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Daughter of Bilitis
The Daughters of Bilitis was the first national lesbian political and social organization. -
The DOB is founded
The Daughters of Bilitis, a pioneering national lesbian organization, is founded.DOB members all had to have the same goal to post and advocate the rights for homosexuals offering help to the married widowed the mothers who were lesbians.The DOB was adopting new ways because they adapted political roles from the Mattachine Society which is a gay men's group who were working for the same rights as them.DOB only helped middle class white women and unemployed lesbian. -
Illinois decriminalize Homosexual Acts
Illinois becomes the first state in the U.S to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults in private -
StoneWall Riot
The Stonewall riots transform the gay rights movement from one limited to a small number of activists into a widespread protest for equal rights and acceptance. Patrons of a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, fight back during a police raid on June 27, sparking three days of riots. -
Lost for Gay Activist in Florida
Activists in Miami, Florida pass a civil rights ordinance making sexual orientation discrimination illegal in Dade County. Save Our Children, a campaign by a Christian fundamentalist group and headed by singer Anita Bryant, is launched in response to the ordinance. In the largest special election of any in Dade County history, 70% vote to overturn the ordinance. It is a crushing defeat for gay activists -
Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk makes national news when he is sworn in as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Running against 16 other candidates, he wins the election by 30 percent. Milk begins his term by sponsoring a civil rights bill that outlaws sexual orientation discrimination. Only one supervisor votes against it and Mayor Moscone signs it into law. -
LGBT National March
About 75,000 to 125,000 people participated in the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington, D.C.in October. It was the largest political gathering in support of LGBT rights to date to recieve equal rights and to pass civil rights legislation for homosexuals and transgenders. -
Democrats support LBGT
Democratic National Convention held at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Democrats took a stance supporting gay rights, adding the following to their plank: "All groups must be protected from discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, language, age, sex or sexual orientation." -
Wisconsin
Wisconsin outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. -
Domestic Partnership
The city of Berkeley, California, becomes the first city to offer its employees domestic-partnership benefits. -
Dont Ask Dont Tell
The “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy is instituted for the U.S. military, permitting gays to serve in the military but banning homosexual activity. President Clinton's original intention to revoke the prohibition against gays in the military was met with stiff opposition; this compromise, which has led to the discharge of thousands of men and women in the armed forces, was the result. -
Vermont
Vermont becomes the first state in the country to legally recognize civil unions between gay or lesbian couples. The law states that these “couples would be entitled to the same benefits, privileges, and responsibilities as spouses.” It stops short of referring to same-sex unions as marriage, which the state defines as heterosexual. -
Massachusetts passes same sex law
Same-sex marriages become legal in Massachusetts. -
Connecticut
Civil Unions become legal in Connecticut -
New Jersey
Civil Unions become legal in New Jersey. -
LGBT rights
The House of Representatives approves a bill ensuring equal rights in the workplace for gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals. -
Obama endorses same-sex marriage
President Barack Obama endorses same-sex marriage. "It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," he said. He made the statement days after Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan both came out in support of gay marriage.
