Pride
How 19th-Century Drag Balls Evolved into House Balls, Birthplace of Voguing
In the early 1970s, Black and Latinx gay, trans and queer people developed a thriving subculture in house balls, where they could express themselves freely and find acceptance within a marginalized community. It was here where the world of drag pageantry, which often favored ...read more
AIDS Crisis Timeline
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a virus that had previously appeared sporadically around the world began to spread throughout the United States. Originally identified as a “gay disease” because gay men were one of the primary groups afflicted, HIV and the syndrome it causes, ...read more
How Greg Louganis' Olympic Diving Accident Forced a Conversation About AIDS
Greg Louganis knew something was off as soon as his feet left the springboard. It was September 19, 1988, and the U.S. diver who had won two golds at the previous Olympics, was competing in the preliminaries at the Seoul Olympic Games. He later recounted to ABC’s Barbara Walters ...read more
How AIDS Activists Used ‘Die-Ins’ to Demand Attention to the Growing Epidemic
As the AIDS crisis took hold in the 1980s, killing thousands of Americans and ravaging gay communities, the deadly epidemic went unaddressed by U.S. public health agencies—and unacknowledged by President Ronald Reagan—for years. In response, a political group called ACT UP ...read more
The Queer Victorian Doctors Who Paved the Way for Women in Medicine
In the mid-19th century, Sophia Jex-Blake struggled against constant roadblocks as a woman trying to earn a medical degree—so she decided to establish a school of her own. Founded in 1874, the London School of Medicine for Women was the first and only place a woman could earn a ...read more
How the AIDS Quilt Allowed Millions to Memorialize the Epidemic
First imagined by gay rights activist Cleve Jones in 1985, the AIDS Memorial Quilt—with 1,920 individual panels, each inscribed with the name of a person lost to AIDS—was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 11, 1987. The Quilt then ...read more
How AIDS Remained an Unspoken—But Deadly—Epidemic for Years
By the end of 1984, AIDS had already ravaged the United States for a few years, affecting at least 7,700 people and killing more than 3,500. Scientists had identified the cause of AIDS—HIV—and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified all of its major ...read more
When Hollywood Studios Married Off Gay Stars to Keep Their Sexuality a Secret
During the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1920s, actors and actresses shot to fame—but only if they tailored their images to the demands of the big studios. For LGBT actors, that often meant marrying a person of the opposite sex. The early 20th century represented a unique time ...read more
7 Surprising Facts About the Stonewall Riots and the Fight for LGBTQ Rights
The movement for LGBTQ rights in the United States dates at least as far back as the 1920s, when the first documented gay rights organization was founded. Since then, various groups have advocated for LGBTQ rights and the movement accelerated in the wake of the Stonewall Riots of ...read more
How Dressing in Drag Was Labeled a Crime in the 20th Century
Rusty Brown started dressing as a man, first as a disguise to get a factory job since she lost her war-time position as a machinist at the close of World War II, then in order to work as a drag king. This is when her troubles began. “I have been arrested in New York more times ...read more
What Happened at the Stonewall Riots? A Timeline of the 1969 Uprising
On a hot summer night in 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar located in New York City’s Greenwich Village that served as a haven for the city’s gay, lesbian and transgender community. At the time, homosexual acts remained illegal in every state except Illinois, and bars ...read more
The Supreme Court Rulings That Have Shaped Gay Rights in America
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) was established in 1789, but it didn't rule on a case that directly influenced gay rights until nearly 170 years later. Since then, the highest federal court in the country has weighed-in on about a dozen other LGBTQ rights-related ...read more
How Gay Culture Blossomed During the Roaring Twenties
On a Friday night in February 1926, a crowd of some 1,500 packed the Renaissance Casino in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood for the 58th masquerade and civil ball of Hamilton Lodge. Nearly half of those attending the event, reported the New York Age, appeared to be “men of ...read more
Stonewall Riots Apology: NYPD Commissioner Says 1969 Police Raids Were 'Wrong'
Police crowded the Stonewall Inn, beating the bar’s patrons with nightsticks and brandishing their guns. In 1969, it was common practice for police officers in New York and other cities to harass owners and patrons of bars that they suspected of providing safe harbor for gay ...read more
The Pink Triangle: From Nazi Label to Symbol of Gay Pride
Before the pink triangle became a worldwide symbol of gay power and pride, it was intended as a badge of shame. In Nazi Germany, a downward-pointing pink triangle was sewn onto the shirts of gay men in concentration camps—to identify and further dehumanize them. It wasn’t until ...read more
For Centuries, Blackmail Was a Tool Used to Intimidate Gay Men
There are a lot of exaggerations in the 2018 film The Favourite, but one part that’s true to life is that Sarah Churchill really did threaten to blackmail Queen Anne with letters suggesting the two were more than just friends. It’s a rare example of an 18th-century woman ...read more
Fear of a Gay Batman Brought Batwoman to Life
In the mid-1950s, Batman and Robin comics had a tried-and-true formula: The Dynamic Duo encounter the Joker/Penguin/Catwoman, slug it out with Gotham City’s most fiendish villains, save the day, and retire to stately Wayne Manor for some well-earned down time. That basic rhythm ...read more
41 Has a Secret Meaning in Mexico, Thanks to a Queer Underground Ball
The number 13 is commonly considered unlucky, but in Mexico, the number 41 has been seen as taboo and avoided—at one point the Army left the number out of battalions, hotel and hospital rooms didn’t use it and some even skipped their 41st birthday altogether. The reason has to do ...read more
Gay Conversion Therapy's Disturbing 19th-Century Origins
In 1899, a German psychiatrist electrified the audience at a conference on hypnosis with a bold claim: He had turned a gay man straight. All it took was 45 hypnosis sessions and a few trips to a brothel, Albert von Schrenck-Notzing bragged. Through hypnosis, he claimed, he had ...read more
How Ellen's 'Puppy Episode' Influenced Hollywood—and America
Comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres is considered one of the leading lights of American entertainment, widely beloved for her warm positivity, humanitarian acts and goofy relatability. Her highly successful daytime talk show, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” currently in its ...read more
The Gay 'Sip-In' that Drew from the Civil Rights Movement to Fight Discrimination
On an afternoon in the spring of 1966, at the corner of 10th Street and Waverly Place in Greenwich Village, three men set out to disrupt the political and social climate of New York City. After having gone from one bar to the next, the men reached Julius’, a cozy tavern with a ...read more
The Revolutionary War Hero Who Was Openly Gay
Gay men have always been part of the American military. In an era before gay marriage or open pride, military men fell in love, formed passionate friendships and had same-sex encounters. Due to social and official discrimination, though, most of their stories have gone untold. ...read more
How LGBT Civil Servants Became Public Enemy No. 1 in the 1950s
During the 1950s, the State Department began to scrutinize public servants in its ranks, methodically scanning personnel files and interviewing suspected threats. The goal was to root out “immoral,” “scandalous” and “dangerous” government employees—people whose personal conduct ...read more
Why MLK's Right-Hand Man Was Nearly Written Out of History
On the morning of August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to a crowd of more than 200,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Marking the 100-year anniversary of Lincoln’s delivery of the Gettysburg Address, King hoped to mend the racial fractures within the ...read more