January 1 - National
Barry Manilow is introduced to Garry Kief and they start dating. Barry didn’t officially come out until they were married in 2014. They feel deeply private about their lives.
January 1 – National
John Stoltenberg an activist publishes “Disarmament and masculinity: An outline guide and bibliography for studying the connection between sexual violence and war”
August 1 - National
Rev. Robert Drechsler tells his congregation that he is gay. He must leave his job but writes in parting to his congregation: “Perhaps someday we will be able to accept one another, each as a child of God, loved by God.”
February 1 - Virginia
The Virginia Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Rights forms.
July 5 - New York
A gang of youths armed with baseball bats and tree branches assaulted several men in an area of Central Park in New York City that was known to be frequented by homosexuals. The victims were assaulted at random, but the assailants later confessed that they had deliberately set out to the park
to attack homosexuals. One of those injured was former figure skater Dick Button, who was assaulted while watching a fireworks display in the park.
Violet for spirit
October 7 - New Jersey
17-year-old Steven Charles of Newark, New Jersey, was beaten to death in New York City by Robert DeLicio, Costabile "Gus" Farace, Farace's cousin Mark Granato, and David Spoto. They also beat Charles' friend, 16-year-old Thomas Moore of Brooklyn. Moore was critically injured but managed to get help at a nearby residence. Moore identified the four men via a lineup four days after the incident. Farace, the leader of the attack, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was paroled after eight years, in 1988. He, himself was murdered on November 17, 1989.
October 7 - California
The San Francisco Bay Times, a free weekly LGBT newspaper in San Francisco, California, started as Coming Up!. Coming Up! was billed as "the gay lesbian newspaper and calendar of events for the Bay Area."
October 7 - Minnesota
Robert Allen Taylor was stabbed to death near Loring Park in Minneapolis. A local reporter interviewed the murderer from jail and was told, "I don't like gays. Okay?"
January 1 – National
Oregon gay activist Terry Bean works with groups in other parts of the U.S. to create the Gay Rights National Lobby.
Blue for art
January 1 – National
John Birch Society trainer and “family activist” Tim LaHaye publishes The Unhappy Gays (later retitled What Everyone Should Know About Homosexuality). Calling gay people “militant, organized, and vile,” LaHaye anticipates anti-gay arguments to come.
Green for nature
Yellow for the sun
President Jimmy Carter
Indigo for harmony
January 1 – National
David A. Noebel of the Summit Ministries of Colorado publishes “The Homosexual Revolution,” and dedicates it to Anita Bryant.
May 15 - National
Columnist George Will applauds Anita Bryant and condemns gay rights ordinances as “part of the moral disarmament of society.”
November 1 - California
John Briggs drops out of the California governor's race, but receives support for Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, a proposal to fire any teacher or school employee who publicly supports gay rights. President Jimmy Carter, former Governor Ronald Reagan, and Governor Jerry Brown speak out against the proposition. On November 7, voters reject the proposition by more than a million votes.
September 1 - California
Log Cabin Republicans club is formed in Southern California (originally called “Gay Republicans”).
Senator John Biggs (Left)
July 5 - Minnesota
Terry Knudsen was beaten to death by three men in Loring Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Red for life
State equality and discrimination bills
January 1 - National
Terry Bean networks with national leaders, eventually forming the National Gay Task Force.
January 1 – National
N. A. Diaman publishes “Ed Dean Is Queer”
November 1 - Oregon
Eugene voters approve Measure 51, which repeals the 1977 city ordinance that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.
November 1 - California
Dr. Fritz Klein first described the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid (KSOG), which attempts to measure sexual orientation by expanding upon the earlier Kinsey scale, in his 1978 book The Bisexual Option.
September 1 - Michigan
Gay Youth Group for Ann Arbor area high school students begins meeting at Ozone House.
United States LGBT History for 1978
Hot pink for sexuality
Orange for healing
July 5 - Virginia
Richmond, Virginia’s Human Rights Commission approves a proposal for nondiscrimination including sexual orientation to be added to the Richmond City Code.
January 1 - National
Andrew Holleran a writer publishes his first novel “Dancer from the Dance” about gay men in New York City and Fire Island.
January 1 – New York
New York becomes the first state to say it will not reject adoption applicants solely because of “homosexuality.”
February 7 - Oklahoma
Oklahoma passes a “Teacher Fitness” statute, allowing local school boards to fire any teacher who “advocates, encourages or promotes” homosexuality.
October 15 - California
California State Senator John Briggs floats a ballot initiative allowing local school boards to ban gay teachers. “One third of San Francisco teachers are homosexual,” Briggs says. “I assume most of them are seducing young boys in toilets.” The initiative is defeated, but the campaign inspires anti- gay crusaders like the Rev. Lou Sheldon, who will found the Traditional Values Coalition in 1981.
May 15 - National
60 Minutes broadcasts a segment on child pornography, concentrating on “adult homosexuals who prey on small boys.”
November 27 - California
The body of Supervisor Harvey Milk is wheeled from his chambers at City Hall, after he and Mayor George Moscone were shot and killed. One of the nation's first openly gay politicians he was assassinated by former government official Dan White. Milk became a martyr in the gay community and was later called "the most famous and most significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States." The murder invoked protesting and riots.
January 1 - California
Samois the earliest known lesbian-feminist BDSM organization is founded in San Francisco. The anti-gay Briggs Initiative which would have banned gays from serving as public school teachers is defeated by California voters. Harvey Milk was instrumental in fighting the measure and opposition from Ronald Reagan helped defeat it. In 1979, Los Angeles passed its first homosexual rights bill with no fanfare from Tom Bradley but much support from arts.
January 1 – National
Larry Kramer publishes his first fiction book “Faggots”. The book is a fierce satire of the gay ghetto and a touching story of one man's desperate search for love there, and reading it today is a fascinating look at how much, and how little, has changed.
June 1 - National
Arthur Evans publishes “Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture”
Harvey Milk (1930 - 1978)
May 1 - National
And god bless uncle harry and his roommate jack, who we’re not supposed to talk about (Avon, May 1978) a collection of cartoons from gay magazine Christopher Street advertised as “The World’s First Gay Cartoon Book!” is published. A second collection, le gay ghetto: gay cartoons from Christopher street follows (St. Martin’s, September 1980).
May 1 - Rhode Island
Providence’s MCC pastor, the Rev. Marge Ragona, stages an eight-day hunger strike on the steps of the federal courthouse in Providence, to support the city’s proposed anti-discrimination ordinance that would include a provision to protect gays; the ordinance passed without a gay provision.
Terry Bean
January 1 – New York
The National Coalition of Black Gays is formed in New York City; the group later is known as the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays.
January 1 - National
The United Presbyterian Church, USA formally welcomes gays and lesbians as members, while stating that homosexuality is, “not God’s wish for humanity...Even where the homosexual orientation has not been consciously sought or chosen, it is neither a gift from God nor a state nor a condition like race; it is a result of our living in a fallen world.”
George Will
June 11 - Georgia
Approximately 1,800 to 2,000 Atlanta gay men, lesbians, and their supporters from a coalition of human rights groups picket Anita Bryant’s keynote speech to the Southern Baptist Convention’s conference at the Georgia World Congress Center.
January 1 - California
California Bill AB 607, Orange County Assemblyman Bruce Nestande, passes 23-5 in the Senate and 68-2 in the House and defines marriage as "between one man and one woman". The change came after same-sex couples seeking marital recognition apply in Orange County courthouses for marriage licenses alarming the clerks there. Opponents included Assemblyman Willie Brown and Senator Milton Marks.
Bruce Nestande
May 5 - California
In San Francisco, the rainbow flag is designed by San Francisco artists Gilbert Baker, who created the flag in response to a local activist’s call for a community pride symbol (this was before the pink triangle was popularly used as a symbol of pride). Using the five-striped “Flag of the Race” as his
inspiration, Baker designed a flag with eight stripes: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The rainbow of colors also symbolizes the diversity of the LGBT community. According to Baker, those colors represented sexuality, life, healing, sun, nature, art, harmony, and spirit. Baker dyes and sews the material for the first flag himself.– in the true spirit of Betsy Ross.
July 1 - National
The Bisexual Option is published. The Bisexual Option explores bisexuality, explains the bisexual, and explodes myths surrounding this large “unseen” segment of the population. Now in its second edition, this intriguing book gives an overview of bisexuality. As there is still no book that covers the subject like this one, it is must reading for establishing a contemporary view of bisexuality and those committed to a bisexual lifestyle. Fritz Klein, an experienced psychiatrist and expert in bisexuality and sexual orientation, explains the concept and the variables of sexual orientation and where bisexuality fits.
October 16 - National
The in touch for men cartoon book of gay humor, edited by Krohn, collects gay-themed humor cartoons from In Touch For Men magazine.
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