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LGBTQQ history

The history of LGBTQQ people dates back further than most people may think. Some incorrectly believe that being lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer or questioning (LGBTQQ) is a contemporary movement for people who demand “special” rights for their “chosen lifestyle.” History demonstrates, however, that as long as there have been people, there have been LGBTQQ people. LGBTQQ communities have played an important role in the history of the world. Amazing queer activists throughout history have been victorious in these struggles.

This timeline intends to show the lives and events that have paved the road for young LGBTQQ people and their allies. Whether they were LGBTQQ artists, athletes, musicians, politicians, writers, or students, they all have one thing in common: they were, are, and will always remain ACTIVISTS. Their actions make the statement: “I am in support of equal rights for the LGBTQQ community.” They are role models and teachers that we can learn from as we create the timeline of our own lives.

No matter what your personal calling in life is, you ALWAYS have the opportunity to engage in activism. Your PERSONAL passions and desires—whether they are to go to the prom with someone of the same sex, to write a book, or to play a sport—are POLITICAL. By being true to yourself and everyone else around you about your sexual orientation, gender expression, or status as an ally, you are engaging in political activism that sends others a message: you believe in equal rights for the LGBTQQ community and you are willing to fight for them.

Speak up - make the invisible visible
First and foremost, LGBT History Month is about making the invisible visible. LGBT people already exist in English, Social Studies, Science, Math and Art curricula; the problem is their invisibility. For example, many authors who regularly appear on reading lists of American and British Literature were/are LGBT people: James Baldwin, Willa Cather, Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Walker, Walt Whitman, E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Countee Cullen, Hans Christian Andersen, Audre Lorde, Oscar Wilde, and Henry David Thoreau are just a few.

There are also countless politicians, social activists, scientists, mathematicians, artists, philosophers, inventors, and even world leaders, who comprise the historical and contemporary LGBT global community. Many of these individuals are discussed in your classes, and knowing about their sexual orientation often can help students (and teachers!) gain a better understanding of their contributions to society.
At the same time, there are many LGBT notables who did not receive the recognition they deserved in their time as a direct result of bias against them. A perfect example is Bayard Rustin, a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) inner circle and the primary organizer for the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Due to controversy over his sexual orientation, however, his monumental contributions to the movement often have been overlooked. For more information on Bayard Rustin, see the Brother Outsider documentary listed at the end of this resource.

Similarly, issues concerning sexual orientation and gender identity/expression are central to subjects already featured in U.S. and Global History classes. Encourage your teachers to be inclusive-- when teaching about McCarthyism, why not include information about the vilification of LGBT people? When teaching about the Holocaust, why not include information about the Nazi persecution of LGBT people and the origin of the pink triangle? When teaching about the social movements of the 1960s and 70s, why not include information about the Gay Rights Movement? When teaching about the European Renaissance, why not include information about cross-dressing on the Shakespearean stage?

Make the Visible Visual
Bulletin boards, display cases and murals are great ways to involve your school community in recognizing the contributions of LGBT people throughout history. You can design your visuals around themes ("Famous Lesbians," "LGBT People of Color," "LGBT Scientists," "LGBT Athletes") or time periods ("The Modern Gay Rights Movement," "Gay Medieval History"). Even something as simple as putting up a single poster in each classroom can have a dramatic impact.

Diversify the Library
Do a search of your school library, and find materials that include information about LGBT people in history. Talk to your librarian about adding more such resources. Organize a book drive and ask students, faculty, and staff for donations. Let public libraries, university libraries and book publishers know, and they may just give you some of their overstock!

Invite Guest Speakers
People often respond empathically to live voices of personal knowledge. Many local GLSEN chapters and community-based LGBT organizations have "speakers bureaus" whose members are trained to lead school-based workshops for teachers and students. Try to involve speakers of varying ages; youth can be particularly effective in reaching students, and LGBT elders can bring a broader historical perspective.

Bring the Teachers Up to Speed
How much do your teachers, especially the history teachers, really know about LGBT history? Share your resources with them so that they will be able to teach effectively, and so that LGBT History can be integrated across your school’s curriculum.

Movie Night
Stage free after-school screenings of Gay Pioneers and the other films listed in this resource. Or, screen the films in the evening, invite people from your local community, and charge a few bucks admission to raise money for your student club or a local LGBT organization. Hold an informal discussion after each screening. Don't forget to make lots of popcorn!

Publicize Your Activities
Include information about LGBT History Month in your school newspaper, radio programming, and announcements. Notify your local media outlets; they can cover your school's plans for LGBT History Month, or interview participating students and teachers.

Go Beyond October!
October should not be the only time we discuss lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history. LGBT history is a part of, not apart from, your current curriculum; it just takes some research and planning to make it more visible. Think about ways to share LGBT material with your school community throughout the year. October should begin, rather than end, the discussion of LGBT history.

TIMELINE

Ancient Greece, approximately 3000 B.C.E. to 30 B.C.E.: Homosexuality was accepted and promoted through visual art and writing. In a great deal of Greek art we see romantic relations between people of the same sex. The Greek expression of romantic love has been a source of inspiration for artists throughout history.

Sappho was one of the greatest early Greek poets. She flourished during the early 6th century B.C.E. She was an aristocrat who wrote poetry for her circle of friends, who were mostly women. The term lesbian, her presumed sexual orientation, is derived from Lesbos, the name of the island where she lived. The ancients had seven or nine books of her poetry (the first book originally consisted of 330 Sapphic stanzas). Only fragments survive; the longest (seven stanzas), is an invocation to Aphrodite asking her to help the poet in her relation with a beloved woman. She wrote in Aeolic dialect in a great many meters, one of which has been called Sapphic, named after Sappho herself. Her verse is a classic example of the love lyric. It is characterized by a passionate love of women, a love of nature, direct simplicity, and perfect control of meter. She influenced many later poets such as Catullus, Ovid, and Swinburne.

Palestine c. 450 B.C. E.: The Holiness Code of Leviticus becomes part of the laws of Judaism. Leviticus 20:13 reads: "If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death." Bible scholars and jurists will dispute the exact meaning of these nine words over the next 2,500 years; most, however, interpret the passage to mandate giving the death penalty to men who have sexual relations with other men.

Greece, 360 B.C.E.: Plato’s Symposium describes homosexuality in ancient Greek culture.
China, C.E.1: Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty attempts on his deathbed to name his lover Dong Xian as his successor. Other forces prevail and Dong Xian is forced to commit suicide. As with Mizi Xia, however, their relationship achieves a kind of immortality. The Emperor cutting his sleeve off so as not to disturb Dong Xian, who had fallen asleep on it, is a tale that inspires subsequent generations to call eroticism between men duanxiu ("cut sleeve") love.

Ancient Rome May 14, 390: A law was posted criminalizing the sexual practice of all homosexual men. The penalty for doing so was death by burning. Prior to 390, both religious and secular laws targeted only one form of homosexuality: when a man played what was said to be “a female role in intercourse with other men.” This meant that prior to 390, only homosexual men who “bottomed,” so to speak, during sexual intercourse with other men, were penalized. Homosexual men on top during intercourse were not.

India, 400: The Kama Sutra describes groups of women who live together having sex with each other.

651: The canonical text of the Koran, the foundation of Islam, is established. This text contains several negative references to sex between men as practiced by "the people of Lut [Lot]," the Sodomites and Gomorrhans of the Christian tradition. No punishment, however, is explicitly mandated.

Japan, 720: One of the first books written in Japan, the Nihon Shoki ("Japanese Chronicles"), includes an account of two male lovers who enraged the gods by sacrilegiously being buried in the same tomb. This is probably the earliest surviving mention of same-sex love in Japan.
Rome and Constantinople, 1073: Pope Gregory VII orders Sappho's works, the world's oldest poetry of love between women, destroyed in public bonfires in Rome and Constantinople.

Paris, 1252: Thomas Aquinas, One of the Roman Catholic Church's most influential theologians, begins teaching at the University of Paris. He synthesizes 1,200 years of sex-negative Christian writings into one unified system of sexual morality, including same-sex eroticism among sexual acts that are "against nature."

Ghent (in present-day Belgium), September 28, 1292: John, a knife maker, is sentenced to be burned at the stake for having sex with another man. This is the first documented execution for sodomy in Western Europe.

England, 1327: Known for his male lovers, Edward XI loses out in a power struggle with his estranged wife and a group of the country's barons. His assassins, rumor has it, execute him by ramming a red-hot poker into his anus.

Present-day Mexico, 1425: The Mexica Aztecs (in present-day Mexico) establish dominion over surrounding peoples. Aztec law mandates marriage and punishes both male and female same-sex acts with death.

Italy, 1432: Florence becomes the first European city to set up a special authority to prosecute crimes of sodomy. Called the Uffiziali di Notte (Officers of the Night), this special court prosecutes more than 10,000 men and boys over the next 70 years. About 2,000 are believed to have been convicted. Most avoid further punishment by paying fines.

Italy, 1476: Leonardo Da Vinci, known for being one of the greatest painters of the Italian Renaissance, as well as a scientist and inventor, is anonymously denounced twice to Florentine authorities for alleged acts of sodomy. He is acquitted of the charges for lack of witnesses.

Panama, October 5, 1513: Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers a community of cross-dressing males in present-day Panama and, according to eyewitnesses, feeds at least 40 of them to his dogs.

Brasil, 1551: Portuguese missionary Father Pero Correia, writing from Brazil, asserts that same-sex eroticism among indigenous women is quite common, in fact as widespread as in Africa, where he was previously stationed. Native Brazilian women, he observes, carry weapons and form same-sex marriages.

Present-day United States, 1566: In Florida, a French man is accused of being a “sodomite” and is murdered by Spaniards. This is the first recorded anti-LGBT hate crime in the United States.

Present-day United States, 1610: The Virginia Colony passes the first American sodomy law, dictating the death penalty for offenders.
United States, 1869: First use of the word “homosexual” in the United States. In 1886, the word became a medical and psychiatric term classified as “degenerate.”

February 1, 1092: Langston Hughes is born in Joplin, Missouri.

PROFILE: Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Langston Hughes was a poet, playwright, and writer during the Harlem Renaissance and beyond. His writings evoke a sense of Black pride, sometimes even Black anger and militancy. He calls for equality, condemns racism and injustice, and celebrates African-American culture in his writings. Although Hughes was extremely closeted, some of his poems hint at his homosexuality. These include: Joy, Desire, Cafe: 3 A.M., Waterfront Streets, Young Sailor, Trumpet Player, Tell Me, E.S. and some poems in Montage of a Dream Deferred. Because Langston Hughes was extremely closeted, his sexuality is often the topic of debate. Some people even argue that he was asexual. We do know that he had close friendships with other gay men of the time including: Richard Bruce Nugent, Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, Noel Sullivan, Claude McKay and Wallace Thurman. Whether he had any significant relationships, we can neither confirm nor deny.

Germany, 1910: Magnus Hirschfeld coins the term “transvestite,” and later, “transsexual.” Hirchfeld later founds the Institute for Sexology in Berlin, which becomes the first clinic to serve transgender people on a regular basis.

Magnus Hirschfeld was born in Kolberg, Germany (which is now Kolbrzeg, Poland) on May 14, 1868. He began his career in medicine and was soon drawn to the study of human sexuality. Hirschfeld's interests were personal as well as political. He was a transvestite, having coined the term, and was also homosexual. Hirschfeld believed that sexual orientation was a naturally occurring trait worthy of scientific inquiry and political emancipation rather than social hostility. Hirschfeld was a Jew living is an anti-Semitic country and he recognized the vulnerability of scapegoated populations and the need for organization, so he urged queer people from all walks of life to get involved in the growing movement for LGBTQQ recognition and rights. While urging celebrities and high-profile politicians and public servants to add their names in support of the campaign, he remained skeptical of the potential success of the movement unless homosexuals themselves were more fully involved in the struggle; "…[In] the last analysis, you must carry on the fight yourselves.... [The] liberation of homosexuals can only be the work of homosexuals themselves."

December 29, 1914: Billy Tipton is born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

PROFILE: Billy Tipton (1914-1989)
Jazz pianist Billy Tipton was born in Okalahoma as Dorothy Tipton. From the age of 19, Tipton lived as a man, marrying five women and adopting and raising three boys. Billy Tipton had a 50 year performing career and worked with such artists as Duke Ellington. Tipton died in 1989 and was outed as biologically female by the coroner. Tipton was careful to leave behind as few legal documents as possible. He finished high school but didn’t request graduation certification, as if he were already planning to leave his female birth identity behind. Early in his career, even when most of his friends still knew that he had a female body, he obtained legal documents listing him as male. Tipton’s gender identity and intentions have been subject to debate over the years. Some have suggested it was only a stunt to advance as a jazz musician. As Tipton himself said, "Some people might think I'm a freak or a hermaphrodite. I'm not. I'm a normal person. This has been my choice."

1914: In Oregon, a dictionary of criminal slang is published, containing first printed use of the derogatory word “faggot” to refer to male homosexuals.

August 2, 1924: James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York City, New York.

PROFILE: James Baldwin, (1924 - 1987)
As a child, James Baldwin turned to reading as a means of escape from his troubled relationship with his stepfather, a Pentecostal minister. At Frederick Douglass Junior High, the young author edited the school paper and belonged to the literary club advised by black poet Countee Cullen. For a brief time in his teens, Baldwin was a junior minister at a Harlem church, drawing crowds larger than those of his stepfather. In his later teens, Baldwin left the church and Christianity, but throughout his writing career he utilized biblical cadences and imagery. A few years after he graduated from high school, Baldwin settled in Greenwich Village to focus on his writing. It was there that he met celebrated black author Richard Wright, who became a mentor and father figure to the young writer. Baldwin had numerous essays published during this time, leading to a Rosenwald Fellowship, which he used to buy a one-way ticket to Paris. As an openly gay African American, Baldwin was increasingly aware of prevailing racial and sexual prejudices in America.

Though he visited the United States and much of his writing concerned his home country, Baldwin was an expatriate writer for most of the next 40 years. Still, he was a very public part of the U.S. civil rights movement and organized key meetings between then Attorney General Robert Kennedy and celebrities like Harry Bellafonte and Lorraine Hansberry. Baldwin's personal essays on discrimination made him a prominent and eloquent voice for both the civil and gay rights movements. His books Giovanni's Room (1956) and Another Country (1962) created controversy because they featured normalized depictions of gay relationships as well as characters who struggle with their sexual identities. Baldwin's writing career spanned four decades and included essays, poetry, plays, fiction, non-fiction and children's books. He collaborated with anthropologist Margaret Mead, poet Nikki Giovanni and writer Alex Haley on various projects, and taught at several American universities. After years as a writer in France, Baldwin was made a Commander in the French Legion of Honor in 1986. While working on a biography and play about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Baldwin died in France in 1987. His memorial service was attended by good friends and fellow writers Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou who eulogized Baldwin with thanks for his influence on their writing.

1924: First gay organization, Society for Human Rights, started in Chicago.

PROFILE: Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Andy Warhol was an American painter, film-maker, publisher and a major figure in the pop art movement. He was also openly gay. Warhol is best known for his paintings of famous American products like Campbell's soup cans and Coca-Cola. He switched to silkscreen prints, seeking not only to make art of mass produced items, but to mass produce the art itself. He hired and supervised "art workers" engaged in making prints, shoes, films and other items at his studio, The Factory, located in Union Square in New York City. In the 1970s and 1980s he mainly made prints of famous people such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Iconic figures and famous people are a general theme in Warhol's work. Warhol died at the age of 52 during routine gall bladder surgery.

1931: Jane Addams, a lesbian, became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

PROFILE: Jane Addams (1860-1935)
Born September 6, 1860 in Cedarville Illinois, Jane Addams was known for being a settlement house reformer, a pacifist and an adamant women’s rights activist. Her founding of Hull House is widely considered the foundation of the the social work profession. Using an experimental model of reform -- trying solutions to see what would work -- and committed to full- and part-time residents to keep in touch with the neighborhood's real needs, Jane Addams built Hull House into an institution known worldwide. Jane Addams also became involved in wider efforts for social reform, including housing and sanitation issues, factory inspection, rights of immigrants, women and children, pacifism and the 8-hour day. She also served as a Vice President of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1911-1914. Books by Jane Addams include “Twenty Years at Hull House” and “Democracy and Social Ethics.”

February 18, 1934: Audre Lorde is born in New York City.

PROFILE: Audre Lorde, (1934 - 1992)
The daughter of Caribbean immigrants who settled in Harlem, author and activist Audre Lorde was a self-described "Black lesbian, mother, warrior, poet." Her struggle against oppression on many fronts was expressed with a force and clarity that made her a valued voice for women, African Americans, and the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. In 1968, Lorde began teaching at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, where violent backlash to the civil rights movement remained a serious threat. It was during this time that she began to weave her artistic talents with her dedication to the struggle against injustice. Lorde was at the center of the movement to preserve and celebrate African American culture and was a featured speaker at the first national march for gay and lesbian liberation in Washington, D.C. in 1979. Lorde bravely documented her 14-year battle against cancer in The Cancer Journals and in her book of essays A Burst of Light. Never hiding that she had breast cancer, Lorde shed light on a medical establishment that was frequently indifferent to cultural differences and insensitive to women's health issues. Throughout her life, Lorde collected a host of awards and honors, including the Walt Whitman Citation of Merit, which conferred the mantle of New York state poet for 1991-1993. More than a decade after her death, Lorde's writings and speeches are still being used to inspire today's activists.

1934 – Renee Richards is born.

PROFILE: Renee Richards, M.D. (1934- )
Renée Richards (born Richard Raskin) had been an ophthalmologist and professional tennis player before transitioning from male to female in the mid-1970s. In 1976, at age 52, she entered a women’s tennis tournament where she was recognized by people who had known her as Raskin. A battle ensued between Richards and the tournament authorities, and she went to court to defend her right to be recognized as female. The court ruled that once the full transition and sex-reassignment surgery were completed, transsexuals should legally be recognized according to their new gender. This ruling established an important legal precedent regarding the civil and private lives of transsexual people. After the controversy abated, Richards played competitive tennis as a woman. Later, she served as Martina Navratilova’s first coach and introduced Navratilova when she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Richards continues to practice medicine in New York and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus.

1936-45: After WWII, many queer people were not liberated from the Concentration Camps when allied forces freed everyone else.

1943: US military bars gays and lesbians from serving in the Armed Forces.

1946: Robert Mapplethorpe is born.

PROFILE: Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989)
Gifted American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe brought rigorously formal composition and design, and an objectifying "cool" eye, to extreme subject matter. In so doing, he sparked a firestorm of outrage that led to debate about the public funding of art in the United States. As a gay photographer, Mapplethorpe was frequently implicated in his own, sometimes transgressive, sometimes idyllic, desire. Mapplethorpe imposes a formalist compositional technique on even his most extreme subject matter. Edges move the eye through the famous images of intense sadomasochistic activity.

For example, "Jim, Sausalito" (1977), depicts a leather-hooded man, his eye and mouth openings unzipped, his body crouching against a metal ladder. The figure is caught in a square of light in the center of the image and framed by a scratched and peeling concrete wall. The wall suggests an exterior or public area that has been transformed by gay desire into a highly sexualized space. This combination of formal elements and desire is Mapplethorpe’s signature contribution as an artist. In 1986, Mapplethorpe was diagnosed with AIDS. The following year his companion and mentor Sam Wagstaff died of complications resulting from AIDS. In 1988, the artist established a charitable foundation to support AIDS Research and photography projects.

1948: Phyllis Frye is born.

PROFILE: Phyllis Frye (1948- )
Growing up in Texas, Phyllis Frye was the all-American boy – an Eagle Scout and commander of her high school ROTC class. But when she came out as transgender in 1972, Frye lost her military career and her first marriage ended. She transitioned from male to female in 1976. As a result, she was dismissed from her job as an engineer. The next year, to fight depression and ensure a future income; she went back to school to study business administration and law at the University of Houston’s Law Center and College of Business.

As a student, Frye successfully lobbied every elected official in Houston to get rid of the city ordinance against cross-dressing that made her subject to arrest on a daily basis. In 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1985, Frye, who was out as transgender, was elected as a delegate to the Texas Democratic Convention. She was instrumental in encouraging the Texas Democratic Party to adopt a LGBT-rights supportive plank in its official platform in 1983. Frye is the founder and former executive director of the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy Inc. She also founded the Transgender Law Conference.

In 1995, Frye began the “Phyllabuster” e-mail network that keeps thousands of activists around the world informed about related legal and political issues related to transgender people, as well as lesbian, gay and bisexual issues. Frye remains a practicing attorney in Houston, where she lives with Trish, her legal spouse of over 30 years.

1949: Dr. Harry Benjamin begins to treat transgender people in San Francisco and New York with hormone therapy.

1950: In Los Angeles, Harry Hay and Church Rowland form the Mattachine Society, one of the first gay organizations in the United States.

PROFILE: Harry Hay (1912-2002)
Harry Hay was born in England in 1912 and is revered by many as the Founder of the modern American gay movement. Hay devoted his entire life to progressive politics, and in 1950 founded a state-registered foundation network of support groups for gays known as the Mattachine Society. “Mattachine” took its name from a group of medieval dancers who appeared publicly only in mask, a device well understood by homosexuals of the 1950s.
Hay devised its secret cell structure (based on the Masonic order) to protect individual gays and the nascent gay network. Officially co-gender, the group was largely male – the Daughters of Bilitis, the pioneering lesbian organization, formed independently in San Francisco in 1956. Hay also pioneered the first American gay periodical, One, and Hay was also a co-founder, in 1979, of the Radical Faeries, a movement affirming gayness as a form of spiritual calling. He died in 2002 at his home in San Francisco.

1951: Sylvia Rivera is born.

PROFILE: Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002)
Born in the back of a taxicab in the Bronx, Sylvia Rivera made her mark by taking to the very streets on which she was born. When Rivera was three years old, her mother committed suicide and Sylvia (then Ray) went to live with her grandmother. Physically abused by the grandmother and bullied at school for being effeminate, 11-year-old Rivera dropped out of school, left home and headed to Times Square. Once there, Rivera changed her name to Sylvia.

Experiencing the harassment of gays, lesbians, and gender variants sealed her commitment to fight for fair treatment for all. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the Stonewall bar in Greenwich Village was raided for the second time that week. Bar patrons, including Rivera and other drag queens, had had enough. No one is exactly sure who threw the first bottle that day, but Rivera realized that it was the start of something big. She reportedly shouted to her lover, "I'm not missing a minute of this, it's the revolution!" Rivera made sure she was part of that revolution.

In the early 1970s, she was involved with the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance, then joined with good friend and mentor Marsha "Pay it no Mind" Johnson to found Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), and STAR House, a shelter for homeless street queens. Though she marched in the original Christopher Street Liberation Day March in 1970, Rivera was not allowed to speak at the 1973 event due to what she saw as the gay movement distancing itself from the transgender activists who had kicked off the battle at Stonewall.

Best known for her trans activism, Rivera was also an advocate for the Latino community, the homeless, peace and religious inclusion. In the 1990s, she became active with Soul Force, the Irish Lesbian & Gay Organization and the Metropolitan Community Church of New York. She received lifetime achievement awards from organizations such as the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, the Puerto Rican Gay and Lesbian Association of New York and the Neutral Zone Youth Organization of New York. Even as she was dying from liver cancer, Rivera met hours before her death with a delegation from the Empire State Pride Agenda to negotiate for the inclusion of gender identity in the New York state Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, which was pending at the time. The measure passed without gender identity in December 2002, but legislation that would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and expression was introduced in April 2003, carrying on Rivera's work.

1956: In San Francisco, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon found the Daughters of Billitis, the first lesbian organization in the U.S.

1956: Martina Navratilova is born in Prauge, Czechoslovakia

PROFILE: Martina Navratilova, (1956- )
Martina Navratilova, born on October 18, 1956 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She first came to the United States in 1973 and in 1975 she played her first US Open and received her Green Card. On July 21, 1981 Martina became an American citizen. Beginning in 1981, Martina trained with basketball great Nancy Lieberman, gaining skills and strength to heighten her already impressive athletic ability. All the training paid off, because in 1982 Martina won a record 15 singles tournaments and 14 doubles tournaments: a total of 29 tournaments in one year. She came out as bisexual in 1980.

Although she was one of the greatest players to play the game, she did not receive the sponsorships one would have expected. Martina filed a lawsuit against Colorado's anti-gay Amendment 2 in 1993. She also spoke at the National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights that same year. In 2000, Navratilova won the National Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign. Here's an excerpt from her speech, "People often ask me, 'Now that I've come out, what more can I do?' My answer to that would be, 'Encourage others to come out.' and to be active, supportive members of our community, which in turn, helps contribute positive change and ultimately to fair and equal opportunities for us all."

1958: U.S. Supreme Court rules that the nation’s first gay periodical, One, can be distributed through the mail.

1961: In San Francisco, Joe Sarria becomes the country’s first openly gay candidate for public office. Sarria also worked as a drag entertainer.

1961: Illinois is the first state to abolish its laws against consensual gay sex. Sodomy laws are one of the many laws that criminalize non-reproductive, non-commercial, consensual sex between adults in private. As recently as 1960, every state in the US had an anti-sodomy law. Currently, 13 states still have sodomy laws: Of the 13 states with sodomy laws, four -- Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri -- prohibit oral and anal sex between same-sex couples.

The other nine ban consensual sodomy for everyone: Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia. However, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that sodomy laws are unconstitutional on June 26, 2003. In many countries around the world—particularly in Africa and Asia—sodomy laws still exist and punishment is extreme. For example, in Iran, the punishment for sodomy is imprisonment, torture, and death. Two gay teenagers were publicly executed in Iran on July 19, 2005 for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality.

1963: National March on Washington, during which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech was organized by Bayard Rustin.

PROFILE: Bayard Rustin (1912- 1987)
Bayard Rustin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania on March 17, 1912. He was raised by his grandmother in a Quaker community. In school, he excelled in both academics and sports. Rustin continued his education at Wilberforce University, Cheney State, and City College in New York. When he became involved in the Young Communist League, he faced much adversity, however he was never one to waiver his beliefs. Rustin became one of the main organizers of the black civil rights movement, especially the March on Washington, but maintained a low profile in his activism. He was openly gay, but kept his sexual orientation out of the limelight to avoid damaging the image of the black movement. Rustin was a great friend and support of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1966: Huey Newton, founder of the Black Panther party welcomed the gay liberation movement as part of the struggle for human emancipation.

1968: Olympic Committee begins chromosome testing of female athletes, effectively banning transgender and some intersexed people from competition.

1968: Margaret Cho is born.

PROFILE: Margaret Cho (1968- )
Margaret Cho is an openly bisexual award-winning Korean-American comedian. She began her career at age 16, and quickly attracted attention by winning a comedy competition where the grand prize was opening for Jerry Seinfeld. In 1994, after performing hundreds of shows, Cho was given the American Comedy Award for Female Comedian. That same year, Cho starred in a TV sit-com, All-American Girl, the first show to focus on a Korean-American family. Following the show’s cancellation, Cho starred in numerous films, including John Woo’s Face/Off. She went on to perform in a popular Off-Broadway show, I’m the One That I Want, which in 1999 was made into a movie. She wrote a book by the same name that was published two years later. Her 2001 comedy tour, The Notorious C.H.O., was also made into a film in 2002. In 2003, she toured North America with her a show called Revolution.

1969: STONEWALL
Perhaps the most seminal event in LGBT history, the Stonewall riots, occurred from June 27-29, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York City. When New York police officers raided the Stonewall Inn on June 27, 1969, they did not expect much resistance. Raids on such bars were common occurrences. Stonewall had already been raided once that week, but on this particular night, police officers were met with a hostility that eventually erupted into several nights of riots.

The bar patrons threw bottles and rocks at the police. They chanted, “Gay Power!” For several nights (5-7 depending on the account), crowds grew outside the Stonewall Inn. Those riots, are known as the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. Ever since, LGBT people celebrate pride and call for basic civil rights by commemorating Stonewall. In New York City they march on the last Sunday of June. Across the United States and all over the world, LGBT people remember the brave men and women of Stonewall in Gay Pride celebrations.

1970: NYC, first ever Gay and Lesbian Pride March which had 500 marchers held to commemorate the Stonewall riots; annual freedom parades and pride parades nationwide continue to this day.

1971: “All In the Family” becomes the first sitcom to tackle homosexuality.

1972: East Lansing Michigan institutes the first city policy preventing discrimination against queer people in job hiring.

1973: The American Psychiatric Association affirms the homosexuality can no longer be classified as a mental disorder and removes it from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

1976: San Francisco hires the country’s first openly gay law enforcement officer.

1977: Harvey Milk is hired as San Francisco’s first openly gay City Supervisor.

PROFILE: Harvey Milk (1930-1978)
Harvey Milk was born on May 22, 1930 in Long Island, New York. Milk entered the Navy shortly after he finished college and advanced to the rank of chief petty officer on the U.S.S. Kittyhawk, only to be dishonorably discharged when his homosexuality was discovered.

Like thousands of other gay people, Milk migrated to San Francisco in the early 1970's. The San Francisco neighborhood and gay mecca now simply referred to as "The Castro" was not always a thriving business district. When Milk moved to San Francisco in 1972, it was known as place to find cheap housing, which is why he was drawn there.

He opened a camera shop on Castro Street and acted as an advocate for local businesses in dealing with the municipal government. Realizing that the footholds of the San Francisco political establishment were in the merchant organizations in the city's ethnic neighborhood, Milk founded the Castro Valley Association (CVA). Through the CVA, the gay community became politically organized and gained allies in the labor unions and with some political leaders. "My name is Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you". This was Milk's standard opening line when he gave a stump speech. After this sarcastic allusion to the notion that homosexuals recruited other people into changing their sexual orientation, he would proceed to recruit support for the populist issues to which he dedicated his life. He fought to secure the place for homosexuals in society as equals, not as people who were just tolerated.

He professed the importance of gay people seeking leadership positions in society and not relying on non-gay friends of the community to act as the leaders of the movement. In 1977, Milk became the first openly gay person to be elected to the Board of Supervisors (City Council) in San Francisco. It was his fourth try at elected office. His election was in stark contrast to the national political scene that was characterized by the movement that was being led by anti-gay activist Anita Bryant to "Save Our Children". Unfortunately, after years of striving to win an election, he would serve only for eleven months before he was assassinated.

1978: In San Francisco, the rainbow flag is designed by Gilbert Baker. The most colorful of all queer symbols is the Rainbow Flag, and its rainbow of colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple - represents the diversity of our community. The first Rainbow Flag was designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, a San Francisco artist, who created the flag in response to a local activist's call for a community symbol (this was before the pink triangle was popularly used as a symbol of pride). Using the five-striped "Flag of the Race" as his inspiration, Baker designed a flag with eight stripes: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. According to Baker, those colors represented: sexuality, life, healing, sun, nature, art, harmony, and spirit. Baker dyed and sewed the material for the first flag himself - in the true spirit of Betsy Ross.

May 30, 1980, Rhode Island: After winning a suit against Cumberland High School, Aaron Fricke takes Paul Guilbert to his senior prom.

1980: Johanna Clark organizes the ACLU Transsexual Rights Committee.

1981: First cases of AIDS are reported, and it is named a “Rare Gay Cancer Seen in Homosexuals” by the New York Times.

1982: Wisconsin becomes the first state to enact civil rights legislation.

1982: PFLAG—Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays organization—is founded.

August 28-September 5, 1982: In San Francisco, almost 50,000 people attend the first Gay Games.

April 1, 1985: In New York City, the Hetrick-Martin Institute opens the Harvey Milk School for 20 openly gay and lesbian teens in the basement of a Greenwich Village church. The city-founded high school provides a refuge place for LGBT students, many of whom have dropped out of their schools to escape abuse and harassment.

October 11, 1987: The largest lesbian and gay rights rally to date convenes which draws more than a half million to participate in the Second March on Washington. The Project AIDS quilt is publicly shown for the first time as part of the March on Washington. It is stretched over 2 city blocks and integrates 1920 panels, commemorating more than 200 persons who have died of AIDS. The Second March on Washington is celebrated each year on October 11 as National Coming Out Day.

1987: ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) is formed, a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis.

1989: California Legislature passes Hate Crimes law, which includes sexual orientation.

1990: “Common Threads,” a film about 5 people with AIDS, wins an Academy Award.

1992: Jean Burholter is ejected from the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival by transphobic organizers. “Camp Trans” is pitched outside of the entrance gate to the Festival to protest the Festival’s newly publicized “Womyn-Born-Womyn Only” anti-trans policy. “Camp Trans” continues to date.

1992: Allen Schindler is killed.

PROFILE: Allen R. Schindler (1969-1992)
Allen R. Schindler Jr., 22, of Chicago Heights, Ill., was serving as a radioman on the amphibious assault ship "U.S.S. Belleau Wood," in the Navy in Okinawa, Japan. He was brutally murdered on October 27, 1992 by two shipmates in a toilet in a park in Sasebo, one being Airman Apprentice Terry M. Helvey, 21. Helvey beat and stomped Schindler to death because Schindler was gay. Helvey's attack was so vicious that he destroyed every organ in Schindler's body. Schindler was so badly beaten that he could hardly be identified afterward. Helvey is now serving a life sentence in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth's Disciplinary Barracks, Kansas, although by statute, he is granted a clemency hearing every year. Helvey's accomplice, Charles Vins, was allowed to plea bargain and served only a 78-day sentence before receiving a general discharge from the Navy. Schindler died shortly after newly-elected President Clinton broke his first promise to the gay community by not signing an executive order allowing gays to openly serve in the military.

1993: President Clinton institutes “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” military policy. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is the United States’ current policy on gays in the military. This law prohibits anyone who is not heterosexual from disclosing their sexual orientation or speaking about any homosexual activity in which they participate. It was introduced in 1993 by President Clinton as a compromise because he had promised during a campaign speech to allow all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation, to serve openly in the military while conservatives wanted a complete ban on non-heteros in the military.

The actual policy, which is still in effect, requires that as long as LGB people in the military do not disclose their sexual orientation in any way, commanders won’t try to investigate their sexuality. Many people on both sides of the issues see this policy as a failure. This policy creates an environment in which LGB people are not only second-class citizens, but also targets of harassment, violence, and even murder. Anti-gay harassment culminated in the murders of fellow service members of Allen Schindler in 1992 and Barry Winchell in 1999.

1993: The movie, Philadelphia, opens. Tom Hanks wins Oscar for Best Actor for playing a gay man who is HIV-positive.

1994: American Medical Association opposes medial treatment to “cure” homosexuals.

1996: Congress passes the “Defense of Marriage” act (DOMA) giving states the right not to recognize same-sex marriages from other states.

1997: Ellen Degeneres and her TV character come out.

1998: Matthew Shepard is assassinated in Wyoming. Matthew Shepard was a college student who was brutally tortured and murdered in a hate crime. Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming, was robbed and attacked by two men near Laramie, Wyoming on the night of October 7 because of his homosexuality. Shepard died from his wounds several days later. His killers are both currently serving life-sentences in prison.

1998: Transgender activists protest trans-exclusion from the Gay Games in Amsterdam. The Gay Games reinstates rules that require “documented completion of sex change or two years hormones” before allowing transgender individuals to compete. Loren Cameron, FTM transman, expected to compete, drops out of competition in protest.

PROFILE: Loren Cameron (1959- )
Loren Cameron was born in 1959 in Pasadena, California and spent his early teens in rural Arkansas. He moved to San Francisco in 1979 and has been a Bay Area resident ever since. From the age of 16, Cameron was sexually and socially identifying as a lesbian. It was in 1987 that Cameron began his transition from female to male. He began his photography career in 1993 as he documented his process of becoming a man. As Cameron began to take pictures of his own transformation, he began to photograph other transsexuals. “What was initially a crude documentation of my own personal journey quickly evolved into an impassioned mission. Impulsively, I began to photograph other transsexuals that I knew, feeling compelled to make images of their emotional and physical triumphs. I was fueled by my need to be validated and wanted, in turn, to validate them. I wanted the world to see us, I mean, really see us.”

1998: Debut of “Will and Grace”—the first successful American sitcom featuring gay main characters.

1999: Barry Winchell is killed. In 1999, PFC Barry Winchell was brutally murdered by fellow soldiers who perceived him to be gay because of his relationship with Calpernia Addams, a transgender woman he met while serving in the Army. Just weeks after Winchell’s murder, a drill sergeant led Winchell’s platoon in a chilling chant: “Faggot, faggot, down the street. Shoot him, shoot him, ‘til he retreats,” according to former soldier and platoon member Javier Torres.

1999: In California, AB 537 passes legislature and is signed by the governor to protect gay and lesbian students from harassment.

1999: Hillary Swank wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in “Boys Don’t Cry”—the true story of the life of Brandon Teena, a young transgender person who is brutally murdered because of his identity.

2000: Vermont becomes the first state to offer civil unions to same-sex couples.

2002: Transgender California teen, Gwen Araujo, is fatally attacked by four men who discover Gwen is transgender.

2002: David Cicilline is elected first openly gay mayor of Providence, Rhode Island.

2003: “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”—the first gay makeover show—debuts.

2004: “The L Word” – the first lesbian series—debuts.

2004: Mianne Bagger, a transgender woman becomes the first transsexual to play women’s golf. The Ladies European Golf Tour (LET) changed its rules to allow persons who changed sex from male to female to become members. However, the Women’s Professional Golf Association (WPGA) has yet to allow transgender people become members.

May 17, 2004: Massachusetts becomes the only state in the United States to legally allow same-sex marriages.

PROFILE: Gay Marriage Throughout the World
• Nations That Allow Gay Marriage: Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium
• Nations That Allow Civil Unions of Same Sex Couples: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, France, South Africa, Germany, South Africa, Portugal, Finland, Croatia, Israel, Luxembourg, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Andorra, Slovenia, Switzerland (recognized in some regions in Argentina, Australia, Spain, Italy, Brazil, United States—CT, VT)
• A civil union is one of several terms for a civil status similar to marriage, typically created for the purposes of allowing homosexual couples access to the benefits enjoyed by married heterosexuals. However, most civil unions offer SOME but not ALL of the benefits enjoyed my married couples. And those benefits are often not portable across state lines.

2004: President Bush endorsed a constitutional amendment that would restrict marriage to two people of the opposite sex. “The union of a man and a woman is the most enduring human institution, honored and encouraged in all cultures by every religious faith, marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society.” The Federal marriage amendment was defeated.

July 19, 2005: Iran executes two gay teenagers. Consensual gay sex is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Those charged with gay sex are given a choice of four death styles: being hanged, stoned, halved by a sword, or dropped from the highest perch. According to Article 152, if two men not related by blood are discovered naked under one cover without good reason, both will be punished at a judge's discretion. Gay teens (Article 144) are also punished at a judge's discretion. According to Article 156, a person who repents and confesses his gay behavior prior to his identification by four witnesses may be pardoned. Even kissing 'with lust' (Article 155) is forbidden. According to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979.

How You Can Help Write LGBTQQ People Back Into History
- Talk to your teachers about including LGBTQ individuals in the history curriculum
- Talk to your librarian about setting up an LGBTQQ Book Display
- Write a report on a queer person from history
- Fill a bulletin board with information about the lives of LGBTQ individuals from history.
- Host a movie & discussion night, showing one of many films highlighting the contributions of LGBTQQ people.
- Poster the school with information about queer people in history on National Coming Out Day (October 11) or during June to celebrate Pride month.
- Read books by and about LGBTQ people and talk to people about them.
- Introduce an important event in LGBTQQ history each week during announcements.

Sappho, (http://www.answers.com/topic/sappho).
2 Queer History 12,000 BC to 30 BC: A Timeline, (http://www.aaronsgayinfo.com/timeline/FtimeBC.html).
3 (www.lavenderlibrary.org).
4 Langston Hughes, (http://members.aol.com/matrixwerx/glbthistory/hughes.htm).
5 Raymond Melville, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, (http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:LtAeJ9bUfSUJ:
www.stonewallsociety.com/famouspeople/magnus.htm+Magnus+Hirschfeld+&hl=en).
6 Billy Tipton: 1914-1989, ( http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=Coming_Out_as_Transgender&
Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=21877).
7James Baldwin: 1924-1987, (http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=African_Americans
&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=12453).
8 (www.wikipedia.com)
9 http://www.hrc.org.
10 (http://www.hrc.org/).
11Mapplethorpe, Robert: 1946-1989, (http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:eVPV5kfU8nsJ:
www.glbtq.com/arts/mapplethorpe_r.html+gay+robet+applethorpe&l=en).
12 (http://www.hrc.org/).
13 (http://www.hrc.org/).
14Martina Navratilova, (http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:vH0w_bE5kbAJ:lesbianlife.about.com/od/
lesbiansinsports/p/Martina.htm+martina+navratilova+gay&hl=en)
15 (http://www.hrc.org/).
16 Remember… Harvey Milk, (http://www.lambda.net/~maximum/milk.html).
17 The Rainbow Flag, (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/scotts/ftp/bulgarians/rainbow-flag.html).
18 Allen R. Schindler, Jr., Petty Officer Third Class, United States Navy, in “The Memorial Hall.”
19 Online Alchemy: Biography (http://www.lorencameron.com/thanks.htm).
20 Iran Executes Two Gay Teenagers, (http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2005/07/iran_executes_2.html).

Additional Resources
Check out these great books and videos, and find more on the GLSEN BookLink at www.glsen.org, or email booklink@glsen.org!
Books on LGBT History
• Faderman, Lillian. To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America
• Feinberg, Leslie. Transgender Warriors.
• Marcus, Eric. Making Gay History: The Half-Century Struggle for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights
• Miller, Neil. Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History 1867-Present.

Films on LGBT History
• Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (83 minutes) Traces the life of Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s key advisor and dedicated civil rights activist.
• Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 (60 Minutes) Explores a century of LGBT history by documenting the life and times of Ruth Ellis, who, before her death in 2000, was the oldest living African-American lesbian.
• Out of The Past (70 Minutes) 1998 film tracing the emergence of gays and lesbians in American history; GLSEN publishes a companion teacher’s guide.