Oregon
Two Oregon prisoners file a lawsuit challenging the right of the state to sterilize them sexually. One is a straight man convicted of rape, the other a Gay man convicted of sodomy. The straight man withdraws his lawsuit and allows himself to be castrated, but the Gay prisoner convinces the state not to castrate him.
Marie Equi is convicted of sedition for opposing U.S. involvement in WWI. During her trial, the federal prosecutor refers to her as a “degenerate” and “an unsexed woman.” She is sentenced to three years at a federal prison. Equi is assaulted by a federal agent outside the courtroom.
Michigan
Swedish female impersonator Lind performs at the Majestic Theatre in Kalamazoo.
United States LGBT History for 1918
Oregon
The Oregon Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of a man of Greek ancestry, Tom Kapsalas, for consensual sex in a Columbia County lumbering camp. At his trial, the prosecution calls the jury’s attention to the “past glories of Greece.” Kapsalas enters the Oregon Penitentiary at the height of that year’s Spanish influenza pandemic and dies from the disease shortly after arrival.
State equality and discrimination bills
Oregon
Lesbian anarchist and physician Marie Equi initiates a lesbian affair with Irish nationalist Kathleen O’Brennan. The two women live together in the Oregon Hotel downtown, and O’Brennan helps manage Equi’s defense against sedition charges. Equi’s long-time companion, Harriet Speckart, leaves Equi and Portland with their daughter and settles in Seaside.
President Woodrow Wilson
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