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40 Years fo Gay History
THE EARLY SEVENTIES
Though gay groups had been mobilizing for some time, the 1970s ushered in a new decade of activism and reform. The country may not have known what to do with us yet, but we knew what we wanted to do with the country.
1970
  • The first Gay Liberation Day March is held in New York City
  • More than 250 gays and lesbian, led by the Reverend Troy Perry, march on Hollywood Boulevard for police reform
  • California assemblyman Willie Brown again introduces a bill to decriminalize consensual sex between adults, but it dies in committee
  • The first Gay Freedom Day March is held in Los Angeles
  • NBC broadcasts a six-part series on homosexuality
  • The Los Angeles Times rescinds its ban on the word "homosexual" in advertisements
  • The Boys in the Band, a film based on the off-Broadway play, is released into theaters as is the transsexual spoof Myra Breckinridge
    • Scene from Boys in the Band - Harold Arrives
  • Daughters of Bilitis converts its national structure into a federation of autonomous chapters
  • A resolution supporting lesbian rights is withdrawn at a National Organization for Women convention
  • White House press secretary Ron Ziegler tells The Advocate that President Nixon "doesn't think people of the same sex should marry"
1971
  • An estimated 10,000 lesbians and gays participate in the largest-ever antiwar march in Washington, D.C.
  • Casey Donovan's Boys in the Sand is released to theaters
  • The U.S. Libertarian Party calls for the repeal of all victimless crime laws, including the sodomy laws
  • Frank Kameny becomes the first openly gay candidate for the U.S. Congress
  • The University of Michigan establishes the first collegiate LGBT programs office, then known as the Gay Advocate's Office
  • The Furies Collective is organized
  • The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center is founded
  • A Playboy survey sugggests that homosexuality among men is declining
1972
  • Sweden becomes first country in the world to allow people to legally change their sex, even providing free hormone therapy
  • The word "homophobia" enters the popular lexicon as psychologist George Weinberg publishes the book Society and the Healthy Homosexual
  • Ann Arbor, Mich. becomes the first city in United States to pass a gay rights ordinance
  • The Ladder, a lesbian-oriented publication, and one of the oldest existing gay or lesbian media outlets, folds after 16 years
  • The Equal Rights Amendment is passed by the Senate, after having been passed by the House of Representatives the previous year, but it fails to win ratification by the required number of states
  • ABC broadcasts the gay TV movie That Certain Summer
  • William Johnson of the United Church of Christ becomes the first out gay person ordained by a major demonination
  • FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover dies
  • John Wojtowicz robs a Brooklyn, N.Y.bank to a fund a sex-change for his lover, providing the basis for the film Dog Day Afternoon
1973
  • The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
  • Advice columnist Ann Landers announces that she advocates civil rights for gays—though she still regards homosexuality as unnatural
  • Jack Paar apologizes for using the word "fairy" on his late-night talk show as Johnny Carson comes under fire from gay activists for making "fag" jokes on The Tonight Show
  • The U.S. Army refuses to let gay veterans lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Memorial Day
  • Gay, the nation's second-largest gay newspaper, ceases publication in New York City after three years
  • The American Bar Association adopts a resolution urding states to repeal all laws against gay sex
  • Harvey Milk announces his first campaign for the San Francisco board of supervisors
  • Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund is incorporated in Albany, N.Y.
  • Two separate fires destroy the Los Angeles "mother church" of the Metropolitan Community Church
1974
  • Kathy Kozachenko becomes the first openly gay American elected to public office when she wins a seat on the Ann Arbor, Mich. city council
  • The New York Times publishes a six-part series entitled "Homosexuals in New York: The Gay World"
  • Robert Grant founds American Christian Cause to oppose the "gay agenda," the beginning of modern Christian-right politics in America
  • Patricia Nell Warren's The Front Runner is published
    > > Bio of Patricia Nell Warren
    > > Info about upcoming film version
  • The World Services of Alcoholics Anonymous finally agrees to list gay AA groups in its directory
  • Elaine Noble becomes the first openly gay American elected to state-level office when she wins a seat in the Massachusetts state house
  • In Congress, Bella Abzug and Ed Koch introduce the first federal civil rights bill for gays


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