Tag Archives: LGBT History

Homotastic nuptials may commence in exactly thirty days.

Thunderous ovation. Chills. Tears. (Via – Think Progress)

The vote was 33-29!!!! I love you, New York. Now please excuse me as I slip away for some heavy drinking. Marriage equality in New York has been one of the top focuses of this here website thingy for a long, long time.

Some real American history will be made at San Diego Pride. “To my knowledge [it is] the first time in the history of Pride in the United States, ever, that we have said, ‘Active duty, you are welcome,'” organizer Sean Sala said. “We want you to be there without fear of repercussions, because we love you.” Sala, an active-duty sailor, …

Technically, this is an ad for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Interesting, nonetheless.(Via – David Mixner)

On June 3rd, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will launch an exhibit and website devoted to examining the 30-year history of the AIDS pandemic. “HIV and AIDS Thirty Years Ago” will look at the public health, scientific and political responses in the early phase (1981-87) of the global pandemic. This showcase will be located in the museum’s “Science …

After enduring ugly anti-gay attacks from Christianists during her nomination hearing, open lesbian Barbara Lenk has won confirmation to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. The Governor’s Council confirmed Lenk on a 5-3 vote. She is Governor Deval Patrick’s fourth appointment to the seven-member SJC, which issued the landmark 2003 ruling that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. Lenk, …

Airing tonight at 9pm on PBS’ American Experience: When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the …

California’s education bill requiring that notable LGBT people be positively portrayed in textbooks was passed yesterday by the state Senate. If the bill is adopted by the state Assembly and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, California would become the first state to require the teaching of gay history. Supporters say the move is needed to counter anti-gay stereotypes and beliefs …

Anti-gay Christianist groups are launching an all-out war on California’s pending SB 48 bill, which calls for the inclusion of notable LGBT figures in lessons about civics and history. From a World Net Daily story about “sexual brainwashing”: “Life has consequences. This is what parents get with the Democrats,” said SaveCalifornia.com President Randy Thomasson (pictured). “It’s what they get with …

The website that almost inarguably did more to recast the social and sexual lives of gay men than any phenomenon in recent history, turns ten years old today. Some, including myself, would say that Manhunt and its copycats are largely responsible for the accelerating demise of gay nightlife, especially the now almost-all-gone gay megaclubs. But as some of you know, …

Ten years ago this week, the Netherlands became the world’s first nation to legalize same-sex marriage. Veteran reporter Rex Wockner was in Amsterdam’s City Hall that night and today he reposts this excerpt from his report on the proceedings: Amid an international media frenzy, the weddings took place at City Hall as the law became effective at the stroke of …

Tonight I’ll be attending a fundraiser party for San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society. SPEAKER will feature five significant venues from San Francisco’s timeline: I Beam, End Up, Trocadero Transfer, Townsend, and The Box. These parties and the personalities gravitating around them will be portrayed as a multimedia family tree – telling the tales of notorious Sunday Tea Dances, a sexually …

According to a coming book by historian Robert Beachy, the genesis of the modern gay rights movement came in 19th century Germany. Modern conceptions of homosexuality began, ironically, with an anti-sodomy law. When the German empire was unified in 1871, the Imperial Criminal Code included a law prohibiting sexual penetration of one man by another. Questions about what types of …

Towleroad points us to this clip of yesterday’s civil unions signing ceremony in Hawaii. Gov. Neil Abercrombie makes a great speech that you should enjoy.

To the thunderous cheers of activists and allies, moments ago Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed his state’s civil unions bill into law. As he signed his name, Abercrombie announced that the measure is “the essence of ‘aloha’.” I’ll post video of the signing ceremony shortly.

Courtesy of its producers, this week’s Swag Tuesday prize is two tickets to Evolution Of A Dancer, a novel dance party that will explore the history of gay nightclubbing. Evolution Of A Dancer takes place this Sunday, February 20th at Manhattan’s Rebel club. Performing that night are legendary DJs Susan Morabito, Michael Fierman, and John Celgia. While dance culture has …

Laughter about dead queers. At the White House. It was five long horrifying and desperate years later before Reagan finally personally addressed the AIDS epidemic, when he came out against a public prevention campaign, saying, “Let’s be honest with ourselves, AIDS information can not be what some call ‘value neutral.’ After all, when it comes to preventing AIDS, don’t medicine …

“It is remarkable that two of the so-called ‘greatest presidents’ have also allowed the greatest perpetrations and perpetuations of mass murder. Franklin D. Roosevelt was shamefully inept in dealing with ‘the Jewish question,’ (see my play The Normal Heart), most ironically since so many Jews were his most loyal supporters, the Jerry Zipkins of their day. No one really writes …