by Evelyn Bailey
Many significant events happened during the months of December and January pre-1980. These early struggles and successes laid the foundation for Gay Liberation. If you do not recall these or know anything about them, I invite you to visit our website, shoulderstostandon.org.
January 1, 1886 – English Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 takes effect. "Indecencies" between adult males in private become a crime punishable by up to two years imprisonment.
December 11, 1908 Quentin Crisp is born.
January 10, 1956 – About 30 people attend the first public meeting of the Mattachine Society held at the Diplomat Hotel.
January 13, 1958 – The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reverses three lower court rulings that an issue of One Magazine seized in Los Angeles (see October 1954) was obscene thereby protecting the right to publish material about homosexuality.
December 3, 1968 – Metropolitan Community Church holds its first same-sex union ceremony.
December 4, 1970 – NYC opens the first gay community center.
January 1, 1971 – First issue of The Empty Closet published.
January 15, 1973 – The New York DMV bans "offensive" license plate combinations, including "DYK" and "FAG."
January 15, 1973 – Lance Loud comes out on the PBS "series" An American Family. He's the first person to come out on national television.
December 10, 1973 – Australian novelist, Patrick White, becomes the first openly gay writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
December 11, 1973 – Activist Mark Segal interrupts a live broadcast of the CBS Evening News and holds up a sign that says, "Gays Protest CBS Prejudice."
December 15, 1973 – The governing board of the American Psychiatric Association votes to change the classification of homosexuality, and removes it from its list of mental illnesses.
December 11, 1975 George Moscone is elected Mayor of San Francisco. It was 3 years later on November 27, 1978, Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White.
January, 1976 Mary Lou Wells and Bill Coplan elected to 6 mth. terms as Co-Presidents of the GAGV with Patti Evans as Vice-President and Tim Mains as Acting Treasurer.
December 1, 1976 – It took 26 years, but Florida finally releases a man who was held in a state mental hospital for having sex with another man.
January, 1977 Michael Robertson and Pat Coles elected to terms as Co-Presidents of GAGV. Whitey LeBlanc is elected Vice-President.
January 10, 1977 – Ellen Marie Barrett becomes the first openly lesbian cleric.
January, 1978 James R. Ide and Marjory David are elected as co-presidents of the GAGV. Carol Cloen is elected Vice-President.
January, 1978 Three full time staff people are hired by the GAGV through CETA funding.
January, 1979 Sue Cowell and George Mohr are elected Co-Presidents of the GAGV. Peter Hoff is Vice-President.