November 1 - Virginia
In Richmond, sponsored by the Richmond Gay Rights Association, Bruce Garnett becomes the first openly gay man to lobby the General Assembly for LGBT rights.
Tony Perkins
July 1 - Washington D.C.
Moral Majority allies in Congress propose the Family Protection Act, which would bar giving federal funds to “any organization that suggests that homosexuality can be an acceptable alternative lifestyle.” Despite President Reagan's endorsement, the bill is defeated.
R.J. Rushdoony
January 1 – Georgia
Auditions are held to form the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus.
January 1 – Michigan
Jean Lois Ross founds the Lansing chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays PFLAG.
James Dobson
January 16 - Washington D.C.
The Department of Defense issues Directive 1332.14, stating that “homosexuality is incompatible with military service” and that any service member who has “engaged in, has attempted to engage in, or has solicited another to engage in a homosexual act” will face mandatory discharge. The directive will be reissued with updates in 1982, 1993 and 2008.
January 1 - National
Aaron Fricke publishes his first novel “Reflections of a Rock Lobster: A Story about Growing Up Gay”. No one in Cumberland, Rhode Island, was surprised when Aaron Fricke showed up at the high school prom with a male date. He had sued his school for the right to do so, and the papers had been full of the news ever since. Yet only a year earlier, Fricke would never have dreamed of being so open about his gay feelings. Now you can read his gripping story about growing up gay: about coming to terms with being different and a moving lesson in what gay pride can really mean in a small New England town.
Bruce Garnett
August 1 - National
The very first published “Omaha, the Cat Dancer” strip, appearing in BIZARRE SEX #9, features the self-defined bisexual SHELLEY HINE. Several characters who appear in later installments of the strip have engaged in homosexual activities, including Rob Shaw, Cee Cee, and of course Omaha herself Martina Navratilova comes out in an article in the New York Daily News.
January 1 - Oregon
Portland Women’s Counseling Collective organizes a lesbian support/therapy group that meets on Thursday nights.
June 1 - National
Jeffrey Weeks as a writer focuses on gay studies published “Sex, Politics and Society. The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800”
January 1 - National
The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, by Vito Russo, is published. Praised by the Chicago Tribune as "an impressive study" and written with incisive wit and searing perception--the definitive, highly acclaimed landmark work on the portrayal of homosexuality in film. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, by Vito Russo, is published. The book details the changing portrayals of love, sexuality, and homosexuals in movies.
January 1 – California
Frontier magazine was founded to report on the California LGBT community.
United States LGBT History for 1981
President Jimmy Carter
August 1 - National
Charles Silverstein publishes “Man to Man: Gay Couples in America”
State equality and discrimination bills
February 10 - National
The Moral Majority announces it will spend 3 million dollars in anti-gay advertising.
Jerry Falwell
July 3 - Washington D.C.
The New York Times prints the first story of a rare pneumonia and skin cancer found in 41 gay men in New York and California, and for a time it is known as “gay cancer.” The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) initially refers to the disease as GRID, Gay Related Immune Deficiency Disorder. When the symptoms are found outside the gay community, Bruce Voeller, biologist and founder of the National Gay Task Force, successfully lobbies to change the name of the disease to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). AIDS sweeps through the gay community and other marginalized groups in American society. Over 100,000 gay men die of AIDS-related complications in the next decade. The “Moral Majority” decrees that the disease is “God’s punishment for homosexuality” and the Reagan Administration is extremely slow in its response to the health crisis. President Reagan does not even mention the word “AIDS” in public until well into his second term in office, several years into the epidemic. Public health officials cite the Administration’s slow rate of response as the central reason for AIDS becoming an epidemic in America.
Tim & Beverly Lahaye
January 1 - Washington D.C.
New Ways Ministry holds its first national symposium on homosexuality and the Catholic Church. Archbishop James Hickey of Washington, D.C., writes Catholic bishops and communities, asking them not to support the event, but more than fifty Catholic groups endorse the program.
January 1 – National
Wesley Eure was fired from Days of Our Lives. According to Eure, he believed the reason he was fired was because he was homosexuality, which attracted attention and threatened more deeply closeted producers and actors. Years later, Eure met Earl Greenburg, the head of NBC's daytime programming division, who was also gay, confirmed that Eure was fired because of rumors about his homosexuality.
January 1 - Washington D.C.
The Anti-Defamation League drafts legislation and takes it to Congress to unify hate crime laws across the United States.
June 1 - National
The Executive Council of the UCC adopted the "Equal Employment Opportunity Policy and Revision”, where it affirmed its moral and legal commitment to support and implement a program of Equal Employment Opportunity.
July 30 - National
Martina Navratilova comes out in an article in the New York Daily News. Despite being a top women’s player through the 1980s, she is unable to win endorsements equal to her heterosexual peers.
November 1 - Wisconsin
Wisconsin became the first state to pass state-wide gay rights legislation.
January 1 – National
The Council for National Policy, a highly secretive club of America’s most powerful far right religious activists, begins meeting quarterly at undisclosed locations. Among the members will be R.J. Rushdoony, who calls for the death penalty for homosexuals, and anti-gay crusaders James Dobson, Beverly and Tim LaHaye, Jerry Falwell, Tony Perkins and Phyllis Schlafly. George W. Bush will meet with the Council during his first campaign for president.
June 5 - National
The first medical report about a mysterious illness that appears to be affecting young gay and bisexual men in urban areas is published in the Center for Disease Control's newsletter, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Two of the symptoms of this illness are Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS), a rare form of cancer that had previously been seen mostly in elderly people, and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), both of which tended to only occur in people with weakened immune systems. By the end of the year, 150 adults - mostly gay men - and nine children die of this illness, which does not yet have a name.
April 30 - National
Billie Jean King is outed by her ex-lover, Marilyn Barnett’s “galimony” suit. BJK loses most of her endorsements despite denying she is a lesbian.
Billie Jean King
Professional Tennis Player
Phyllis Schlafly
January 1 – National
Douglas Dunes gay resort opens on Blue Star Highway near Saugatuck.
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