500s B.C.E.
Sappho's School For Girlz is opened on The Isle of Lesbos. Sappho herself is reported to have spent a large amount of time with the girls basketball and golf teams.
1260
Orleans - The Orleans Legal School orders women found guilty of lesbian acts have their clitoris removed for their first offense. Second offenders further mutilated and third offenders burned at the stake.
1649
Massachusetts - Mary Hammon and Goodwife Norman charged with lude behavior upon a bed in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Charges against 16 yr old Hammon are dropped and Norman is forced to make a public confession. Norman is believed to be the first woman in America convicted of lesbianism.
1650s
New Haven - Sex involving two women results in the death penalty.
1830s
England - The last execution for homosexuality is performed. The law was changed 30 years later.
1880s
Grand Rapids, Michigan - Annie Hindle and Annie Ryan get married. There is no best man at the wedding.
1890s
America - Two actresses kiss each other on the American stage. Afterward one has a cigarette.
1907
China - Woman who calls herself Qinxiong (compete with men) wears men's clothes, writes feminist poetry, is beheaded.
1911
Netherlands - Sexual contact between members of the same sex who were under 21, is made a crime. The punishment, for conviction, is 40 lashes with a wet tuna.
1933
Germany - Hitler bans gay press.
1934
Germany - 200 homosexuals are executed on June 28. Nazis begin putting gays and lesbians in concentration camps.
1941
U.S. - Surgeon General declares that homosexual and lesbian relationships in the armed forces should be tolerated as long as they are kept private.
1944
Sweden - Homosexuality laws are eliminated.
1952
U.S. - Law banning lesbians and gays from entering the U.S. (but not each other) is passed by Congress. The law stays active till 1990.
1953
U.S. - Kinsey report on women, says 2% of women are lesbian and 13% had performed at least one lesbian act.
1953
U.S. - Executive order prohibiting employment of gays and lesbians in federal jobs.
1961
U.S. - Illinois is first state in U.S. to decriminalize homosexual acts.
1961
Czechoslovakia - Homosexuality laws are eliminated.
1967
Britain - Homosexuality laws are eliminated. Except for military and law enforcement members.
1967
California - Proposition 6 appeared on the ballot. This would have required the dismissal of any teacher known to be a homosexual. Californians defeated this measure by a vote of 2 to 1.
1970
New York - First legislative hearings on Gay Rights by three members of the New York Assembly.
1973
San Francisco - Two Army WACs, Gail Bates and Valerie Randolph, married by publicity hound Reverand Ray Broshears in San Francisco. As a result, both discharged from military.
1974
America - Homosexuality removed from list of mental disorders by American Psychiatric Association.
1979
California - Supreme Court made a landmark decision that public utility companies may not arbitrarily refuse to hire homosexuals, nor can they interfere with employee involvement in gay organizations.
1982
San Francisco - The Gay Games first held in San Francisco with 1300 participants from twelve countries.
1984
Berkeley - Berkeley becomes first city in US to institute Domestic Partner policy for city employees.
1989
Denmark - Denmark first country to legalize gay marriage.
1992
Washington - Margarethe Cammermeyer, former Colonel of the Washington State National Guard, discharged dishonorably based solely on her admission that she is a lesbian.
