It happened on June 19

There is a poster on the Datalounge forum who occasionally makes gay-related "this day in history" posts. They give some really interesting perspective on the history of gay rights, highlighting the progress that has been made but also demonstrating how far things still need to come (or how recently really stupid thing happened).

I'm posting today's because it was cool to see Ann Arbor mentioned. And because the 1998 entry about Alaska appalled me.


1971 - The first gay pride week in Ann Arbor, Michigan began. It had been decreed by the city council.

1975 - The American Medical Association passed a resolution urging all states to repeal laws criminalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults.

1979 - A judge in Catskill, New York awarded permanent custody of a 13-year-old boy to his father, a gay minister. His reasoning was that the father does not abuse the child in any way, contrary to what he sees out of many "so-called straight people."

1983 - In Lynchburg, Virginia, hate-monger Jerry Falwell told his followers that AIDS is a punishment from God, and that no medication could halt the judgment of God. Episcopal Bishop Paul Moore of New York criticized Falwell for using an epidemic as a political weapon.

1989 - The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force announced that executive director Jeff Levi would be leaving and Urvashi Vaid would replace him.

1998 - The Associated Press reported that Keith Goddard, leader of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, was arrested on sodomy charges. A man who was blackmailing him turned him in to police.

1998 - Governor Tony Knowles of Alaska vetoed a bill that would have criminalized sex by anyone who was HIV positive, even if the virus was not transmitted.

1998 - A Superior Court judge in San Francisco ruled that a regulation that bars gays and lesbians from serving in the California National Guard was unconstitutional. Lt. Andrew Holmes had brought the suit.