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1533 |
Britain's Buggery Act passed during the reign of Henry VIII. The statute made buggery a capital offense. The act remained in force until it was repealed and replaced by the Offences against the Person Act 1828. Buggery remained a capital offence until 1861. Links: Britain, Gays, Sex 
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1661 Aug 7 |
Benedetta Carlini (b.1590), a Catholic mystic and lesbian nun who lived in counter-reformation Italy, died after having spent thirty-five years in prison. In 2021 a biographical film about Benedetta Carlini called Benedetta, directed by Paul Verhoeven, was released. Links: Italy, Gays
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1850 |
California passed anti-sodomy legislation in its “crime against nature” law. Links: USA, California, Gays, Sex
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1861 |
British colonial rulers framed an anti-homosexuality law for India. Links: Britain, India, Gays
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1864 |
Jamaican law banned sex relations between men. Links: Gays, Jamaica
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1867 |
Lawyer and civil servant Heinrich Ulrichs addressed the Association of German Jurists calling for a repeal of antisodomy laws. Links: Germany, Gays
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1871 |
Germany codified its antisodomy laws under “Paragraph 175” of the penal code. Links: Germany, Gays
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1885 |
Britain enacted a "gross indecency" law. It was later used to persecute thousands of English homosexuals, including playwright Oscar Wilde, who spent two years in prison after a trial in 1895, and World War II code breaker Alan Turing, who committed suicide after being convicted in 1952. Links: Britain, Gays, Sex
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1885 |
In Germany Berlin police Commissioner Leopold von Meerscheidt-Hullessem created the police Dept. of Homosexuals to prosecute cases under Paragraph 175. Links: Germany, Gays
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1888 Apr 16 |
Russian Orthodox Bishop Vladimir (Vasily Sokolovsky) arrived in San Francisco from Russia with an entourage of eight clerics and 11 boys. Links: USA, Gays, SF
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1889 |
In San Francisco the Russian Orthodox Church and episcopal complex at 1713-15 Powell burned down. Some parishioners suspected that Bishop Vladimir had burned it down for insurance money. The bishop accused nihilists that included Dr. Russel, vice-president of the Greco-Russian-Slavonian Benevolent Society. Russel accused the bishop of being a pederast but prosecutors refused to pursue the case. In 1997 Terence Emmons authored “Alleged Sex and Threatened Violence: Doctor Russel, Bishop Vladimir, and the Russians in San Francisco, 1887-1892.” Links: USA, Gays, SF, Books
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1894 |
French poet Pierre Louys (1870-1925) authored “The Songs of Bilitis” (1894) a book of lesbian love poetry. Links: France, Poet, Gays
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1897 |
In Germany Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (SHC) to study homosexuality and help win support for gay rights. Links: Germany, Gays
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1909 Jan 15 |
In San Francisco police arrested Miss Frances Smith, attired in a jaunty sailor costume, and Miss May Burke as they strolled down Montgomery street. Smith was charged with masquerading in male attire and Burke was charged with vagrancy. Links: USA, Gays, SF
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1909 |
California legalized the sterilization of convicted sodomites. Links: USA, California, Gays, Sex
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1911 Jan 10 |
Rear Admiral Buttervant Barry (1849-1938), commander in chief of the US Pacific fleet, was discovered in his quarters on the flagship West Virginia engaged in a liaison with a cabin boy. Admiral Barry, in lieu of resigning or suicide, retired on Jan 13. Links: USA, Gays, SF Bay Area
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1912 Jan 15 |
Henry Du Pré Labouchere (b.1831), prominent British politician and writer/publisher, died in Florence, Italy. In 1885, Labouchere drafted the Labouchere Amendment, outlawing "gross indecency," a euphemism for sodomy. This amendment was enacted to permit the prosecution of Oscar Wilde, who was incarcerated for the crime. Links: Britain, Gays, Writer
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1915 |
California expanded the definition of sodomy to include fellatio and cunnilingus. Links: USA, California, Gays, Sex
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1920 |
Harvard University, under president A. Lawrence Lowell (1909-1933), conducted a clandestine court and “tried” 30 male students and staff members for the “crime of homosexuality.” As a result 2 men committed suicide and the lives of most of the others were shattered. In 2005 William Wright authored “Harvard’s Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals.” Links: Gays, Massachusetts, Education
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1923 |
Homosexuality was made legal in Turkey. It was also legalized in the Ottoman Empire from the mid-nineteenth century. Links: Turkey, Gays
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1928 |
Radclyffe Hall (b.1880-1943) published "The Well of Loneliness," a novel intended as a cry about the plight of "congenital inverts," her term for lesbians. A Bow Street magistrate declared the novel to be obscene. It caused a big stir in England and a trial for obscenity. In 1999 Diana Souhami published "The Trials of Radclyffe Hall." Links: Britain, Gays, Books
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1933 |
The Black Cat Café, a San Francisco Tenderloin bar driven out of business in 1921, reopened at 710 Montgomery under Charles Ridley, the same manager who had run the original. In 1945 it was sold to Sol Stouman and began to attract a clientele of homosexuals. In 1947 Jose Sarria (1922-2013) began hanging out there and gained a reputation for performing female impersonations. In 1998 Michael R. Gorman authored “The Empress Is a Man: Stories from the Life of Jose Sarria.” Links: USA, Gays, SF
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1933 |
Denmark legalized gay sex, but it took nearly eight decades before gay people could marry. Links: Gays, Denmark
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1936 |
Samuel Morris Steward (1909-1993) authored his novel “Angels on the Bough,” a depiction of a girl of easy virtue among Columbus, Ohio, bohemians. It got him fired from the State College of Washington. Links: USA, Gays, Writer, Books
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1936 |
British authorities banned homosexual acts in Palestine. Links: Britain, Palestine, Gays
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1941 May 3 |
Pierre Seel (17) was arrested in Alsace-Lorraine by the German Gestapo and tortured for 10 days for his homosexuality. In 1994 he authored the memoir “I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual.” Links: France, Germany, Gays
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1943 Oct 7 |
Radclyffe Hall (b.1880), English author of the lesbian classic "The Well of Loneliness" (1928), died. The book was the subject of an obscenity trial in Britain which resulted in all copies being ordered destroyed. Links: Britain, Gays
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1944 Aug 13 |
In NYC Lucien Carr stabbed to death David Kammerer following sexual advances by Kammerer, who had been Carr's Boyscout Scoutmaster during his youth. Carr turned himself in and was later sentenced to 20 years, but served only 2 years in prison at Elmira Correctional Facility in upstate, NY. Lucien Carr later introduced Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs to each other. Links: USA, NYC, Gays, Murder
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1948 |
Axel Axgil (1915-2011), born Axel Lundahl-Madsen, was among the founding members of gay rights group LGBT Danmark. Links: Gays, Denmark
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1950 |
Rules for discharging US homosexual service members were established in the Uniform Code of Military Service and signed by Pres. Harry Truman. Links: USA, Gays, TrumanH
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1951 |
California’s high court ruled in Stoumen vs. Reilly on behalf of San Francisco’s Black Cat café and against the Board of Equalizaiton declaring that gays were entitled to gather in public. Links: USA, California, Gays, SF
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1951 |
Jordan banned homosexual acts. Links: Gays, Jordan
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1952 |
Marijane Meaker (1927-2022) authored “Spring Fire.” It was among the first lesbian-themed paperback originals and sold so briskly that it jump-started the genre of lesbian pulp fiction. Links: USA, Gays, Writer, Books
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1953 Apr 27 |
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450: Security Requirements for Government Employment. The order listed "sexual perversion" as a condition for firing a federal employee and for denying employment to potential applicants. Homosexuality, moral perversion, and communism were categorized as national security threats; the issue of homosexual federal workers had become a dire federal personnel policy concern. Links: USA, Labor, Gays, EisenhowerD
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1954 Jun 7 |
Alan Turing (b.1912), English mathematician, died of suicide. Turing, a homosexual, was convicted in 1952 of gross indecency and forced to take estrogen injections. In 2006 David Leavitt authored ”The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer. In 2009 British PM Gordon Brown apologized for the "inhumane" treatment of Alan Turing. Links: Britain, Math, Gays, Biography
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1955 Oct |
Del Martin (1921-2008), Phyllis Lyon and 6 other SF women founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the 1st national lesbian organization. It was named after “The Songs of Bilitis” (1894) a book of lesbian love poetry by French poet Pierre Louys. Links: USA, Gays, SF
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1956 |
DC Comics introduced Batwoman with the alter ego Kathy Kane. The character was killed off in 1979. In 2006 DC Comics revived Batwoman as a lesbian. Links: USA, Gays, Cartoons
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1956 |
San Francisco’s Alcohol Beverage Control Board convened a hearing at which agents testified that that patrons of the Black Cat café had solicitid them after which the board revoked its liquor license. Links: USA, Gays, SF
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1958 Nov 1 |
Jack Dobbins (30) was murdered in Charleston, S.C., for having allegedly made sexual advances. John Mahon (18), the confessed killer, used a brass candlestick and was later acquitted after using a gay panic defense. Links: USA, Gays, Murder, South Carolina
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1958 |
Authorities in Paraguay under Alfredo Stroessner arrested 108 people "of dubious moral conduct" who were subjected to public derision. Links: Paraguay, Gays
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1961 Sep 14 |
SF vice squad stage an early morning raid at the Tay-Bush Inn, a restaurant at Bush and Taylor, and jailed 103 people. All but 14 were men accused of dancing together and kissing. Of 242 patrons 139 escaped. Police arrested 103 of an estimated 242 patrons in the “biggest action of its kind.” Charges against all but 2 of those arrested were later dropped (1st source says August 14). Links: USA, Gays, SF
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1962 |
Michael Dillon, born in England in 1915 as Laura Dillon, died in Dalhousie, India. He was the 1st person to undergo a successful female-to-male sex change (1946-1949). In the 1950s he fell in love with Roberta Cowell, a pre-operative male-to-female. In 2007 Pagan Kennedy authored “The first Man-Made Man: The Story of Two Sex Changes, One Love Affair and a Twentieth-Century Medical Revolution.” Links: Britain, India, Gays, Sex
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1963 |
Ocr 31, In San Francisco the Black Cat café, located in the Canessa Building at 708-710 Montgomery St., closed down for the last time as the state Supreme Court refused to hear its case and lower courts refused to reinstate its liquor license because it catered to homosexuals. Links: USA, Gays, SF
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1964 |
Jane Rule (1931-2007), American-born Canadian writer, authored her novel, “Desert of the Heart.” It later became recognized as a landmark work of lesbian fiction. Links: Canada, USA, Gays, Writer
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1965 Jan 1 |
In SF gay celebrants held a Mardi-Gras themed costume ball at California Hall on Polk Street as a benefit for the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, co-founded in 1964 by Rev. Robert Cromey and Rev. Ted McIlvenna. Police set up flood lights at the entrance and harassed some 500 couples that entered. Mayor Shelley soon called for a full accounting of the episode from Police Chief Thomas Cahill. Links: USA, Gays, SF
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1967 Jul 27 |
The British Sexual Offenses Act received royal assent. It partially decriminalized sexual behavior between consenting males over 21. Elements of the indecency legislation remained in place until 2003, including anti-gay restrictions relating to the age of consent, the military, and sex under various circumstances. The event was later described in the film: "A Bill Called William." The age of consent for homosexual acts was reduced to 16 in 1998. Links: Britain, Gays, Sex
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1968 Apr 14 |
The gay-themed play, "The Boys in the Band" by Mart Crowley, opened off Broadway at Theater Four and set a new genre. A film version was released in 1970. Links: USA, NYC, Gays, Theater
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1968 |
Quentin Crisp (1908-1999), English gay writer born as Denis Pratt, authored his autobiography: "The Naked Civil Servant." In 1975 The Naked Civil Servant was broadcast on British and American television and made both actor John Hurt and Crisp himself into stars. Links: Britain, Gays, Books, Biography
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1969 Jun 19 |
The Kinsey Institute said it has selected the SF Bay Area for the most extensive investigation into homosexuality ever conducted. A pool of 5,000 homosexuals would be interviewed for the 3-year project budgeted at $575,000. Links: USA, Gays, SF Bay Area
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1969 Jun 28 |
In the early hours 8 police officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. Police raided the bar because it had refused to pay an increase in bribery. This led to a clash in what came to be called The Stonewall Rebellion, an incident considered the birth of the homosexual rights movement. Some 400 to 1,000 patrons rioted against police for 3 days The event was described by gay historian Martin Duberman in his book “Stonewall” (1993). Links: USA, NYC, Gays, Corruption
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1969 Dec 31 |
In San Francisco the Cockettes, an avant garde psychedelic hippie theater group recently founded by Hibiscus (George Edgerly Harris III), took the stage at the Palace Theater in North Beach. The group folded in 1972, but returned for a show in 2020. Links: USA, Gays, SF, Theater
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1969 |
Germany decriminalized homosexuality. Links: Germany, Gays
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1970 Jun 28 |
San Francisco’s first official Gay Pride event centered on a “Gay-in” gathering at Golden Gate Park. Links: USA, Gays, SF
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1970 Jun 28 |
In NYC the Christopher Street Liberation Day, the first Pride march, took place a year after the 1969 uprisings at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, which were led by trans women of color. Links: USA, NYC, Gays
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1971 Mar 10 |
In France a group of homosexuals of both sexes disrupted a live general public radio show, devoted to “Homosexuality, that painful problem,” and put the newly-born gay movement on the French political map. Links: France, Gays, Radio
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1971 Apr 1 |
In San Francisco the Bay Area Reporter published its first issue as a community and culture publication. It was begun by Bob Ross (d.2003 at 69) and Paul Bentley. Over the next 45 years it evolved to become a local news source and advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. Links: USA, Gays, SF Bay Area, Journalism
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1971 |
San Francisco’s first Gay Pride parade was held. Links: USA, Gays, SF
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1971 |
In San Francisco Chuck Holmes (1945-2000) founded Falcon Studios. His pioneering movies later enshrined him in the history of adult entertainment as the “godfather of gay porn.” Links: USA, Gays, SF, Film
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1972 Apr 24 |
Natalie Clifford Barney (b.1876), lesbian writer and US expatriate, died in Paris. In 2002 Suzanne Rodriguez authored "Wild Heart, A Life: Natalie Clifford Barney’s Journey From Victorian America to the Literary Salons of Paris." Links: USA, France, Gays, Writer
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1972 May 2 |
In Dallas, Texas, on the second day of the annual convention of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. John Fryer (1938-2003), disguised as Henry Anonymous, M.D., risked his career to tell his colleagues that gay people were not mentally ill. His act sent ripples through the legal, medical and justice systems. Links: USA, Gays, Texas
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