August 6 - California
Andy Mangels moderates the first “GAYS IN COMICS” panel at the San Diego Comic Con. There has been a GIC panel at San Diego each year since.
February 1 - California
Three “openly gay” seminary students are certified by the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley CA, provoking a controversy. The students are later declared ineligible for official ordination because all three refuse to state whether or not they intend to remain celibate. Later, the bishops of the newly formed ELCA block the publication of two articles written about the situation by the former bishops of the ALC and LCA in the Church’s magazine, The Lutheran.
April 14 - National
Kellogg refuses to pull allegedly homophobic "Nut 'N Honey" commercial.
January 1 - Washington D.C.
The 10th Annual National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays conference took place
June 1 - National
N. A. Diaman publishes “Castro Street Memories”
Rebecca Wight & Claudia Brenner
March 1 - National
SUPERMAN (v.2) #15 (DC, March 1988) features John Byrne’s recent addition to the Superman supporting cast, MAGGIE SAWYER, and clearly indicates that she is a lesbian. This story also introduces her daughter, making her the first gay parent in mass-market comics. Due to the leading role of Maggie Sawyer in the mini-series METROPOLIS S.C.U., that series is awarded a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic, 1996. The character has also made the transition to the SUPERMAN animated series and the live-action SMALLVILLE series, and now appears in the Gotham central title.
January 1 - California
Members of the recently formed NLLGA meet in Los Angeles and change its name to LLEGO, the National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization, to be based in Washington DC. LLEGO later modifies its name to National Latina/o Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Organization. It holds regular international encuentros from the 1990s through 2004, during which time LLEGO was
largely funded by multi-year grants for HIV/AIDS prevention from the federal Centers for Disease Control.
June 15 - Texas
Southern Baptist Convention A resolution is passed questioning the “moral sanity” of “modern society,” as well as claiming that “the deviant behavior [of homosexuals] has wrought havoc in the lives of millions…[and] is the primary cause of the introduction and spread of AIDS in the United States which has not only affected those of the homosexual community, but also many innocent victims.”
May 15 - Connecticut
Teenagers from a conservative Catholic high school go on a gay bashing spree, beating one victim to death. Having tied up, tortured, and robbed one gay man the night before, teenagers Sean Burke and Marcos Perez, bludgeon Richard Reihl to death. Despite attempts by the defense to portray the two teenaged assailants as star athletes and “All-American boys” who deserve leniency and compassion, a judge sentences them to forty and thirty-five years in prison, respectively, for the killing.
NLLGA Washington D.C.
April 1 - National
Dave Pallone, a gay National League baseball umpire, is fired because of false charges that he is involved in a gay teenaged sex ring. According to Pallone, the baseball team owners want him fired because he is gay.
August 1 - National
Andrew Holleran a writer publishes his novel “Ground Zero”
November 1 - Minnesota
A University of Minnesota study reveals that there is a one in three chances that gay teen boys will attempt suicide.
January 1 – National
OH BOY! SEX COMICS by Brad Parker debuts
December 9 - Pennsylvania
Robert Mapplethorpe art exhibit opened in Philadelphia.
January 1 - National
Chris Glaser a writer publishes “Uncommon Calling”
December 31 - National
American Family Association requests removal of Young, Gay & Proud from the Saginaw Public Library.
February 1 - New Jersey
The Episcopal Diocese of Newark, New Jersey, headed by Bishop Spong, approves a policy that would offer the church’s blessing on homosexual couples, making it the first diocese in the country to do so. The blessing of relationships is not the same thing as gay marriage, which is not dealt with by the policy.
October 11 - National
National Coming Out Day is founded on this anniversary of the March on Washington a year ago.
May 15 - Texas
Tommy Lee Trimble and John Lloyd Griffin, two gay men, were harassed and later shot by Richard Lee Bednarski in Dallas, Texas. Bednarski was later convicted of the two murders but was sentenced to 30 years rather than life in prison. The judge who issued the sentence, Jack Hampton, said later that he did so because the victims were homosexuals who wouldn't have been killed if they "hadn't been cruising the streets" for men. Hampton's comments caused considerable controversy. He was later censured for his remarks and ultimately lost a bid for judicial re-election in 1992.
January 1 - Virginia
In Richmond, Virginia, the statewide organization Virginians for Justice is formed, as well as the direct action organization OUT! Richmond. The same year, at the Artists for Life event, major artists in Richmond raise about $30,000 for AIDS service organizations.
May 13 - Pensylvania
Rebecca Wight was killed when she and her partner, Claudia Brenner, were shot by Stephen Roy Carr while hiking and camping along the Appalachian Trail. Carr later claimed that he became enraged by the couple's lesbianism when he saw them having homosexual relations.
January 1 - Michigan
Midwest AIDS Prevention Project is formed in Ferndale.
February 8 - Iowa
Pat Robertson comes in second in the Republican Iowa Caucus for the party’s presidential nomination.
January 1 - National
The National Education Association adopts a resolution calling for every school district to provide counseling for students struggling with their sexual orientation.
December 14 - National
Eric Marcus publishes “The Male Couple's Guide: Finding a Man, Making a Home, Building a Life”
January 1 - Michigan
Simcha, an organization for the Jewish lesbian and gay community, is founded in Southfield.
January 1 - Michigan
Lesbian/Gay Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party is established.
October 1 - National
Michael Shernoff published “The Sourcebook on Lesbian/Gay Health Care”
Dave Pallone
National Baseball League
July 13 - Oregon
Tri-Met the public transit system in Portland pulls the Cascade AIDS Project ad “We can live together” from buses after receiving complaints that the ad promotes homosexuality.
September 1 - Massachusetts
Kevin Jennings forms the countries first gay straight alliance.
January 1 - Michigan
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays chapter started in Flint.
United States LGBT History for 1988
October 1 - National
THE DESERT PEACH, Donna Barr’s series about the WWII adventures of Rommel’s gay brother, is first published (Thoughts & Images, October 1988) and since has appeared in over 30 single issues and several collections. he series also earned Barr a Xeric Award and Grant in 2002.
December 1 - National
Christopher Davis published “Valley of the Shadow”
December 14 - Michigan
Detroit Area Gay/Lesbian Anti-Violence Project records 115 incidents of anti-gay crime for the year.
December 1 - Washington D.C.
The World Health Organization organizes the first World AIDS Day to raise awareness of the spreading pandemic.
June 19 - Michigan
The Network in Grand Rapids opens gay and lesbian community center on S. Division with their first Pride celebration.
March 1 - Georgia
The Atlanta gay newspaper Southern Voice, originally a project of Southeast Arts and Media Education (SAME), is launched as a 16-page newspaper published every other week.
November 1 - Oregon
After a ferocious campaign by the fundamentalist Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA), Oregon voters overturn their governor’s executive order banning anti-gay discrimination in state hiring. Led by anti- gay crusader Lon Mabon, OCA claims “promiscuous sodomite activists” have called for “the closing of all churches that oppose them and the total destruction of the family.”
January 1 – Washington State
A group of youth with LGBT parents meets at a conference organized by a precursor to the Family Equality Council, and begins the organizing that in 1999 leads to Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE) as an independent national organization.
February 1 - National
Don Sakers published “Lucky in Love”
March 1 - National
The homosexuality of the lead character’s assistant TIGER is casually mentioned in Billy Nguyen, Private Eye, written by John Hartman.
August 1 - National
Joe Keenan a screenwriter, producer and novelist publishes “Blue Heaven”
September 11 - New York
Archbishop O’Connor of New York condemns a recent wave of gay beatings as “stupid, ignorant, and malicious,” stating that those who perpetuate such acts are “doing violence against Christ Himself,” and that anyone who thinks that such violence is condoned by church teachings is “grossly ignorant of what the church actually teaches.”
Gordon Church
June 18 - Ohio
March & Rally for “G & L Rights” (Greater Cincinnati Gay & Lesbian Coalition)
June 15 - National
GREEN ARROW (v.2) #5 & #6 (DC, June/July 1988) features the Emerald Archer breaking up a GAY BASHING GANG in a story by Mike Grell.
January 1 - Pennsylvania
Gary North published the first national bisexual newsletter, called Bisexuality: News, Views, and Networking.
July 1 - National
Episcopal General Convention passes a resolution “decr[ying] the increase in violence against homosexual persons” urging law enforcement officials “across the land to be sensitive to this peril and to prosecute the perpetrators of these acts to the fullest extent of the law.” The resolution also calls upon Bishops to “repudiate the misconception that the Church encourages such violence and to counter the public declarations of those who claim that AIDS is the punishment of God upon homosexual persons.” The Convention also resolves to spend the next three years—until the next convention—in “open dialogue” about sexuality.
January 1 - California
After being rejected two years in a row, Phoenix Rising Oregon group serving gay men and lesbians to join United Way. United Way allocates $16,000 to Phoenix Rising (mainly a counseling service) for the following year.
October 2 - New York
Ten members of the Cathedral Project are arrested for disorderly conduct after they lay down on Fifth Avenue in front of New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in protest of Cardinal O’Connor’s anti- homosexual attitude. The archdiocese also obtains an injunction preventing the organization from further pickets or demonstrations outside St. Patrick’s.
December 1 - Washington D.C.
In a report commissioned by the Department of Defense, the Defense Personnel Security Research and Education Center supports the conclusions of the 1957 Crittenden Report that homosexuals pose no significant security risk. Military leaders challenge the veracity of the research used in the analysis.
June 1 - National
Andy Mangels’ watershed two-part article “Out of the closet and into the comics” appears in Amazing Heroes #143 & #144
State equality and discrimination bills
July 1 - National
Juniper House opens in Portland as the first version of Our House. It is founded by a group of concerned Portlanders to provide housing and care needs of people with AIDS.
November 22 - Utah
Gordon Church, a 28-year old Southern Utah University theater student and gay Mormon was heinously murdered by Lance Wood and Michael Archuleta in what is one of the most horrific hate crimes in Utah history. The trial judge put a gag order on reporters, the reason, it was rumored, to protect the family of Lance Wood, a prominent Mormon family from Delta. Michael Archuleta received the death penalty, while Lance Wood, was sentenced to life in prison.
President Ronald Reagan
January 1 - Washington State
The Archdiocese of Seattle establishes a gay/lesbian ministry.
May 26 - National
The Centers for Disease Control mails a brochure, Understanding AIDS, to every household in the U.S. Approximately 107 million brochures are mailed.
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