- ask@gc.libanswers.com
- 409.944.1240 (phone)
- 409.220.4855 (text)
NYC Pride announces the official theme for 2024, “Reflect. Empower. Unite.” The theme was selected to highlight the importance of the NYC Pride March as the intersection for Queer liberation and joy.
Drawing upon the activist history that ignited the movement for LGBTQIA+ rights, the theme encourages individuals, advocates, community leaders, and allies to reflect on the challenges they have overcome together and empowers them to take action in shaping our collective future.
At a time of division in our country and the world, this year’s theme calls for unity within and throughout the LGBTQIA+ community and is a call to action for ALL allies, especially those in government and the private sector, to demonstrate their alliance with the community-at-large at this critical time in our nation's history (NYC Pride, 2024). Read more about this year's theme.
TIMELINE OF NOTABLE EVENTS
| 1732 The term lesbian first used by William King in his book, The Toast, published in England which meant women who loved women. |
| 1869 Hungarian journalist Karl-Maria Kertheny first used the term homosexual. |
| 1894 The pamphlet, “Psychopathia Sexualis” was translated from German and one of the first times the term bisexual is used. 1967: Sexual Freedom League formed in San Francisco in support of bisexual people. |
| 1955 The term gay was used throughout Europe earlier, but this is the year most agree that gay came to mean same-sex relationships between men. |
| 1965 John Oliven, in his book, Sexual Hygiene and Pathology, used the term transgender to mean a person who identifies with a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth. |
| 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, San Francisco. Transgender and drag queens in San Francisco reacted to ongoing harassment by the police force. After several days, the protests stopped. One of the outgrowths was the establishment of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit (NTCU) in support of transgender people. |
| 1969 The Stonewall Riots, New York City. The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar in Greenwich Village in New York City. In response to an unprovoked police raid on an early Saturday morning, over 400 people, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight people protested their treatment and pushed the police away from the area. Some level of rioting continued over the next six nights, which closed the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Riots became a pivotal, defining moment for gay rights. Key people at the riots who went on to tell their stories were: Sylvia Rivera, Martha P. Johnson, Dick Leitsch, Seymore Pine and Craig Rodwell. |
| 1970 The first gay pride marches were held in multiple cities across the United States on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, including San Francisco and Los Angeles / West Hollywood. |
| 1973 The American Psychiatric Association, after considerable advocacy by Frank Kameny and members of the Mattachine Society, changed the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder. It was not until 1987 that homosexuality was completely removed from the APA list of mental disorders. The APA found that “the latest and best scientific evidence shows that sexual orientation and expressions of gender identity occur naturally…and that in short, there is no scientific evidence that sexual orientation, be it heterosexual, homosexual or otherwise, is a free will choice.” |
| 1974 Elaine Noble becomes the first openly gay person to be elected as a state legislator; she served in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives for two terms. |
| 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Over 100,000 people gathered in support of gay and lesbian rights. |
| 1981 AIDS Epidemic begins. The U.S. Center for Disease Control reported the first cases of a rare lung disease, which would be named AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) the following year. There were a total of 583, 298 U.S. men women and children who would die from AIDS through 2007. |
| 1993 The U.S. Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” that allowed gay and lesbian people to serve in the military. They would not be asked their sexual orientation during enlistment screening. |
| 2003 Lawrence v. Texas (Supreme Court Decision) Ruled by a vote of 6-3 that a Kansas law criminalizing gay or lesbian sex was unconstitutional declaring the importance of constitutional liberty and privacy consistent with the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Also overturned the court decision in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) stating that the court had made the wrong decision. |
| 2010 The U.S. Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” so that gay and lesbian people could serve openly in the military. One person present at the signing ceremony in the White House was Frank Kameny who had been released from military service in 1958 because of discriminatory policies against gay and lesbian people. |
| 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges (Supreme Court Decision)-The Court voted 5-4 that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This decision mandated that states must allow same-sex couples to legally marry. |
|
2016 President Obama dedicated the new Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan, as the first US National Monument to honor the LGBTQ rights movement. |
| 2020 In a decisive 6-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 15 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 must be interpreted to protect gay and transgender workers from employment discrimination. Before the ruling, nearly 30 states did not provide these basic civil rights protections, and workers could be fired or discriminated against simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. |
|
2021 Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation (2021, January 20)-Charges federal agencies to fully enforce all federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. (Retrieved from https://ucsd.libguides.com/lgbtdocs/timeline) |
| 2021 Executive Order on Enabling All Qualified Americans to Serve Their Country in Uniform (2021, January 25)-Revokes 3/23/18 Presidential Memorandum and confirms revocation of 8/25/17 Presidential Memorandum regarding military service by transgender individuals. (Retrieved from https://ucsd.libguides.com/lgbtdocs/timeline) |
|
2021 Fact Sheet: The Biden-Harris Administration Champions LGBTQ+ Equality and Marks Pride Month (2021, June 1)-Outlines "the historic progress made towards LGBTQ+ equality since President Biden took office." (Retrieved from https://ucsd.libguides.com/lgbtdocs/timeline) |
| 2022 The Social Security Administration announces that people can now choose their sex marker in their Social Security records. |
