The first mention of same-sex acts and love, outside of ancient Greece and Rome, was in England in 1290. There was a common law passed that made homosexual acts illegal (x).
The first use of the word “homosexual” was by Karl-Maria Kertbeny, a Hungarian journalist who wrote a passionate piece against Germany’s anti-sodomy laws in the 19th century. (x)
In 1885, Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for sodomy. He had gone back and forth trying to hide his sexuality and attempting to fight for acceptance his entire life. During a feud with his boyfriend’s father, Sir John Sholto Douglas, he brought attention to his private life in a bid to sue him for harassment. Of course, his lawsuit failed, and he was sent to a labour camp for two years. The judge for his case was quoted to have said, “It is the worst case I have ever tried. I shall pass the severest sentence that the law allows.” After these two years, he lived the last three years of his life in exile. Douglas was also the first person to use “queer” as a derogatory slur against gay people, sparking a wide-spread usage of the word in the hateful sense across the world. (x) (x)
Two years after Wilde was imprisoned, the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee was founded in Germany. Its aim was to end the social and legal stigma around homosexuals. Things improved for gay people in Germany a little, to the point where there was 1.2 million out gay men in 1928. However, as the Nazis rose to power, things worsened. The SHC was dissolved in 1933 by the Nazis. Under the reign of Hitler, Germany’s homophobic laws were strengthened; gay people were now known as “175ers” after the legal paragraph that condemned sodomy. Gay people were now known as parasites and “enemies of the state”. Under the direction of the SS, police began cracking down on gay men and lesbians. This was called the “Pink List”. Many were sent to mental hospitals, and others were chemically castrated under a court order. 100,000 gay people were sent to concentration camps where they had a pink triangle sewn onto their uniforms to signify that they were homosexuals. Of this 100k, 55,000 where executed - over 50%. (x)
After WW2 was over, gay people still faced prosecution. Most were exiled from their homes and all were ostracised from society. Many survivors were even imprisoned again, as homosexuals were still seen as “deviants” in post-war society. No SS official was ever tried for specific crimes against gay prisoners.. Many of the known SS doctors, who had performed operations on homosexuals, were never brought to account for their actions. No one even acknowledged gay people as holocaust victims until 1999. (x)
During the 50s, Roberta Cowell became the first transgender woman to access sex-reassignment surgery and legally change her sex in documents in the UK. The 1950s also the birth of The Homosexual Law Reform Society. This group campaigned for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK. Many papers were also published in effort to appeal against the UK’s sodomy laws. (x)
In the US, a gay man named Harry Hay began the Mattachine Society with a small group of friends. His aim was to unify gay people and to help the victims of homophobia across the US. Though the group started in LA, branches popped up in various states, including New York and Chicago. (x) In 1955, the Daughters of Bilitis was founded. It was the first American social group for lesbians and lasted for 14 years. The DOB was seen as an alternative for lesbians bars, which were often raided, due to them being illegal. They created the first lesbian newspaper (The Letter) as a way of educating women about female homosexuality. (x) Both the DOB and the Mattachine Society were fundamental in the American gay rights movement.
The 1960s is a prominent decade in gay history. During 1962, the state of Illinois in the US was the first place to repeal its anti-sodomy laws. There was a protest in New York against military discrimination in 1963, which was the first gay rights demonstration in the world. In Britain, the Sexual Offences Act was passed in 1967. This decriminalised same-sex intercourse between men above 21 in England and Wales. Though this seems like a small thing, it was a huge step for gay men in Britain. There were also several British groups formed for gay and lesbian people, including the Minorities Research Group, which was the first lesbian social group in the UK. (x) (x)
Though things improved slightly for British gay and lesbian people, police violence against homosexuals worsened in the US. The few establishments that catered to gay people were bars, though it was illegal to sell liquor to gay people at this time. Raids of the bars that sold to gay people were commonplace. Policemen would line up the patrons and ask for ID. Those dressed as women would be checked for the sex. If they were found to be male, they would be arrested. The same for women in men’s clothing. Many officers would also pose as gay men at these bars and begin a rapport with the patrons. When things escalated to sex, they would reveal themselves as police officers and arrest them for sodomy. (x)
The Stonewall Inn was owned by the Mafia in 1969. It was home to the “most marginalised” of the LGBT community at this time: butch lesbians, feminine gay men, drag queens, the few transgender people, and homeless gay youth. During one the routine searches at the Inn, several patrons refused to show identification. Officers quickly lost control of the situation, and it sparked a several-day long riot. Contrary to popular belief, the starter of these riots weren’t Marsha Johnson and Silvia Rivera. It is known to be Stormé Delarvie, a biracial butch lesbian. She is considered the “Rosa Parks” of the gay rights movement, and was the “Guardian of the Lesbians” in Greenwich Village
In the aftermath, the Gay Liberation Front was founded, the first organisation to use “gay” in its name. More and more gay and lesbian people began to organise to fight for liberation. On June 28, 1970, the first gay pride marches took place in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago commemorating the anniversary of the riots. Similar marches were organised in other cities. Today, gay pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots. (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)
During 1973, the first openly gay candidate was elected to city council in Wisconsin, USA. The first gay helpline, and the first British Gay Rights Conference was held. (x) (x)
In 1981, cases of a rare lung infection were found in five young, previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles. At the same time, there were reports of a group of men in New York and California with an unusually aggressive cancer. By the end of the year, there were 270 reported cases of severe immune deficiency among gay men - 121 of them had died. Many gay men during the early 80s reported having 3-5 men in their friendship circles dropping dead. Gay men set up both informal and formal support groups for the victims and their loved ones. They took care of the sick - fed them, changed them, washing them, telling what was left of their biological families the news - where their families would not. Though it was primarily gay men that were affected, lesbians helped the victims in any way they could. They cleaned the victims’ houses, changed them, mopped up their vomit and waste, sat with them on their deathbeds. The men who’s family had abandoned them and who’s partners and friends had already passed would’ve laid alone in their hospice beds without the lesbians who sat at their bedside. Many women even left their careers to pursue medicine in the hopes that they could help their dying friends. (x)
During this time, the American government stayed silent over the AIDs crisis, and, to the public, it was known as the “Gay Disease”, because the vast majority of the victims were gay and bisexual men. President Reagan didn’t even mention it until 1985, when over 5000 people had already died. The government were doing nothing to help, even though hundreds of thousands people attended marches to demand action. (x)
Still, the government simply didn’t care. There was a recording of Ronald Reagan even laughing at the thought of gay people’s death during the AIDs Crisis. (x) In total, approximately 650,000 people have died of AIDs in America alone, with millions more in Africa especially. (x) (A year-by-year look at the AIDs crisis)
In 1998, Matthew Sheppard was murdered. He was a 21yr old gay man who was brutally attacked and left to die tied to a fence on 7/10/98. On 12/10/98 he died in hospital. Two men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, abducted Matt and drove him to a remote area east of Laramie, Wyoming. He was tied to a split-rail fence where the two men severely assaulted him with the butt of a pistol. He was beaten and left to die in the cold of the night. Almost 18 hours later, he was found by a bicyclist who initially mistook him for a scarecrow. His death sparked the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a federal law against hate crimes directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people. Since his death, Matthew’s legacy has challenged and inspired millions of individuals to erase hate in all its forms. The Matthew Sheppard Foundation is one of the biggest LGBT foundations in the world and continues to end the hate that killed Matthew. (x)
In 1999, Transgender Day of Remembrance was formed by Gwendolyn Ann Smith to celebrate and remember the lives of transgender LGBT advocates, and to honour those killed in hate crimes. The founder originally created the day in honour of her friend Rita Hester who was murdered in a hate crime. (x)
In 2000, the Netherlands passed a law allowing same-sex couples to marry, divorce and adopt children. (x) In 2005, the UK passed the 2004 Civil Partnership Act, allowing same-sex couples to legally be recognised as partners. (x) (x) Marriage equality in the US was achieved in all states in 2015.
This image shows views on LGBT people around the world:
This is by no means a finite showing of LGBT history. I have mostly included western gay and lesbian history because, as a white cis lesbian, I don’t feel qualified to speak about non-white, non-homosexual LGBT history. Please feel free to add on about bi, trans and poc history!
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