A Century of LGBTQ+ History
in the United States

Henry Gerber founds the Society for Human Rights in Chicago, the first recognized gay rights organization in the United States. It publishes "Friendship and Freedom," the first gay-interest newsletter in America. The organization is shut down within a year following police raids, and Gerber is arrested. Despite its brief life, it stands as the earliest formal LGBTQ+ advocacy organization in American history.

Biologist Alfred Kinsey publishes his landmark study on human sexuality, introducing what becomes known as the Kinsey Scale, which shows sexual orientation exists on a spectrum. The research, based on interviews with thousands of American men, shocks the public by demonstrating the prevalence of same-sex behavior. A follow-up study on women is published in 1953. Kinsey's work transforms scientific understanding of human sexuality and helps lay the intellectual groundwork for the rights movement that follows.

Harry Hay and others found the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles, one of the earliest sustained gay rights organizations in the U.S. The name references a medieval French troupe of masked performers. The Mattachine Society advocates for gay rights at a time when homosexuality is illegal across the country and works to build gay political consciousness. It exists in various forms through the 1980s and is a foundational organization of the homophile movement.

Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon found the Daughters of Bilitis in San Francisco, the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. The organization takes its name from a poem cycle by Pierre Louys to avoid detection. It provides community, mutual support, and advocacy for lesbian women at a time when same-sex relationships are criminalized and heavily stigmatized. The DOB publishes "The Ladder," the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the U.S.

The American Psychiatric Association publishes the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which classifies homosexuality as a "sociopathic personality disturbance." This classification provides medical justification for the persecution, institutionalization, and forced treatment of gay and lesbian people across the country. It remains until 1973.

Illinois becomes the first U.S. state to remove consensual same-sex acts between adults from its criminal code, following the recommendations of the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code. The change goes largely unnoticed publicly at the time but marks the beginning of a decades-long legal shift away from the criminalization of homosexuality. By 2003, when the Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas, sodomy laws remain in 14 states.

Transgender women and gay people fight back against police at Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, three years before Stonewall. The riot, triggered by police harassment, is one of the first known instances of violent resistance to anti-LGBTQ+ police action in the U.S. Transgender women, many of them women of color, are central to this early act of resistance and to the broader movement that follows.

On June 28, 1969, police raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. This time, the community fights back. The uprising lasts several nights and draws hundreds of participants. Key figures include Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transgender woman, and Sylvia Rivera, a Latina transgender woman, who become symbols of the resistance. The Stonewall Uprising is widely credited as the catalyst for the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. June is designated Pride Month in commemoration of these events.

On June 28, 1970, the first anniversary of Stonewall, LGBTQ+ people march in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. These are the first Gay Pride marches in history. In New York, thousands march from Greenwich Village to Central Park. In Los Angeles, a smaller but significant march takes place. These events establish the tradition of Pride month that continues worldwide today.

After years of activism, including the disruption of APA annual meetings by gay activists Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings, the American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is one of the most significant victories of the early gay rights movement, ending the medical classification of gay and lesbian identity as a disorder. The APA statement calls for full civil rights for homosexual citizens.

Elaine Noble is elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, becoming the first openly gay or lesbian candidate elected to a state legislature in American history. Her campaign faces significant hostility including death threats. Her election demonstrates that an openly gay candidate can win public office and inspires future LGBTQ+ political candidacies.

Harvey Milk becomes the first openly gay man elected to public office in California and one of the first in the country. His election as a San Francisco city supervisor galvanizes the movement nationally. He champions civil rights, mental health resources, and building coalitions across communities. Milk is assassinated in November 1978 by former supervisor Dan White, along with Mayor George Moscone. His legacy as a pioneering openly gay elected official endures. The first Gay Pride flag is created by Gilbert Baker in 1978 for San Francisco Pride.

Artist and activist Gilbert Baker designs the first rainbow Pride flag for San Francisco's Gay Freedom Day Parade at Harvey Milk's request. The original design features eight stripes representing: hot pink (sexuality), red (life), orange (healing), yellow (sunlight), green (nature), turquoise (magic and art), indigo (serenity), and violet (spirit). The flag is hand-dyed and hand-sewn. The rainbow flag becomes the enduring symbol of LGBTQ+ pride, community, and liberation worldwide.

The Centers for Disease Control publishes its first report on a cluster of unusual pneumonia cases among gay men in Los Angeles. This is the first official recognition of what will become the AIDS epidemic. The Reagan administration's silence and inaction in the face of thousands of deaths is a defining political failure. By the peak of the crisis in the U.S. in the early 1990s, AIDS has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, predominantly gay and bisexual men, intravenous drug users, and people of color. The AIDS crisis reshapes the LGBTQ+ rights movement and creates a generation of activist organizations and leaders.

The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is founded in New York City by writer and activist Larry Kramer and others. ACT UP's confrontational direct action tactics, including "die-ins" and protests at government agencies and pharmaceutical companies, force the acceleration of AIDS drug trials and change the way the FDA handles drug approval. ACT UP's slogan "Silence = Death" becomes one of the most recognizable phrases of the AIDS era. The organization fundamentally changes how patients advocate for themselves within the medical system.

The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is displayed on the National Mall in Washington DC for the first time, featuring nearly 2,000 panels each commemorating an AIDS victim. The display covers a space larger than two football fields. The Quilt continues to grow; today it is one of the largest pieces of community folk art in the world, with over 48,000 panels representing more than 94,000 individuals. The Quilt puts human faces on the epidemic and becomes a powerful tool for advocacy and mourning.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 in Bowers v. Hardwick that the Constitution does not protect consensual homosexual sodomy, allowing states to criminalize same-sex intimacy. The decision devastates the movement. Justice Byron White's majority opinion declares the "claim that any kind of private sexual conduct between consenting adults is constitutionally insulated from state proscription is unsupportable." The ruling stands until Lawrence v. Texas in 2003.

An estimated 800,000 people march in Washington D.C. in the largest civil rights demonstration in U.S. history at the time. The march calls for an AIDS research agenda, anti-discrimination legislation, reproductive rights, and an end to discrimination in the military. The event helps build national momentum for LGBTQ+ rights and demonstrates the political power of a unified coalition.

President Bill Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage for federal purposes as between one man and one woman and allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. DOMA blocks same-sex couples from over 1,100 federal benefits and protections available to married couples. It passes the House 342-67 and the Senate 85-14. Clinton later says signing DOMA was a mistake. The law is ruled unconstitutional in 2013.

Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student at the University of Wyoming, is beaten, tortured, tied to a fence post, and left to die outside Laramie, Wyoming. He dies six days later. The murder shocks the nation and focuses attention on anti-LGBTQ+ hate violence. It galvanizes support for federal hate crime legislation. Matthew's mother Judy Shepard founds the Matthew Shepard Foundation and becomes one of the most prominent LGBTQ+ rights advocates in the country. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is finally signed in 2009.

On April 30, 1997, the sitcom "Ellen" airs the "The Puppy Episode" in which Ellen Morgan, played by Ellen DeGeneres, comes out as gay. DeGeneres had also come out publicly as a lesbian the same week on the cover of Time magazine with the caption "Yep, I'm Gay." The episode is watched by 44 million viewers, becoming one of the highest-rated episodes in the show's history. It marks a watershed moment for LGBTQ+ visibility in mainstream American media.

The Supreme Court rules 6-3 in Lawrence v. Texas that laws criminalizing consensual same-sex intimacy are unconstitutional, overturning Bowers v. Hardwick (1986). Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion holds that the Texas sodomy law violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor concurs based on Equal Protection. The ruling decriminalizes same-sex intimacy throughout the United States, striking down sodomy laws in the 14 remaining states that still have them.

On May 17, 2004, Massachusetts begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, becoming the first U.S. state to legally recognize same-sex marriage, following the state Supreme Court's ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, founders of the Daughters of Bilitis and partners of 51 years, are among the first to wed in San Francisco after the city briefly issues licenses. Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts is the first in the country and triggers both a wave of legalization efforts and backlash in other states.

President Obama signs the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, expanding federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by the victim's sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, or disability. The legislation, first introduced a decade earlier following the murders of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr., is the first federal law to explicitly protect LGBTQ+ people. It allows the federal government to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated crimes against LGBTQ+ people.

President Obama signs the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, ending the 1993 policy that prohibited openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual people from serving in the military. The repeal takes effect in September 2011 after the military completes implementation guidelines. An estimated 13,000 service members were discharged under DADT during its 18-year existence. The repeal allows gay and lesbian Americans to serve openly for the first time in the history of the U.S. military.

The Supreme Court rules 5-4 in United States v. Windsor that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, holding that the federal government must recognize same-sex marriages that are legal under state law. Edith Windsor, 83, sued the federal government after being forced to pay $363,053 in estate taxes on her inheritance from her wife of 44 years because the federal government did not recognize their New York marriage. On the same day, the Court rules in Hollingsworth v. Perry that Proposition 8, California's same-sex marriage ban, cannot be defended by ballot initiative proponents, effectively ending the ban.

On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court rules 5-4 in Obergefell v. Hodges that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, requires all states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and recognize same-sex marriages from other states. Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff, sought to be listed on his husband John Arthur's death certificate. The White House is lit in rainbow colors that evening. Marriage equality becomes the law of the land.

Time magazine's June 2014 cover story declares a "Transgender Tipping Point" in American culture, featuring actress Laverne Cox. Cox becomes the first openly transgender person on the cover of Time. The cultural moment reflects growing visibility of transgender people in media, law, and politics, as transgender people increasingly lead the next phase of LGBTQ+ rights advocacy and public discourse.

In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court holds in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on sex, also protects LGBTQ+ employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, writes the majority opinion joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the four liberal justices. The ruling extends workplace protections to millions of LGBTQ+ workers nationwide.

Pete Buttigieg is confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of Transportation, becoming the first openly gay person confirmed to a U.S. Cabinet position. Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and 2020 presidential candidate, is confirmed 86-13. He and his husband Chasten later become fathers to twins born in August 2021. The confirmation represents a milestone in LGBTQ+ political representation at the highest levels of the federal government.

President Biden signs the Respect for Marriage Act, providing additional federal statutory protections for same-sex and interracial marriages. The law repeals DOMA and requires states to recognize valid same-sex and interracial marriages performed in other states. It passes with bipartisan support, including 12 Republican senators and 39 Republican House members. The legislation is passed in part in response to concern that Obergefell could be revisited by the Supreme Court following its June 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

Beginning in 2022 and accelerating through 2024 and 2025, state legislatures introduce and pass hundreds of bills targeting LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender youth. Laws in numerous states ban gender-affirming care for minors, restrict transgender youth from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, limit discussion of LGBTQ+ topics in schools, and restrict bathroom access. The Human Rights Campaign declares a national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans in 2023. LGBTQ+ legal organizations file and win numerous lawsuits challenging these laws. The movement faces its most significant political backlash in decades while continuing to fight for full equality.

LGBTQ+ history is not finished. Advocates, lawyers, organizers, educators, artists, parents, youth, and community members continue writing it every day. The battles for full equality, legal protection, healthcare access, and freedom from discrimination continue. The question of what the next chapter looks like is still being answered, by all of us.