A Queer Time(line)

  • 2022

    Iranian Law calls for execution of Elham Choubdar, 24, and Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani, 31, for promoting an LGBTQIA+ lifestyle and aiding queer people seeing asylum

  • 2022

    22 year old medical student and gay man Hamed Sabouri is brutally murdered by the Taliban in Afganistan

  • 2021

    The Taliban takes control of Afganistan and declares a sentence of death by stoning upon LGBTQIA+ individuals and severe consequences to all who oppose Taliban Law

  • 2021

    US passport holders become able to select their own gender for their passport, including new gender marker X, without requiring medical documentation

  • 2021

    Defensive lineman for the Las Vegas Raiders, Carl Nassib, becomes the first NFL player to come out as gay

  • 2021

    Assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Rachel Levine, becomes the first out transgender individual confirmed by the senate

  • 2020

    Delaware District 1 Senate race is awarded to Sarah McBride, the first trans state senator in the US

  • 2020

    Serving New York's 15th and 17th districts, Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones become the first Black and gay men elected to congress

  • 2020

    Mauree Turner becomes the first nonbinary state legislator and first Muslim lawmaker in Oklahoma as they win the race for Oklahoma State House for the 88th District

  • 2020

    The US Supreme Court rules in favor of Gavin Grimm in his case against his former school for discrimination based on gender identity, stating that segregating transgender students is in violation of Title VII

  • 2020

    President Biden's Administration rules that Title VII, Civil Rights Act of 1964, protects LGBT+ employees from discrimination, overturning President Trump's Administration's 2017 ruling

  • 2019

    Billy Porter becomes the first openly gay Black man to be awarded an Emmy for best lead actor

  • 2019

    New York becomes the sixth state to ban the legal use of the "gay and trans panic" defense strategy that allows defendants to blame violence or murder on LGBTQIA+ victims

  • 2017

    President Trump's Department of Justice files brief stating that Title VII, a civil rights amendment established in 1964 prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin in the work place, does not include discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity

  • 2015

    Laverne Cox becomes the first transgender woman to win an Emmy as Executive Producer for her documentary Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word

  • 2015

    Obergefell v. Hodges rules full marriage equality nationwide

  • 2014

    The Department of Justice announces that Title IX’s ban on gender discrimination in programs of education and federal assistance includes transgender individuals

  • 2014

    California becomes the first state to ban the legal use of the "gay and trans panic" defense strategy that allows defendants to blame violence or murder on LGBTQIA+ victims

  • 2013

    Gay marriage legalized again in California after becoming illegal in 2008

  • 2012

    The FDA approved the use of Truvada for preventing contraction of HIV (PrEP)

  • 2009

    President Obama signs the first federal law protecting transgender people, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes and Prevention Act. This legislation extended hate-crime protections to include gender & gender identity, disability, and sexual orientation based crimes

  • 2008

    Same-sex marriage becomes illegal again in California

  • 2008

    California becomes the second state in the US to legalize gay marriage

  • 2007

    Timothy Brown becomes first person cured of HIV

  • 2004

    Massachusetts becomes the first state to legalize same-sex marriage

  • 2003

    In Lawrence v. Texas the US Supreme Court rules anti-sodomy laws unconstitutional, essentially legalizing gay sex

  • 2000

    Vermont becomes first state to legalize same-sex unions allowing couples the same benefits of married couples, but without using the term “marriage”

  • 1999

    The American Counseling Association Governing Council publicly opposes conversion therapy and states that homosexuality is not a mental health disorder

  • 1996

    President Clinton signs Defense of Marriage Act to deny same-sex couples federal benefits in the event gay marriage becomes legal and allow states to disregard queer marriages from other states

  • 1993

    Intersex Society of North America founded by Bo Laurent to grow awareness and support intersex individuals

  • 1993

    Minnesota enacts statewide law banning discrimination against Trans and queer people, becoming the first state to do so

  • 1991

    Famed Black lesbian poet Audre Lorde named the New York State Poet Laureate

  • 1986

    The Supreme Court ruling Bowers v. Hardwick allows states to pass their own sodomy laws targeting homosexuals

  • 1982

    Wisconsin passes first civil rights bill for gays and lesbians prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations

  • 1981

    The first cases of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), originally called “Gay-Related Immune Deficiency”, or GRID, are recorded, infecting around 84.2 million and killing 40.1 million people to this day

  • 1979

    The first March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights occurs with over 100,000 participants

  • 1977

    Harvey Milk becomes another openly gay person elected to public office in California

  • 1975

    Elaine Noble, an openly lesbian
    politician, is elected to serve in the Massachusetts House of Representatives

  • 1974

    Kathy Kozachenko of Ann Arbor City Council in Michigan becomes first openly gay person elected to public office in the US

  • 1969

    LGBTQIA+ rights movement begins with the Stonewall Riots, led by trans women Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera

  • 1962

    Illinois becomes first US State to decriminalize homosexuality

  • 1955

    The first national lesbian rights group, Daughters of Bilitis, is founded in San Francisco

  • 1953

    The US gains its first queer magazine, ONE: The Homosexual Magazine

  • 1942-1944

    Anne Frank writes her famous diary, detailing her attraction to women and love for her best friend

  • 1913-1918

    Trans man Zapatista Colonel Amelio Robles Ávila fights in the Mexican Revolutionary war, becoming a key leader in the Mexican Revolution

  • 1904

    First public defense of lesbian civil rights occurs in Germany by Anna Rüling

  • 1777

    Chevalier d'Eon, a French diplomat, spy to King Louis XV, and trans woman, started rumors and eventually convinced the Court of the King's Bench that she was actually a woman that had been masquerading as a man her whole life, allowing her to live as her true self in court

  • 1322

    Rabbi Kalonymus Ben Kalonymus writes a descriptive poem about being transgender

  • 6th Century BCE

    The Book of Leviticus is written, taking inspiration from the Book of Avesta, criminalizing homosexual acts punishable by death

  • 7th Century BCE

    Greek poet Sappho on the island Lesbos writes stunning poems describing her love for women

  • 10th Century BCE

    Vendidad becomes first religion to criminalize homosexuality, punishable by death, in the Book of Avesta on the basis of “wasting sperm” and the belief that anal sex is “unsanitary,” beginning a long line of homophobia that exists to this day

  • 17th Century BCE

    The Code of Hammurabi of Ancient Mesopotamia uses the term “salzikrum,” meaning “Male-Daughter,” as a term for people assigned female at birth that exhibit what they perceived to be “male” mannerisms, including having relationships with women

  • 24th Century BCE

    Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum of Ancient Egypt are described today as the first known & recorded queer couple in history