LOCAL NAME GLOBAL COVERAGE
SPECIAL ONLINE ISSUE HISTORY MONTH, OCT. 2021
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FROM THE FIRST TRANS CELEBRITY TO THE FIRST PRIDE, HERE ARE SOME TIMELINES OF OUR PROGRESS Pictured: Christine Jorgensen. Photo courtesy of the Stonewall National Museum and Archives.
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LGBT HISTORY MONTH
TIMELINE
MEMORIALS & MONUMENTS A TIMELINE OF LGBT LANDMARKS Stonewall National Museum & Archives
TO MARK THEIR POLITICAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND CULTURAL LOSSES, LGBTQ PEOPLE HAVE DEVELOPED POWERFUL SITES OF MEMORY AND MOURNING. This timeline, courtesy of the Stonewall National Museum and Archives, is part of a greater LGBT History Month project and explores various LGBT landmarks throughout history. To see more timelines that explore our shared LGBT history, visit www.StonewallNMA.org.
1985 1989
Perhaps the first and most well-known AIDS memorial, the Quilt was begun by activist Cleve Jones early in the AIDS crisis when there were few treatments available. The Quilt’s first display in Washington, with 1,920 panels, was in 1987. Today the Quilt contains more than 48,000 panels.
Assembled to mark the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, The Center, an LGBTQ support organization presented “The Center Show” an exhibition of work by David LaChapelle, Kenny Schraf, Martin Wong, Robert Storr and many others. The exhibition included a permanent installation by artist Keith Haring in one of the public bathrooms which was recently restored.
1991
Conceived in 1988 and located in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the National AIDS Memorial Grove is located in a city which saw many deaths early on in the AIDS crisis. It dedicated to all persons touched by the disease.
1993
1998
1995
Honoring the contributions of scores of LGBTQ leaders, artists and advocates, the Legacy Project/Walk covers 10 city blocks in Chicago.
1998
Twenty-one years after the murder of San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first part of the Harvey Milk Plaza began with the addition of a Rainbow Flag at an existing subway station.
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Organized annually on Twin Peaks in San Francisco, the Pink Triangle is an annual temporary monument installed each June to recognize gay pride.
1998
Located in Key West, on Dec. 1 each year a ceremony is held to remember those who died of AIDS by reading their names publicly.
1992
2000
Names of local people who died from AIDS were placed on plaques installed in a section of sidewalk in West Hollywood. The plaque which remembers Rock Hudson was installed by Elizabeth Taylor.
The AIDS Chapel at Grace Church in San Francisco was established to recognize those who suffered from AIDS and the family and friends who tended to them. The chapel features an alter piece completed by artist Keith Haring believed to be one of the last works he made.
The Gay Liberation Monument began in 1979 and is located in Sheridan Square across from the Stonewall Inn. Run by the Park Department of the City of New York, it contains a sculpture by renowned artist George Segal.
1993
The AIDS Memorial Wall was established to recognize the losses and contributions of Latino community in Los Angeles.
2000
Memorial Chapel in Albuquerque, NM was established to recognize those who ministered to those who suffered from AIDS.
2000
2000
Marking the death of 100,000 people who died from AIDS in NYC, its AIDS memorial stands adjacent to the former St. Vincent’s Hospital, the epicenter of AIDS care in the 1980s. In an unusual approach, the organizers involved 500 people in the design.
2001
The Pink Triangle Park in San Francisco honors the LGBTQ individuals who were jailed, tortured and killed in Europe from 1933-1945.
Located at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Marion County, Indiana, this is the first permanent AIDS monument in an American cemetery. It contains 10-foot bronze sculpture features two clasped hands in the shape of an AIDS ribbon by artist Guy Grey.
2011
Although not open to the public, the National Park Service maintains the former home of gay activist and co-founder of the Mattachine Society Frank E. Kameny.
This park in New Orleans has an installation containing numerous glass discs depicting the faces of some local individuals who died of AIDS and well as local activists.
2008
2008
The state of Ohio created this marker for writer and poet, native born Natalie Clifford Barney. The partner of artist Romaine Brooks for more 50 years, Barney first began publishing poems to other women in 1900.
2009
2008
Recognizing the scores of deaths that resulted from AIDS in NYC’s West Village neighborhood, the Hudson River Park installed a monument near one of the piers, between West 11th and 12th Streets.
Located in Laramie, Wyoming the Matthew Shepard Memorial Bench marks the killing of a young man who was left to die after a brutal beating.
THIS IS A PART OF OUR LGBT HISTORY MONTH SPECIAL PACKAGE. CHECK OUT SFGN.COM/HISTORY2021 DAILY FOR NEW STORIES.
2012 2014
The stairs that led to gay icon and founder of the Mattachine Society, Harry Hay’s house were designated the “Mattachine Steps” the city of Los Angeles.
2015
Paying tribute to all gender and sexual minorities, the Pink Dolphin Monument is in Galveston Island in Texas.
Part of the National Park Service and located in NYC’s Sheridan Square at the site of the Stonewall Inn, the Stonewall National Monument was created to honor the significant turning point in LGBTQ rights. In 1969.
Founded by transgender individuals to remember transgender victims of murder, the Transgender Memorial Garden in St. Louis was founded in a vacant park.
2018
2020 Governor Andrew Cuomo renamed a city park in Brooklyn in honor of iconic gay activist Marsha P. Johnson. Additional monuments are being planned to honor Johnson and activist Sylvia Rivera.
2016
Matthew Shepard’s remains were interred at the National Cathedral in Washington.
2018
Two Nashville gay bars, the Jungle and Juanita’s Place, and their patrons, were honored with a highway marker recognizing their efforts to fight discriminatory local policies in the 1960s.
2018
On the grounds of the Town Hall in the heart of its commercial district, the Provincetown AIDS Memorial contains a sculpture by artist Lauren Ewing to mark three decades of AIDS in this seasonal LGBTQ enclave.
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3
LGBT HISTORY MONTH
TIMELINE
LGBT MILESTONES A TIMELINE OF EVENTS IN THE FIGHT FOR EQUALITY Stonewall National Museum & Archives
THE PAST CENTURY ALONE HAS BEEN FILLED WITH LANDMARKS AS OUR COMMUNITY HAS FOUGHT TIRELESSLY FOR ITS RIGHT TO EXIST. This timeline, courtesy of the Stonewall National Museum and Archives, is part of a greater LGBT History Month project and explores various LGBT landmarks throughout history. The timeline that these two pages reference has over 110 entries and has been shortened for publication. To see more timelines that explore our shared LGBT history, visit www.StonewallNMA.org.
1969
Marsha P. Johnson and other patrons objected to police raid at the Stonewall Inn in NYC, leading to several days of civil unrest.
1850
Most states had strict laws against same-sex actions with penalties including banishment, castration, imprisonment and death. Same-sex action was often considered “abominable” or “unmentionable,” similar to bestiality and incest.
1942
The US military prohibited gays from serving in all branches of the service.
1958
1952
Christine Jorgensen became the first widely known transgender woman to have sex reassignment surgery.
The Supreme Court allowed One to publish articles about homosexuality in the landmark decision One, Inc. v. Olesen.
1962
1953
1934
The established medical community considered homosexuality a disease that could be cured. “Treatments” included lobotomies, electroshock therapy and castration.
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1948
Alfred Kinsey published Sexual Behavior of the Human Male, empirically establishing that same-sex behavior was more widespread than previously believed.
1952
The American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a mental disorder.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order banning employment for homosexuals anywhere in the United States government because they were guilty of “sexual perversion.”
The US Supreme Court upheld the right of gay male magazines to be sent through the US mail in the decision Manual Enterprises v. Day.
2003
1993
1978
One million individuals joined the third March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation—one of the largest protests in American history.
US Supreme Court eliminated anti-sodomy laws in 14 states in their landmark decision Lawrence v. Texas.
2015
US Supreme Court declared that same-sex couples could get married in all 50 states in their landmark decision Obergefell v. Hodges.
Harvey Milk was murdered by fellow city supervisor Dan White.
1973
The American Psychiatric Association depathologized homosexuality by removing it from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.
1998
1987
1977
In response to efforts to lessen civil rights restrictions on the lesbian and gay community, Christian singer Anita Bryant established the anti-gay organization Save Our Children.
Activists in NYC founded the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) to fight the government’s inaction regarding the HIV/ AIDS pandemic.
Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten and subsequently died of severe head injuries. His murder led to hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels.
2021
2009
President Barack Obama passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, declaring that federal hate-crime law must apply to crimes stemming from a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexuality or disability.
Marking the 10th anniversary of the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs announced that all (estimated 100,000) military personnel who were discharged due to their sexual orientation or HIV status would have their benefits reinstated.
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5
LGBT HISTORY MONTH
TIMELINE
THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS A TIMELINE OF EVENTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL AIDS PANDEMIC Stonewall National Museum & Archives
THE LGBT COMMUNITY SUFFERED IMMENSELY FROM THE AIDS PANDEMIC. DESPITE MANY LANDMARKS, THE FIGHT CONTINUES TO THIS DAY. This timeline, courtesy of the Stonewall National Museum and Archives, is part of a greater LGBT History Month project and explores various LGBT landmarks throughout history. To see more timelines that explore our shared LGBT history, visit www.StonewallNMA.org.
1981
1983
1984
1985
1984
1983
JUN 5, 1981: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes cases of a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), in five young, previously healthy gay men.
1985
AUG 27, 1985: Ryan White, an Indiana teenager who contracted AIDS through contaminated blood products used to treat his hemophilia, is refused entry to his middle school. His family’s protracted legal battles to protect Ryan’s right to attend school call national attention to the issue of AIDS, and Ryan chooses to speak out publicly on the need for AIDS education.
1985
AUG 31, 1985: The Pentagon announces that, beginning October 1, it will begin testing all new military recruits for AIDS and will reject those who test positive for the virus.
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1985
JUL 18, 1985: At the National Conference on AIDS in the Black Community in Washington, DC, a group of minority leaders meets with the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop, to discuss concerns about HIV/ AIDS in communities of color. This meeting marks the unofficial founding of the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC).
1985
SEP 17, 1985: President Ronald Reagan mentions AIDS publicly for the first time, calling AIDS “a top priority” and defending his administration against criticisms that funding for AIDS research is inadequate.
MAR 3, 1985: FDA licenses the first commercial blood test, ELISA, to detect HIV. Blood banks begin screening the U.S. blood supply.
1985
OCT 1, 1985: The U.S. Congress allocates nearly $190 million for AIDS research—an increase of $70 million over the Administration’s budget request. The House Appropriations Committee also urges President Reagan to appoint an “AIDS czar.”
MAY 23, 1984: HHS Secretary Margaret Heckler announces that Dr. Robert Gallo and his colleagues at the National Cancer Institute have found the cause of AIDS, a retrovirus they have labeled HTLV-III. Heckler also announces the development of a diagnostic blood test to identify HTLV-III and expresses hope that a vaccine against AIDS will be produced within two years.
JUL 13, 1984: CDC states that avoiding injection drug use and reducing needle-sharing “should also be effective in preventing transmission of the virus.”
1985
DEC 31, 1985: By year’s end, at least one AIDS case has been reported from each region of the world.
1995
1992
1992
2001 FOCT 31, 1995: Five hundred thousand cases of AIDS had been reported in the U.S. In this year, the number of new AIDS cases diagnosed in the U.S. declines for the first time since the beginning of the epidemic.
Feb 7, 2001: The first annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in the U.S took place.
1988
1990
DEC 1, 1988: World AIDS Day is observed for the first time. The date is designated by WHO and supported by the UN.
1991
APR 1, 1991: The Visual AIDS Artists Caucus launches the Red Ribbon Project to create a visual symbol to demonstrate compassion for people living with AIDS and their caregivers. The red ribbon becomes the international symbol of AIDS awareness.
APR 8, 1990: Ryan White, the Indiana teen who became an international spokesperson against HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination, dies of AIDS-related illness at the age of 18.
1987
OCT 10, 1988: President Clinton declares AIDS to be a “severe and ongoing health crisis” in African American and Hispanic communities in the U.S. He announces a package of initiatives aimed at reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS on racial and ethnic minorities.
NOV 13, 1987: The American Medical Association declares that doctors have an ethical obligation to care for people with AIDS, as well as for those who have been infected with the virus but show no symptoms.
1991
NOV 7, 1991: American basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson announces that he is HIV-positive.
1986
1987
OCT 24, 1986: CDC reports that AIDS cases are disproportionately affecting African Americans and Latinos. This is particularly true for African American and Latino children, who make up 90% of perinatally acquired AIDS cases.
1987
OCT 11, 1987: The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt goes on display for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The display features 1,920 4x8 panels and draws half a million visitors.
1987
MAY 9, 1986: The International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses declares that the virus that causes AIDS will officially be known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
JAN 1, 1992: AIDS became the number one cause of death for U.S. men ages 25 to 44.
THIS IS A PART OF OUR LGBT HISTORY MONTH SPECIAL PACKAGE. CHECK OUT SFGN.COM/HISTORY2021 DAILY FOR NEW STORIES.
1988
1986
FEB 4, 1992: The International Olympic Committee rules that athletes with HIV are eligible to compete in the games without restrictions.
FEB 1, 1987: AIDS activist Cleve Jones creates the first panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
1987
APR 19, 1987: Princess Diana makes international headlines when she is photographed shaking the hand of an HIV-positive patient in a London hospital. She goes on to become a passionate advocate for people living with HIV and to speak forcefully against HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination.
MAR 1, 1987: Writer and activist Larry Kramer founds the grassroots political group ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in New York City. This direct-action organization seeks to advocate for biomedical research and treatment; support those living with HIV/AIDS; and shape legislation and policy.
12 . 28 . 2019 •
7
LGBT HISTORY MONTH
TIMELINE
RAINBOW ARTISTS A TIMELINE OF CREATIVE ENDEAVORS BY THE LGBT COMMUNITY Stonewall National Museum & Archives
CREATIVE AND BOLD, LGBTQ INDIVIDUALS HAVE HAD AN EXTRAORDINARY IMPACT ON THE VISUAL ARTS. This timeline, courtesy of the Stonewall National Museum and Archives, is part of a greater LGBT History Month project and explores various LGBT landmarks throughout history. The timeline that these two pages reference has 80 entries and has been shortened for publication. To see more timelines that explore our shared LGBT history, visit www.StonewallNMA.org.
George Quaintance illustrated the first cover of the beefcake magazine Physique Pictorial.
1951
Harriet Hosmer moved to Rome to pursue a career as a sculptor and to live more independently as a woman — and openly as a lesbian.
1852
Thomas Eakins painted his realist masterpiece “The Swimming Hole,” a vivid homoerotic depiction of six men at a lake.
Imbued with homoeroticism, Paul Cadmus’ satirical painting “The Fleet’s In” captured a wild world of military men and disreputable women.
Romaine Brooks painted a striking selfportrait, fashioning herself as a confident and androgynous subject of the modern world.
1885
1934
1923
1957 1876 Edmonia Lewis, an African American expatriate sculptor based in Rome, carved her majestic work “The Death of Cleopatra.” Scholars have suggested that, like Harriet Hosmer, Lewis was a lesbian.
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1946 1916 Painter John Singer Sargent met Thomas McKeller, who would become the primary model and muse for some of the artist’s most celebrated murals and bas-reliefs.
1926 Georgia O’Keeffe painted “Black Iris,” one of her earliest abstract works of flowers, which many scholars and critics have linked to the artist’s sexual identity.
George Tooker painted “Children and Spastics,” a Surrealist work that featured a clique of posing men.
Tom of Finland’s homoerotic illustration debuted on the cover of Physique Pictorial.
When Robert Mapplethorpe’s posthumous retrospective “The Perfect Moment” was canceled at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, it ignited a national controversy about censorship and arts funding. Alvin Baltrop started photographing gay life and sex along the West Side piers in New York City.
Del LaGrace Volcano’s “Self-Portrait with Blue Beard” marked a turning point in the photographer’s life: coming to terms with being intersex.
President Barack Obama selected Kehinde Wiley to paint his portrait for the National Portrait Gallery.
1995
2018
1989
1975 Andy Warhol produced an experimental film, Sleep, which portrayed John Giorno, the poet and his lover, asleep for over five hours.
1963 1993 1987 1967 Artist and photographer Jim French started Colt Studio, a pioneering gay erotica brand.
Responding to the mushrooming HIV/ AIDS pandemic, posters with the phrase “SILENCE=DEATH” appeared on the streets of New York City.
Gregg Bordowitz’s video “Fast Trip, Long Drip” broached illness, queer identity, and the AIDS activist movement.
2010 Due to its 11 seconds of ants crawling on a crucifix, David Wojnarowicz’s video “Fire in My Belly” was removed from the landmark show “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” curated by Jonathan D. Katz and David C. Ward at the National Portrait Gallery. This act of censorship was sorely reminiscent of the Culture Wars of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
2019 Kent Monkman painted two monumental works for the Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
12 . 28 . 2019 •
9
LGBT HISTORY MONTH
OFF THE WALL
WHO’S ON FIRST? Pier Angelo
T
o celebrate the upcoming World Series, I compiled a random list of “First Recorded Homosexual Person, Place or Reference” and organized it in the format of the all-American game. THE LGBT NATIONAL ANTHEM
#6: THE FIRST OPENLY GAY EUROPEAN MAYOR
“Glad to be Gay” performed by Tom Robinson from the album “Power in the Darkness.” Great Britain, 1978. The first commercially successful gay political song. Sorry, it is not “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor.
‘TOP’ OF THE 7TH: THE FIRST OPENLY LESBIAN MUSICIANS TO PLAY CARNEGIE HALL
THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF SUMMER AT BAT: #1: THE FIRST GAY POPE
– Benedict IX (1020-1055) turned the Vatican into a male brothel; he was the first pope known to be homosexual or bisexual at least.
#2: THE FIRST GAY POLITICAL PARTY RECOGNIZED BY A CONSTITUTION
– April 2010, The Philippine Supreme Court recognized Ang Ladlad (Out of the Closet) as a legitimate political party for the first time. The justices said the party complied with all legal requirements and that there is no law against homosexuality.
#3: THE FIRST GAY PRIDE
– NYC June 28, 1970. Thousands of gay men and lesbians took over Sixth Avenue to commemorate the first anniversary of Stonewall.
#4: THE FIRST OPENLY GAY RABBI
– Allen Bennett, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, has the distinction of having come out in the New York Times in 1978. “Staying in the closet is an emotional death sentence,” he said. “You can do it one person at a time.”
#5: THE FIRST ADVOCATE OF GAY RIGHTS
– Heinrich Hössli (1784-1864) in 1836 published the first volume of Eros: Die Männerliebe der Griechen (“Eros: The Male-love of the Greeks”), a defense of same-sex love.
– Bertrand Delanoe (Paris-France, 2001)
– Cris Williamson & Meg Christian, November 1982. Indigo Girls were 18.
SEVENTH INNING STRETCH GAYEST CITY: Berlin, Germany 1932, with over 300 gay bars and cafes. ‘BOTTOMS’ OF THE 7TH: THE FIRST GAY MUSICAL GROUP TO PLAY CARNEGIE HALL
The Homomonument in Amsterdam (color-edited for clarity). Photo credit: BoBink, via Wikipedia.
– The NYC Gay Men’s Chorus, Christmas 1981. Ricky Martin was 10 years old; two years later he joined Menudo.
#12: THE FIRST GAY DOLL
#8: THE FIRST GAY MONUMENT
#13: THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET
– Amsterdam, 1985, “The Stichting Homomonument,” on the river Amstel, in memory of all men and women persecuted because of their homosexuality. Bless those “coffee shops” and Amstel Light.
#9: THE LAST EXECUTION FOR HOMOSEXUALITY IN THE WEST
– Britain, 1836, but the death penalty for sodomy was not outlawed until 1861. Sodomy was struck down in the U.S. in 2003. In other countries, the death penalty for homosexual behavior is still enforced.
EXTRA INNINGS: #10: THE FIRST COUNTRY TO BAN DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GAYS IN THE MILITARY – The Netherlands,1974.
– Gay Bob, 1978, produced by Out of the Closet Inc. The Cher Doll came later.
David Kopay, 1975, played, among other teams, for the San Francisco 49ers (ding ding). Martina Navratilova and Billy Bean came later.
#14: THE FIRST TRANSGENDER POLITICIANS
Italy’s Luxuria, 2006, the first openly transgender Member of Parliament in Europe, and the world’s second openly transgender MP after New Zealander Georgine Beyer.
#15: THE FIRST GAY MARRIAGE
– The first recorded mention of the performance of same-sex marriages occurred during the early Roman Empire. Cicero states that the younger Curio was “united in a stable and permanent marriage” to Antonius. Gay marriages continued until Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. After that they opened the Vatican.
#16: THE FIRST GAY GAMES
– 1982, San Francisco, where else?
MVP: THE FIRST OPENLY STRAIGHT, TRIPLE X PORN STAR ELECTED MP
– Ilona Staller, better known as La Cicciolina, Italian politician, porn star and singer, 1987. She continued to make hardcore pornographic films while in office.
UMPIRE: DAVID MICHAEL PALLONE (Oct. 5, 1951) is a former Major League Baseball umpire who worked in the National League from 1979 to 1988. On April 30, 1988 Pallone was involved in a highly controversial confrontation with Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose. The incident led to temporarily stoppage of the game and Pallone being taken out of the game. In September of that year Pallone was forced to resign. He was outed in a New York Post article few months later. Pallone went on to write his autobiography, “Behind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball,” about his experience as a gay man working in baseball. The book became a New York Times best seller. Game over.
#11: THE FIRST NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY
– October 11, 1988. Is it a coincidence that Oct. 11 is also Eleanor Roosevelt’s birthday? I heard Lincoln is quite mad; he wanted Feb. 12.
TO SEE MORE HISTORY MONTH STORIES, VISIT SFGN.COM/HISTORY2021
Pier Angelo was born in Italy, moved to England at the age of 17 and learned English at the Nelson School of English. He attended college and graduate school in Manhattan. In 2009 he founded SFGN with Norm Kent. Now he’s retired with his husband Tom and his Affenpinscher Cabbage. He still enjoys writing his column Off The Wall for SFGN.