LGBTQ+ History

• 

  1952-1973 Homosexuality in the DSM

  Chronicling the battle to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).

• 

  1969 Stonewall Riots

  After one too many police raids, queer bar patrons fought back—and the modern-day LGBTQ+ civil rights movement was launched.

• 

  1973 UpStairs Lounge Arson

  The devastating 1973 arson attack on the Up Stairs Lounge gay bar in New Orleans, resulting in 32 deaths.

• 

  1977 Anita Bryant "Save Our Children" Campaign

  From Miss America finalist to morality crusader, she unleashed a tidal wave of gay activism from Atlanta to San Francisco.

• 

  1978 Briggs Initiative in California

  An early attempt to ban gays and lesbians from the classroom, it went from near-certain victory to exhilarating defeat.

• 

  1978 Harvey Milk Assassination

  The catastrophic killing of America’s first nationally-recognized gay elected official.

• 

  1979 March on Washington

  The first national march in Washington D.C. for LGBT rights, with over 75,000 participants.

• 

  1980-2013 Gender Identity Disorder in the DSM

  The quest to remove Gender Identity Disorder as a mental illness from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).

• 

  1981-Present The AIDS Pandemic

  The disease that stole countless lives, radically altered a movement, and revolutionized health care globally.

• 

  1992 Ballot Measure 9 in Oregon

  The initiative that would have enshrined anti-LGBT discrimination in the Oregon Constitution–and how it was defeated.

• 

  1993 March on Washington

  A million LGBT+ people gathered in our nation’s capital, with bisexual people claiming increased visibility and strength.

• 

  1994-2011 Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT)

  The ill-fated compromise that allowed queer people to serve in the military, as long as they stayed in the closet–and the long battle to overturn it.

• 

  2016 PULSE Nightclub Shooting

  Stories about the deadliest U.S. incident of violence against LGBTQ+ people, by a lone gunman at a gay nightclub.

• 

  Marriage Equality

  From a little-known 1971 lawsuit to Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the long and winding road to marriage equality.