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L: Trial of Oscar Wilde
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S: First Gay Bath House Raid
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S: Disabled Gay Killed
Lawrence King is acquitted by a Norfolk jury of killing of
a disabled gay traveling salesman who made a pass at
him on a train. -
S: Mattachine Society is Created
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L: The First Protest at Nations Capital
Gay and lesbian people picket outside federal offices in
Washington to protest the government’s employment discrimination against gays. This is the first public protest by gay people in the nation’s capital. -
L: Virginia law against marriage denied
A Virginia law against interracial marriages would be struck down, with the Supreme Court declaring that marriage is a "fundamental civil right" and that decisions in this arena are not those with which the State can interfere unless they have good cause. -
S: Stonewall Inn Police Raid
First Major even that started the modern gay rights movement. Police ran into the bar and barricaded it whille they were being attacted by people who hit the men with beer bottles. Some of the men decided to come out of the closet after this riot. -
L: Family Law Act
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S: Homosexuality declared as a mental disorder
The American Psychiatric Association declared homosexuality to be a form of a mental illness. -
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S/L: Harvey Milk in District Supervisor Office in San Francisco
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S/L: Harvey Milk Assassinated
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L/S: First Gay Rights March
The first gay rights march in the United States took place on October 14, 1979 in Washington, DC, involving perhaps as many 100,000 people. -
L: Democrats Endorse Gay Rights Platform
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L: Bowers v. Hardwick
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in the case of Bowers v. Hardwick that homosexual activity between consenting adults in the privacy of the home was not protected by the Constitution. -
L: Don't Ask, Don't Tell
More information
The U.S. Military policy "Don't ask, don't tell" was made into law. Those who are found as homosexual in the military are likely to be kicked out. -
L: Special Rights
In Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court strikes down Colorado's Amendment 2, which denied gays and lesbians protections against discrimination, calling them “special rights.” According to Justice Anthony Kennedy, “We find nothing special in the protections Amendment 2 withholds. These protections . . . constitute ordinary civil life in a free society.” -
L: Defense of Marriage Act
the federal government passed DOMA giving states the option to refuse to recognize gay marriage in other states and defined that marriage is between heterosexual couples only. -
S: Matthew Shepard Brutally Murdered
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L: Canada allows legal unions
Canada's government decides to reconize gay marriages as legal unions. -
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L: Lawrence vs. Texas
The ruling invalidated states that banned homosexual sodomy and ruled that antisodomy laws as an invasion of privacy.
