A Gay Rights Timeline

The Gay Rights Movement. That’s what activists working toward basic human rights and equality are labeled. It’s unfortunate that LGBTQ individuals and our allies even need a movement to secure fundamental rights as American citizens. However, we do, and I was surprised how very little is actually known of the movement itself. I had dinner with some friends who, while being heterosexuals all, knew surprisingly little about the greatest cold war on human rights in history. Blacks in America had their challenges, but it was never a crime for two consenting African Americans to have sex. The kind of regulation, stereotyping, and general disdain gays and lesbians have endured has gone on too long. So, I had to know, where it all began:

In 1924, Chicago gave rise to the nation’s earliest gay rights organizations: The Society for Human Rights.

Decades later, in 1948, Alfred Kinsey publishes his study of human sexual behavior. Most people use this particular study to claim that 10% of the population is homosexual.

Another long break in progress for gays and lesbians, it was not until 1962 that Illinois became the first state to remove private, consensual sexual relations between two men or two women

The Stonewall Riots in 1969 shook up the status quo, opening up localized problems into a national dialogue. The three days of anti-raid protesting changed the way people viewed the movement.

Four years later, 1973, the American Psychiatric Association acknowledges that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, owing in no small part to the research and lobbying of Dr. Robert Spitzer.

Wisconsin becomes the first state in the union to pass anti-discrimination laws, officially extending protection to gays and lesbians in 1982.

The Supreme Court proves mildly friendly in 1996 when, in a 6-3 ruling, it strikes down Colorado’s Amendment 2. The amendment to the state’s constitution revoked anti-discrimination protections from gays and lesbians. The Supreme Court ruled that “special rights” were basic human rights.

2000: Vermont becomes the first state to offer civil unions to gays and lesbians, stopping short of gay marriage thanks to a definition in state law that defined the union as one between a man and a woman. In 2009, however, the state legislature overrode the veto of Governor Jim Douglas and same-sex marriage was legalized in the state.

Lawrence v. Texas, another 6-3 split ruling, by the Supreme Court struck down all sodomy laws in the United States. The Court backed the belief that private individuals may do in private what they will in 2003.

In 2004, Massachusetts becomes the first state to recognize full same-sex marriage.

Finally, in 2007, the House of Representatives approved a bill ensuring fairness and equality for the workplace for LGBTQ individuals.

In 2009, Iowa became the third state to legalize same-sex marriage.

The future holds opportunity untold. In this time of economic peril, banks and corporations have been given their economic bailouts. Gays and lesbians have been holding the bucket for decades and it’s time to cash in on a check written by the Founding Fathers. Blacks got to do it, it’s high time we do the same.


Be good,

Will