1566 - 1st known execution in North America of a person for same-sex sexual activities (by the Spanish in Florida).

1610 - Virginia adopts “sodomy laws” of England, making sex between 2 men a capital crime punishable by death.

1777 - In a move seen as “liberal” at the time, Thomas Jefferson proposes a revision of Virginia law to reduce the penalty for sodomy from death to castration (never enacted).

1778 - Gorthold Enslin beomes 1st American discharged from the army for sodomy.

1860 - Walt Whitman publishes first “Calamus” poems in Leaves of Grass celebrating his “love of comrades.”

1869 - Hungarian psychologist Benkert invents the word “homosexual” to describe people attracted to the same sex.

1924 - The Society for Human Rights, America’s first gay rights organization, is founded in Chicago. Police and media harassment forces its disbandment in less than a year.

1942 - US military revises code on homosexuality. Previously, soldiers could only be expelled if witnessed committing “sodomy.” Now, being gay is enough for dismissal.

1945 - World War II ends. The Veterans Benevolent Association is founded in New York to fight dismissal of gay soldiers.

1950 - Undersecretary of State John Puerifoy speaks of a “pervert peril” in testimony before Congress leading to “witch hunts” for gays who work in the government.

1953 - Newly elected President Eisenhower bans employment of gays by executive order, (not repealed until 1975).

1958 - One Magazine, a publication affiliated with Mattachine, wins a case against the US Postal Service, which had banned distribution of any publications on homosexuality through the mails as “obscenity,” before the Supreme Court.

1965 - Gay and Lesbian people picket outside federal offices in Washington to protest the government’s employment discrimination against gays. First public protest by gay people in the nation’s capital.

1969 - STONEWALL: Angered by police harassment, patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a New York gay bar, fight back during a raid, initiating several days of violence known as the “Stonewall Riots.”

1973 - The American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from a list of illnesses, ending a century of efforts to “cure” gays by psychologists.

1974 - Elaine Noble becomes the 1st openly lesbian or gay person elected to a state office (Massachusetts State House of Representatives).

1980 - Embracing support from the “Moral Majority,” Ronald Reagan wins the presidency having pledged to “resist the efforts…to obtain government endorsement of homosexuality.’

1981 - A new disease appears disproportionately among gay men, earning it the tag “gay cancer” and the name “Gay-Related Immune Deficiency.” Later known as AIDS.

1982 - Wisconsin becomes the 1st state to ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Today Nebraska and Iowa allow discrimination.)

1983 - The first Gay Games are held in San Francisco.

1986 - In California, Becky Smith and Annie Afleck become the 1st openly lesbian couple to be granted legal, joint adoption of a child.

1987 - 500,000 attend the March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is displayed for the 1st time.

1988 - The National Education Association adopts a resolution calling for every school district to provide counseling for students struggling with their sexual orientation.

1988 - Lesbian and gay men celebrate the 1st annual National Coming Out Day, October 11.

1989 - Denmark becomes the first nation to legalize gay marriage.

1990 - President Bush signs into law the Hate Crime Statistics Act, the 1st federal law to include the term “sexual orientation.”

1992 - Colorado passes Amendment 2, prohibiting local entities from enacting civil rights protection for lesbians and gays in the future. In 1996, the Supreme Court will uphold the district court’s decision declaring “A State cannot so deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws.”

1993 - Massachusetts becomes the 1st state to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against public school students.

1993 - President Clinton’s promised lifting of the ban on gays in the military meets with such Congressional and military establishment opposition that he signs the so called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue” compromise.

1993 - Norway becomes the 2nd nation to legalize gay marriage.

1995 - Coors Brewing Company and Walt Disney Company begin offering health benefits to domestic partners of their employees.

1996 - The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA,) which would have prohibited discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation, fails in the Senate by a vote of 50-49. It is the 1st time a vote on lesbian and gay civil rights has come before the full Senate.

1997 - Ellen DeGeneres and her television character, Ellen Morgan, come out. Ellen is the 1st prime time show to feature an openly gay or lesbian lead character. Right-wing groups call for a boycott of ABC and its “anti-family” parent company Disney. The boycott fails.