April 20-26
1998
U.S.: The Ellen TV show is canceled after five seasons. ABC president Robert Iger says the show became too much for people because the sitcom explored the lead character's homosexuality every week. * AMFAR honors Carol Burnett, Carol Channing and Carole Bayer Sager for their commitment to AIDS in 'AmFAR Salutes the Carols,' at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Performing at the show are Lily Tomlin, Angela Lansbury, Chita Rivera, Christopher Cross, and others. * Argentina: The grave of Carl Peter Vaernet, a Nazi doctor who experimented on gays in Buchenwald and Neuengamme camps, is found in the Britanico cemetery.
1993
U.S.: The Microsoft Corporation announce plans to offer health benefits to partners and eligible dependents of its gay and lesbian employees. * Conduct Unbecoming: Lesbians and Gays in the U.S. Military, Vietnam to the Persian Gulf, by Randy Shilts is in bookstores. * Quote of the Week: Playwright Paul Rudnick in the Washington Post: 'Most gay bashers will be wearing what gay people had on four years earlier, only in polyester with a Penney's label.' * Hundreds of thousands of people attend the 1993 March On Washington. In a letter to the marchers, President Clinton writes: 'I stand with you in the struggle for equality for all Americans, including gay men and lesbians. In this great country, founded on the principle that all people are created equal, we must learn to put aside what divides us and focus on what we share.' * B.S. Enterprises of Northampton, Mass., offers a new line in 'transitory body art,' called Gaytoos; 20 new temporary tattoos designed for gays and lesbians: freedom rings, rainbow flags, pink triangles, and even one to indicate whether you're a top or bottom. * The Sexual Brain by Simon LeVay is in the bookstores.
1988
U.S.: The CDC report 84,256 cases of AIDS in the U.S., 2,325 in Brazil, 912 in Haiti, 713 in Mexico, and 352 in the Dominican Republic. * Some 30 preachers from central Indiana are among the 200 fundamentalist protesters, some wearing surgical masks and carrying Bibles, who picket the Indianapolis building where female impersonators are competing for the 1988 Miss Gay USA title. * Britain: Gangs of football 'hooligans' attack gay men lining up outside of Heaven, London's premiere disco, and also at the Backstreet leather bar. * Russia: A report in a Russian newspaper states that lesbianism occurs in Soviet penal colonies because 'marching in formation, ugly clothes, banging of iron, commands and a meatless diet, makes one insipid, dull, and leads to a search for emotional relief at any price.
1983
U.S.: The Dallas Tavern Guild, an association of 16 bars, is denied a position in the Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade because of the discriminatory door policy of the one of the bars in the organization. The Round-Up has a sign posted on its door, saying: 'Each lady must have a male escort.' * Popular porn videos are Huge and Huge II. * More than 1,000 lesbians and gay men in Los Angeles pay $175 a plate to rub shoulders with Sen. Gary Hart,D-Col., former U.S. Rep. Bella Abzug, D-NY, former California Gov. Edmund G. 'Jerry' Brown Jr., and TV producer Norman Lear. The event is the annual banquet for the Metropolitan Elections Committee of Los Angeles, the nation's oldest gay-oriented political action committee. * Hot Club Hits include: Sex, I'm A ... by Berlin, Weekend by Class Action, and Get The Balance Right by Depeche Mode. * Canada: Police raid Toronto's Back Door Bathhouse, and 1,000 people protest the police action by marching down Yonge Street, the city's main thoroughfare. Three people are arrested.
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