Today in LGBT History--July 29th

July 29, 7:38 PMGrassroots Equality ExaminerBrandon Santo

Do I need to say that this is a photo of the Village People? Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
 

1967: Ian Campbell Dunn writes to Antony Grey, secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society in London, about establishing a chapter in Scotland. Grey refuses because of problems with another branch.

1975: The Annual Conference of the Metropolitan Community Church is held in Dallas, Texas. Among the speakers was Elaine Noble, who was the first person to be elected to public office while running openly as a lesbian.

1978: The Village People's first hit single "Macho Man" debuts in Billboard’s Top 40 Hits chart.

1981: Tennis player Martina Navratilova is outed by reporter Steve Goldstein of the New York Daily News. Very few are surprised she's a lesbian.

1984: John O'Connell is murdered by five men who drove to San Francisco looking for "some fags to beat up."

1986: Chicago's city council defeats a gay rights bill by a vote of 30-18.

1987: U.S. President Reagan nominates homophobic judge Robert Bork to the US Supreme Court. He would be rejected by the senate 58-42.

1987: The International Lesbian and Gay Association's 9^th annual conference begins in Cologne, West Germany.

1993: Seven years after legalizing gay sex, New Zealand's parliament amends the Human Rights Commission Amendment Act, outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation ("heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or lesbian") or HIV, passing Parliament after only 1 1/2 days of debate but intensive lobbying. It exempted the Government until December 31, 1999.

1998: Jerome Robbins, a choreographer and director whose works included West Side Story, dies at age 79, four days after suffering a stroke.

1998: The U.S. House of Representatives votes 214-212 in favor of a bill to withhold federal housing money to San Francisco because of the city's policy welcoming private companies contracting with the city that offer domestic partner benefits equal to those offered to married employees.

2002: The federal government of Canada decides to appeal an Ontario Superior Court ruling which supported gay marriages. Less than a year later the government loses the appeal and introduces legislation legalizing gay marriage.

2003: Bishop Fred Henry of the Catholic diocese of Calgary, Alberta, in Canada, warns Canada's (straight) catholic Prime Minister that the PM risks jeopardizing his "eternal salvation" by introducing legislation legalizing gay marriage. Prime Minister Jean Chretien ignores the warning and introduces the legislation anyway.

2006: The first World Outgames opens in Montreal, Quebec, with about 18,600 participants from 111 countries as conference delegates, athletes, volunteers or participants. About a half million spectators attended the Outgames, an athletic event set up after a quarrel with the long-established Gay Games.

Today’s LGBT Birthdays…

1905: Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations (1953-1961), in Jonkoping, Sweden. He died in a plane crash in what was then the Belgian Congo under mysterious circumstances in 1961 and was the first Secretary General to die while holding office. President John F Kennedy referred to him as “The greatest statesman of our century,” and he was posthumously awarded the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize. While it is rumored that Hammarskjold was homosexual, it never seems to have been proven in any consequential way. Still, we honor his birthday here for the amazing leaps he made toward world peace as the Secretary General.

"We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours."
--Dag Hammarskjold