November 1-

1932-The New York Times reviewed the play "Incubator," which dealt with the consequences of homosexuality in an all-male school.

1948-WMCA, a radio station in New York, broadcast a show in response to a letter from a man who was arrested after a police officer made advances. A judge who was a guest stated that the author of the letter had no right to complain about the entrapment and that police should use such tactics to weed out homosexuals.

1995-Fourteen year-old Chastity Ferguson of St. Louis Missouri was stabbed to death by a fifteen year-old friend after she accused her friend of being a lesbian.

1999-Nancy Katz became Illinois's first openly lesbian judge when she was sworn in as a Cook County associate judge.

1999-Ally McBeal (Calista Flockhart) enjoyed a prolonged kiss with her office nemesis, Ling (Lucy Liu). Seventeen million viewers were tuned in, the show's largest audience to date.

November 2-

1912-Dr Douglas C McMurtrie published an article in a medical journal about female sexual inversion. He stated that identifying sexual inversion in females is more difficult because women are naturally affectionate toward each other, and because "women are very generally ignorant of the details of their sexual character, not recognizing themselves the character of their tendencies."

1969-A nationwide poll of US doctors revealed 67% are in favor of the repeal of sodomy laws.

1976-US Representative Robert Dornan was elected to his first term. Dornan would prove to be rabidly anti-gay.

1999-A United Methodist Church committee found that operators of a church campground in Des Plaines, Illinois discriminated when they refused to rent a cabin to a gay couple.

Birthdays-

1961-k d lang, singer

November 3-

1970-Bella Abzug was elected to the US House of Representatives. She would become the first to introduce a gay rights law in Congress.

1975-A front-page article about the success of the gay newsmagazine "The Advocate" appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

1983-US Senator John Glenn told the National Gay Task Force that he does not support gay rights legislation and will not do anything which might be considered advocacy or promotion of homosexuality. He would later add that glb people should not be allowed to teach or join the military.

1999-A jury found Aaron McKinney guilty of felony murder and second degree murder in the death of 21-year-old gay college student Matthew Shepard.

November 4-

1976-Syndicated columnist Nicholas von Hoffman's column "Out of TV's Sitcom Closet" appeared. It stated that Americans were experiencing the "Year of the Fag" and claimed the National Gay Task Force was controlling at least one sitcom. He referred to gays as flits, faggots, fruits, homos, and queers.

1980-Barney Frank was elected to his first term in the US House of Representatives. He would later become the second Representative to be openly gay.

1995-African-American poet Essex Hemphill died.

1998-On "The Tonight Show," Jay Leno stated why he is opposed to ex-gay ministries which attempt to make gay men straight. "Ever see gay guys? They're slim, they work out, they write poetry. If gay guys start romancing women, straight guys are dead."

1999-Matthew Shepard killer Aaron Mc Kinney was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.

Birthdays-

1933-Barbara Grier, co-founder of Naiad Press

1946-Robert Mapplethorpe, photographer.

November 5-

1969-The Homosexual Information Center protested at the offices of the Los Angeles Times to protest the newspaper's refusal to print the word "homosexual" in ads after it refused to print an ad announcing a group discussion on homosexuality.

1970-The New York Times reported that the Gay Activists Alliance's petition to incorporate as a non-profit organization because of the use of the word "gay" in the organization's name.

1973-The US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Florida's sodomy law. (The court has not yet answered the question of whether or not having one's head up one's butt is a violation of sodomy laws.)

1974-Elaine Noble was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, making her the first openly gay person to be elected to public office.

1985-The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation to protect people with AIDS from discrimination.

1992-A New York State Bar Association committee issued a recommendation that low-income same-sex couples be granted access to state-subsidized housing.

1992-A clause prohibiting anti-gay verbal abuse in public schools was repealed by the Fairfax (VA) county board of education because of complaints that it encouraged homosexuality.

2001-The Denver Colorado city council approved an ordinance barring discrimination against transgender people.

November 6-

1658-In Mexico, fourteen men were burned to death and one given 200 lashes after having been convicted of sodomy.

1971-An anti-Vietnam march in New York included a gay contingent. The Student Mobilization Committee's Gay Task Force joined the protest to draw attention to parallels between America's oppression of gays and the racism of Vietnam.

1984-West Hollywood was incorporated as a city.

1990-San Francisco voters approved a domestic partners referendum and elected two lesbian women to the Board of Supervisors.

1990-Deborah Glick becomes the first open lesbian elected to the New York state legislature.

Birthdays-

1939-Arthur Bell, journalist and activist, one of the founding members of the Gay Activists Alliance

November 7-

1989-ABC lost $1.5 million in pulled ads when the television show "thirtysomething" showed two men in bed together.

1990-At age 44, Vito Russo died of complications from AIDS.

1995-The Australian Christian Coalition announced that it would fight gay and environmental activists in the next election.

1998-British Member of Parliament Nick Brown came out after he learned that a previous lover had offered to sell his story.

November 8-

1977- Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, making him the first openly gay man to be elected in a major US city.

Dan White, who would murder Harvey Milk just over a year later, was also elected.

1988-Oregon voters repealed an executive order which prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation among state government employees.

1992-The East Nashville Cooperative Ministry denied membership to Dayspring Christian Fellowship, a mostly gay and lesbian congregation.

1995-In Zimbabwe, Tribal Chief Norbert Makoni addressed Parliament, saying gays and lesbians should be sentenced to whipping.

1995-Representatives of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays approached television stations in four US cities to buy advertising time for two ads, one on the prevention of suicide among gay and lesbian youth and one about gay bashing. All stations refused to air the suicide ad, and only two cable stations and one network affiliate station would air the gay-bashing ad. They were told the ads offended community standards.

1996-Transgender activists protested outside the offices of the American Psychiatric Association in Washington DC.

November 9-

1985-Openly gay Terry Sweeney joined the cast of Saturday Night Live.

1992-Approximately 100 people held a vigil outside the home of Chicago's Roman Catholic cardinal Joseph Bernardin to protest the church's teaching that homosexuality is a disorder.

Birthdays-

1731-Benjamin Banneker, African-American scientist

November 10-

1928-The New York Times reported that forty distinguished witnesses, mostly authors, appeared in a London court to testify in favor of the lesbian novel "The Well of Loneliness." The judge refused to hear any of them.

1970-The Stanford Gay Students Union was formed. It was the second Stanford organization for gay students-a previous organization, the Student Homophile League, was short lived.

1984-Chris Smith came out and became the first openly gay member of UK Parliament.

1989-Craig Spence, a conservative lobbyist, committed suicide after it was discovered he ran a male prostitution ring.

1992-The Louisiana Baptist Convention voted 581-199 to exclude congregations which condone homosexuality. A similar resolution was approved the same day by the North Carolina State Baptist convention.

1992-The Portland Maine school committee approved a ban on anti-gay discrimination in public school employment.

1997-Keith Boykin of the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum and California state assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl participated in a White House conference on Hate Crimes.

November 11-

1634-The Irish House of Commons passed an Act for the Punishment of the Vice of Buggery. John Atherton, bishop of Waterford, and Lismore, was the driving force behind the passage of the law and ironically, the first to be hanged because of it.

1907-A Colorado newspaper, The Trinidad Advertiser, carried a story about the death of Katherine Vosbaugh, who had lived as a man for 60 years and married a woman. Even after being hospitalized in 1905 for pneumonia and discovered to be physically female, Vosbaugh continued to live as a man and was referred to by the nickname "Grandpa." (Ironically, years later Trinidad Colorado would become "the sex change capital of the world," where over 50% of sex change operations in the US were performed.)

1970-The New York Times announced that an unpublished novel by E.M. Forster would be released. The author requested that the publication of "Maurice" be delayed until after his death because of the homosexual content.

1978-Dan White resigned as San Francisco City Supervisor, claiming he could not make ends meet on a Supervisor's salary.

1983-In Washington DC a gay man was abducted, slashed with a knife, kicked, and urinated on. His two attackers would later be found guilty and sentenced to probation.

1985-"An Early Frost" was broadcast, the first TV movie to deal with AIDS.

1987-Simon Nkoli of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist and later co-founder of the Gay and Lesbian Organization of Witwatersrand, was acquitted of charges of treason and murder.

1989-Four men who had been arrested at the Loyal Oak Swim Club in Norton Ohio and charged with public indecency were found guilty, fined, and given suspended sentences. The club filed a suit against the police, who arrested the men & searched the club without a warrant, and residents, who made false statements against the club including that the club was a haven for homosexual prostitutes and the pool was infected with HIV.

1994-Pedro Zamora, who was on MTV's The Real World, died of complications from AIDS.

1999-Ana Oliveira was appointed executive director of the Gay Men's Health Crisis

November 12-

1969-The Gay Liberation Front and Daughters of Bilitis protested at the Time-Life building in response to a seven-page article in Time. The article, which claimed it would challenge stereotypes about homosexuals, focused on drag balls and included comments from reparative therapy psychiatrist Charles Socarides.

1986-Thomas Daszkiewicz and his lover were attacked by a Philadelphia cab driver. When police arrived officer Juan Perez attacked Daszkiewicz by pushing his baton into his neck and making abusive, anti-gay remarks.

1992-A team of attorneys filed a lawsuit in the Colorado District Court for Denver to challenge the constitutionality of Amendment 2, which sought to ban gay rights laws in Colorado.

199-The Gill Foundation announced new initiatives to benefit LGBT non-profit organizations and community centers.

November 13-

1933 Top-level members of the Third Reich advised the Head of Police to deliver homosexuals and transvestites to concentration camp Fuhlsbuttel, which had just established homosexuals as a new category.

1979-San Francisco swore in its first openly gay and lesbian police officers.

1985-Manchester England elected Margaret Roff as mayor, making her the first openly lesbian mayor elected in Britain.

1989-A federal court ruled that the Armstrong amendment, which would have cut off Washington DC's entire 1989 budget unless the city council exempted religious educational institutions from the gay rights provisions of the city's human rights law, was unconstitutional. William Armstrong introduced the measure after the DC Court of Appeals ruled that Georgetown University was not exempt from the gay rights law and ordered the University to provide facilities to gay & lesbian student organizations that are equal to those provided to other student groups.

1995-A group of lesbians protested an appearance by Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe at a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in Auckland New Zealand. He had told a group of journalists that homosexuals are trying to destroy society.

Birthdays-

1941-Dack Rambo, actor

November 14-

1725-In England, undercover police officer Samuel Stephens entered Mother Clapp's Molly House (a meeting place for gay men) to gather evidence for a raid. He observed men kissing, holding hands, hugging, sitting in each others laps, dancing, and that there were rooms where men could go to have sex. His report led to the arrest of Mother Clapp, she would be fined and sentenced to two years in prison.

1978-Dan White requested to be re-appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

1995-A Tehran newspaper reported that a mystic was stoned to death for repeatedly committing sodomy and adultery.

November 15-

1636-A set of laws was enacted for the Plymouth colony. Eight offenses were deemed punishable by death, including sodomy.

1941-Heinrich Himmler announced a decree that any member of the Nazi SS or the police who had sex with another man would be put to death.

1978-Anthropologist Margaret Mead, who was bisexual, died at the age of 76. Visit her grave at http://www.findagrave.com/pictures/701.html

1989-Massachusetts passed a statewide gay rights law.

1992-Thirty-five members of The Cathedral Project, a gay Roman Catholic group, demonstrated in New York City at St. Patrick's Cathedral to protest a Vatican directive urging bishops to oppose laws banning anti-gay bias.

1995-The Florida Baptist state convention approved a resolution to encourage members to boycott the Walt Disney Co. because of the company's extension of domestic partner benefits to its gay and lesbian employees.

Birthdays-

1887-Bisexual artist Georgia O'Keefe

1940-Patricia Marion Fogarty, illustrator and photographer, lover of filmmaker Jayne Parker

November 16-

1938-In the case of State v. Keckonen, a Montana appellate court struck down a 35-year sentence for sodomy due to insufficient evidence.

1970-The London Gay Liberation Front attended a demonstration in support of the National Union of Students.

1971-Bruce Voeller, chairman of the Gay Activist Alliance State and Federal Affairs Committee, questioned Sen. Ted Kennedy. Kennedy said he would support efforts to end policies which deny homosexuals the right to work gainfully in their professions.

1984-The West German government announced it would attempt to pass legislation making it a crime for a person with AIDS to have sex.

1989-The Center for Homosexual Lifestyles was established in Berlin. It was the first time in Germany that a public office was established specifically to deal with the concerns of lesbians and gay men.

1995-A directive was issued by the Canadian Government allowing workers in same-sex relationships to take time off in the event of a partner's illness or death.

Birthdays-

1946-Barbara Smith, African American writer and activist

1952-Glenn Burke, baseball player

November 17-

1889-The New York Times published a report on the "Cleveland Street Scandal," a case involving a house of male prostitutes and members of British nobility.

1928-The New York Times reported that a London judge found the lesbian novel "The Well of Loneliness" obscene and ordered all seized copies of it destroyed.

1971-A group of sex researchers looking for physical differences between homosexual and heterosexual men announced that heterosexuals have 40% more testosterone in their blood than homosexuals do.

1991-OutRage, a London direct-action group, staged a zap against the Living Waters ex-gay movement at St Michael's Church in Belgravia.

1995-James Woods III, co-author of "The Corporate Closet: The Professional Lives of Gay Men in America," died of complications from AIDS at age 32.

1997-The National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum issued a press release applauding singer Janet Jackson for her use of sexual orientation themes in her album "The Velvet Rope."

1999-Methodist minister Jimmy Creech was stripped of his clerical status for presiding over a same-sex holy union.

Birthdays-

1925-Rock Hudson, actor

1960-RuPaul

November 18-

1974-The New Yorker published "Minor Heroism" by Allan Gurganis, its first gay-themed short story.

1996-Psychologist Dr. Evelyn Hooker died. Her research provided some of the earliest evidence that homosexuality is not a psychological disease.

November 19-

1922- Canadian immigration authorities allowed the Irish lover of a Canadian citizen to immigrate legally. This was the first time in North America that a same-sex relationship was used as the basis for immigration.

1933-Christa Winsloe's book "The Child Manuela" was reviewed in the New York Times. It was a translation from a German book about a lesbian relationship in a school for girls. The reviewer referred to it as "a social document that is moving and eloquent."

1980-Ronald Crumpley walked into a gay bar in New York City with a submachine gun. Two people were killed and six injured. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He claimed he was acting under God's orders.

1982-Marilyn Barnett's palimony suit against Billie Jean King was thrown out of court.

1997-In Spanish Fork Utah, during a meeting of the Nebo County Board of Education, supporters of lesbian teacher Wendy Weaver and those demanding her resignation presented their cases. A month earlier Weaver was dismissed from her position as volleyball coach and ordered not to discuss her sexual orientation with anyone, in or out of school.

1998-Prosecutors in Laramie Wyoming presented an outline of their case against Aaron McKinney, who had been arrested for the brutal murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard.

BIRTHDAYS-

1942-Clothes designer Calvin Klein

November 20-

1901-A policeman in Mexico City stopped to investigate a loud party. When he knocked the door was opened by a man in women's clothing. When reinforcements arrived the party was raided and 42 people were arrested. One was later released after police said she was discovered to be a real woman. Rumors spread that the person who was released was not a woman, but a close relative of President Diaz in drag.

1934-"The Children's Hour," a play by Lillian Hellman in which two school teachers are accused of having a lesbian relationship, opened on Broadway.

1975-Members of the Austin Lesbian Organization and Gay Community Services picketed the Austin-American Statesman for refusing to run ads for gay organizations and running housing and employment ads which specified "no gays." The paper agreed the next month not to print ads which state "no gays," and began printing ads from gay and lesbian organizations the following April when the Austin City Council passed a Public Accommodations Ordinance which outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation.

1990-A London judge convicted 14 gay men of committing criminal assaults upon themselves because of their participation in s&m. All 14 receive prison sentences.

1995-Steven Powsner, who had been president of the New York City Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center from 1992-1994, died of complications from AIDS at age 40.

1996-The Ashland Wisconsin school district agreed to pay former student Jamie Nabozny $900,000 in damages. While he was a student, administrators took no action to alleviate the physical and verbal abuse he suffered because he was gay.

1998-John Geddes Lawrence and Tyrone Garner of Texas were ordered to pay fines of $125 each after being arrested for having sex in their home. The couple refused to pay and announced they would challenge the Texas sodomy law.

November 21-

1987-In a series of raids on gay bars, the Los Angeles Police Department closed down the One Way for fire ordinance violations. The LAPD came to the conclusion that the manpower necessary to close the One Way would be ten police cars and several fire trucks and various other city vehicles.

1997-The University of California Board of Regents voted to extend domestic partner benefits to partners of lesbian and gay employees.

1999-British writer Quentin Crisp died at age 90.

November 22-

1980-Mae West died in LA at the age of 88. Rumors that she was really a man are finally proven false.

1993-Dolly Parton denied rumors that she's a lesbian, saying gal pal Judy Ogle was just her best friend.

Birthdays-

1869-Andre Gide, French writer

1913-Benjamin Britten, British composer

1943-Billie Jean King, tennis player

November 23-

1828-Changes to the common law adopted by Florida resulted in the legalization of sodomy.

1933-The New York tabloid Broadway Brevities, under the headline "FAGS TICKLE NUDES," published an article warning that "Pansy men of the nation" were invading steam baths and turning them into replicas of the orgy houses in Rome at the time of Nero.

1981-The New York City Council voted for the tenth time not to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance.

1983-A Louisville Kentucky bank which fired a branch manager for refusing to end his association with Dignity, an organization for GLBT Catholics, was cleared of charges of discrimination and violating the employee's freedom of religion.

1986-Kenneth Kenner, 39 years, was bludgeoned to death with a roofing hatchet in Louisville Tennessee. Police suspected a scam artist who responded to ads in The Advocate.

1996-Elton John was honored as the founder of the Elton John AIDS Foundation at a gala celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

1998-The Georgia Supreme Court voted 6-1 to overturn the state's sodomy law. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Robert Benham wrote "We cannot think of any other activity that reasonable persons would rank as more private and more deserving of protection from governmental interference than consensual, private, adult sexual activity." Since the decision was based on the Georgia constitution rather than the US constitution, the decision could not be appealed.

November 24-

1933-A Nazi law was passed to allow surgical castrations as a crime prevention measure and a therapeutic treatment for homosexuality.

1980-Ronald Reagan's son Ron was married in New York City. His father frequently defended his son's heterosexuality because of his career as a ballet dancer.

1984-England's first national conference on AIDS began, and was organized by the Terrence Higgins Trust.

1991-Freddie Mercury, lead singer for Queen, died of complications from AIDS. It was only the day before that he acknowledged that he had the disease. He left most of his estate to a former girlfriend, Mary Austen, who cared for him during his final months.

1997-The Associated Press reported that Edgehill United Methodist Church in Nashville Tennessee announced that no weddings would be performed there until same-sex couples were given the right to be married there.

1998-About 100 people demonstrated to protest the firing of Alicia Pedreira, a lesbian, from Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children in Louisville. According to her termination notice she was fired because "admitted homosexual lifestyle is contrary to Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children core values." Five other employees resigned in protest.

November 25-

1953-The Montana Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a 72-year-old man who had been sentenced to 18 years for consensual sodomy.

1970-The Seattle Gay Liberation Front severed ties with the Young Socialist Alliance because their exclusion of homosexuals mirrored Stalin's practices.

1997-In South Africa, a demonstration was held at the Johannesburg High Court in support of an application to decriminalize sex between men.

1998-US District Judge Bruce Jenkins issued a 17-page opinion denying a request that the Salt Lake City Utah School District be forced to grant the Ease High School Gay-Straight Alliance status as an official school-sponsored club until the case was brought to trial.

1998-Federal judge Bruce Jenkins ruled that Spanish Fork High School in Salt Lake City Utah violated the rights of teacher Wendy Weaver, who was dismissed from her position as volleyball coach and ordered not to discuss her sexual orientation, even out of school. The judge ordered the school to offer her the coaching position, lift the gag order, and pay her $1,500 in damages.

Nov 26-

1978-ABC aired a lesbian themed movie, A Question of Love, about a custody battle for one of the women's children.

1990-The Minneapolis Minnesota civil rights commission ruled that Roman Catholic officials violated anti-discrimination laws by evicting Dignity from holding services in a church owned facility.

November 27-

1700-A new law concerning sodomy was passed by the Pennsylvania assembly. If committed by a white man, sodomy was punishable by life in prison and, at the discretion of the judge, a whipping every three months for the first year. If married, the man was castrated and his wife was granted a divorced. If committed by a black man, the punishment for sodomy was death.

1970-Marty Robinson and Arthur Evans of the Gay Activist Alliance appeared on the Dick Cavett Show.

1978-Conservative Dan White, after discovering that he would not be re-appointed to his seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, took a gun and extra ammunition and goes to City Hall. He entered through a lower level window to avoid the metal detectors and went to the office of Mayor George Moscone, who was supportive of the gay community, and fires four shots, two to the head. Those who heard the gunshots did not realize what they were hearing, giving him time to reload his gun and go to the office of Supervisor Harvey Milk (the first openly gay man to be elected in a major American city) and fire five shots. Both men were pronounced dead.

Milk had recorded an audiotape in the event of his assassination. In that tape, he said, "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet shatter every closet door." (This may not be an exact quote-I am working from memory on this one.)

Dan White would later be convicted of manslaughter and serve only about five years.

1998-Former Zimbabwean President Canaan Banana was convicted of eleven counts of sodomy and indecent assault.

Birthdays-

1944-Martin Corbett, London Gay Liberation Front administrator and fund raiser.

November 28-

1977-Aspen Colorado became the first city in the state to pass a gay rights ordinance.

1980-The National Coalition of Black Gays held its second national conference in Philadelphia.

1989-A judge in Texas was censured for giving a light sentence to a teenager who murdered two men because they were gay. He explained the sentence by saying that he couldn't give a life sentence to a teenage boy just because he killed a couple of homosexuals.

1989-Thirty-six year old Brian Poole was found dead in San Diego's Balboa Park. He was the third person murdered in the park in nine days. Police requested that gays and transients avoid the park after dark.

Birthdays-

1944-Rita Mae Brown, author of "The Rubyfruit Jungle."

November 29-

1628-John Felton, murder of George Villiers (King James I's lover) was hanged.

1834-John Mead of Australia was executed for an "unnatural crime," most likely sodomy.

1933-Adolf Brand, who began publishing one of the earliest gay publications in Berlin, wrote a letter to his supporters saying he was unable to continue. Nazi raids and seizures had left him close to bankruptcy.

1984-Less than a month after being established as a city, West Hollywood approved a gay rights ordinance.

1989-A Boston couple, Martha Alsup and Susan Galbin, was found stabbed to death in Anguilla. Seventeen year-old Andy Otto was arrested, police said he killed them after attempting to rape them. A vigil was organized by friends of the couple to mourn the loss of the women, both psychologists, who had been very active in the Boston gay and lesbian community.

November 30-

1900-Oscar Wilde died. Visit his grave at http://www.findagrave.com/pictures/1102.html

1977-David Bowie appeared on Bing Crosby's 42nd annual Christmas Special. He did a duet with Bing on "Little Drummer Boy." The show had been taped prior to Crosby's death the previous month. (Thanks to the list member who sent this one)

1987-Author James Baldwin died. Visit his grave at http://www.findagrave.com/pictures/1420.html

1988-National League Baseball president Bart Giamatti fired umpire Dave Pallone for being gay.

1989-Columbus Ohio mayor Dana Rinehart signed a hate crimes bill which included the term sexual orientation but asked the city council to remove the term sexual orientation from it, saying the term was vague and did not belong in the ordinance. The council refused.