United States LGBT History for 1975
April 1 - Oregon
A second civil rights bill is introduced into the Oregon House of Representatives. It fails, but comes one vote closer to passage than in 1973.
September 1 - National
Joseph Hansen published his novel with an openly gay character “Troublemaker” Who killed gay bar owner and all-around nice guy Rick Wendell? Was it Larry Johns, the attractive young man found wiping his prints off the still-smoking gun mere moments after the murder? If so, why was Johns naked? And what happened to the large sum of money Wendell had just withdrawn from the bar's bank account? Hard-boiled, openly gay insurance claims investigator Dave Brandstetter aims to find out in Troublemaker, the third volume in Joseph Hansen's legendary and critically acclaimed Brandstetter mystery series.
March 22 - Utah
The Salt Lake Tribune asked the President of BYU, Dallin Oaks, if “BYU security checked known homosexual haunts looking for BYU students” to which Oaks replied he did not know but “wouldn’t be surprised if security officers made such investigations over a period of time.”
January 1 - Virginia
In Richmond, Virginia, a lawsuit, Doe v. Commonwealth’s Attorney of the City of Richmond, unsuccessfully challenges sodomy laws in the state of Virginia.
January 1 - National
Eddie Buczynski founds The Minoan Brotherhood which is a coven of Wiccan. He was dissatisfied with Gardnerian Wicca and other forms of contemporary Paganism which he felt treated homosexual and bisexual individuals as inferior to their heterosexual counterparts
January 1 - National
Gay and lesbian Chicanos and Latinos found the Gay Latino Alliance (GALA) in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Jose regions. GALA combines political activism and socializing as it attempts to challenge the assumptions of gay and lesbian whites about Latinos and of Latina/o heterosexuals about lesbians and gay men in the city.
April 1 - National
Don McGregor’s DETECTIVES, INC.: a remembrance of threatening green graphic novel is published (eclipse, July 1980), featuring the first lesbian characters in mass-market comics.in lee marrs’ further fattening adventures of pudge, girl blimp #2 (star*reach, April 1975) pudge has her first lesbian encounter.1972: “that certain summer,” the first television movie to depict a gay dad, airs on abc, starring martin sheen as a dad who comes out to his teenage son, and Hal Holbrook as his partner. Scott Jacoby, who played the son, won a Best Supporting Actor Emmy.
September 8 - National
Air Force Sgt. Leonard Phillip Matlovich, winner of the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, appears on the cover of Time magazine with the headline “I am a homosexual.” He is the first ever openly gay man to appear on the cover of Time. He is also Mormon.
December 1 - National
Dave Kopay, a retired NFL player, comes out and in 1977 writes The Dave Kopay Story about his experience in the NFL. He is the first major sports star to come out voluntarily.
January 1 – Hawaii
Jim Nabors actor and comedian met Stan Cadwallader in Honolulu and they soon after started dating. They were officially married in 2013 when Hawaii legalized gay marriage throughout the state.
March 8 - Utah
A joint effort between Utah County Sheriff office and BYU security results in the arrest of 14 men on charges of “lewdness and sodomy.” The men were arrested at two freeway rest stops near Pleasant Grove, UT. One of the men arrested was Carlyle D. Marsden of Kaysville, UT. Marsden was 54 years old, a BYU music professor, a returned missionary, a World War II vet, and father of five children. Two days after his arrest, Marsden drove a few blocks from his home where he shot himself in the heart. The Ogden Standard Examiner is the only paper to publish an obituary.
January 1 – National
Richard Hall publishes “The Butterscotch Prince”
Eddie Buczynski
January 1 - Oregon
Portland Town Council (PTC), a gay-rights organization, lobbies the state legislature for gay rights. The Bill does not pass.
March 1 - National
The governing board of the National Council of Churches, comprised of 30 Protestant and Orthodox church bodies, passes resolutions advocating equal rights for homosexuals and women. The board—which has been conducting discussions with an ad hoc group, the Task Force on Gay People, since 1973—expresses concern for protecting the “legal rights of all persons,” while not advocating the ordination of homosexuals
January 1 – California
A consenting adults law was passed in California due to an extensive lobbying effort led by State Assemblyman from San Francisco Willie Brown. It did not repeal existing sodomy or oral copulation laws, but it did exclude private consensual activity between adults over the age of 18 from the reach of such laws. A further law in the same year reduced the maximum penalty for consensual sex with minors under the age of 18 to five years. Both laws essentially rendered the psychopathic offender laws moot, but the prohibitions on disorderly conduct and consensual relations between prisoners remained.
October 1 - National
Lutherans Concerned is given $2,000 by the ALC’s Division for Service and Mission in America, marking the first time a gay group has been given direct financial support from its parent denomination.
January 1 – Utah
“The Purge of ’75.” BYU administrators sent security officers to squash a “homosexual ring” on campus. Security officers pulled male dance and ballet students from class in the Harris Fine Arts Center and interrogated them in the hallways in front of other students.
January 1 – National
Jonathan Ned Katz publishes “Coming Out! A Documentary Play About Gay Life and Lesbian Life Liberation”.
January 1 – Colorado
Clela Rorex issues first same-sex marriage licenses to a gay male couple, inciting hate-filled phone calls and death threats to her home.
September 21 - National
Dog Day Afternoon is released.
January 1 – Michigan
Association of Suburban People forms in suburban Detroit.
January 14 - Washington D.C.
"Civil Rights Amendments of 1975" introduced by Rep. Bella Abzug H.R. 166; 94 H.R. 166, would prohibit discrimination on the basis of affectional or sexual preference, and for other purposes.
January 1 – National
“Hot l Baltimore” ABC. The same year Beverly sashayed into Archie Bunker’s house, ABC launched this short-lived comedy, adapted from a Lanford Wilson play of the same name. It was also produced by Norman Lear but never took off like his other properties. It featured a George and Gordon, an older gay couple living in a shoddy hotel, along with a prostitute and an undocumented immigrant. ABC ran a “mature content” disclaimer before each episode, a network first. (ABC’s Baltimore affiliate refused to carry the show) Hot l Baltimore was cancelled after its initial 13 episode run.
January 1 – Pennsylvania
Governor Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania creates the first committee to research and report on discrimination against sexual minorities. One year later, Governor Shapp issues an executive order outlawing discrimination against sexual minorities in employment, housing and public accommodation.
President Gerald Ford
January 1 – National
Paul Monette publishes his first poetry collection “The Carpenter at the Asylum “
January 1 - New York
The Bisexual Forum is founded in New York City.
June 1 - National
The 10th General Synod of the UCC passes a resolution on human sexuality and the needs of gay and bisexual persons, as well as a pronouncement on civil liberties without regard for sexual orientation.
January 1 - Oregon
Bradley Angle was founded by women who had enough violence for a lifetime and were ready to change their lives. Named for Sharon Bradley and Pam Angle, who died from the violence of living on the streets in Portland, Oregon, Bradley Angle was the first domestic violence shelter on the West Coast. As of 2011, Bradley Angle provides a continuum of domestic violence and sexual assault support services for survivors and their children.
January 1 – National
The Gay American Indians Organization is founded in San Francisco.
January 15 - Washington D.C.
The U.S. Civil Service Commission stops banning gay men and lesbians from federal jobs
Elaine Noble
Massachusetts State House
September 1 - Massachusetts
Catholic Dignity holds a conference in Boston to promote a more positive view of homosexuals in the Roman Catholic Church. Over 400 people attend the conference.
George Kelly
Willie Brown
February 22 - Virginia
The first meeting of the Richmond Lesbian Feminist (RLF) organization. RLF is still active and today is the oldest LGBT organization continually meeting in Richmond, Virginia.
January 1 – National
Lesbian News begins publication and distribution.
State equality and discrimination bills
November 3 - Massachusetts
Elaine Noble becomes the second openly homosexual American elected to public office when she wins a seat in the Massachusetts State House.
January 1 – National
“All in The Family” CBS. Men have been wearing dresses on TV since the days of Milton Berle but it wasn’t until CBS’ All in the Family that America saw an actual drag queen on the small screen. Female impersonator Beverly LaSalle (Lori Shannon) debuted in “Archie the Hero,” where Archie performs CPR on her after she passes out in his cab. The character proved so popular that Beverly returned in “Beverly Rides Again,” to invite Archie and Edith out to dinner. While the storyline was played for laugh, the character was never the butt of the joke.
Beverly’s third and final appearance was her most poignant: In “Edith’s Crisis Of Faith” she invites the Bunkers to her Carnegie Hall debut. Before the performance, though, Beverly (dressed as a man) and Archie’s son-in-law, Mike, are gay-bashed. Mike escapes, but Beverly’s injuries prove fatal. The senseless death of her friend causes Edith to suffer a crisis of faith.
January 1 - National
George Kelly was a screenwriter maintained a 55-year relationship with his lover William Ellsworth Weagley, Jr., up until his death and was often referred to as his valet. George Kelly’s sexuality was a closely guarded secret and went unacknowledged by his family to the point of not inviting Weagley to his funeral; he instead slipped in and sat quietly on a back seat.
January 1 – National
WIMMEN’S COMIX #1 contains the first comic story featuring a lesbian character, “SANDY COMES OUT” by Trina Robbins.
January 1 - California
“Drummer” was a magazine targeted at gay men with an interest in the leather subculture founded by John H. Embry and Jeanne Barney.
Copyright © Proud Scholars 2023.