January 1 - Oregon
Portland Gay Mens' Chorus founded by MCC choir Director Gary Coleman, Steve Fulmer, and Mark
Jones. First concert held at Steve Suss' Embers/Rafters.
January 1 - Nebraska
Paul Cameron, a former psychology instructor at the University of Nebraska, begins publishing pseudo-scientific pamphlets “proving” that gay people commit more serial murders, molest more children, and intentionally spread diseases compared to heterosexuals. Expelled from the American Psychological Association in 1983 for ethics violations, Cameron will continue to produce bogus “studies” widely cited by anti-gay groups.
January 1 – Michigan
Diplomat Health Club opens on S. Division in Grand Rapids.
January 1 - National
In addition to advising Martin Luther King, Jr., Bayard Rustin worked tirelessly for gay equality until his death in 1989. In 2013, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama.
January 1 - National
The Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) resolve that the church: “... should be open to more light on what goes into shaping one’s sexual preferences and reexamine its life and teaching in relation to people who are seeking affirmation and needing acceptance and who are apparently not free to change their orientations.”
State equality and discrimination bills
January 1 - National
Jerry Mills wrote comic strips for “Gay Comix”
January 1 - National
The Violet Quill was a group of seven gay male writers that met to read from their writings to each other and to critique them. This group and the writers epitomize the years between the Stonewall Riots and the beginning of the AIDS pandemic.
September 1 - National
The growth of civil disobedience as political activism led to the founding of the Lesbian Avengers
United States LGBT History for 1980
January 1 - National
Father John Harvey founds Courage, a ministry to gay and lesbian Catholics to help them remain celibate.
April 1 - Virginia
Richmond, Virginia, the General Assembly considers a bill that would decriminalize heterosexual sodomy and make homosexual sodomy a Class 1 Misdemeanor. The bill fails and sodomy remains a Class 6 felony.
August 11 - New York
At the Democratic National Convention held at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Democrats
took a stance supporting gay rights, adding the following to their plank: "All groups must be protected from discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, language, age, sex or sexual orientation."
November 1 - National
The book Overcoming Homosexuality suggests that a strict vegetarian diet may “cure” gays and lesbians.
January 1 - National
The national gay lobby group the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is founded. Two cofounders are Oregon gay activists Terry Bean and Jerry Weller. Initially, HRC is a wing of the Gay Rights National Lobby, and was established to raise money for candidates, something the National Gay Rights Lobby was not permitted to do. Jerry Weller is appointed to the HRC board and elected vice president. HRC’s first contribution goes to the reelection campaign of U.S. Representative Jim Weaver of Eugene.
Media labeled Cameron as the most dangerous person in America because of his unethical approach and promotion of his work on sexuality.
President Jimmy Carter
David McReynolds
Presidential Candidate
October 1 - National
Jim Shooter’s infamous gay-rape story, “A very personal hell,” the first gay-themed story in super- hero comics, appears in HULK #23.
Democratic National Convention
August 11 - Washington D.C.
The Democratic Party’s Rules Committee states that it will not discriminate against homosexuals. At their National Convention on August 11-14, the Democrats become the first political party to endorse a homosexual rights platform.
February 15 - National
The movie “Cruising” is released. A psychopath is scouring New York City gay clubs and viciously slaying homosexuals. Detective Steve Burns is ordered to don leather attire, hang at the city's S&M joints and keep an eye out for the killer. But as Steve becomes immersed in club hopping, he begins to identify with the subculture more than he expected. Meanwhile, Steve behaves distantly around his girlfriend, Nancy, the police force's homophobia becomes apparent and the killer remains at large.
December 5 - New York
Patrick Merla was an editor for the popular gay newspaper The New York Native that started distribution.
Paul Cameron
Staff Sergeant Miriam Ben-Shalom
August 1 - Pennsylvania
Rene Portland hired as women’s basketball coach at Penn State University by Athletic Director and football coach, Joe Paterno. Begins rein of hostility toward her lesbian, bisexual players from 1980 until 2007.
June 1 - National
At the Southern Baptist Convention A “Resolution on Homosexuality” is passed that “deplore[s] the proliferation of homosexual practices, unnatural relations of any character, and sexual perversion” as well as the “concerted effort by ‘Gay Activists’ and liberal humanistic politicians to pass ordinances… under the deceptive guise of human rights” which make homosexuality “equally acceptable to the biblical heterosexual family life style.”
November 1 - National
Stewart the rat, a graphic novel written by Steve Gerber, features minor LGBT content.
January 1 - National
Former Presbyterian minister Lou Sheldon begins warning Americans about the “gay threat” when he founds the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC). The organization, though obsolete, is listed as a designated hate group.
June 1 - National
The Executive Council of the UCC adopts an “Equal Employment Opportunity Policy and Revision,”
in which it affirms moral and legal commitment to support and implement a program of Equal Employment Opportunity.
January 1 - Oregon
Jack Fritscher begins publishing Man2Man a quarterly newsletter.
August 11 - New York
Playwright, AIDS firebrand and gay rights activist Larry Kramer co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, which went on to become the world’s largest private organization assisting people living with AIDS. His Tony Award-winning play The Normal Heart was recently made into a film starring Mark Ruffalo and moved many, including President Obama, despite tepid reviews.
January 1 - National
Various chapters of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, then known as Parents FLAG, begin to distribute information to educational institutions and communities of faith nationwide, establishing itself as a source of information for the general public. When “Dear Abby” mentions PFLAG in one of her advice columns, the organizations are inundated with more than 7,000 letters requesting information.
January 1 - New York
New York sodomy laws are ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court but not formally repealed until 2000.
September 1 - National
John Preston an erotic writer published “Mr. Bendon”
December 1 - National
American Journal of Psychiatry publishes an article noting that religious conversion is a cure for homosexuality.
May 29 - Rhode Island
After winning a suit against Cumberland High School in Rhode Island, Aaron Fricke takes Paul Guilbert to his senior prom. Judge Raymond J. Patine rules that Fricke's right to make a statement about his sexuality supersedes the fears of school officials about disruptions at the prom.
June 22 - Ohio
Sunday L/G Pride Day (Greater Cincinnati Gay Coalition)
November 4 - Washington D.C.
There is a solidifying of the partnership between the “religious right” and the GOP, in the denying of Jimmy Carter’s second term supposedly over the issue of abortion. This, in spite of the fact that Ronald Reagan as California governor was liberal on abortion, and the initial rise of the religious right is instead traced to its support for segregation as in the case of Green v. Connally in the 70s.
January 1 - National
The first Harry Benjamin Standards are produced for therapists working with transgender persons. The standards are named in honor of groundbreaking physician Harry Benjamin, who pioneered affirmative care for transgendered individuals during the mid-twentieth century.
January 1 - California
Johanna Clark organizes the Transsexual Rights Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union.
December 10 - New York
More than 5,000 activists protest at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York regarding the Church’s policies on homosexuality and AIDS.
November 1 - Washington D.C.
Embracing support from the “Moral Majority,” Republican Ronald Reagan wins the American presidency, having pledged to “resist the efforts to obtain government endorsement of homosexuality.”
Aaron Fricke
June 1 - National
Unitarian Universalist Association’s General Assembly approves a Business Resolution urging UUs, the UUA, and the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association (UUMA) to assist in the settlement of openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual ministers.
January 1 – Texas
The Gay Chicano Caucus is founded in Houston
January 1 - Washington D.C.
A federal district court orders the U. S. Army to reinstate Staff Sergeant Miriam Ben-Shalom, ruling that her discharge four years earlier, on grounds of homosexuality, violated her First Amendment rights. The Army dismisses the order, leading Ben-Shalom to file a motion of contempt. After initial victories, her battle to be reinstated ends when the Supreme Court refuses to hear her case, upholding an earlier decision by federal appeals court that ruled in favor of the Army.
May 15 - Washington D.C.
President Carter remarks on Equal Rights Amendment Remarks at a White House Briefing. Public Papers of the Presidents: Jimmy Carter (1980, Book 1), p. 921.1980’s Originally called “GRID” (Gay- Related Immunodeficiency Disease)
October 1 - National
David McReynolds appears on the Socialist Party USA ballot, becoming the first openly gay individual to run for President of the United States.
September 1 - National
John Boswell’s Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality debuts in book stores.
Father John Harvey
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