgender
2012 -
Washington and Maine legalize same-sex marriage
2013 - US
Supreme Court strikes down Defense of Marriage Act and
California's Proposition 8
2013 - Jason Collins become first openly gay NBA athlete
2013 - Queen Elizabeth II pardons Alan Turing for 1952 homosexuality conviction
2013 - Laverne Cox, MTF
transgender person, stars in Orange is the New Black
television show
2013 - Brazil, France, New Zealand, and Uruguay legalize
same-sex marriage
2013 -
Maryland, California, Delaware, Minnesota, Rhode Island,
New Mexico, New Jersey, and Hawaii legalize same-sex marriage
2013 - New Jersey and California ban reparative therapy
2013 - Mark Takano becomes first gay Asian person in US
Congress
History of Gay Pride in
the United States
Evolution of Gay Rights
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
Important LGBTQ Moments in US History
Celebrating 50 Years Since
Stonewall
Info: Archaic Language and Images
Billy Porter: Brief History of Queer Political Action
A Movement Caught Hold and Has Never Let Go
APA: History of LGBTQ Social Movements
 
2014 - Transwoman Laverne Cox
appears on cover of Time Magazine
2014 -
Michael Sam becomes first openly gay NFL athlete
2014 - BP Oil Co CEO Lord
John Browne comes out as gay
2014 -
Martina Navratilova proposes to longtime girlfriend
Julia Lemigova at US Open and they marry later the same year
2014 -
Openly gay and lesbian athletes at Olympic Games in
Sochi, Russia
2014 -
Television series Grace and Frankie candidly
tackles gay relationships, starring Jane Fonda, Lily
Tomlin, Sam Waterston, and Martin Sheen
2014 -
Facebook offers 56 different gender options for its
users
2014 -
United Kingdom and Scotland legalize same-sex marriage
2014 - US Post Office issues Harvey Milk stamp
2014 - Boy Scouts end anti-gay policy and allow gay
youth to join
2014 - Apple CEO Tim Cook announces publicly that he is
gay
2014 - Ed Murray
elected mayor of Seattle, largest US city with gay male mayor
2014 -
Oregon, Pennsylvania Illinois, Oklahoma, Virginia, Utah,
Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, West Virginia, Nevada,
North Carolina, Alaska, Idaho, Arizona, Wyoming,
Montana, and South Carolina legalize same-sex marriage
Brief History of Queer Political Action
Fight for LGBTQ Rights Throughout History
Gay History Quiz
History of
Gay Pride in the United States
Info: Archaic
Language and Images
Video: Overview of 20th Century LGBTQ
History
List: LGBTQ Firsts by
Year
Buzzfeed: This is What
Gay Liberation Looked Like in the 70s
Stonewall Forever: Past, Present, and Future Pride
Video List: Famous LGBTQ Folk
American Park Service Report: LGBTQ Heritage Initiative
Celebrating 50 Years Since
Stonewall
Info:
Famous LGBTQ People
Wanda Sykes: Overview of LGBTQ History
CNN: LGBTQ Rights Milestones and Fast Facts
Timeline: LGBTQ History in the United States
Huff Post: I Wish I Had
Learned LGBTQ History in School
2015 -
Florida and Alabama legalize same-sex marriage
2015 - US
Supreme Court declares same-sex marriage legal in United
States
2015 - Bruce Jenner (dn) undergoes gender reassignment
surgery and becomes Caitlyn Jenner
2015 - Luxemburg and Ireland legalize same-sex marriage
2015 - Oregon and Washington DC ban reparative therapy
2016 - Gallup Poll
reports that LGBTQ population is 4.6%, not 10% as
previously estimated
2016 - Sen Harris Wofford
announces plans to marry a man and becomes first male US
Senator to come out
2016 - Eric Fanning is first out gay man
appointed US Secretary of Army
2016 - Sarah McBride, MTF
transgender person, addresses Democratic National
Convention
2016 -
Mass shooting at gay bar in Orlando, Florida
2016 -
Many openly gay and lesbian athletes at Olympic Games in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil
2016 -
Greenland and Colombia legalize same-sex marriage
2016 - Illinois and Vermont ban reparative therapy
2016 - LGBTQ performers are among highest paid in
Hollywood and the media, including Jim Parsons, Jesse
Tyler Ferguson, Wentworth Miller, Ellen DeGeneres, Miley
Cyrus, Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow
2016 - Vice President Joe Biden officiates a gay wedding
ceremony
2016 -
Donald Trump is elected President, threatening to impede LGBTQ rights
2017 -
Famous LGBTQ Activist Edith Windsor dies
2017 -
Ines Rau is first transgender Playboy model
2017 -
Finland, Malta, Germany, and Australia legalize same-sex marriage
2017 -
Transwoman Danica Roem elected to public office in
Virginia
2017 - New Mexico, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Nevada
ban reparative therapy
2017 -
Gilbert Baker, creator of the rainbow flag, dies
2018 -
Pentagon confirms that first transgender person has
signed a contract to join US military
2018 -
India decriminalizes homosexuality
2018 -
Angela Ponce is first transgender person to compete in
Miss Universe pageant
2018 -
Minnesota, Oregon, California, Colorado, Maine, and DC
issue non-binary driver's licenses
2018 - New
York adds third gender option to birth certificates
2018 -
Record number of LGBTQ candidates run for and are
elected to US Congress
2018 -
Democratic US Rep Jared Polis wins Colorado governor's
race, becoming nation's first openly gay man to be
elected governor
2018 -
Sharice Davids (Kan-Dem) is first Native American
lesbian elected to Congress
2018 - Washington,
Hawaii, Delaware, and Maryland ban reparative therapy
2018 - Deidre Downs becomes first Miss America to enter a
same-sex marriage
The Rise of a Gay and
Lesbian Movement
American Park Service Report: LGBTQ Heritage Initiative
LGBTQ Writers, Artists and
Activists of the 80s and 90s
Best Time in History to be Gay or Lesbian
Gay Actors of Hollywood's Golden Age
History of Gay Pride in
the United States
Info: LGBTQ Symbols
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
LGBTQ History Can Be Found in Everyone's Past
Great Queers of History
How Stonewall Riots Sparked a Movement
LGBTQ Film History: Early Years (1910s to 1920s)
Video: Overview of 20th Century LGBTQ History
Evolution of the Gay Pride
Parade
2019 -
Large number of LGBTQ-themed movies nominated at Academy
Awards
2019 -
Billy Porter becomes the first openly gay black man to
win Emmy for best lead actor in a drama series
2018 - Daniela Vega becomes first openly transgender
presenter in Academy Awards history
2019 -
Lori Lightfoot is first gay black female to become mayor
of Chicago
2019 -
President Trump bans transgender troops from the US
military
2019 - US
Women's Soccer Team wins World Cup, led by lesbian Megan
Rapinoe
2019 -
Indya Moore becomes first trans cover model for Elle
Magazine
2019 -
Taiwan, Austria, and Ecuador legalize same-sex marriage
2019 - New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, Maine,
and Colorado ban reparative therapy
2019 - Record number of cases of violence to and murder
of transgender people
2019 - Pete Buttigeig becomes first US presidential
candidate who is openly gay
2019 - 50th anniversary of Stonewall Riots is
commemorated worldwide with unprecedented coverage
2019 - Valentina Sampaio becomes first openly
transgender model for Victoria's Secret
2019 - New Jersey, Colorado, Oregon, and Illinois
mandate LGBTQ curriculum in public schools
2019 - New York City Police Dept apologizes for raid on
Stonewall Inn in 1969
2019 - Lil Nas X, American rapper and singer-songwriter,
releases country rap single "Old Town Road"
2020 - Katie Sowers (San Francisco 49ers) becomes first
openly LGBTQ coach in Super Bowl
2020 - Pete Buttigieg, first out gay presidential
candidate, wins Iowa Caucus
2020 - Northern Ireland and Costa Rica legalize same-sex
marriage
2020 - State Park in Brooklyn is renamed to honor
Stonewall icon Marsha P Johnson
2020 - Many conservative evangelical religious groups
blame coronavirus pandemic on LGBTQ people
2020 - Iconic lesbian activist Phyllis Lyon dies
2020 - Gay rock n roll pioneer Little Richard dies
2020 - Larry Kramer, gay author and AIDS activist, dies
2020 - Methodist Church disagrees at National Convention over question of LGBTQ
inclusion
2020 - Many Pride festivals cancelled due to coronavirus
pandemic
2020 - LGBTQ organizations join forces with Black Lives
Matter to protest in the wake of George Floyd murder
2020 - US Supreme Court rules in favor of LGBTQ
employment rights (Applies Title VII of 1964 Civil
Rights Act)
2020 - Gay film director Joel Shumacher dies
2020 - Leslie Jordan, 65-year-old gay actor, became
internet famous posting videos showing the despair and
comedy of living in quarantine
History of Gay Pride in
the United States
Evolution of Gay Rights
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
Important LGBTQ Moments in US History
Celebrating 50 Years Since
Stonewall
Info: Archaic Language and Images
Billy Porter: Brief History of Queer Political Action
A Movement Caught Hold and Has Never Let Go
APA: History of LGBTQ Social Movements
2020 - Documentary TV series Tiger King features
Joe Exotic, a big cat owner, country singer, gay
polygamist
2020 - TV series Schitt’s Creek features same-sex
love story and wedding, celebrated as commonplace
2020 - Transgender and non-binary characters featured in
several television shows for the first time
2020 - Valentina Sampaio becomes first openly
transgender model to appear in the Sports Illustrated
Swimsuit Edition
2020 - Civil Rights Icon Congressman John Lewis dies
2020 - US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg dies
2020 - Pope Francis announces support of LGBTQ people,
including same sex civil unions
2020 - Ritchie Torres snd Mondaire Jones become first
openly gay black members of Congress
2020 - Film actor Ellen Page (dn) announces he is
transgender, becomes Elliot Page
2020 - First out transgender winner on Jeopardy Game
Show
2020 - Black gay writer Randall Kenan dies
2020 - Monica Roberts, trans journalist, dies
2020 - Genderfluid British comic Eddie Izzard begins
using she/her pronouns exclusively
2020 - Hallmark and Lifetime TV networks present
gay-themed Christmas movies
2021 - US House of Representative adopts sweeping
gender-neutral language rules
2021 - Joe Biden becomes US President, introduces pro-LGBTQ
agenda
2021 - On first day in office, President Biden issues
several pro-LGBTQ executive actions
2021 - President Biden reverses Trump's transgender
military ban
2021 - Sarah McBride becomes first transgender state
senator
2021 - Pete Buttigieg becomes first LGBTQ presidential
cabinet member (Secretary of Transportation)
2021 - Dr. Rachel Levine, selected by Pres Biden, is
first transgender person appointed to federal position
(Asst Health Secretary)
2021 - Nicholas Yatromanolakis becomes first out gay
cabinet minister in Greece
2021 - Puerto Rican social justice pioneer and LGBTQ
activist Carmen Vazquez dies
2021 - Anti-Trans Violence Continues to Surge,
especially on black women
2021 - B Scott becomes first trans non-binary TV host
and producer on BET
2021 - Many states sign bills banning trans athletes
from school sports
2021 - Elliot Page becomes first trans man on the cover
of Time Magazine
2021 - Leyna Bloom becomes first transgender woman of
color in Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition
2021 - Gay scientist and World War II codebreaker Alan
Turing is featured on £50 Note in United Kingdom
2021 - Arkansas becomes first state to outlaw
gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth
2021 - President Biden issues first presidential
proclamation of Transgender Visibility Day
2021 - Megan Rohrer elected as first openly transgender
bishop in US Lutheran Church
2021 - Sesame Street introduces gay characters
2021 - Carl Nassib, NFL football player, comes out as
gay
2021 -
Nevada
pageant winner,
Kataluna Enriquez,
becomes first transgender Miss USA contestant
2021 -
US State Department
allows X gender markers on
passports
2021 - MJ Rodruguez
is first trans nominee for a lead acting Emmy award
2021 -
Ariel Nicholson is first transgender model on cover of
Vogue magazine
2021 -
Quinn, from Canada, becomes first transgender athlete to
win Olympic gold medal
2021 -
Colorado Gov Jared Polis marries partner in
first
same-sex wedding for sitting governor
2021 - Switzerland legalizes same-sex marriage
2021 - Rachel Levine, nation’s highest-ranking openly
transgender official, sworn in as four-star admiral
2021 - First same-sex kiss at Country Music Awards event
when TJ Osbourne (Brothers Osbourne) receives award
2021 - Deadliest year on record with 50 transgender
victims of lethal violence
2021 - Stephen Sondheim, legendary gay musical theatre
composer, dies at 91
2021 - Canada bans conversion therapy
2021 - Queer black feminist writer Bell Hooks dies at 69
2021 - Chile legalizes same-sex marriage
2021 - According to HRC and US Census, the population of
LGBTQ people in the US tops 20 million (8 to 10%)
2021 - The Washington Blade, LGBTQ newspaper,
becomes first LGBTQ publication to be assigned
designated seat in White House briefing room
2021 - Human rights activist Desmond Tutu dies at 90
2021 - Betty White, TV actor and LGBTQ ally, dies at 99
2022 - Television star MJ (Michaela Jaé) Rodriguez is
the first transgender actor to win a Golden Globe award
2022 - Transgender Jeopardy game show contestant
Amy Schneider becomes first woman (4th contestant ever)
to surpass $1 million mark
2022 - Andrea Jenkins is first openly transgender city
council president (Minneapolis, MN)
2022 -
Gay fashion icon and editor André Leon Talley dies at 73
Celebrating 50 Years Since
Stonewall
Book Riot: Books About LGBTQ History
Important LGBTQ Moments in US History
Wanda Sykes: Overview of LGBTQ History
Brief History of Queer Political Action
Worldwide History of LGBTQ Rights | 1790-Present
A Movement Caught Hold and Has Never Let Go
Evolution of Gay Rights
Info: Archaic Language and Images
Video Lesson: Living History of the LGBTQ Movement
LGBTQ Writers, Artists and
Activists of the 80s and 90s
Vintage Photos of LGBTQ Couples
Seven LGBTQ Wonders of the World
Decades of Being
Gay
LGBTQ Historical
Figures Born Before 1900
1891-1964 -
Cole Porter, American Composer and Songwriter
1882-1941 -
Virginia Woolf, British Novelist and Essayist
1879-1970 -
EM Forster, British Novelist
1877-1967 - Alice B. Toklas, Writer
1874-1946 - Gertrude Stein, Writer, Novelist, Poet
1873-1947 -
Willa Cather, American Novelist
1854-1900 -
Oscar Wilde, Irish Playwright and Poet
1840-1893 -
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian Composer
1830-1886 -
Emily Dickinson, American Poet
1825-1895
- Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs, Father of LGBTQ Movement
1819-1892 -
Walt Whitman, American Poet
1805-1875 - Hans Christian Andersen
1788-1824 -
Lord Byron - British Poet
1712-1786 -
Frederick the Great, King of Prussia
1672-1725
-
Peter the Great, Russian Czar
1564-1593
-
Christopher Marlowe, English Playwright
1561-1626 - Sir Francis Bacon, British Philosopher and
Scientist
1475-1564
-
Michelangelo, Italian Artist
1452-1519
-
Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian Artist and Scientist
LGBTQ Historical
Events Before 1900
1624 – Richard Cornish of the Virginia Colony is tried
and hanged for sodomy.
1649 – Sarah White Norman and Mary Vincent Hammon are
charged with “lewd behavior” in Plymouth, Massachusetts,
believed to be the first conviction for lesbian behavior
in the new world.
1732 – the term "lesbian" first used by William King in
his book, The Toast, published in England which
meant women who loved women.
1778 -
Openly gay Baron Friedrich von Steuben, from Prussia,
joins George Washington's Continental Army at Valley
Forge.
1778 –
Lieutenant Gotthold Frederick Enslin of the Continental
Army becomes the first documented service member to be
dismissed from the US military for homosexuality.
1779 – Thomas Jefferson proposes Virginia law to make
sodomy punishable by mutilation rather than death. It
was rejected by the Virginia legislature
1789 – Olauda Equiano, a formerly enslaved person,
publishes the narrative, The Interesting Narrative of
the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The
African. It was one of the first widely read narratives
of slave life at the time. In it, he describes same-sex
relationships he had with other men and the existence of
same-sex relationships within the slave culture since
slaves were not allowed to marry.
1849 – Lifelong partners Jason Chamberlain and John
Chaffee sail from Boston to California to seek their
fortunes in the California gold rush. They lived
together in Groveland, California until Chamberlain died
in 1903.
1852 – Writer JD Bothwick reports his attendance at a
“miner’s ball,” a men’s only dance held in Angels’ Camp
in California.
1857 – James Buchanan elected president. A lifelong
bachelor, Buchanan had a long-term relationship with
William Rufus King, who served as vice president under
Franklin Pierce. The two men lived together from
1840-1853 until King’s death. Some historians suggest
Buchanan, by today’s terms, was gay.
1861 – Sarah Emma Edmonds changed her identity to a man
named Franklin Thompson and joined the Union army. She
was one of 400 documented cases of women who dressed as
men as part of the war effort. She changed back to her
female identity after being wounded in the war. She
eventually married a man and raised three children.
1862 – Jennie Hodgers, disguised as a man named Albert
Cashier, enlisted in the Union army in Illinois and
fought for three years until the end of the war. She
continued living as a man after the war.
1868 – Two-Spirit, We’wha, a Zuni Native American, meets
with President Grover Cleveland.
1869 – Hungarian journalist Karl-Maria Kertheny first
used the term "homosexual."
1879 –
Death of Charley Parkhurst, well-known stagecoach driver
in Central California who was born a woman, but lived as
a man. Buried in Watsonville, California.
1886 – Henry James writes the book, The Bostonians,
about a long term relationship between two women and the
term “Boston Marriages” develops to describe two women
living together, independent of financial support from a
man.
1890 – The term, "lesbian" first used in a medical
dictionary.
1890 – Birth of Alan Hart who pioneered the use of the
X-Ray for tuberculosis diagnosis and one of the first
transgender men in history.
1892 – The pamphlet, “Psychopathia Sexualis” is
translated from German and one of the first times the
term bisexual is used. Written by Richard van
Kraft-Ebbing. Translated by Charles Gilbert Chaddock.
1892 - Der
Eigene, first gay magazine, is published in Germany.
1895 –
Trial of Oscar Wilde (writer and novelist) in London,
England and convicted for gross indecency (relationships
with other men) and served two years in jail.
1896 –
Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish German physician and
sexologist issued a pamphlet, Sappho and Socrates, on
homosexual love.
LGBTQ Historical
Figures in Ancient Times
76-138 CE -
Hadrian, Roman Emperor
70-17 BCE -
Virgil, Roman Poet
356-323
BCE -
Alexander the Great, Macedonian Ruler
384-322
BCE - Aristotle, Greek Philosopher
469-399
BCE - Socrates, Greek Philosopher
427-347 BCE
- Plato, Greek Philosopher
620-560 BCE
- Sappho, Greek Poet
1010-961
BCE - David, King of Israel
LGBTQ Historical Overview
Fight for LGBTQ Rights Throughout History
Baron Friedrich von
Steuben: Openly Gay Revolutionary War Hero
Timeline: LGBTQ History in the United States
Video List: Famous LGBTQ Folk
Gay Actors of Hollywood's Golden Age
Stonewall Forever: Past, Present, and Future Pride
Gay History Quiz
Info: Archaic
Language and Images
Buzzfeed: This is What
Gay Liberation Looked Like in the 70s
Info:
Famous LGBTQ People
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
CNN: LGBTQ Rights Milestones and Fast Facts
Huff Post: I Wish I Had
Learned LGBTQ History in School
Gay Kings and Queens of Europe
Historical
Locations
1965 | Independence Hall, Philadelphia | Gay and Lesbian
Protest Movement
Activists led by Barbara Gittings started some of the
first picket lines here. These protests continued on and
off until 1969. Gittings went on to run the Gay and
Lesbian Task Force of the American Library Association
for 15 years.
1969 | The Stonewall Inn, New York City | Birthplace of
Modern Gay Rights Movement
For the first time, a group of gay men and drag queens
fought back against police during a raid on this small
bar in Greenwich Village, on Christopher Street. The
place is now a national historic landmark.
1970s |
Castro Street, San Francisco | Mecca for LGBTQ Community
When it comes to historic landmarks, Castro Street (and
Castro District) was an oasis of hopefulness. Home to
the first openly gay elected official Harvey Milk and
the legendary Castro Theater, this urban location
remains iconic to the LGBTQ community.
2004 |
Cambridge City Hall, Massachusetts | Site of First
Same-Sex Marriage in US History
In the years following this event, attempts by religious
groups in the area to ban it have been stifled and many
more states have joined Massachusetts. In 2015, the US
Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal
nationwide.
Brief History of Queer Political Action
Jane Fonda 1979 Interview:
Gays and Lesbians are Discriminated Against
About the Stonewall Riots
Stonewall Forever: Past, Present, and Future Pride
Wikipedia: Stonewall Riots (New York)
Video: Story of Stone Wall Inn and Stonewall Riots
Stonewall Riots: Beginning of the LGBTQ
Movement
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
Gay Jesters Who Inspired LGBTQ Activism in the 1950s
Stonewall Veterans: Rev
Magora Elmira (Goddess) Kennedy
How Stonewall Riots Sparked a Movement
Things
You Missed in History: What Was the Compton’s Cafeteria
Riot?
Wikipedia: Compton’s Cafeteria Riot (San Francisco)
Before the Riot at Stonewall, There Was a Sit In at
Dewey's
Stonewall Riots
June 28, 1969
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous,
violent demonstrations by members of the LGBTQ community
against a police raid that took place in the early
morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn,
located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of
Manhattan, New York City. They are widely considered to
constitute the single most important event leading to
the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for
LGBTQ rights in the United States.
Gay Americans in the 1950s and 1960s faced an anti-gay
legal system. Early homophile groups in the US sought
to prove that gay people could be assimilated into
society, and they favored non-confrontational education
for homosexuals and heterosexuals alike. The last years
of the 1960s, however, were very contentious, as many
social movements were active, including the African
American Civil Rights Movement, the Counterculture of
the 1960s, and antiwar demonstrations. These influences,
along with the liberal environment of Greenwich Village,
served as catalysts for the Stonewall riots.
Very few establishments welcomed openly gay people in
the 1950s and 1960s. Those that did were often bars,
although bar owners and managers were rarely gay. At the
time, the Stonewall Inn was owned by the Mafia. It
catered to an assortment of patrons and was known to be
popular among the poorest and most marginalized people
in the gay community: drag queens, transgender people,
effeminate young men, butch lesbians, male prostitutes,
and homeless youth. Police raids on gay bars were
routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control
of the situation at the Stonewall Inn. They attracted a
crowd that was incited to riot. Tensions between New
York City police and gay residents of Greenwich Village
erupted into more protests the next evening, and again
several nights later. Within weeks, Village residents
quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate
efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to
be open about their sexual orientation without fear of
being arrested.
After the Stonewall riots, gays and lesbians in New York
City faced gender, race, class, and generational
obstacles to becoming a cohesive community. Within six
months, two gay activist organizations were formed in
New York, concentrating on confrontational tactics, and
three newspapers were established to promote rights for
gays and lesbians. Within a few years, gay rights
organizations were founded across the US and the world.
On June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride marches took place
in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago
commemorating the anniversary of the riots. Similar
marches were organized in other cities. Today, Gay Pride
events are held annually throughout the world toward the
end of June to mark the Stonewall riots.
Stonewall Forever: Past, Present, and Future Pride
Lessons From
Stonewall for LGBTQ People Today
How the Stonewall Riots
Inspired the LGBTQ Movement
Stone Wall Veterans: The
Night That Changed the World
Info:
Famous LGBTQ People
Brief History of Queer Political Action
Jane Fonda 1979 Interview:
Gays and Lesbians are Discriminated Against
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights Movement
Remembering Stonewall: Those Who Were There
Wikipedia: Stonewall Riots (New York)
Video: Story of Stonewall Inn and Stonewall Riots
Stonewall Riots: Beginning of the LGBTQ
Movement
Info: Archaic
Language and Images
True Story Behind the Stonewall
Rebellion
Sylvia Rivera: 1973 Gay Pride Rally (NYC)
How Stonewall Riots Sparked a Movement
Activists of the
Stonewall Rebellion
June 28, 1969
--Stormé DeLarverie (1920-2014) was a bi-racial butch lesbian whose
scuffle with police was, according to Stormé and many
eyewitnesses, the spark that ignited the Stonewall
riots, spurring the crowd to action. She was born in New
Orleans to an African American mother and a white
father. She is remembered as a gay civil rights
icon and entertainer, who performed and hosted at the
Apollo Theater and Radio City Music Hall. She worked
for much of her life as an MC, singer, bouncer,
bodyguard and volunteer street patrol worker, the
"guardian of lesbians in the Village." She is known
as "the Rosa Parks of the gay community.
--Marsha P Johnson (1945-1992) was
an American gay liberation activist and
self-identified drag queen. Known as an outspoken
advocate for gay rights, Johnson was one of the
prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of
1969. A founding member of the Gay Liberation
Front, Johnson co-founded the radical activist group
Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR),
alongside close friend Sylvia Rivera. A popular
figure in New York City's gay and art scene, Johnson
modeled for Andy Warhol, and performed onstage with the
drag performance troupe Hot Peaches. Known for
decades as a welcoming presence in the streets of
Greenwich Village, Johnson was known as the "Mayor
of Christopher Street". From 1987 through 1992, Johnson
was an AIDS activist with ACT UP.
--Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002) was a
Latina American gay liberation and transgender rights
activist, prominent as an activist and
community worker in New York. Rivera, who identified as
a drag queen, participated in demonstrations with the
Gay Liberation Front.
With close friend Marsha P Johnson, Rivera co-founded
the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a
group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens,
gay youth, and trans women.
--Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (born 1940), often
referred to as Miss Major, is a trans woman activist and
community leader for transgender rights, with a
particular focus on women of color. She served as the
original Executive Director for the Transgender Gender
Variant Intersex Justice Project, which aims to assist
transgender persons, who are disproportionately
incarcerated under the prison-industrial complex. Griffin-Gracy has participated in activism for a wide
range of causes throughout her lifetime, including the
1969 Stonewall riots in New York City.
--Craig L Rodwell (1940-1993) was
an American gay rights activist known for founding the
Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in 1967, the
first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian
authors and as the prime mover for the creation
of the New York City pride demonstration. Rodwell is
considered by some to be the leading gay rights activist
in the early homophile movement of the 1960s.
--Reverend
Magora Emilia Kennedy (born 1938), referred to as Rev
Goddess Kennedy, is currently the chaplain of the
National Stonewall Rebellion Veterans Association. She
describes herself as the gayest great grandmother of the
LGBTQ community.
--Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt (born 1948) is an American artist
who took part in the Stonewall riots.
Activist: Larry
Kramer
1935-2020
Larry Kramer was
a gay American playwright, author, film
producer, public health advocate, and LGBTQ rights activist. He began his
career rewriting scripts for films,
including Women in Love (1969)
for which he received an Academy Award
nomination. Kramer introduced a
controversial and confrontational style
in his novel Faggots (1978),
which earned mixed reviews and emphatic
denunciations from elements within the
gay community for Kramer's portrayal of
what he characterized as shallow,
promiscuous gay relationships in the
1970s.
Kramer witnessed the spread of
the disease later known as AIDS among
his friends in 1980. He co-founded the
Gay Men's Health Crisis, which has
become the world's largest private
organization assisting people living
with AIDS. Kramer grew frustrated with
bureaucratic paralysis and the apathy of
gay men to the AIDS crisis, and wished
to engage in further action than the
social services GMHC provided. He
expressed his frustration by writing a
play titled The Normal Heart in
1985.
His political activism continued
with the founding of the AIDS Coalition
to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in 1987, an
influential direct action protest
organization with the aim of gaining
more public action to fight the AIDS
crisis. ACT UP has been widely credited
with changing public health policy and
the perception of people living with
AIDS, and with raising awareness of HIV
and AIDS-related diseases. Kramer was a
finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his
play The Destiny of Me (1992),
and he was a two-time recipient of the
Obie Award.
Larry Kramer, Gay Author
and AIDS Activist, Dies
Remembering AIDS Activist Larry Kramer
Larry Kramer: Grow Up, Fight for Your Rights, Be Proud
of Being Gay
Iconic Gay Activist Passes Away at 84
Larry Kramer: Hero, Mentor, Prophet
Peter Staley's Honest Eulogy of Larry Kramer
Larry Kramer: Fire, Passion, Anger
Larry Kramer, Playwright and Activist, Dead at 84
Dr. Anthony Fauci Remembers Larry Kramer
Larry Kramer Was Not Kind and Cuddly, He Was Effective
Larry Kramer's Historic Plague Speech: Anger is
Essential
Larry Kramer: True LGBTQ Radical
Icon and Martyr:
Harvey Milk
1930-1978
Harvey Bernard Milk was an
American politician and the first openly
gay elected official in the history of
California, where he was elected to the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors in
1977. Milk moved from New York City
(where he was born) to the Castro
District of San Francisco in 1972 amid a
migration of gay and bisexual men. He
took advantage of the growing political
and economic power of the neighborhood
to promote his interests and
unsuccessfully ran three times for
political office. Milk served almost 11
months in office, during which he
sponsored a bill banning discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation. The
Supervisors passed the bill by a vote of
11-1 and was signed into law by Mayor Moscone. On November 27, 1978, Milk and
Mayor George Moscone were assassinated
by Dan White, who was another city
supervisor. Despite his short
career in politics, Milk became an icon
in San Francisco and a martyr in the gay
community. In 2002, Milk was called "the
most famous and most significantly open
LGBTQ official ever elected in the
United States". Milk was
posthumously awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 2009.
Biographical Notes: Harvey Milk
How Harvey Milk Changed the Gay Rights
Movement
Encyclopedia Brittanica: Harvey Milk
NPR News: Harvey Milk 40 Years Later
The
Activism of Harvey Milk
Ian McKellan Reading
Harvey Milk's Hope Speech
Homophile
Movement
1950-1969
In 1950,
Harry Hay formed the Mattachine Society in New York and
Washington DC. Other organizations such as One
Incorporated
(formed in 1952) and the Daughters of Bilitis (formed in
1955 in NY) soon followed. By 1954, the monthly sales of
One Magazine peaked at 16,000. In 1956, the
Daughters of Bilitis began publishing The Ladder. Homophile organizations
elsewhere included Arcadie (1954) in France and the
British Homosexual Law Reform Society (founded 1958).
By the mid-1960s, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
and queer people in the United States were forming more
visible communities, and this was reflected in the
political strategies of American homophile groups. From
the mid-1960s, they engaged in picketing and sit-ins,
identifying themselves in public space for the first
time. The Janus Society formed in 1962 in Philadelphia. Formed in 1964, the San Franciscan Society for
Individual Rights (SIR) had a new openness and a more
participatory democratic structure. SIR was focused on
building community, and sponsored drag shows, dinners,
bridge clubs, bowling leagues, softball games, field
trips, art classes and meditation groups. In 1966, SIR
opened the nation's first gay and lesbian community
center, and by 1968 they had over 1000 members, making
them the largest homophile organization in the country.
The world's first gay bookstore had opened in New York
the year before. A 1965 gay picket held in front of
Independence Hall in Philadelphia, according to some
historians, marked the beginning of the modern gay
rights movement. Meanwhile, in San Francisco in 1966,
transgender street prostitutes in the poor neighborhood
of Tenderloin rioted against police harassment at a
popular all-night restaurant, Gene Compton's Cafeteria.
These and other activities of public resistance to
oppression lead to a feeling of Gay Liberation that was
soon to give a name to a new movement.
In 1963, homophile organizations in New York City,
Philadelphia and Washington, DC joined together to form
East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) to more
closely coordinate their activities. The success of ECHO
inspired other homophile groups across the country to
explore the idea of forming a national homophile
umbrella group. This was done with the formation in 1966
of the North American Conference of Homophile
Organizations (NACHO). NACHO held annual conferences,
helped start dozens of local gay groups across the
country and issued position papers on a variety of LGBTQ-related
issues. It organized national demonstrations, including
a May 1966 action against military discrimination that
included the country's first gay motorcade. Through its
legal defense fund, NACHO challenged anti-gay laws and
regulations ranging from immigration issues and military
service to the legality of serving alcohol to
homosexuals. NACHO disbanded after a contentious 1970
conference at which older members and younger members,
radicalized in the wake of the 1969 Stonewall riots,
clashed. That convention
became the battle that ended the homophile movement.
Homophile Movement
Making History: The Homophile Movement
One
Incorporated
Out History: Homophile Movement
Cornell Library: Homophile Movement
Lavender Scare
1949-1973
The lavender scare refers
to a witch hunt and the mass firings of homosexual
people in the 1950s from the United States government.
It contributed to and paralleled the anti-communist
campaign known as McCarthyism and the Red Scare. Gay men
and lesbians were said to be security risks and
communist sympathizers, which led to the call to remove
them from federal employment.
Former US Senator Alan
Simpson has written: "The so-called 'Red Scare' has been
the main focus of most historians of that period of
time. A lesser-known element and one that harmed far
more people was the witch-hunt McCarthy and others
conducted against homosexuals."
In 1950, the same year
that Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed 205 communists were
working in the State Department, Undersecretary of State
John Peurifoy said that the State Department had allowed
91 homosexuals to resign. On April 19, 1950, the
Republican National
Chairman Guy George
Gabrielson said that "sexual perverts who have
infiltrated our Government in recent years" were
"perhaps as dangerous as the actual Communists.” The
danger was not solely because they were gay. The
homosexuals were considered to be more susceptible to
blackmail and thus were labeled as security risks.
McCarthy hired Roy Cohn (who would later die of AIDS and
was accused of being a closeted homosexual) as chief
counsel of his Congressional subcommittee. Together,
McCarthy and Cohn (with the enthusiastic support of the
FBI head, J. Edgar Hoover) were responsible for the
firing of scores of gay men and women from government
employment and strong-armed many opponents into silence
using rumors of their homosexuality. In 1953, during the
final months of the Truman administration, the State
Department reported that it had fired 425 employees for
allegations of homosexuality.
McCarthy often used
accusations of homosexuality as a smear tactic in his
anti-communist crusade, often combining the Red Scare
with the Lavender Scare. On one occasion, he went so far
as to announce to reporters, "If you want to be against
McCarthy, boys, you've got to be
either a
Communist or a cocksucker." At least one recent history
has argued that, in linking communism and homosexuality
and psychological imbalance, McCarthy was employing
guilt-by-association if evidence for communist activity
was lacking.
In 1953 President Dwight
Eisenhower signed an executive order which set security
standards for federal employment and barred homosexuals
from working in the federal government. The restrictions
set in place were cause for hundreds of gay people to be
forcibly outed and fired from the State Department. The
executive order was also the cause for the firing of
approximately 5,000 gay people from federal employment.
Not only did the victims lose their jobs, but also they
were forced out of the closet and thrust into the public
eye as lesbian or gay.
It was not until 1973
that a federal judge ruled that a person's sexual
orientation alone could not be the sole reason for
termination from federal employment, and not until 1975
that the US Civil Service Commission announced that they
would consider applications by gays and lesbians on a
case by case basis. Eisenhower’s executive order stayed
partly in effect until 1995 when President Bill Clinton
rescinded the order.
Lavender Scare: Notes, History, Overview
CBS Sunday Morning: The Lavender Scare
Washington Post: Gay Rights Pioneer Frank Kameny
LGBTQ History: Frank Kameny
IMDB:
Lavender Scare Movie
Remembering the Legacy of Frank Kameny
Roger Ebert Review: Lavender Scare
PBS:
Lavender Scare Film
Frank Kameny: Grandfather of Gay Rights Movement
Lavender
Scare: How US Government Purged Gay Employees
The
Documentary Film: The Lavender Scare
Lavender
Scare: Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians by US
Government
Frank Kameny: American Gay Rights Activist
Rotten Tomatoes 100%: Lavender Scare Documentary
Hero: Frank Kameny
1925–2011
Frank Kameny was an
American gay rights activist. He has been referred to as
"one of the most significant figures" in the gay rights
movement and “the first and most influential members” of
the gay rights movement. He is sometimes called the
“grandfather of the gay rights movement.”
In 1957, Kameny was
dismissed from his position as an astronomer in the US
Army's Army Map Service in Washington, DC because of his
homosexuality, leading him to begin "a Herculean
struggle with the American establishment" that would
"spearhead a new period of militancy in the homosexual
rights movement of the early 1960s."
Kameny formally
appealed his firing by the US Civil Service Commission
due to homosexuality. Although unsuccessful, the
proceeding was notable as the first known civil rights
claim based on sexual orientation pursued in a US court.
In 1961 Kameny and
Jack Nichols, fellow co-founder of the Washington, DC
branch of the Mattachine Society, launched some of the
earliest public protests by gays and lesbians with a
picket line at the White House on April 17, 1965. In
coalition with New York's Mattachine Society and the
Daughters of Bilitis, the picketing expanded to target
the United Nations, the Pentagon, the US Civil Service
Commission, and Philadelphia's Independence Hall for
what became known as the Annual Reminder for gay rights.
Kameny also wrote to President Kennedy asking him to
change the rules on homosexuals being purged from the
government.
In 1963, Kameny and
Mattachine launched a campaign to overturn DC sodomy
laws. He personally drafted a bill that finally passed
in 1993. He also worked with Barbara Gittings to remove
the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder
from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
In 1971, Kameny
became the first openly gay candidate for US Congress
when he ran in the District of Columbia's first election
for a non-voting Congressional delegate. Following his
defeat by Democrat Walter Fauntroy, Kameny and his
campaign organization created the Gay and Lesbian
Alliance of Washington, DC, an organization which
continues to lobby government and press the case for
equal rights.
Famous LGBTQ People
LGBTQ Celebrity Couples
Famous LGBTQ People in Science and Technology
LGBTQ Arts, Culture, and
Entertainment
Famous LGBTQ People in Sports and Athletics
LGBTQ Leisure and Recreation
Famous LGBTQ Politicians
LGBTQ Movie Stars
LGBTQ Television Stars
Homophobe:
Anita Bryant
1968-1998
Anita Bryant was a
singer, beauty queen, and celebrity spokesperson who
became best known for her work in favor of bigotry
against gays and lesbians. She was born and raised in
Oklahoma by an extremely religious family. From early on
she was a singer and she sang on stage at local
fairgrounds. Eventually, she sang on radio and
television.
Bryant won first prize on the Arthur Godfrey talent show
and had her first minor hit song when she was 16 years
old. At 18, she won the Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant,
and she was second runner-up for Miss America. In 1959
and 1960, she had three million-selling singles. She
eventually vanished from the pop charts, but released
several albums of Christian music.
Projecting a wholesome, maternal image, Bryant plugged
Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Holiday Inn, and Tupperware in
assorted TV, billboard, and magazine ad campaigns. Her
most famous celebrity endorsement deal began in 1968,
when she sang an upbeat jingle in commercials for the
Florida Citrus Commission, closing each ad with their
tag line, "A day without orange juice is like a day
without sunshine."
By the mid-1970s, Bryant was also a celebrity
spokesperson for Christ, singing Christian music and
writing books offering inspirational advice. Her popular
books contained strong Christian themes applied to
parenting and cooking. She won the "Most Admired Woman
in America" poll in Good Housekeeping.
Then, in 1977, Bryant became obsessed when Miami-Dade
County added an amendment to its human rights ordinance,
making it illegal to discriminate in housing,
employment, loans, and public accommodations based on "affectional
or sexual preference." Announcing, "I will lead such a
crusade to stop it as this country has not seen before",
she founded Save Our Children. As the group's name
implies, Bryant's central (and ludicrous) argument was
her fear that children would be molested or converted by
gay perverts. "As a mother," she famously explained, "I
know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce
children, therefore, they must recruit our children."
Bryant's religious activism drew many followers, and
within a year the law was repealed, making it legal
again to fire workers, deny people housing, or refuse
their business based on how and with whom consenting
adults have sex. Celebrating her victory in a sound bite
that aired nationwide, Bryant promised she would "seek
help and change for homosexuals, whose sick and sad
values belie the word 'gay' which they pathetically use
to cover their unhappy lives."
Even after the local amendment was repealed, Bryant
fanned the flames with speaking tours that made her a
national spokesperson against "homosexual rights." She
was the star attraction at rallies that led to the
repeal of gay rights in numerous cities, and she went to
California to support the Briggs Initiative in 1978,
which failed, but would have banned homosexuals or
anyone advocating the "gay lifestyle" from teaching in
public schools. "I don't hate the homosexuals," she
wrote in a fundraising letter. "But as a mother, I must
protect my children from their evil influence."
Not surprisingly, Bryant's outspoken activism inspired
the gay rights movement like nothing since Stonewall.
The gay community referred to her as "Hurricane Anita."
The response included pickets, petitions, and a boycott
of Florida orange juice, which led the Citrus Commission
to let her endorsement contract lapse.
Gay bars all over North America stopped serving
screwdrivers and replaced them with the "Anita Bryant
Cocktail", which was made with vodka and apple juice.
Sales and proceeds went to gay rights activists to help
fund their fight against Bryant and her campaign.
By this time, gay activists ensured that the boycott on
Florida orange juice had become more prominent and it
was supported by many celebrities, including Barbra
Streisand, Bette Midler, Paul Williams, Dick Clark,
Vincent Price, John Waters, Carroll O'Connor, Linda
Lavin, Mary Tyler Moore, Charles Schulz, Billie Jean
King, and Jane Fonda.
She was one of the first political figures to have a pie
thrown in her face in protest to her activism ("At least
it was a fruit pie," she said). Her record and book
sales declined, she sold her 33-room mansion, and her
marriage ended in divorce. She eventually declared
bankruptcy.
In 1998, Miami-Dade County reinstated human rights
protections for gays and lesbians. Five years later, the
Christian Coalition backed a county-wide effort to
repeal the law, but lost.
To this day, the gay community continues to regard
Bryant's name as synonymous with bigotry and homophobia.
NNDB: Anita Bryant Profile
NNDB: Homophobia List
Wikipedia: Anita Bryant Biography
Nazi Persecution
of Homosexuals
1933-1945
While male homosexuality remained
illegal in Germany under Paragraph 175
of the criminal code, German
homosexual-rights activists became
worldwide leaders in efforts to reform
societal attitudes that condemned
homosexuality. Many in Germany regarded
the Republic's toleration of homosexuals
as a sign of Germany's decadence. Nazi
leaders posed as moral crusaders who
wanted to stamp out the "vice" of
homosexuality from Germany in order to
help win the racial struggle. Once they
took power in 1933, Nazi officials
intensified persecution of German male
homosexuals. Persecution ranged from the
dissolution of homosexual organizations
to internment in concentration camps.
Gay men were targeted for persecution
because they did not contribute to the
desired growth of the 'Aryan population'
and were viewed as corrupting German
values and culture. Between 1933 and
1945, an estimated 100,000 men were
arrested for violating Nazi Germany’s
law against homosexuality, and of these,
approximately 50,000 were sentenced to
prison. An estimated 5,000 to 15,000 men
were sent to concentration camps on
similar charges, where an unknown number
of them perished.
On June 28, 1935, the Ministry of
Justice revised Paragraph 175. The
revisions provided a legal basis for
extending Nazi persecution of
homosexuals. Ministry officials expanded
the category of "criminally indecent
activities between men" to include any
act that could be construed as
homosexual. The courts later decided
that the intention to commit a
homosexual act or even the contemplation
of such an act was sufficient. On
October 26, 1936, Himmler formed within
the Security Police the Reich Central
Office for Combating Homosexuality and
Abortion. Josef Meisinger, executed in
1947 for his brutality in occupied
Poland, led the new office. The police
had powers to hold in protective custody
or preventive arrest those deemed
dangerous to Germany's moral fiber,
jailing indefinitely (without trial)
anyone they chose. In addition,
homosexual prisoners just released from
jail were immediately re-arrested and
sent to concentration camps if the
police thought it likely that they would
continue to engage in homosexual acts.
From 1937 to 1939, the peak years of the
Nazi persecution of homosexuals, the
police increasingly raided homosexual
meeting places, seized address books,
and created networks of informers and
undercover agents to identify and arrest
suspected homosexuals. On April 4, 1938,
the Gestapo issued a directive
indicating that men convicted of
homosexuality could be incarcerated in
concentration camps following their
sentences. Between 1933 and 1945 the
police arrested an estimated 100,000 men
as homosexuals. Most of the 50,000 men
sentenced by the courts spent time in
regular prisons, and between 5,000 and
15,000 were interned in concentration
camps.
While in the Nazi concentration camps,
homosexual prisoners were identified by
badges showing an inverted or
downward-pointing pink triangle.
Specifically, the use of a pink triangle
was established for prisoners identified
as homosexual men, which also included
bisexual men and transgender women.
Lesbian and bisexual women and trans men
were not systematically imprisoned; some
were, and classified as "asocial,"
wearing a black triangle. The pink
triangle was also assigned to others
considered sexual deviants, including
more sexual minorities such as zoophiles
and pedophiles, in addition to sex
offenders.
The Nazis interned some homosexuals in
concentration camps immediately after
the seizure of power in January 1933.
Those interned came from all areas of
German society, and often had only the
cause of their imprisonment in common.
Some homosexuals were interned under
other categories by mistake, and Nazi
officials purposefully miscategorized
some political prisoners as homosexuals.
Prisoners marked by pink triangles to
signify homosexuality were treated
harshly in the camps. According to many
survivor accounts, homosexuals were
among the most abused groups in the
camps.
Persecution of Homosexuals in the Third
Reich
Nazi Concentration Camps: Meaning of the
Pink Triangle
Nazi Symbol Repurposed for LGBTQ Pride
Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi
Germany
Meaning of the Pink
Triangle
Baron Friedrich
von Steuben: Openly Gay Revolutionary War Hero
1730-1793
Baron Friedrich von Steuben was known
for his bravery and the discipline and
grit he brought to the American troops.
Gay men have always been part of the
American military. In an era before gay
marriage or open pride, military men
fell in love, formed passionate
friendships and had same-sex encounters.
Due to social and official
discrimination, though, most of their
stories have gone untold. But in the
case of one of the military’s founding
heroes, homosexuality was always part of
the story.
Baron Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian
military man hired by George Washington
to whip the Continental Army into shape
during the darkest days of the
Revolutionary War, is known for his
bravery and the discipline and grit he
brought to the American troops.
Historians also think he was
homosexual—and served as an openly gay
man in the military at a time when sex
between men was punished as a crime.
“Though his name is little known among
Americans today,” writes Erick Trickey
for Smithsonian, “every US soldier is
indebted to von Steuben—he created
America’s professional army.”
It wasn’t easy: Three years into the
Revolutionary War, the army was low on
discipline, morale and even food. With
his strict drills, showy presence and
shrewd eye for military strategy, he
helped turn them into a military
powerhouse.
Benjamin Franklin, who recommended von
Steuben to Washington, played up his
qualifications. He also downplayed
rumors that the baron had been dismissed
from the Prussian military for
homosexuality. Von Steuben joined the
military when he was 17 and had become
Frederick the Great’s personal aide, but
despite a seemingly promising career he
was abruptly dismissed in 1763. Later in
life, he wrote about an “implacable
enemy” who had apparently led to his
firing, but historians are unsure of the
exact circumstances of the dismissal.
After being fired, von Steuben bounced
from job to job. He was unimpressed by
Franklin’s suggestion that he volunteer
to help the American army, and tried
instead to get another military job in
the court at Baden. But his application
was tanked when an anonymous letter
accused him of having “taken
familiarities” with young boys.
As historian William E. Benemann notes,
there’s no historical evidence that von
Steuben was a pedophile. But he was gay,
and homosexuality was viewed as a
criminal aberration by many of his
peers. “Rather than stay and provide a
defense, rather than call upon his
friends to vouch for his reputation, von
Steuben chose to flee his homeland,”
writes Benemann.
Franklin likely knew of the rumors and
the reason that von Steuben suddenly
accepted an offer he’d turned down so
recently. But he didn’t see von
Steuben’s private life as relevant to
his military qualifications. Neither did
George Washington, who knew of the
accusations but welcomed von Steuben to
his camp and assigned Alexander Hamilton
and John Laurens—both of whom were
involved in what some historians have
dubbed a “romantic friendship”—as his
aides.
Washington approved of von Steuben. “He
appears to be much of a gentleman,” he
wrote when the baron arrived at camp,
“and as far as I have had an opportunity
of judging, a man of military knowledge,
and acquainted with the world.”
When von Steuben arrived in camp, he was
appalled by the conditions the soldiers
had been fighting under, and immediately
set to work drilling soldiers with
strict Prussian techniques. He was a
strict drillmaster, but he also
socialized with the troops. One of his
aides, Pierre-Étienne Du Ponceau,
recalls a particularly wild party given
at Valley Forge. “His aides invited a
number of young officers to dine at our
quarters,” he wrote, “on condition that
none should be admitted, that had on a
whole pair of breeches.” The men dined
in torn clothing and, he implied, no
clothing at all.
Von Steuben didn’t just throw sexually
charged parties: He also formed intense
relationships with other men. He became
close to William North and Benjamin
Walker, aides-de-camp who seem to have
been involved in their own romantic
relationship, and lived with them for
two years in camp. It’s likely that von
Steuben became romantically and sexually
involved with North, though it’s not
clear how close he was to Walker.
Meanwhile, von Steuben proved himself a
heroic addition to the army. As
Inspector General, he taught the army
more efficient fighting techniques and
helped instill the discipline they so
sorely needed. It worked, and the drill
manual he wrote for the army is still
partially in use today. The drillmaster
quickly became one of Washington’s most
trusted advisors, eventually serving as
his chief of staff. He is now considered
instrumental in helping the Americans
win the Revolutionary War.
When the war ended, Baron von Steuben
was granted US citizenship and moved to
New York with North and Walker. “We love
him,” North wrote, “and he deserves it
for he loves us tenderly.”
After the war, von Steuben legally
adopted both men—a common practice among
gay men in an age before same-sex
marriage was legal. They lived together,
managed his precarious finances and
inherited his estate when he died in
1794. John Mulligan, who was also gay,
served as von Steuben’s secretary and is
thought to have had a relationship with
the baron. When von Steuben died, he
inherited his library and some money.
During von Steuben’s lifetime, the
concept of gay marriage, gay pride or
coming out was unthinkable and there was
no language or open culture of
homosexuality. But historical homosexual
relationships were actually common.
That doesn’t mean being gay was
condoned: Sodomy was a crime in colonial
America. But romantic relationships
between men were widely tolerated until
the 19th century, and only in the early
20th century did the US military begin
officially discriminating against people
suspected to be gay.
Von Steuben may have been one of early
America’s most open LGBTQ figures, but
he was hardly the only man whose love of
other men was well known. And though he
was to have helped save the American
army, his contribution is largely
forgotten today.
[Source: Erin Blakemore, History
Channel]
Baron
Friedrich von Steuben: Openly Gay
Revolutionary War Hero
Biography of Baron
Friedrich von Steuben
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