April 27-May 3
1998
U.S.: Arista releases the live double CD, Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music. It features Sarah McLachlan, Paula Cole, Indigo Girls, Shawn Colvin, and others. * Cher at the GLAAD Awards: 'I could have been bankrupt without my gay fans. If you guys like someone, you stick with them. I feel like a female Tallulah Bankhead.' * In Santa Fe, N.M., Arthur 'Bozo' Lopez is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in the vicious stabbing of award-winning gay teacher Noah Rodriguez. * New York City police chaplain, William Kalaidjia, resigns after making derogatory remarks about a gay prosecutor. * Britain: Gay former Brit soccer player Justin Fahanu commits suicide after fleeing to London from Maryland where he was wanted for alleged sexual assault on a 17-old-male.
1993
U.S.: After attending the 1993 March On Washington, Mayor Bill Crews of Melbourne, Iowa, returns home to find 'Melbourne Hates Gays' and 'No Faggots' spray-painted onto the walls of his house. * The army begins discharge proceedings against Sgt. Jose Zuniga, after he 'comes out' on the eve of the March On Washington. * Angels In America by Tony Kushner opens on Broadway. * The National Women's Hall of Fame asks 100 professors to list the 20th Century's most influential U.S. women. Their top pick is Eleanor Roosevelt, whose 'intimate friend' Lorena Hickok lived with her in the White House for four years. Also in the top 10 are lesbians Jane Addams, the Nobel laureate social reformer, and anthropologist Margaret Mead. * Flower Power by gay pop-punk Pansy Division is in stores.
1988
U.S.: Tom Pappas, chief aide to Rep. Roy Dyson, D-Md., jumps to his death from a New York City hotel room the day a front-page article reports that he had made 'unorthodox social demands on male staff members.' * Randy Shilts answers callers questions on a radio talk show: 'Is it possible to get AIDS from mosquitoes?' 'Only if you can somehow manage to have anal intercourse with one,' responded Shilts. * The U.S. Senate passes the federal government's first comprehensive AIDS bill, even after Jesse Helms spearheaded an effort to weaken the bill by introducing hostile amendments. * Britain: 50,000 demonstrators march through London to protest Clause 28, a new law that prohibits the 'promotion of homosexuality' using public funds.
1983
U.S.: The Sohio Petroleum Company in San Francisco faces a $10 million lawsuit from three gay men and a non-gay woman. The men claim they were fired or forced to resign because they were gay. The woman says she was denied raises and career advances because she was 'overly friendly' with the gay employees, and refused to discriminate. * Querelle, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's last film, opens in New York City. * At Madison Square Garden, 18,000 people attend a benefit performance of The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, to raise funds for Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York City. * The New York Times reports that Dr. Robert Gallo's team of researchers at the National Cancer Institute, have discovered an unusual virus, called Human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV), found in up to one third of blood samples taken from AIDS 'victims.'
