Knitting Circle Timetable of Lesbian and Gay History

The Knitting Circle: History

Timetable of Lesbian and Gay History

The original list of events upon which the following is based was compiled by Lisa Power forThe Pink Paper, 5th. July, 1996, issue 437, pages 22-25. It will continue to be extended and updated.

Some unsubstantiated comments to be found in the list have been taken from Lisa Power's original compilation and are open to challenge.

129013001376153318611867'69'70'85'95'97
1928'33'48'50'53'54'56'57'58'60'61'63'66'67'68'69'70'71'72'73'74'75'76'77'78'79'80'81'82'83'84'85'86'87'88'89'90'91'92'93'94'95'96'97'98'99200020012002

1290

  • Fleta: the first mention in English common law of a punishment for homosexuality.

1300

  • TheBrittontreatise prescribed that sodomites should burned alive in England.

1376

  • King Edward III was unsuccessfully petitioned to banish foreigners who were accused of introducing 'the too horrible vice which is not to be named'.

1533

  • TheBuggery Actwas passed which made buggery punishable by hanging.

1861

1867

  • The first time that a self-proclaimed homosexual spoke out publicly for homosexual rights when on 28th. AugustKarl Heinrich Ulrichspleaded at the meeting of the Congress of German Jurists for a resolution urging the repeal of all anti-homosexual laws. (He was shouted down.)

1869

  • First published use of the term 'homosexuality' (Homosexualität) byKároly Mária Kertbeny, a German-Hungarian campaigner. (He had previously used the term on 6th. May, 1868, in a private letter toKarl Heinrich Ulrichs.)

1870

  • The world's first attempt at publishing a gay periodical wasUrningsin Germany byKarl Heinrich Ulrichs, but there was only one issue.

1885

1895

1897

  • On 14th. (or 15th.) May in BerlinMagnus Hirschfeldfounded the Wissenschaftlich-humanitäre Komitee (Scientific-Humanitarian Committee), the world's first organisation dedicated to the aim of ending the legal and social intolerance of homosexuals.
  • The English edition of the bookSexual InversionbyHavelock EllisandJohn Addington Symondswas published. It was the first book in English to treat homosexuality as neither a disease nor crime, and maintained that it was inborn and unmodifiable.

1928

  • Radclyffe HallwroteThe Well of Loneliness, the first undisguised lesbian novel.

1933

  • The Nazis disolvedMagnus Hirschfeld'sScientific-Humanitarian Committee and destroyed its library.

1948

  • Alfred KinseypublishedSexual Behaviour in the Human Malewhich quoted figures that 4% of men identified themselves as exclusively homosexual, and 37% of men had enjoyed homosexual activities at least once.
  • The Danish Lesbian and Gay group. the LBL, was formed byAxel Axgil, amongst others.

1950

1953

  • Alfred KinseypublishedSexual Behaviour in the Human Femalewhich quoted the figures that 2% of women identified themselves as exclusively homosexual, and 13% of women had enjoyed homosexual activities at least once.
  • The first wide-circulation gay periodical in North America,One Magazine: The Homosexual Viewpointbegan to be published by theMattachine Society.

1954

  • Appointment of theWolfenden Committeeon 24th. August to consider the law in Britain relating to homosexual offences.

1956

1957

1958

1960

1961

  • Illinois was the first state in the US to decriminalise homosexuality. Every state had had a sodomy law proscribing oral or anal sex between homosexuals and, in most cases, between heterosexuals.
  • Release of the filmVictim, starringDirk Bogarde, the most important British film on a gay theme, pleading for tolerance for homosexuals, and the end to blackmail.
  • In November, drag entertainer Jose Sarria ran for the Board of Supervisors (city council) in San Francisco. Jose Sarria was the first openly gay candidate for elective office in the history of the United States. He was not elected but he received nearly 6000 votes.

1963

  • The first gay rights demonstration in the USA took place on 19th. September at the Whitehall Induction Center in New York City, protesting against discrimination in the military.

1966

  • Foundation in the USA of the earliest documented gay student organisation, the Student Homophile League, at Columbia University (New York City).

1967

  • TheSexual Offences Actcame into force in England and Wales, and decriminalised homosexual acts between two men over 21 years of age and in private.

1968

  • Foundation in France of the earliest documented European gay student group, the Comite Pederastique de la Sorbonne, which met a few times during the student uprising in the Spring of 1968. The name of the group translates to "e;Sorbonne Homosexual Committee"e;. (Seethe dictionary.)

1969

1970

  • The first lesbian and gay pride march in the USA took place on 28th. June in New York City, commemorating theStonewall Rebellionof the year before. Seea history of Pride.
  • The LondonGay Liberation Front (GLF)was founded after a first meeting in the London School of Economics on 13th. October.
  • The first gay demonstration in the UK (at Highbury Fields Isling.htmlrapment.

1971

  • The first open gay dance in the UK, organised by theGay Liberation Front, was held at Kensington Town Hall.
  • The first gay march through London with a rally in Trafalgar Square, protesting against the unequal age of consent for gay men (21) took place in August.
  • Lesbians invaded the platform at the Women's Liberation Conference, Skegness, demanding recognition.
  • TheGay Liberation FrontManifesto was published, and the first national 'think-in' was held.
  • Oberlin Gay Liberation, an early lesbian, gay, and bisexual student organisation in the United States was founded. (Seethe first documented gay student group,andthe first documented European student gay group.)

1972

  • Law Lords found the International Times magazine guilty of 'conspiracy to corrupt public morals' for publishing gay contact advertisements.
  • The first UK gay newspaper,Gay News, was founded. It promptly started a contact advertisement column.
  • TheScottish Minorities Group (SMG)launched a campaign to decrimalise homosexuality in Scotland.
  • The first Pride 'Carnival and March' through London to Hyde Park was held on 1st. July. Seea history of Pride.

1973

  • The first UK gay helpline was founded in Oxford.
  • The first national gay rights conference was held by the Campaign For Homosexual Equality in Morecombe.
  • In November Kathy Kozachenko was elected to the City Council of Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, as the first openly gay candidate to run successfully for elective office in the United States.

1974

  • The Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform (Northern Ireland) appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to force the UK to extend the1967 Sexual Offences Actto them.
  • The first national lesbian conference was held in Canterbury.
  • TheScottish Minorities Group (SMG)bought a building to set up a Gay Centre in Edinbugh (where homosexual acts were still illegal).
  • London Gay (later Lesbian and Gay) Switchboardwas launched. It went 24 hours a day within a year.
  • The first International Gay Rights Conference was held in Edinburgh.
  • The South London Gay Community Centre opened in a Brixton squat.

1975

  • Action for Lesbian Parents was founded after three high-profile custody cases where lesbians were refused custody of their children.
  • British Home Stores sacked openly gay trainee Tony Whitehead; a national campaign picketed their stores.

1976

  • Tom Robinson, singer, wroteGlad to be Gay.
  • The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement was founded.

1977

  • Lord Arran's Bill to reduce the gay age of consent to 18 was defeated in the House of Lords.
  • Ian Paisley launched the Save Ulster From Sodomy campaign.
  • SingerTom Robinsonreleased 'Glad To Be Gay' with the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard telephone number on the sleeve. Switchboard telephones immediately went mad.
  • On 4th. JulyGay Newswas prosecuted by Mary Whitehouse for 'blasphemy' after they had printedJames Kirkup'spoem imagining a Roman centurion having gay sex with Jesus of Nazareth.
  • In NovemberHarvey Milkwas elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors as the first openly gay candidate elected to public office in the state of California.

1978

  • London's Evening News infiltrated a lesbian insemination group and published a damaging exposé. Lesbians began a sit-in and demanded a right to a reply. Parliament Square, the Law Courts, and the British Medical Association were spray-painted.
  • The International Gay (later Lesbian and Gay) Association was launched at a meeting in Coventry.
  • On 27th. November SupervisorHarvey Milkand pro-gay liberal Mayor George Moscone were assasinated in San Francisco City Hall by right-wing, ex-police officer and former Supervisor, Dan White. That evening, 40000 people held a candlelight march from the city's gay Castro District to City Hall. The memorial march has since been repeated every year on that date.

1979

  • Gay Life, the first ever gay series was commissioned for British TV, by London Weekend Television. It was shown in London at 11.30 pm on Sundays throughout 1980-81, with an average audience rating of 350,000. One of its presenters, Michael Attwell, went on to commission BBC2's Gaytime TV.
  • On 21st. May, because of a technicality of California law, a jury found Dan White guilty of manslaughter rather than first degree murder in the double assasination ofHarvey Milkand George Moscone. Dan White was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison. The resulting violent protest that evening came to be known as the "e;White Night Riot"e; - the first gay riot since theStonewall Rebellionten years earlier.

1980

  • Male homosexuality was decriminalised in Scotland, by a Robin Cook amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill.
  • The Pride March ended in a riot and an impromptu march to Bow Street police station after the police had arrested a Brixton Faerie for wearing a plastic meat cleaver in his hat.
  • Heaven, the first all-week gay mega-club opened.
  • In September the European Commission ruled unanimously that the British government was guilty of breaching Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights by interfering with Jeff Dudgeon's private life by refusing to legalise consenting homosexual behaviour in Ulster.
  • The first black lesbian and gay groups were founded.

1981

  • The European Court of Human Rights found in favour of Northern Irish gays.
  • Ken Livingstone, the new leader of the Greater London Council (GLC), promised support to gays and the GLC gave the first gay grant to theLondon Gay Switchboard.
  • The last national lesbian conference in London broke up in arguments.
  • Capital Gaywas founded.

1982

  • Male homosexuallity was decriminalised in Northern Ireland with the passing of law reform in the House of Commons on 25th. October.
  • London Gay Switchboardheld the first UK information meeting on a strange new disease, AIDS.
  • The Terrence Higgins Trust was launched and named after the man who was thought to have been the first to have died with AIDS in the UK on 4th. July.
  • Julian Meldrum started the first regular column on AIDS inCapital Gay.
  • The firstGay Gameswere held in San Francisco in August and September.

1983

  • Peter Tatchell, the Labour Party candidate, was defeated in a by-election in Bermondsey after a vicious anti-gay campaign by the tabloid newspapers and local Liberals. Simon Hughes of the Liberal Party was elected.
  • Gay Newscollapsed in April; sales had plummeted after free newspapers had become available.
  • Questions were asked in Parliament about 'pretty police' entrapment.
  • The first national lesbian and gay television series,One in Fivewas shown on Channel 4.
  • The BBC'sPanaramabroadcast the first television documentary on AIDS. The BBC'sHorizonfollowed up with 'Killer in the Village'.
  • United States Congressman Gerry E. Stubbs came out publicly as gay on the floor of the House of Representatives.

1984

  • Chris Smith, MPfor Islington South, London, was the first MP to come out as gay while in office.
  • The Terrence Higgins Trust held the first national AIDS conference.
  • GALOP, the first gay policing project, was founded.
  • Gay Timesbegan publication in May.

1985

  • The Greater London Council (GLC) publishedChanging The World, a charter of gay rights.
  • With support from the Greater London Council (GLC), the London Lesbian and Gay Centre opened at 69 Cowcross Street, Farringdon, London, EC1.
  • South Wales miners joined the Pride march in thanks for the gay support given to their strike.
  • Body Positive, the first HIV self-help group, was founded in London.
  • The Black Lesbian and Gay Centre was founded.

1986

  • AIDS was debated in the House of Commons, and a major national campaign was launched.
  • The London Borough of Haringey Lesbian and Gay Unit wrote to all school heads in the borough urging them to promote positive images of homosexuality to their pupils. A backlash was provoked.

1987

  • The British Government delivered a leaflet on AIDS, with the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard telephone number, to every household in the country. Telephones broke down.
  • Clause 28(actually with an ever-changing sequence of numbers) of the Local Government Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 7th. December.
  • The last national lesbian and gay conference collapsed under factional in-fighting.
  • James Anderson, Chief Constable of Manchester, condemned gays as 'in a cesspit of their own making'.
  • The Pink Paperwas founded.

1988

  • Section 28, preventing the 'promotion' of homosexuality by local authorities, passed came into force on 24th. May, with help from the Local Government minister Michael Howard. It has never been tested in court. 10000 protested in London, and 15000 in Manchester.
  • Lesbians abseiled in the House of Lords. Lesbians also got into BBC1's newsroom while Sue Lawley was reading the Six O'Clock News and she reported to viewers that 'we have been somewhat invaded'.
  • The Norwegian foreign minister protested about Section 28 to the British foreign minister. There were also protests in Amsterdam and New York.
  • The first British national conference for lesbians and gay men with disabilities was held.
  • The City College of San Francisco created the first gay and lesbian studies department at an American institution of higher education.

1989

  • ActUp (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) London was founded.
  • TheStonewallGroup was set up in response toSection 28.
  • In October, Denmark was the first country in the world to give legal recognition tosame-sex partnerships. Eigil andAxel Axgilwere the first couple to register.

1990

  • The direct action groupOutRage!was set up in May after a west London queerbashing murder of actor Michael Boothe.

1991

  • Stonewalland the International Lesbian and Gay Association were given the first European Community grant to survey gay rights across the Community.
  • OutRage!held a kiss-in at Picadilly, London, and one man climbed the Eros statue.
  • LAGPA: Lesbian and Gay Police Associationwas formed.
  • Simon LeVaypublished work suggesting that gay men have a certain group of brain cells which are smaller than those of straight men.
  • Washington, D.C. held its first Black Lesbian and Gay Pride celebration.
  • Derek Jarmanwas canonised by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as St. Derek of Dungeness of the Order of Celluloid Knights. on 22nd. September.

1992

  • The UK Order of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was founded by Mother Ethel Dreads a Flashback, a missionary sister from Sydney.
  • London hosted the firstEuropride.
  • The Terrence Higgins Trust withdrew its warning of lesbian-to-lesbian HIV transmission.
  • Gay Men Fighting AIDS (GMFA) was founded.

1993

  • Stonewallsupported the appeal made by gay men under 21 to the European Court for equality.
  • Dean Hamerpublished the claim that he had found a link between male homosexuality and Xq28, the 8th. band of region 2 of the q (long) arm of the X chromosome.

1994

  • Derek Jarmandied two days before the age of consent debate in the House of Commons.
  • The House of Commons voted to reduce the gay male age of consent to 18. The crowds outside were bitterly disappointed that it had not been reduced to 16 and a riot ensued in the precincts of Parliament for the first time for 150 years. Crowds rampaged to the G.A.Y. disco and owner Jeremy Joseph gave them free entry.
  • Stonewalland Euan Sutherland launched an appeal to the European Court for under 18s.
  • The first ever safer sex television advertisements directed at gay men were shown on Channel 4 in August. The two advertisments were made by Gay Men Fighting AIDS and included two men kissing.
  • The Lesbian Avengers were founded.
  • OutRage!'outed' eight bishops, and provoked debate within the Church of England.

1995

  • Gay Timeswas on sale in the high street stores owned by the John Menzies newsagents chain for the first time in May.
  • London Pride was the biggest ever. Almost 200000 partied in Victoria Park in the East End. The clean-up cost soared to 53000.
  • Rank Outsiders andStonewalllaunched a major campaign on gays in the military.
  • Gaytime TVwas launched and one million tuned in every week.
  • Capital Gayfolded with its last issue on 31st. June.
  • Freedom FMran the first ever UK lesbian and gay 'restricted service license' radio broadcasts in London.
  • Dyke programming chief, Jacquie Lawrence, allocated a 3m Channel 4 television budget to lesbian and gay programming.

1996

  • The Lesbian and Gay Pride changed its name toLesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Prideand was held on 6th. July, with the festival on Clapham Common..
  • Channel 4 television began filming a major docudrama around the newly-opened Glasgow Gay and Lesbian centre.
  • Robert Runcie, ex-Archbishop of Canterbury, admitted to having ordained known gay men.
  • The first Summer Rites free festival was held in Kennington Park on 4th. August with 30000 attending.
  • Official outing on 9th. August of the first openly-gay character, Sean Myerson (Gareth Armstrong), in BBC Radio 4's soap,The Archers, the world's longest-running soap.

1997

  • In March, the British scouting movement adopted an equal opportunities policy which aimed to protect both leaders and young recruits from harassment because of their 'sexual status'.
  • On 1st. May the British general election gave out-gayBen Bradshawvictory in Exeter, and out-gayStephen Twiggtook ex-cabinet minister,Michael Portillo's Enfield-Southgate seat.
  • On 3rd. MayChris Smithbecame Britain's first out-gay cabinet minister when he was appointed as National Heritage Secretary.
  • Celebration in Berlin of the hundredth aniversary of the setting up of theScientific Humanitarian Committeeand calledGoodbye to Berlin? 100 Years of Gay Liberation. The launch was reported on 17th. May by BBC Radio 4 news.
  • The British top-secret Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) toldThe Pink Paper(23rd. May) that it had relaxed its regulations relating to its employment of gays and lesbians on 16th. January. Subsequently MI6, which deals with spies abroad, said that it had also changed its policy, but MI5, the internal secret security service, denied a change.
  • On 3rd. September Labour MPAngela Eaglewas the first British MP to come out voluntarily as a lesbian.
  • Recognition by the British government of same-sex couple in the immigration rules came into effect on 13th. October.

1998

  • In February, the new journalSexualitieswas launched.
  • On 2nd. May, Britain's first professional soccer player to come out as gay,Justin Fashanu, committed suicide.
  • In June, two more British Labour MPs,David BorrowandGordon Marsden, came out as gay.
  • In JuneGregory Woodswas appointed as the first Professor of Lesbian and Gay Studies in the UK.
  • On 22nd. June the British House of Commons voted to set the age of consent for gay men at 16 in a debate on theCrime and Disorder Bill.
  • On 4th. July theLondon Pride Marchwent ahead despite the cancellation of the Pride Festival.
  • On 21st. JulyWaheed Allitook his place in the House of Lords as the first openly gay life peer to be appointed in Britain.
  • On 22nd. July the British House of Lords defeated the clause to lower the age of consent to 16 for gay men.
  • On 7th. NovemberNick Brown MPwas the first British Cabinet minister to come out publicly as gay while in post.
  • On 31st. November astatue of Oscar Wildewas unveiled in central London.

1999

  • On 30th. January British Conservative Member of the European Parliament,Tom Spencer,was forced by the media to say that that he was gay.
  • In February theGerman government honoured lesbian and gay Nazi victims.
  • At 6.37 pm on Friday 30th. April, a bomb exploded in the Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, Soho, London. This attack on a gay pub was the third of a series of bombs targeted at minorities by a lone bigoted extremist. Three people who were in the Admiral Duncan died as a result of the bomb. A husband and four-months pregnant wife and their friend who had been the best man at their wedding met there prior to going to the theatre. The wife and best man were killed, and the husband was seriously injured.
  • On 9th. SeptemberThe Timespublished an article in which the ex-government ministerMichael Portillois quoted as saying that he had 'homosexual experiences' in his youth.

2000

  • On 12th. January the British government lifted the ban on homosexuals serving in the armed services.
  • On 26th. July the reportSetting the Boundarieswas published by theSexual Offences Review Group.
  • On 31st. July a European Court of Human Rights ruling onthe case of 'ADT'meant that UK sexual offences law would have to be redrafted.

2001

2002

  • On 10th. March the first UK nationalPop IdolwinnerWill Youngcame out publicly as gay inThe News of the World.
  • On 29th. JulyAlan Duncanbecame the first serving British Conservative Party MP to come out publicly as gay through his own choice.

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