May 27-June 2
1996
U.S.: The Log Cabin Republicans sue the Texas Republican Party after the gay group were blocked from setting up a booth and advertising at the upcoming state convention. * A House subcommittee votes to authorize states to refuse to accept same-sex marriages from other states and to bar federal recognition of such marriages regarding taxes, pensions and benefits. * Speaker of the House of Reps Newt Gingrich says he would not attend a wedding of Candace, his gay sister, to another woman because he would not consider such a union a marriage. * Netherlands: The Dutch government announces it will appoint an independent committee of experts to look into legalizing same-sex marriages.
1991
U.S.: Sexual Compulsives Anonymous hold its 5th Spring Conference at the Lesbian and Gay Community Center in New York. * ACT UP's year-old boycott of Marlboro cigarettes and Miller beer ends with the announcement that the Philip Morris Companies, corporate parent of the two manufacturers, will increase substantially its contributions to AIDS research. * A gay-rights ordinance passes in Tampa, Fla., three weeks after West Palm Beach adopts a similar law. The victories come in a state that has been the scene of several ugly gay-rights battles, most notably, the anti-gay campaigns of Anita Bryant in the late-1970s. * Chicago's Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues announces the first inductees into the City's recently established Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. * Philadelphia's gay community celebrates the defeat of anti-gay city council member Fran Rafferty. Rafferty had been targeted for defeat by the Pride of Philadelphia Election Committee. * ACT UP, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Queer Nation and the International Gay and Lesbian Association stage a series of demonstrations in five U.S. Cities on Amnesty International's 30th anniversary. The gay groups are protesting Amnesty's exclusion of gay and lesbian concerns from its mandate. Amnesty later does include gay and lesbian issues in its mission.
1986
U.S.: Fashion designer Perry Ellis dies of AIDS at age 46. * A symposium on gay and lesbian youth is held at the University Radisson Hotel in Minneapolis. * Comedian Lily Tomlin wins a Tony award for her one-woman show, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. * Amnesty International names George A.J. Siemensma as coordinator to collect information on gays who have been imprisoned because of their homosexuality. * In a victory for gay activists, the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Dane County, Wisc., reverses its policy of banning lesbians and gay men as volunteers. * Britain: Two men are fined the equivalent of $150 each for kissing goodbye at a bus stop in London.
1981
U.S.: Former Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Charles Damnielson, and San Diegan Martin Lyston Dart, are sentenced to three years probation and $250 fines each for having sex with two boys, ages 12 and 13. Around the same time, Jim Honeycutt, a Santa Barbara county deputy sheriff for 13 years is booked on suspicion of engaging in a homosexual act with a 14-year-old. * The deportation by U.S. immigration officials of a Canadian gay man attempting to visit a friend in Washington, D.C., sparks the first international demonstration by lesbians and gay men. Simultaneous protests take place in London, Stockholm, and six cities around the United States.