5 LGBT historical accomplishments since Stone Wall
To celebrate Pride month, we wanted to list the top 5 LGBT historical accomplishments in the United States to show how the LGBT community has come a long way since the first Pride march.
We figured that the first accomplishment should be after the Stonewall riots of 1969 happened, which set off the gay civil rights movement in the US.
With that in mind, here are the top five:
LGBT historical accomplishments since Stone Wall: #1
As everyone knows, a police raid of the Stonewall Inn in New York– a known hangout of the LGBT community– on 28 June 1969 set off a wave of protests and demonstrations.
After the Stone Wall Riots, the LGBT community marched again through the streets of New York City on 28 June 1970 to mark the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
This event was later dubbed Christopher Street Liberation Day and is considered the first gay pride parade.
Later on, the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights was held on 14 October 1979 and had an estimated 75,000 to 125,000 marching for LGBT rights.
On a side note, then-President Barack Obama declared on 24 June 2016 the first national monument to LGBT rights, the Stonewall National Monument, covering Christopher Park, Stonewall Inn, and the surrounding streets.
LGBT historical accomplishments since Stone Wall: #2
On 15 December 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in the DSM-II Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by a vote of 5,854 to 3,810.
Meanwhile, the LGBT legal organization Lambda Legal won the first HIV/AIDS discrimination lawsuit in People v. West 12 Tenants Corp. in 1983.
The case involved the neighbors of Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, who wanted to evict him because he was treating HIV-positive patients.
LGBT historical accomplishments since Stone Wall: #3
It was in 1974 that Kathy Kozachenko won a seat on the Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council and became the first openly LGBT American elected to any public office.
Within the same period, Elaine Noble was elected to the Massachusetts State legislature, the first openly gay candidate elected to a state office.
Later on, Harvey Milk was inaugurated as San Francisco city supervisor on 9 January 1978, the first openly gay man to be elected to a political office in California.
(In November of that same year, Milk was murdered together with Mayor George Moscone by Dan White.)
In 6 November 2012, Tammy Baldwin became first Wisconsin woman to be elected to the US Senate and its first openly gay politician.
Baldwin was followed by Kate Brown, who was sworn in as Oregon governor on 9 November 2016 after she was officially elected to the office.
As of present, Brown is the highest-ranking LGBT person elected to a US office.
LGBT historical accomplishments since Stone Wall: #4
In April 1997, despite Hollywood’s reluctance to admit gay celebrities, Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian via the cover of Time magazine to let people know that: “Yep, I’m Gay.”
This was followed with her character on her self-titled TV series, Ellen, becoming the first leading character to come out on on prime time network TV.
LGBT historical accomplishments since Stone Wall: #5
Lastly, it was in 3 December 1996 that a Hawaii judge ruled that the state doesn’t have a legal right to deprive same-sex couples of the right to marry.
This made Hawaii the first state to recognize gay and lesbian couples are entitled to the same privileges as heterosexual married couples.
In 26 April 2000, Vermont became the first state to legalize civil-unions between same-sex couples. Four years after on May 17, Massachusetts was the first state to have the first legal same-sex marriage in the US.
And then on 26 June 2013, the US Supreme Court struck down section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in United States v. Windsor.
This famous ruling noted that legally married same-sex couples are entitled to federal benefits.