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1533
The Buggery Act 1533
This was an Act of the Parliament of England that was passed during the reign of Henry VIII. The Act defined buggery as an unnatural sexual act against the will of God and man. The Act remained a capital offence until 1861. -
William Shakespeare
Some scholars have argued he was bisexual, based on analysis of the sonnets including Sonnet 18 "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day", are love poems addressed to a man, the "Fair Youth", and contain puns relating to homosexuality. -
Oscar Wilde Convicted
He is convicted on the charges of "gross indecency between males" and is sentenced to two years of hard labor. -
Anders als die Andern
Released in Germany, "Different From the Others" becomes one of the first sympathetic portrayals of homosexuals in cinema. -
Motion Picture Production Code
This was a set of industry moral guidelines that was applied to most United States motion pictures released by major studios until 1968 after several risqué films and a series of off-screen scandals involving Hollywood stars surfaced. (Previous freedoms in film's depictions of LBGT characters was restricted). -
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Homophile Movements
Following World War II, a number of homosexual rights groups came into being across the Western world. (Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries and the United States). The homophile movement began in the late 1940s with groups in the Netherlands and Denmark, and continued throughout the 1950s and 1960s with groups in Sweden, Norway, the United States, France, Britain and elsewhere. -
The US Lavender Scare
This refers to the mass firings of gay people in the 1950s from the United States government. -
Allen Ginsberg's Howl
Ginsberg, best known for his poem "Howl", attracted widespread publicity when it became the subject of an obscenity trial, as it described homosexual sex. (At this time, laws made homosexual acts a crime in every U.S. state). "Howl" reflected Ginsberg's own homosexuality and his relationships with men. It was later ruled that "Howl" was not obscene and was a precedent for eliminating obscenity laws. -
Sexual Offences Bill 1967
When passed, The Sexual Offences Act decriminalised homosexual acts between two men over 21 years of age in private in England and Wales. -
Stonewall Riots
A series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place at the Stonewall Inn in 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 LGBT rights in the United States. -
America's First Gay Parade
Christopher St. Liberation Day memorializes the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. In Central Park in New York City, thousands of members of the LGBT community marched. -
"We Demand" Public Protest
Canada's first Gay Rights public protest occurs in front of the Parliament Building in Ottawa. -
APA Declassification of Homosexuality
The American Psychiatric Association removes the term homosexuality from the diagnostics manual of mental illness. -
Rainbow Flag Created
San Francisco artist and gay rights activist Gilbert Baker designs the first flag to represent the LGBT+ community. Although the flag has undergone some revisions, the flag remains an internationally recognized symbol. -
GLAAD
GLAAD is founded in America. GLAAD remains one of Hollywood's most powerful entities, and the Los Angeles Times describes GLAAD as "possibly one of the most successful organizations lobbying the media for inclusion." -
Teddy Award
First awarded in 1987, the Teddy Award is an international film award for films with LGBT topics, presented by an independent jury as an official award of the Berlin International Film Festival. -
National Coming Out Day
Observed annually on October 11, this day is a civil awareness day for coming out and discussing LGBT issues among the general populace in an effort to give a familiar face to the LGBT rights movement. -
Svend Robinson
He is noted as the first member of Parliament in Canadian history to come out as gay while in office. -
Philadelphia
An American film and one of the first popular mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS, homosexuality, and homophobia. -
Ellen DeGeneres
On The Oprah Winfrey Show, predominate actress Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian. Her real-life coming out was echoed in the sitcom "Ellen". -
The Death of Matthew Shepard
He was an American student who was murdered for his sexual orientation. His death brought national and international attention to hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels. In October 2009, the United States Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. -
Queer as Folk
A popular UK tv drama series focused on the lives of young gay men comes out, and in 2000, (due to its popularity), a US remake is made. -
New Queer Cinema
Although NQC had been around before the 2000s, movies such as Brokeback Mountain, Milk, Blue Is the Warmest Colour, and The Kids Are All Right are hits noted as key moments in the evolution of the genre in the late 2000s. -
Same-sex Marriage Legalized in the Netherlands
The Netherlands is the first country to allow same-sex marriage. -
The L Word
Another popular tv series which focuses on the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women. -
Canada Legalises Same-Sex Marriage
Canada became the fourth country in the world, after the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain, to legalize same-sex marriages nationwide. -
Rhea County Ban
Rhea County, Tennessee unsuccessfully tries to "ban homosexuals". -
RuPaul
American actor, drag queen, television personality, and singer. Since 2009, he has produced and hosted the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award in 2016. RuPaul was signed to a modeling contract for MAC Cosmetics, making him the first drag queen supermodel. -
Spirit Day
Spirit Day is an annual LGBT+ awareness day created by Canadian Brittany McMillan and is observed on the third Thursday in October throughout many Canadian schools. It was initially created in response to a rash of widely publicized bullying-related suicides of gay school students in 2010.Observers wear the color purple as a visible sign of support for LGBT+ youth and against bullying during National Bullying Prevention Month, as well as to honor LGBT+ victims of suicide. -
Ricky Martin
On March 29, singer Ricky Martin came out publicly in a post on his official web site. -
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Re-appealed
The 1993 the "Don't ask, don't tell" law, forbidding homosexual people from serving openly in the United States military, is repealed. This means that gay personnal can now serve openly in the military without any fear of being discharged because of their sexual orientation. -
United States Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage
In 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States overturns the remaining bans on same-sex marriage throughout the whole of America. -
Taiwan to Legalise Same-Sex Marriage
Taiwanese judges ruled in favour of gay marriage, paving the way for it to become the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage.
