Monday, May 17, 2010
May 14, 1868
Birthday - Magnus Hirschfeld Founder of the Scientific Humanitarian Committee in Germany in 1897, which was the first gay rights organization
This month in LGBT History
May
May 31, 1819
Birthday - Walt Whitman (Poet)
May 26, 1864
A ban is lifted on the books of Karl Heinrich Ulrich, a mid-nineteenth century German legalist who encouraged other homosexuals to come out of the closet; considered the beginning of the modern gay movement
May 14, 1868
Birthday - Magnus Hirschfeld Founder of the Scientific Humanitarian Committee in Germany in 1897, which was the first gay rights organization
May 6, 1919
Birthday - Liberace (Entertainer)
May 16, 1929
Birthday - Adrienne Rich (Poet)
May 22, 1930
Birthday - Harvey Milk (First openly gay elected official in the U.S.; assassinated on November 27, 1978)
May 25, 1939
Birthday - Sir Ian Murray McKellen (Actor)
May 29, 1961
Birthday - Melissa Etheridge (Rock Star)
May 25, 1965
First openly gay demonstration for gay rights at the White House
May 14, 1974
Bella Abzug and Edward I. Koch introduced the Equality Act of 1974, a sweeping federal bill to ban discrimination against lesbians, gay men, unmarried persons and women in employment, housing and public accommodations
May 25, 1978
The first "Gay Day" at Disneyland is held; more than 15,000 people attend and is the largest private party ever held at Disneyland
May 30, 1987
U.S. Congressman Barney Frank comes out in an interview published in the Boston Globe
May 28, 1998
President Clinton bans discrimination in federal employment on the basis of sexual orientation
May 17, 2004
Massachusetts becomes the first state to legally allow same-sex marriages