Friday, October 02, 2009

LGBT History Month: On This Day In Gay History


October 2, 1650 – The Plymouth colony court found Sara Norman guilty of lewd behavior on a bed with Mary Hammon. She was given a warning and ordered to publicly acknowledge her unchaste behavior. (The death penalty in Plymouth applied only to sex between men.)
October 2, 1973 – Dr Howard Brown, former New York City health administrator, came out. He later became director of the National Gay Task Force.
October 2, 1985 – Actor Rock Hudson died of complications from AIDS. His death resulted in greater attention to the AIDS epidemic.
October 2, 1987 – The Minnesota Supreme Court refused to rule on the constitutionality of the state’s sodomy law, which allowed the law to remain on the books.
October 2, 1987 – Commissioner John Markl of Traverse City Michigan resigned after Cindy and Dean Robb organized a petition campaign to demand that he be recalled after making homophobic remarks. The couple called his resignation a victory for civil and human rights. According to Dean Robb, nearly all of the volunteers he and his wife organized to get signatures were heterosexual.
October 2, 1990 – Metropolitan police met with members of the London direct action group OutRage to discuss their concerns after several actions directed at UK law enforcement agencies.
October 2, 1997 – “Variety” objected to the Motion Picture Association of America’s decision to give the movie “Bent” an NC-17 rating, pointing out that the sex scenes were far less graphic than heterosexual sex scenes in movies which receive R ratings.
October 2, 1999 - California governor Gray Davis signed three gay rights bills.

1 comment:

  1. What is hopeful about these events is the progress that's been made.

    ReplyDelete

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