1. GAY AND LESBIAN RIGHTS TIMELINE
AND IMPORTANT TOPICS
By Nora Chapin-Eppert
United States History
May 2013

2. 1960S (BERNSTEIN)
 Gay Americans underwent and started speaking out about their
struggles during the sexual revolution and antiwar movement of
the 1960s, which gave them enough publicity to help them
emerge as a new political movement, gay liberation.
 Back then, police routinely raided gay bars and targeted gay
male cruising places in order to arrest lesbians and gay men for
solicitation and loitering with the intent to commit the illegal act of
sodomy.
 The predominant lesbian and gay organizations, the Mattachine
Society and the Daughters of Bilitis, focused primarily on self-
help issues.
 Homosexuals wanted to convince the public, especially
psychological and religious authorities, that homosexuality wasn't
a sickness nor a sin, and they hoped that anyone would support
them and advocate tolerance for them.
 The gay liberation movement worked to end government
employment discrimination based on sexual orientation through
protest and litigation tactics.

3. LATE 1960S – 1970S (BERNSTEIN)
 The radical and antiwar movements of the 1960s inspired young
activists to join gay liberationists and create new
organizations, one of them ended up being the Gay Activists
Alliance.
 Activists protested for an end to entrapment, police
harassment, and employment discrimination, sometimes through
violent tactics such as police abuse.
 The Stonewall Riots of 1969, which were a response to a police
raid on a gay after-hours club in New York City, is only one
example of a series of uprisings caused by lesbians and gay men
in protest.
 Later in 1973, the gay and lesbian liberation groups and
psychiatrists challenged the American Psychiatric Association's
(APA) view that homosexuality was a mental disorder. All of their
protests, pressure, and empirical data led the APA to remove
homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.
 Eventually Gay Liberation morphed into the Gay and Lesbian
Rights Movement.

4. 1980S (BERNSTEIN)
 In Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986, the Unites States Supreme Court
ruled that there was no right to privacy for homosexual sodomy in
the US.
 National gay and lesbian organizations planned a March on Washington
that took place in 1987 in response to the courts ruling, which revived
grassroots activism.
 Overall activists sought to repeal sodomy laws, pass
antidiscrimination and hate crimes legislation, fight anti-
lesbian/gay rights initiatives, end the military's ban on lesbian and
gay personnel, and obtain the right to marry.
 Another reaction to the Hardwick ruling was the formation of ACT
UP by New York City Activists in 1987
 The Activists of ACT UP weren't happy with the governments inactivity
and service organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) surrounding
the AIDS epidemic.
 AIDS communities came together to help people attain access to
drugs, money for research and treatment, and protection them from
"discrimination based on the involuntary disclosure of HIV status,"
(Bernstein).

5. 1990S (BERNSTEIN)
 In 1990, another gay and lesbian rights organization formed called
Queer Nation and they adopted and shared ACT UPs ideals
 Queer nationals redefined the term “queer” to include lesbians, gay
men, bisexuals, transgendered people, and anyone else who challenged the
dominant sex/gender system.
 Queer activists also sought alliances with people of
color, bisexuals, transgendered people, and many other minority groups.
 "Queer" didn't only apply to sexual orientation anymore, it was also a
statement against conformity and normal society
 In the late 1980s and 1990s, people who believed in the Religious
Right tried to pass laws prohibiting gay and lesbian people to
organize politically and basically legalize any anti-lesbian/gay
discrimination laws.
 In response, the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
(Lambda Legal), the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
(NGLTF), and other groups refocused on litigation.

6. 1990S (BERNSTEIN) [CONTINUED]
 In 1990, gay and lesbian allies and activists helped pass the Hate
Crimes Statistics Act, which the first time that Congress ever passed
a positive legislation having to do with sexual orientation. The act
authorized the collection and publication of data on bias-related
violence based on religion, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
 In 1992, Religious Right group members helped pass an anti-gay
and lesbian law in Colorado, Amendment 2.
 Lambda Legal and local Colorado lawyers immediately challenged
the amendment, and it overturned by the Supreme Court in 1996.
 Gay and lesbian activists also started demanding domestic
partnership benefits from corporations, unions, and cities.
 In the 1990, the right to marriage became one of the most important
and controversial issues in the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement
when it looked like the state of Hawaii would legalize same sex
marriage.
 Although Hawaii hasn't legalized gay marriage yet, the talk of it
helped make the issue of Legalizing gay marriage as big as it is
today.

7. DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL
During his election campaign before he was elected in
1992, Bill Clinton promised to end the United States military's ban
on lesbian and gay personnel, (Bernstein). Gays and lesbians in the
military quickly became the headlining issue for activists. Bill Clinton
then approved the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy in 1993, (Brown).
The policy makes it so that gays and lesbians are allowed to be in
the military, but they aren't allowed to tell anyone about it or engage
in homosexual acts because then they could be expelled from the
military. This wasn't exactly what gays and lesbians wanted and
most of them became pretty upset about the policy because they
didn't believe that they should be excluded or kicked out just
because of their sexual orientation, (Bernstein). Throughout the
1990s and 2000s, gays and lesbians have tried to remove and sign
petitions to get rid of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Finally, after
Congress voted on it again, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was
repealed on September 20th, 2010 after seventeen years. The
repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was a great triumph for all gay and
lesbian people, activists, and allies.

8. PROPOSITION 8 IN CALIFORNIA
 In February 2004, gay and lesbian activists and allies in San
Francisco, California successfully challenged Proposition 22, and
gay marriage became legal in California. Around 4,000 same sex
couples in California got married up until March when the
California Supreme Court ordered San Francisco to stop and
void all of the marriage licenses and certificates that were made
over those two months, (Linsey and Uradnik). A year later in
March 2005, the San Francisco Superior Court held that the ban
on same sex marriage violated the state’s constitution, but in
October 2006 the California Court of Appeals ruled that the ban
would stand, (Linsey and Uradnik). Then the California Supreme
Court decided to review the decision and permitted same-sex
marriage again on May 15, 2008, (Linsey and Uradnik). While the
State Supreme Court was deciding though, opponents of same
sex marriage signed a petition to place a constitutional ban on
the next ballot, Proposition 8. About 18,000 same-sex couples
got legally married in California during the five months between
June and November, but then Proposition 8 passed and banned
same sex marriage, (Linsey and Uradnik).

9. PROPOSITION 8 (CONTINUED)
 Although Proposition 8 was passed, the court legality
recognized the same-sex marriages performed in California
between June and November of 2008 as domestic
partnerships to help ease the pain, but activists were still very
angry and several lawsuits were filed challenging Proposition
8, (Linsey and Uradnik). Eventually, Proposition 8 went to
federal court when US Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker
claimed in Perry v. Brown that the California's ban on same-
sex marriage violated the US Constitution, (Linsey and
Uradnik). When that case what shut down, activists appealed
to have the case, now Hollingsworth v. Perry, heard by the
Supreme Court, (Linsey and Uradnik). The Supreme Court
agreed to hear the case on December 7th 2012, along with a
federal same sex marriage law. The Supreme Court argued
and discussed the laws March 26, 2013 and the United States
expects a ruling in June 2013, Oral arguments were
scheduled for March 26, 2013, (Linsey and Uradnik).

10. GAY MARRIAGE
 Many other states in the United States and even some
other countries have passed a Same-Sex Marriage Law.
 The most recent state in the US to pass the law was
Delaware.
 Delaware passed the Same Sex Marriage Law on
Tuesday May 7th 2013, becoming the 11th state in the
United States to pass the bill, (Fischer and Liptak).
 The other states that have passed the same sex
marriage law are: Rhode Island, Iowa, New
York, Vermont, New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Maryla
nd, Washington and the District of Columbia, (Fischer
and Liptak).

11. IMAGE CITATIONS
 Gay Pride Flag. Digital image. Rant and Reason. American Humanist
Association, 9 Aug. 2007. Web. 19 May 2013.
<http://blog.thehumanist.org/2007/08/should-you-be-forced-to-attend-
a-gay-pride-parade/>.