The LGBTQ+ community’s journey for equity and inclusion has followed a long and winding road in the US. The timeline below spotlights a handful of notable movements for justice and equality, as well as moments of triumph and tragedy, which the LGBTQ+ community has experienced over the past 100 years.
At Balfour Beatty, we celebrate every moment of progress which allows our LGBTQ+ teammates and community to live, love and thrive.
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2021
LGBTQ+ journey for equality in the US
1969
December 10, 1924
First and oldest documented gay rights organization founded by Henry Gerber.
The Society for Human Rights received its charter from the state of Illinois, but soon after disbanded due to political pressure.
In November 1950, The Mattachine Society was founded in Los Angeles by Harry Hay, aiming to “eliminate discrimination, derision, prejudice and bigotry.”
In September 1955 the Daughters of Bilitis, in San Francisco, became the first lesbian rights organization in the United States.
Today there are dozens of national organizations working toward equal rights for LGBTQ+ community members.
Credit: PBS.org, American Experience: Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement
June 28 - Stonewall
Patrons of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village riot when police officers attempt to raid the popular gay bar; a clash which kindled America's modern LGBT rights movement.
1973
December 15 - American Psychological Association
The board of the American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses and subsequently urges all mental health professionals to take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientations.
Patrons of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village riot when police officers attempt to raid the popular gay bar around 1am. Since its establishment in 1967, the bar had been frequently raided by police officers trying to clean up the neighborhood of "sexual deviants."
Angry gay youth clash with aggressive police officers in the streets, leading to a three-day riot during which thousands of protestors receive only minimal local news coverage. Nonetheless, the event will be credited with reigniting the fire behind America's modern LGBT rights movement.
One year later, on June 28, 1970, Christopher St. Liberation Day commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Following the event, thousands of members of the LGBT community marched through New York into Central Park, in what became considered America's first gay pride parade.
In the decades following, the annual gay pride parade spread to dozens of countries around the world and is now hosted in nearly 20 major cities across the U.S.
Credit: PBS.org, American Experience: Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement
The December 15, 1973 decision of the American Psychological Association to remove homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses contradicted previous mentalities related to homosexuality, that led to major violations of LGBTQ+ civil rights, including:
December 15, 1950, a Senate report titled "Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government" was distributed to members of Congress. The report stated since homosexuality is a mental illness, homosexuals "constitute security risks" to the nation. Over the previous few years, more than 4,380 gay men and women had been discharged from the military and around 500 fired from their jobs with the government. The purging will become known as the "lavender scare.“
The April of 1952 addition of homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance in the American Psychiatric Association’s first publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Executive Order 10450, signed by President Dwight Eisenhower on April 27, 1953, banning homosexuals from working for the federal government or any of its private contractors, listing homosexuals as security risks, along with alcoholics and neurotics.
Credit:
PBS.org, American Experience: Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement
APA.org, American Psychological Association: Discrimination Against Homosexuals
December 18, 2010 – “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repealed
The U.S. Senate votes 65-31 to repeal the 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy, allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. Military.
2010
The December 18, 2010 vote of the U.S. Senate to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. Military. This move reversed significant policy previously set in place, including the original Department of Defense DADT directive, issued in December of 1993 and President Dwight Eisenhower’s April 27, 1953 Executive Order banning homosexuals from working for the federal government or any of its private contractors.
Credit:
PBS.org, American Experience: Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement
June 26, 2015 – Obergefell v. Hodges
With a 5-4 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court declares same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.
2015
Leading up to the June 26, 2015 landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, declaring same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states, many states had made progress in legalizing same-sex marriages, including:
Vermont | The first state to legalize civil unions and registered partnerships between same-sex couples (April 2000)
Massachusetts | The first state to legalize gay marriage* (May 2004)
*New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Iowa and Washington D.C. followed suit in the six years following Massachusetts’ decision.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges reversed discriminatory policy previously put in place, including:
President Clinton’s Defense of Marriage Act, a law defining marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman, signed on September 21, 1996.
California’s Proposition 8, passed on November 4, 2008, making same-sex marriage illegal in California. On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court dismisses Hollingsworth v. Perry declaring that the proponents lack legal standing to appeal the lower court rulings that already invalidated Proposition 8. The freedom for same-sex couples to marry resumed on June 28, 2013.
Credit:
PBS.org, American Experience: Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement
November 4, 2020 – Election Day
Record number of openly LGBTQ+ lawmakers were elected to Congress.
2020
The November 2020 election included a record number of LGBTQ+ candidates and resulted in a record number of diverse, openly LGBTQ+ members of Congress elected to office.
Although, it is important to remember the trailblazers who set precedence early on, including:
Credit:
PBS.org, American Experience: Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement
Kathy Kozachenko was the first openly gay American elected to public office when she won a seat on the Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council in 1974.
Harvey Milk won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, and is responsible for introducing a gay rights ordinance protecting gays and lesbians from being fired from their jobs.
1924