1960s in LGBT rights
Encyclopedia
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the 1960s.
1960
- January 20 — The United States Court of Federal ClaimsUnited States Court of Federal ClaimsThe United States Court of Federal Claims is a United States federal court that hears monetary claims against the U.S. government. The court is established pursuant to Congress's authority under Article One of the United States Constitution...
overturns the Other Than Honorable discharge issued by the United States Air ForceUnited States Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
to Fannie Mae ClackumFannie Mae ClackumFannie Mae Clackum was the first person to successfully challenge her discharge on the grounds of homosexuality from the U.S military.Fannie Mae Clackum served as an US Air Force Reservist in the late 1940s and early 1950s. When the Air Force suspected her and Grace Garner of being lesbians, it...
for her alleged homosexuality. This is the first known instance of a homosexuality-related discharge being successfully fought, although the case turned on due processDue processDue process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...
issues and did not affect the military's policy of excluding homosexuals from service. - June — The National Assembly of France passes the Mirguet Amendment, which declares homosexuality, along with alcoholism and prostitution, a "social scourge" and urges the government to take action against it.
1961
- March 20 – The United States Supreme Court denies certiorari to Frank Kameny's petition to review the legality of his firing by the United States ArmyUnited States ArmyThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
's Map Service in 1957, bringing his four year legal battle to a close. - September 11 – KQED in San Francisco broadcasts The RejectedThe RejectedThe Rejected is a documentary film about homosexuality, produced for KQED in San Francisco by John W. Reavis,The Rejected was the first documentary program on homosexuality broadcast on American television. It initially ran on September 11, 1961, and was later syndicated to National Educational...
, the first made-for-television documentary about homosexualityHomosexualityHomosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
on American television. - November 7 – José SarriaJosé SarriaJosé Julio Sarria is an American political activist from San Francisco, California. Known for his years of performing at the historic Black Cat Bar in that city from the 1950s and 1960s, Sarria entertained patrons with satirical versions of popular songs and operas while encouraging them to live...
, the first known openly gay candidate for political office in the world, shocks political observers by garnering nearly 6,000 votes in his bid for a seat on the San Francisco Board of SupervisorsSan Francisco Board of SupervisorsThe San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco, California, United States.-Government and politics:...
. This feat marked the beginning of the notion that gays could represent a powerful voting blocVoting blocA voting bloc is a group of voters that are so motivated by a specific concern or group of concerns that it helps determine how they vote in elections. The divisions between voting blocs are known as cleavage...
.
1962
- January 1 – IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
' new criminal code goes into effect, making it the first state in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to strike down sodomy lawSodomy lawA sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes. The precise sexual acts meant by the term sodomy are rarely spelled out in the law, but are typically understood by courts to include any sexual act deemed unnatural. It also has a range of similar euphemisms...
s. - June 25 – The United States Supreme Court rules in MANual Enterprises v. DayMANual Enterprises v. DayMANual Enterprises v. Day, 370 U.S. 478 is a decision by the United States Supreme Court which held that magazines consisting largely of photographs of nude or near-nude male models are not obscene within the meaning of...
that photographs of nude or semi-nude men designed to appeal to homosexuals are not obscene and may be sent through the mail.
1963
- October 30 – Following a 15-year campaign to close it down, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage ControlCalifornia Department of Alcoholic Beverage ControlThe California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is an agency of the government of the state of California charged with regulation of alcoholic beverages....
revokes the liquor license of the Black Cat BarBlack Cat BarThe Black Cat Bar or Black Cat Café was a bar in San Francisco, California. It opened in 1906 and closed in 1921. The Black Cat re-opened in 1933 and operated for another 30 years...
, a focus of early gay activism in the San Francisco Bay Area.
1964
- February – The Black Cat Bar, having struggled for several months to survive without liquor sales, closes permanently.
- September 19 – A small group pickets the Whitehall Street Induction Center in New York City after the confidentiality of gay men's draftSelective Service SystemThe Selective Service System is a means by which the United States government maintains information on those potentially subject to military conscription. Most male U.S. citizens and male immigrant non-citizens between the ages of 18 and 25 are required by law to have registered within 30 days of...
records was violated. This action has been identified as the first gay rights demonstration in the United States. - December 2 – Four gay men and lesbians picket a New York City lecture by a psychoanalyst espousing the model of homosexuality as a mental illness. The demonstrators are given ten minutes to make a rebuttal.
1965
- January 1 – San Francisco police arrest gay and lesbian party-goers at a fund-raising ball for the Council on Religion and the HomosexualCouncil on Religion and the HomosexualThe Council on Religion and the Homosexual was a San Francisco-based organization founded in 1964 for the purpose of joining homosexual activists and religious leaders.-Formation:...
, held at California Hall, an event which galvanizes the local gay and lesbian community. - April 17 – Ten gay and lesbian demonstrators picket the White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, the first in a series of demonstrations staged this year by the East Coast Homophile Organization (ECHO). - April 18 – Twenty-nine ECHO demonstrators picket the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. - April 25 – An estimated 150 people participate in a sit-inSit-inA sit-in or sit-down is a form of protest that involves occupying seats or sitting down on the floor of an establishment.-Process:In a sit-in, protesters remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met...
when the manager of Dewey's restaurant in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
refused service to several people he thought looked gay. Four people are arrested, including homophile rights leader Clark PolakClark PolakClark Philip Polak was an American journalist and gay rights activist. He was known for creating and editing DRUM magazine , an early gay-interest periodical, and for his leadership role with the Philadelphia-based homophile organization, the Janus Society.Polak killed himself in Los Angeles in...
of Philadelphia's Janus SocietyJanus SocietyThe Janus Society was an early homophile organization based in Philadelphia. It is notable as the publisher of DRUM magazine, one of the earliest LGBT-interest publications in the United States, and for its role in organizing many of the nation's earliest LGBT rights demonstrations.-Drum:Drum was...
. All four are convicted of disorderly conductDisorderly conductDisorderly conduct is a criminal charge in most jurisdictions in the United States. Typically, disorderly conduct makes it a crime to be drunk in public, to "disturb the peace", or to loiter in certain areas. Many types of unruly conduct may fit the definition of disorderly conduct, as such...
. Members of the society also leaflet outside the restaurant the following week and negotiate with the owners to bring an end to the denial of service. - May 29 – Ten men and three women participate in an ECHO picket of the White House.
- July 4 – ECHO pickets Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Independence DayIndependence Day (United States)Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
. This is the first in a series of actions, called the Annual ReminderAnnual ReminderThe Annual Reminders were a series of early pickets organized by homophile organizations. The Reminder took place each July 4 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia beginning in 1965 and were among the earliest LGBT demonstrations in the United States...
, held each July 4 through 1969. - September 26 – Thirty people picket Grace Cathedral to protest punitive actions taken against Rev. Canon Robert Cromey for his involvement in the Council on Religion and the HomosexualCouncil on Religion and the HomosexualThe Council on Religion and the Homosexual was a San Francisco-based organization founded in 1964 for the purpose of joining homosexual activists and religious leaders.-Formation:...
, an alliance between LGBT people and religious leaders. - October 23 – Thirty-five ECHO demonstrators picket the White House. The last White House picket; demonstrators felt, with this event, that picketing the White House had lost its effectiveness as a tactic.
1966
- January – The South African PoliceSouth African PoliceThe South African Police was the country's police force until 1994. The SAP traced its origin to the Dutch Watch, a paramilitary organization formed by settlers in the Cape in 1655, initially to protect civilians against attack and later to maintain law and order...
raid a gay party attended by about 300 people in Forest TownForest Town, GautengForest Town, as the name implies, is a leafy suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It lies between the busy thoroughfares of Jan Smuts Avenue and Oxford Road, and is bordered to one side by the Johannesburg Zoo....
, a suburb of JohannesburgJohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
. This attracts much public and political attention, leading in 1969 (see below) to an extension of the criminalisation of male homosexuality. - January 21 – TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine publishes an unsigned two-page article, "The Homosexual in America". The article includes statements such as "HomosexualityHomosexualityHomosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
is a pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality, a pitiable flight from life. . . . it deserves no encouragement . . . no pretense that it is anything but a pernicious sickness." - February 18 – The first meeting of the coalition of gay rights groups that will become the North American Conference of Homophile OrganizationsNorth American Conference of Homophile OrganizationsThe North American Conference of Homophile Organizations was an umbrella organization for a number of homophile organizations. Founded in 1966, the goal of NACHO was to expand coordination among homophile organizations throughout the Americas. Homophile activists were motivated in part by an...
takes place in Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. - April 21 – Activists stage a "Sip-In" at JuliusJulius (New York City)Julius is a tavern in the New York City Greenwich Village neighborhood. It is often called the oldest continuously operating gay bar in New York; however, its management was actively unwilling to operate as such and harassed gay customers until 1966...
, a bar in New York City, challenging a state Liquor Authority regulation prohibiting serving alcohol to homosexuals on the basis that they are disorderly. Although the resultant complaint to the Liquor Authority results in no action, the city's human rights commission declares that such discrimination could not continue. - May 21 – A coalition of homophile organizations across the country organizes simultaneous demonstrations for Armed Forces DayArmed Forces DaySeveral nations of the world hold an annual Armed Forces Day in honor of their military forces. - Armenia :Բանակի օր is celebrated on 28 January to commemorate the formation of the armed forces of the newly independent Republic of Armenia in 1992....
. The Los Angeles group holds a 15-car motorcadeMotorcadeA motorcade is a procession of vehicles. The term motorcade was coined by Lyle Abbot , and is formed after cavalcade on the false notion that "-cade" was a suffix meaning "procession"...
(which has been identified as the nation's first gay pride paradeGay pride paradePride parades for the LGBT community are events celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender culture. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage...
) and activists hold pickets in the other cities. - July 18 – Around 25 people picket Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco when new management begins using PinkertonPinkerton National Detective AgencyThe Pinkerton National Detective Agency, usually shortened to the Pinkertons, is a private U.S. security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850. Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled a plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who later hired...
agents and police to harass gay and transgender customers. - August – Gay and transgender customers riot at Compton'sCompton's cafeteria riotThe Compton's Cafeteria Riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. This incident was one of the first recorded transgender riots in United States history, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City.A smaller-scale riot broke out in 1959 in Los...
in response to continued police harassment. The restaurant and the surrounding neighborhood sustain heavy damage. The following night demonstrators throw up another picket line, which quickly descended into new violence and damage to the restaurant. - September – The Chicago chapter of the Mattachine Society pickets the Chicago TribuneChicago TribuneThe Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
and the Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-TimesThe Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
for routinely ignoring press material and refusing advertising from the organization.
1967
- The book Homosexual Behavior Among Males: A Cross-Cultural and Cross-Species Investigation by Wainwright Churchill III breaks ground as a scientific study approaching homosexuality as a fact of life rather than as a sin, crime or disease, and introduces the term "homoerotophobia", a possible precursor to "homophobiaHomophobiaHomophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
". - Pierre TrudeauPierre TrudeauJoseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
, then CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
's Minister of Justice, introduces an Omnibus Bill to overhaul Canada's criminal laws, which includes decriminalizing homosexual acts. Trudeau tells reporters, "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation" and "What’s done in private between two consenting adults doesn’t concern the Criminal Code." After 18 months of debate, the bill becomes law in 1969. - January 1 – In the first hour of the new year, a raid occurs at the Black Cat TavernBlack Cat TavernThe Black Cat Tavern was an LGBT bar formerly located at 3909 W. Sunset Blvd. in the Silverlake section of Los Angeles, California.-History:The bar was established in November of 1966. Two months later, on the night of New Year's 1967, several plain-clothes police officers infiltrated the Black Cat...
in the Silverlake area near Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Several hundred people spontaneously demonstrate on Sunset BoulevardSunset BoulevardSunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
and picket outside the Black Cat, fueling the formation of gay rights groups in CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. - January 16 — The Louisiana Supreme CourtLouisiana Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of Louisiana is the highest court and court of last resort in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The modern Supreme Court, composed of seven justices, meets in the French Quarter of New Orleans....
rules that the state's statutory ban on "unnatural carnal copulation" applies to women engaged in oral sex with other women. - February 11 – In a follow-up action to the Black Cat demonstration, around 40 picketers demonstrate in front of the Black Cat in coordination with hippies and other countercultureCounterculture of the 1960sThe counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
groups who had been targeted by police for harassment and violence. - March 7 – CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
airs "The HomosexualsCBS Reports: The Homosexuals"The Homosexuals" is a 1967 episode of the documentary television series CBS Reports. The hour-long broadcast featured a discussion of a number of topics related to homosexuality and homosexuals. Mike Wallace anchored the episode, which aired on March 7, 1967...
", an episode of CBS ReportsCBS ReportsCBS Reports is the umbrella title used for documentaries by CBS News which aired starting in 1959 through the 1990s. The series sometimes aired as a wheel series rotating with 60 Minutes , as a series of its own or as specials. The program aired as a constant series from 1959 to 1971...
. This first-ever national television broadcast on the subject of homosexuality has been described as "the single most destructive hour of antigay propaganda in our nation's history." - April 23 – The Student Homophile League of Columbia University pickets and disrupts a panel of psychiatrists discussing homosexuality.
- July 27 – The Sexual Offences Act 1967Sexual Offences Act 1967The Sexual Offences Act 1967 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom . It decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men, both of whom had to have attained the age of 21. The Act applied only to England and Wales and did not cover the Merchant Navy or the Armed Forces...
receives royal assentRoyal AssentThe granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
from Elizabeth II, decriminalizing private homosexual acts in EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and WalesWalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. The age of consentAge of consentWhile the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...
for is set at 21, compared to 16 for heterosexual acts. - August – Following the arrest of two patrons at the Los Angeles gay bar The Patch, owner Lee Glaze organizes the other patrons to move on the police station. After buying out a nearby flower shop, the demonstrators caravan to the station, festoon it with the flowers and bail out the arrested men.
- November 24 - Craig RodwellCraig RodwellCraig L. Rodwell was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop on November 24, 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors and as the prime mover for the creation of the New York City pride demonstration...
opens the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the Oscar Wilde Memorial BookshopOscar Wilde BookshopThe Oscar Wilde Bookshop was the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors. It was founded by Craig Rodwell in 1967 as the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. Initially located at 291 Mercer Street, it moved in 1973 to Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, New York, United States...
.
1968
- Paragraph 175Paragraph 175Paragraph 175 was a provision of the German Criminal Code from 15 May 1871 to 10 March 1994. It made homosexual acts between males a crime, and in early revisions the provision also criminalized bestiality. All in all, around 140,000 men were convicted under the law.The statute was amended several...
is eased in East Germany. - July 17 – The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
publishes an article entitled, "U.S. Homosexuals Gain in Trying to Persuade Society to Accept Them".
1969
- CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
state assemblyman Willie BrownWillie Brown (politician)Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served over 30 years in the California State Assembly, spending 15 years as its Speaker, and afterward served as the 41st mayor of San Francisco, the first African American to do so...
starts an annual tradition of introducing legislation to repeal the state's sodomy lawSodomy lawA sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes. The precise sexual acts meant by the term sodomy are rarely spelled out in the law, but are typically understood by courts to include any sexual act deemed unnatural. It also has a range of similar euphemisms...
. He would finally succeed in 1975. - Paragraph 175Paragraph 175Paragraph 175 was a provision of the German Criminal Code from 15 May 1871 to 10 March 1994. It made homosexual acts between males a crime, and in early revisions the provision also criminalized bestiality. All in all, around 140,000 men were convicted under the law.The statute was amended several...
eased in West GermanyWest GermanyWest Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. - Paul GoodmanPaul Goodman (writer)Paul Goodman was an American sociologist, poet, writer, anarchist, and public intellectual. Goodman is now mainly remembered as the author of Growing Up Absurd and an activist on the pacifist Left in the 1960s and an inspiration to that era's student movement...
publishes The Politics of Being Queer. - April – When gay activist and journalist Gale Whittington is fired by the States Steamship Company after coming outComing outComing out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
in print, a small group of activists operating under the name "Committee for Homosexual Freedom" (CHF) pickets the company's San Francisco offices every workday between noon and 1:00 for several weeks. - May 14 – CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
decriminalizes homosexual acts between consenting adults with the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69 was an omnibus bill that introduced major changes to the Criminal Code of Canada. It was introduced as Bill C-150 by then Minister of Justice Pierre Trudeau in the second session of the 27th Canadian Parliament on December 21, 1967...
. - May 18 – Fight Repression of Erotic Expression ("FREE"), later to be called the Queer Student Cultural CenterQueer Student Cultural CenterThe Queer Student Cultural Center is the current incarnation of the coming out, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, genderqueer, intersex, and allied communities organization of the University of Minnesota campuses that has been active since May 1969 ....
, is formed at the University of MinnesotaUniversity of MinnesotaThe University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is the first gay and lesbian organization in the state, and the first gay and lesbian college student-led group in the country. - May 21 – The Committee for Homosexual Freedom pickets a Tower RecordsTower RecordsTower Records was a retail music chain that was based in Sacramento, California. It currently exists as an international franchise and an online music store....
store for several weeks following the firing of an employee believed to be gay. The employee is re-hired. - May 21 – In South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, the Immorality Amendment Act, 1969 introduces the infamous "men at a party" clause (section 20A), which criminalised all sexual acts committed between men "at a party", where "party" is defined as any occasion where more than two people are present. The amendment also raised the age of consent for male homosexual activity from 16 to 19, although "sodomySodomy lawA sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes. The precise sexual acts meant by the term sodomy are rarely spelled out in the law, but are typically understood by courts to include any sexual act deemed unnatural. It also has a range of similar euphemisms...
" and "unnatural actUnnatural actUnnatural act is the term, once common in legal parlance, for certain sex acts, including anal sex, oral sex, other non-procreative sexual practices, incest, or procreative sexual acts in the wrong position or without procreative intent....
s" were already criminal. - June 28 – The Stonewall riotsStonewall riotsThe Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City...
in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
mark the start of the modern gay rightsLGBT social movementsLesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements share inter-related goals of social acceptance of sexual and gender minorities. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies have a long history of campaigning for what is generally called LGBT rights, also called gay...
movement. Rioting breaks out sporadically over the next several days. - July 1 – The first "gay prideGay prideLGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
" demonstration takes place on Christopher StreetChristopher Street (Manhattan)Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th St. to the west of its intersection with 6th Ave. The Stonewall Inn is located on Christopher Street, and, therefore, the street was at the center of New York's...
in New York City. - July 24 – The Gay Liberation FrontGay Liberation FrontGay Liberation Front was the name of a number of Gay Liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots, in which police clashed with gay demonstrators.-The Gay Liberation Front:...
, a radical leftist group addressing not only gay rights but other left-wing causes, forms in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Over the next few years dozens of local GLF chapters would form across the country. - August — Canada decriminalizes consensual sex between adults.
- October 31 – TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine runs a cover story entitled, "The Homosexual: Newly Visible, Newly Understood". The author, Christopher Cory, presented a "case for greater tolerance of homosexuals" yet "emphasized the effeminate side of homosexuality to the exclusion of everyone else," resulting in a protest at the Time-Life BuildingTime-Life BuildingThe Time-Life Building, located at 1271 Avenue of the Americas in Rockefeller Center in New York opened in 1959 and was designed by the Rockefeller family's architect Wallace Harrison, of Harrison, Abramovitz, and Harris.The Time & Life Building was the first of four buildings in Rockefeller...
on November 12, 1969. - December 21 – Ten to fifteen members of the New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
chapter of Gay Liberation FrontGay Liberation FrontGay Liberation Front was the name of a number of Gay Liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots, in which police clashed with gay demonstrators.-The Gay Liberation Front:...
break away to form Gay Activists Alliance to focus exclusively on gay rights issues. - December 28 – The Los Angeles chapter of Gay Liberation Front announces plans to establish Stonewall NationStonewall NationStonewall Nation was the informal name given to a proposition by gay activists to establish a separatist community in Alpine County, California in 1970...
, the world's first legally recognized gay villageGay villageA gay village is an urban geographic location with generally recognized boundaries where a large number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people live or frequent...
, by moving several hundred gay people to Alpine County, CaliforniaAlpine County, CaliforniaAlpine County is the smallest county, by population, in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010, it had a population of 1,175, all rural. There are no incorporated cities in the county. The county seat is Markleeville...
, recalling the county government and electing an all-gay slate. After a brief flurry of national attention, GLF announces that the plan is off.
See also
- Timeline of LGBT historyTimeline of LGBT historyThe following is a timeline of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender related history.-9660 to 5000 BC:* Mesolithic rock art in Sicily depicts phallic male figures in pairs that have been interpreted variously, including as depictions of homosexual intercourse.-7000 to 1700 BC:*Among the sexual...
– timeline of events from 12,000 BCE to present - LGBT rights by country or territory – current legal status around the world
- LGBT social movementsLGBT social movementsLesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements share inter-related goals of social acceptance of sexual and gender minorities. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies have a long history of campaigning for what is generally called LGBT rights, also called gay...