The direct action group OutRage! was set up in May after a west London queerbashing murder of actor Michael Boothe.

Founding of Queer Nation.

Iraq invades Kuwait.

President signs Hate Crimes Statistics bill that includes anti-gay violence.

Berlin Wall falls.

Hong Kong decriminalizes homosexuality.

Red ribbon first used as a symbol of the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Stonewall and the International Lesbian and Gay Association were given the first European Community grant to survey gay rights across the Community.

OutRage! held a kiss-in at Picadilly, London, and one man climbed the Eros statue.

LAGPA: Lesbian and Gay Police Association was formed.

Simon LeVay published work suggesting that gay men have a certain group of brain cells which are smaller than those of straight men.

Washington, D.C. held its first Black Lesbian and Gay Pride celebration.

Derek Jarman was canonised by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as St. Derek of Dungeness of the Order of Celluloid Knights. on 22nd. September.

Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund established

Thomas-Hill hearings

End of the Soviet Union

Queer Nation Cracker Barrel boycott

The World Health Organization removes homosexuality from its ICD-10

"MCC's application for observer status within the National Council of Churches of Christ is voted to not be acted upon. The debate regarding MCC's status causes some NCC member churches to side with MCC, including the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church and the Swedenborgian Church. Several other groups indicate that they will pull out of the group if MCC's request is granted, particularly orthodox and predominantly black denominations.", "A four page letter from the Vatican entitled `Some Considerations Concerning the Catholic Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons' is issued to the U.S. Bishops. Basically the letter states the Vatican's opposition to such legislation and urges bishops to actively oppose gay civil rights laws. Bishops in Seattle, Honolulu and other places make the surprising move of publicly dissenting."

The UK Order of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was founded by Mother Ethel Dreads a Flashback, a missionary sister from Sydney.

London hosted the first Europride .

The Terrence Higgins Trust withdrew its warning of lesbian-to-lesbian HIV transmission.

Gay Men Fighting AIDS (GMFA) was founded.

Colorado Passes Amendment 2

Billy Ray Cyrus into country, k.d. lang out of country

Election of first post WWII U.S. President

Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina

LA Riots

"Angels in America" opens

Third gay rights march on Washington, DC.

Sodomy laws repealed in the Republic of Ireland brought about by Senator David Norris.

Russia decriminalizes consensual male sodomy.

Norway enacts civil union laws that grant same-sex couples the same rights as married couples, except for the right to adopt or marry in a church.

Stonewall supported the appeal made by gay men under 21 to the European Court for equality.

Dean Hamer published the claim that he had found a link between male homosexuality and Xq28, the 8th. band of region 2 of the q (long) arm of the X chromosome.

March on Washington attracts one million people

Williamson County (TX) denies Apple tax breaks due to its domestic partner policy

"Philadelphia" appears in theaters

AMA denounces supposed cures for homosexuality/Canada grants refugee status to homosexuals fearing for their well-being in their native country.

Paragraph 175 is repealed in Germany. Israel's supreme court defines gay-couple's rights same as any common-law-couple's rights.

Derek Jarman died two days before the age of consent debate in the House of Commons.

The House of Commons voted to reduce the gay male age of consent to 18. The crowds outside were bitterly disappointed that it had not been reduced to 16 and a riot ensued in the precincts of Parliament for the first time for 150 years. Crowds rampaged to the G.A.Y. disco and owner Jeremy Joseph gave them free entry.

Stonewall and Euan Sutherland launched an appeal to the European Court for under 18s.

The first ever safer sex television advertisements directed at gay men were shown on Channel 4 in August. The two advertisments were made by Gay Men Fighting AIDS and included two men kissing.

The Lesbian Avengers were founded.

OutRage! 'outed' eight bishops, and provoked debate within the Church of England.

First school sanctioned gay-youth prom held in Los Angeles

Deborah Batts is named federal judge -- the first openly gay to be appointed

Sweden legalizes registered partnerships (civil unions) with all the rights of marriage except for marriage in a church and adoption.

The Supreme Court of Canada rules that sexual orientation is a prohibited ground of discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Gay Times was on sale in the high street stores owned by the John Menzies newsagents chain for the first time in May.

London Pride was the biggest ever. Almost 200000 partied in Victoria Park in the East End. The clean-up cost soared to £53000.

Rank Outsiders and Stonewall launched a major campaign on gays in the military.

Gaytime TV was launched and one million tuned in every week.

Capital Gay folded with its last issue on 31st. June.

Freedom FM ran the first ever UK lesbian and gay 'restricted service license' radio broadcasts in London.

Dyke programming chief, Jacquie Lawrence, allocated a £3m Channel 4 television budget to lesbian and gay programming.

President signs excecutive order forbidding the denial of security clearance due to homosexulity

South Africa becomes the first nation to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution.

The Lesbian and Gay Pride changed its name to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride and was held on 6th. July, with the festival on Clapham Common..

Channel 4 television began filming a major docudrama around the newly-opened Glasgow Gay and Lesbian centre.

Robert Runcie, ex-Archbishop of Canterbury, admitted to having ordained known gay men.

The first Summer Rites free festival was held in Kennington Park on 4th. August with 30000 attending.

Official outing on 9th. August of the first openly-gay character, Sean Myerson (Gareth Armstrong), in BBC Radio 4's soap, The Archers, the world's longest-running soap.

Defense of Marriage Act passes the U.S. Congress

1.2 million people visit the AIDS Quilt in Washington

Employment NonDiscrimination Act defeated in U.S. Senate (50-49)

Defense of Marriage Act signed by the President

In March, the British scouting movement adopted an equal opportunities policy which aimed to protect both leaders and young recruits from harassment because of their 'sexual status'.

On 1st. May the British general election gave out-gay Ben Bradshaw victory in Exeter, and out-gay Stephen Twigg took ex-cabinet minister, Michael Portillo 's Enfield-Southgate seat.

On 3rd. May Chris Smith became Britain's first out-gay cabinet minister when he was appointed as National Heritage Secretary.

Celebration in Berlin of the hundredth aniversary of the setting up of the Scientific Humanitarian Committee and called Goodbye to Berlin? 100 Years of Gay Liberation . The launch was reported on 17th. May by BBC Radio 4 news.

The British top-secret Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) told The Pink Paper (23rd. May) that it had relaxed its regulations relating to its employment of gays and lesbians on 16th. January. Subsequently MI6, which deals with spies abroad, said that it had also changed its policy, but MI5, the internal secret security service, denied a change.

On 3rd. September Labour MP Angela Eagle was the first British MP to come out voluntarily as a lesbian.

Recognition by the British government of same-sex couple in the immigration rules came into effect on 13th. October.

UK extends immigration rights to same-sex couples akin to marriage.

Fiji is the second country to explicitly protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution.

Laws prohibiting private homosexual acts are repealed in Tasmania, Australia, the last Australian state to do so.

First U.S. President to address gay organization (HRC)

Apuzzo appointed as highest ranking gay government official in history

Ellen comes out in t.v. sitcom

Hawaii compromises on same-sex marriages by domestic partnerships

Death of Princess Diana

Cunanan killing spree

Matthew Shepard slain.

Employment Equality Act introduced in Ireland, covering wrongful dismissal based on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Vriend v. Alberta- sexual orientation is read into the IRPA, Alberta's human rights act.

In February, the new journal Sexualities was launched.

On 2nd. May, Britain's first professional soccer player to come out as gay, Justin Fashanu , committed suicide.

In June, two more British Labour MPs, David Borrow and Gordon Marsden , came out as gay.

In June Gregory Woods was appointed as the first Professor of Lesbian and Gay Studies in the UK.

On 22nd. June the British House of Commons voted to set the age of consent for gay men at 16 in a debate on the Crime and Disorder Bill .

On 4th. July the London Pride March went ahead despite the cancellation of the Pride Festival.

On 21st. July Waheed Alli took his place in the House of Lords as the first openly gay life peer to be appointed in Britain.

On 22nd. July the British House of Lords defeated the clause to lower the age of consent to 16 for gay men.

On 7th. November Nick Brown MP was the first British Cabinet minister to come out publicly as gay while in post.

On 31st. November a statue of Oscar Wilde was unveiled in central London.

California adopts domestic partner law.

France enacts civil union laws (PACS) accessible to same-sex couples.

The "Queer Youth Alliance" is founded in the UK.

Israel's supreme court recognizes lesbian partner as another legal mother of her partner's biological son.

On 30th. January British Conservative Member of the European Parliament, Tom Spencer, was forced by the media to say that that he was gay.

In February the German government honoured lesbian and gay Nazi victims .

At 6.37 pm on Friday 30th. April, a bomb exploded in the Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, Soho, London. This attack on a gay pub was the third of a series of bombs targeted at minorities by a lone bigoted extremist. Three people who were in the Admiral Duncan died as a result of the bomb. A husband and four-months pregnant wife and their friend who had been the best man at their wedding met there prior to going to the theatre. The wife and best man were killed, and the husband was seriously injured.