The first lesbian and gay pride march in the USA took place on 28th. June in New York City, commemorating the Stonewall Rebellion of the year before. See a history of Pride .

The London Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was founded after a first meeting in the London School of Economics on 13th. October.

The first gay demonstration in the UK (at Highbury Fields Isling.htmlrapment.

Formation of the radiclaesbians and publication of Woman-Identified-Woman.

Cambodian invasion.

First lesbian/gay Chicano group formed in LA, Unidos, by Steve Jordon.

NACHO dissolved.

Campaign Agsinst Moral Persecution (CAMP), first Australian gay rights organization.

First American professional assocciation to include a lesbian/gay group: Amer. Library Association.

Purge of lesbians from the National Organization of Women.

Following a rap session at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Community Church, two gay men and two lesbians discover they are all Jewish and decide to form their own temple. Beth Chayim Chadishm holds its first service in July of 1972 and are chartered on July 19, 1974, by the union of American Hebrew Congregations, making it not only the first gay and lesbian synagogue, but also the first gay religious organization of any kind to be officially recognized by a national body. In 1977 the congregation acquired its own building, dedicated in 1981.", "The United Church of Christ in San Carlos, California, ordains William Johnson, making it the first Christian denomination to ordain an openly gay candidate. Johnson came out in 1970 while studying at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkely, California."

Colorado and Oregon repeal sodomy laws.

Gay age of consent in the Netherlands changed from 21 to 16 (equalized; Penal Code Section 248bis dropped).

The U.S. Libertarian Party calls for the repeal of all victimless crime laws, including the sodomy laws.

Dr. Frank Kameny becomes the first openly gay candidate for the United States Congress.

The first open gay dance in the UK, organised by the Gay Liberation Front , was held at Kensington Town Hall.

The first gay march through London with a rally in Trafalgar Square, protesting against the unequal age of consent for gay men (21) took place in August.

Lesbians invaded the platform at the Women's Liberation Conference, Skegness, demanding recognition.

The Gay Liberation Front Manifesto was published, and the first national 'think-in' was held.

Oberlin Gay Liberation, an early lesbian, gay, and bisexual student organisation in the United States was founded. (See the first documented gay student group, and the first documented European student gay group .)

Bonnie Rait

John Knowles' The Paragon.

Norway decriminalizes homosexuality.

Sweden becomes first country in the world to allow transgendered people to legally change their sex, and provides free hormone therapy.

Law Lords found the International Times magazine guilty of 'conspiracy to corrupt public morals' for publishing gay contact advertisements.

The first UK gay newspaper, Gay News , was founded. It promptly started a contact advertisement column.

The Scottish Minorities Group (SMG) launched a campaign to decrimalise homosexuality in Scotland.

The first Pride 'Carnival and March' through London to Hyde Park was held on 1st. July. See a history of Pride .

Publication of Sapho Was a Right-On Woman.

Opening of first gay synagogue in the U.S.

DDT banned

Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon's Lesbian/Woman.

Bette Midler

Daughters Inc. founded by June Arnold and Parke Bowman.

First gay person ordained by a major Christian denomination (United Church of Christ).

First gay persons elected to public office (Ann Arbor City Council). Ann Arbor, Michigan becomes first city in United States to pass gay rights ordinance.

Nixon defeats McGovern.

"The first bisexual religious organization, the Committee of Friends on Bisexuality, if founded by Stephen Donaldson in Ithaca, N.Y. They issue the `Ithaca Statement on Bisexuality' during their first gathering in June, 1972, which is thought to be the first statement on bisexuality-as well as pro-bisexuality- by any religious body. The committee ended in 1977.", "The Unitarian Universalists become the first denomination to establish a lesbian and gay office. Three years earlier, a resolution was passed by the general assembly banning discrimination against gays in the church."

The first UK gay helpline was founded in Oxford.

The first national gay rights conference was held by the Campaign For Homosexual Equality in Morecombe.

The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality as a mental disorder from its DSM-II Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, based largely on the research and advocacy of Evelyn Hooker.

In November Kathy Kozachenko was elected to the City Council of Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, as the first openly gay candidate to run successfully for elective office in the United States.

Publication of Rubyfruit Jungle by Daughters Inc.

Roe v. Wade

Founding of Naiad Press

Allen Ginsberg's The Fall of America

Club Bath chain reaches its 500,000th membership

Founding of National Gay Task Force & Lambda Legal Defense Fund

The Rocky Horror Show debuts

• Kathy Kozachenko becomes the first openly gay or lesbian American elected to public office, when she wins a seat on the Ann Arbor, Michigan city council.
• Ohio repeals sodomy laws. Robert Grant founds American Christian Cause to oppose the "gay agenda," the beginning of the modern Christian Right in America

•  The Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform (Northern Ireland) appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to force the UK to extend the 1967 Sexual Offences Act to them.

•  The first national lesbian conference was held in Canterbury.

•  The Scottish Minorities Group (SMG) bought a building to set up a Gay Centre in Edinbugh (where homosexual acts were still illegal).

•  London Gay (later Lesbian and Gay) Switchboard was launched. It went 24 hours a day within a year.

•  The first International Gay Rights Conference was held in Edinburgh.

• The South London Gay Community Centre opened in a Brixton squat.
• Elaine Noble is first openly gay person elected to a state legislature
• Founding of Olivia Records
• Patti Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army

Elaine Noble becomes the second out American elected to public office, when she wins a seat in the Massachusetts State House.

Action for Lesbian Parents was founded after three high-profile custody cases where lesbians were refused custody of their children.

British Home Stores sacked openly gay trainee Tony Whitehead; a national campaign picketed their stores.

Leonard Matlovich, discharged from Air Force, appears on cover of Time.

Michael Bennett's "A Chorus Line".

Bisexual Forum founded in NYC.

Robert Grant founds Christian Voice to take his anti-gay-rights crusade national in United States.

Tom Robinson , singer, wrote Glad to be Gay.

The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement was founded.

Publication of Sinister Wisdom magazine.

Doonesbury's main character comes out.

First Southeastern Conference on Lesbians and Gay Men (Chapel Hill).

Barbara Jordan keynote speaker at Democratic Convention.

Harvey Milk is elected city-county supervisor in San Francisco, becoming the third out American elected to public office.

Dade County, Florida enacts a Human Rights Ordinance; it is repealed the same year after a militant anti-gay-rights campaign led by Anita Bryant.

Quebec becomes the first jurisdiction larger than a city or county in the world to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the public and private sectors.

Lord Arran's Bill to reduce the gay age of consent to 18 was defeated in the House of Lords.

Ian Paisley launched the Save Ulster From Sodomy campaign.

Singer Tom Robinson released 'Glad To Be Gay' with the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard telephone number on the sleeve. Switchboard telephones immediately went mad.

On 4th. July Gay News was prosecuted by Mary Whitehouse for 'blasphemy' after they had printed James Kirkup's poem imagining a Roman centurion having gay sex with Jesus of Nazareth.

In November Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors as the first openly gay candidate elected to public office in the state of California.

Anita Bryant's Save Our Children campaign.

TVmini-series "Roots".

Senior Action in a Gay Environment (SAGE) formed.

First official lesbian/gay delegation received at the White House.

Star Wars

Rainbow flag first used as a symbol of gay and lesbian pride.

"Rabbi Allen Bennet allows himself to be outed in the San Francisco Examiner, making him the first openly gay rabbi.", "Witchcraft and the Gay Counter Culture, by Arthur Evans, a historical view of heresy, gayness and the witch hunts of Europe and England is published."

London's Evening News infiltrated a lesbian insemination group and published a damaging exposé. Lesbians began a sit-in and demanded a right to a reply. Parliament Square, the Law Courts, and the British Medical Association were spray-painted.

The International Gay (later Lesbian and Gay) Association was launched at a meeting in Coventry.

On 27th. November Supervisor Harvey Milk and pro-gay liberal Mayor George Moscone were assasinated in San Francisco City Hall by right-wing, ex-police officer and former Supervisor, Dan White. That evening, 40000 people held a candlelight march from the city's gay Castro District to City Hall. The memorial march has since been repeated every year on that date.

Defeat of Briggs Amendment (Proposition 6) in California (58-42 percent).

Assassination of Harvey Milk.

First anatomically correct gay doll. – Gay Bob

Iran hostages

"La Cage aux Folles" film

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, Jr.

"The Radical Faeries are established when Harry Hay, a pioneer of gay liberation, organizes a first gathering of approximately two hundred men in the Arizona desert. The Faeries are a national organization of free spirits and flower children known for their pagan-influenced celebration of what's different and special about gay men."

Gay Life, the first ever gay series was commissioned for British TV, by London Weekend Television. It was shown in London at 11.30 pm on Sundays throughout 1980-81, with an average audience rating of 350,000. One of its presenters, Michael Attwell, went on to commission BBC2's Gaytime TV.

On 21st. May, because of a technicality of California law, a jury found Dan White guilty of manslaughter rather than first degree murder in the double assasination of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. Dan White was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison. The resulting violent protest that evening came to be known as the "White Night Riot" - the first gay riot since the Stonewall Rebellion ten years earlier.

first national gay rights march on Washington, DC - March on Washington draws 200,000

John Lennon murdered

Mariel Boatlift brings thousands of gay and lesbian Cubans to South Florida

Radical Faerie Movement