July 1-7
1996
U.S.: Overriding the objections of several vocal parents, the San Francisco Board of Education votes to rename Douglass Elementary school "The Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy." * The Boys In the Band, the 1968 play by Mart Crowley, is revived in New York at the WPA Theater, and is directed by David Drake. * At their 1996 General Assembly in Indianapolis, the Unitarian Universalist Church, one of the nation's most liberal religious organizations, votes to support gay marriage as both a spiritual and legal institution. * Taiwan: Taipei launch a daily radio program of gay and lesbian issues, reflecting what a city official called Taiwan's liberalizing attitude toward homosexuality. * Canada: The 11th International Conference on AIDS takes place in Vancouver. * Britain: The feature film version of Bent, Martin Sherman's play about three homosexual men living in Nazi Germany, begins shooting in Glasgow.
1991
U.S.: Some 200 educators from across the United States and Canada attend the 3rd North American and Anti-Homophobia Educators conference, "Challenging Oppression: Creating Multicultural Societies." * In Massachusetts, Republican Gov. William Weld continues his outreach to the gay community by appointing open lesbian Amy Pitter as chief of the Enforcement Bureau, Child Support Division, in the Department of Revenue. * The Vinyl Closet: Gays in the Music World, by Boze Hadleigh is in bookstores. * Modern Maturity, a bi-monthly publication of the American Association of Retired Persons, agrees to begin including materials of interest to older gays and lesbians.
1986
U.S.: Boy George denies rumors that he has AIDS. It later transpires that his sudden weight loss in due to heroin addiction. * The Midwest Regional Conference of Gay and Lesbian Jews takes place in Chicago.* In Redwood, Calif., two San Francisco-area men, Rhio Hiersch and Atticus Tysen, who were stopped from dancing together in a bar, bring suit against the club, seeking more than $20,000 in damages. * A federal judge upholds the right of the Daily Nebraskan, the student newspaper of the University of Nebraska, to bar advertisements that refer to a person's sexual preference. * Britain: Roger Pellicci receives a five-year prison sentence because he killed a gay man, his former employer, while suffering from "homosexual panic." Sir James Miskin, the Recorder of London, told him: "All the doctors agree you are suffering and have suffered from homosexual panic which makes you grossly overreactive to any form of homosexual approach."
1981
U.S.: The first major news report about what later became known as AIDS appears in The New York Times. The headline reads: "RARE CANCER SEEN IN 41 HOMOSEXUALS." * A federal judge rules that a Houston ordinance prohibiting men from cross-dressing is unconstitutional. * The 6th International Conference of Lesbian and Gay Jews is held at the Holiday Inn-Independence Mall in Philadelphia. * Tim Curren, a 19-year-old who was expelled from his Boy Scout troop for being gay, loses his battle to be reinstated. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Weil rules that the BSA as a private organization is entitled to screen its membership. * Billie Jean King's former lover, Marilyn Barnett, loses her bid to remain in a Malibu beach house she claims was promised to her by the tennis star during their affair. However, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Leon Savitch refused to throw out the "gay palimony suit." * Britain: The BBC announce plans for a TV play based on Baal by Bertolt Brecht. It will star David Bowie and is based on the love affair between gay poets, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud.