New York
Isabel Miller publishes A Place for Us.
National
The Council for Christian Social Action of the United Church of Christ adopts a resolution on homosexuals and the law, which declare opposition to all laws that make private homosexual relations between consenting adults a crime and thus urges their repeal. The resolution also encourages the UCC Conferences, Associations, and local churches to hold seminars, consultations, conferences, and other gatherings for honest and open discussion of the nature of homosexuality in society.
Washington D.C.
Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. served as a Republican member of the U.S. Senate from 1969 through 1989. He courageously took on his own homophobic political party when he became a champion for AIDS funding, HIV prevention and anti-discrimination law.
June 28 1:20 a.m. - New York
Patrons of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village riot when police officers attempt to raid the popular gay bar around 1am. Since its establishment in 1967, the bar had been frequently raided by police officers trying to clean up the neighborhood of "sexual deviants."
Angry gay youth clash with aggressive police officers in the streets, leading to a three-day riot during which thousands of protestors receive only minimal local news coverage. Nonetheless, the event will be credited with reigniting the fire behind America's modern LGBT rights movement.
Such raids were not unusual in the late 1960s, an era when homosexual sex was illegal in every state but Illinois. That night, however, the street erupted into violent protests and demonstrations that lasted for the next six days. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world.
In the late 1960s, the American Psychiatric Association still classified homosexuality as a mental disorder, and gay men and lesbian women received almost universal moral condemnation from mainstream religions. The act of homosexual sex, even in private homes, was punishable by a light fine, 20 years in prison, or even a life sentence.
New York City had the largest gay population in the United States. It was also the city that most aggressively upheld anti-sodomy laws. In the mid-1960s New York created police vice squads to raid gay bars and baths, and began using decoys to solicit and entrap gays. By 1966 over 100 men a week were arrested as a result of this effort. "It was a nightmare for the lesbian or gay man who was arrested and caught up in the juggernaut but it was also a nightmare for the lesbians or gay men who lived in the closet," Yale Law School professor William Eskridge says in the film. "This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City. Eventually something was bound to blow."
The Stonewall Inn was not a fancy establishment -- even its regular customers described it as a dive. Operated by the Mafia, the bar served watered-down drinks without a liquor license. Its two dark rooms had no running water -- just a tub where the drinking glasses were rinsed for reuse. The Stonewall Inn was, however, one of the only places gay people in New York City could socialize, providing a rare haven where they could drink, dance to the jukebox, and be themselves.
Previous raids of the Stonewall Inn had resolved peacefully. Typically, after police made some arrests, the bar shut down, reopening for business just a few hours later. But the raid on June 28th was different: patrons at the Stonewall resisted arrest and the police quickly lost control of the situation. A crowd gathered on the street outside the Stonewall, forcing police to barricade themselves in the bar. Riot officers wearing helmets and armed with nightsticks descended on the scene. The violent protests and demonstrations that erupted that night continued for almost a week.
In this 90-minute film, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE draws upon eyewitness accounts and rare archival material to bring this pivotal event to life.
Utah
The Mormon Church publishes Miracle of Forgiveness. Chapter 6 is titled, “The Crime Against Nature” where Kimball asserts that masturbation leads to homosexuality. He also asserts “the sin of homosexuality is equal to or greater than that of fornication or adultery.”
National
Betty Friedan warns feminist movement of the “lavender menace” within its ranks
Virginia
In the spring, several Richmond, Virginia, bars whose clientele are mostly gay and lesbian are closed because they violate Virginia’s ABC laws prohibiting sales of alcohol to known homosexuals. Several letters are written to the editors of the Richmond Times-Dispatch protesting these laws.
Lowell Weicker
Michigan
Sherwin Wine was a Rabi that founded the Society for Humanistic Judaism. The organization embraces a human-centered philosophy that combines the celebration of Jewish culture and identity with an adherence to humanistic values and ideas.
December 21 - New York
Gay Activists Alliance forms.
Washington D.C.
Norton v. Macy, 417 F.2d 1161 (D.C. Cir. 1969) Held that civil servant cannot be fired solely on basis of homosexuality
United States LGBT History for 1969
National
Michael Greer stars in The Gay Deceivers which follows Danny and Elliot, two friends who try to get out of the draft by pretending to be gay.
National
John Donovan a writer, publishes “I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip” It was one of the first mainstream teen novels to deal with homosexuality.
California
Catholic Father Patrick X. Nidorf, O.S.A., an Augustinian priest and psychologist, starts a ministry for gay and lesbian Catholics as an extension of his professional work in San Diego, California. This is the beginning of Dignity, an organization of gay and lesbian Catholics that still exists today.
New York
Arthur Bell was an LGBT activist and one of the founding members of Gay Activists Alliance in New York City. His books includes a story of the Stonewall Riots in New York City.
Colorado
In LaForet, Colorado, Unitarian Universalist the Reverend James L. Stoll publicly declares himself to be homosexual at the Student Religious Liberals (SRL) Conference.
August 5 - Georgia
Police raid George Ellis’ Film Forum, which was showing Andy Warhol’s movie “Lonesome Cowboys,” and take photos of audience members. One of them, a minister, files a $500,000 lawsuit against the police.
President Lyndon Johnson
Washington D.C.
A National Institute of Mental Health study, chaired by pioneering research scientist Dr. Evelyn Hooker, urges decriminalization of private sex acts between consenting Adults
National
Author, critic, and activist Paul Goodman publishes the essay "The Politics of Being Queer" in his collection Nature Heals. It is the first known instance of the modern reclamation of the word "queer", previously used exclusively as a slur against LGBT people, as a descriptor used by the LGBT community to refer to themselves. "Queer" as Goodman uses it suggests fluidity and a flouting of rigid sexual structures; Goodman himself identified as bisexual. [Lind, p. 451]
Oregon
A few of Portland’s female impersonators organize the Portland Forum, which provides social and cultural activities for the gay community.
September 1 - Colorado
In LaForet, Colorado, Unitarian Universalist the Reverend James L. Stoll publicly declares himself to be homosexual at the Student Religious Liberals (SRL) Conference.
National
Glenn Shadix a voice actor came out to his parents at 17 years old. They then enrolled him in "ex- gay therapy", which included "shock" treatments. When this failed to change his orientation, he attempted suicide by overdosing. His parents rushed him to a hospital, where he survived a three- day coma. After the incident, his parents began to accept his sexuality.
Glenn Shadix
Arthur Bell
State equality and discrimination bills
October 1 - National
Gay Liberation Front (GLF) formed in New York. Leo Martello who attended the first meeting of the Mattachine Society and criticized the organization for taking a negative stance on the Stonewall riots. He declared that homosexuality isn’t a problem, it’s societies view of homosexuality that must change. The GLF adopted a much more aggressive stance in forcing the conversation through protesting.
Kansas
In a comprehensive criminal code revision, Kansas becomes the first state in the nation to make its consensual sodomy law applicable only to people of the same sex.
National
Peter Tuesday Hughes a mystery science fiction author publishes “Gay Nights at Maldelangue”
March 9 - California
Howard Efland, a gay man who had checked into the Dover Hotel in Los Angeles, under the pseudonym J. McCann, was beaten to death by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department.
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