Aug. 26-Sept. 1
1996
U.S.: In Madison, Wisc., Christians United, a conservative political group, urges constituents of state Rep. Tim Carpenter ( D-Milwaukee ) to ask him if he's gay. Carpenter, who refuses to answer the question, acknowledges that he has long been active in AIDS and civil-rights issues. * During his renomination acceptance speech at the Democratic Party in Chicago, President Clinton says: "We still have too many Americans who give into their fears of those who are different to them. ... So look around here, look around here. Old or young, healthy as a horse or a person with a disability that hasn't kept you down, man or woman, Native American, native-born, immigrant, straight or gay...whatever...the test ought to be: I believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence."
1991
U.S.: In Lebanon, Tenn., more than 200 protesters converge on the headquarters of Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores Inc., to demonstrate against the firm's policy of barring gays and lesbians from employment. * Astraea, the National Lesbian Action Foundation, announces its first $5,000 Sappho Award of Distinction to the lesbian feminist poet and writer Audre Lorde. * The San Francisco women's motorcycle group, Dykes on Bikes, which traditionally leads the Lesbian and Gay Freedom Day Parade, changes its name to Women's Motorcycle Contingent and allows men to participate. * Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harbarger refuses to certify for circulation four petitions seeking to repeal the State's gay-rights law and otherwise limit gays and lesbians. * Gay activists criticize Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder for refusing to oppose a 1930s state law banning gay bars. The law is rarely enforced but became an issue when a local resident challenged the presence of the French Quarter Cafe saying it threatened "family life." * In Dallas, Tom Olson, an award-winning journalist, ends his daily news broadcast by saying: "A sad personal note this morning. This will be my final report on KERA. I have AIDS and my failing health has made it necessary to give up reporting."
1986
U.S.: Patience Berounsky, the mother of Charles Howard, a young man who was killed when he was thrown off a bridge by three teenagers in 1984, files a civil lawsuit seeking $655,000 from the youths. The lawsuit names Daniel Ness, Shawn Mabry and James Baines, all of whom were convicted of manslaughter. * The U.S. Department of Justice is ordered by Northern California Federal District Judge Charles A. Legge to admit the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches into all federal prisons to hold religious services for prisoners.
1981
U.S.: Roger Baldwin, a longtime straight activist for gay rights, dies in New Jersey at age 97. * In California, Gov. Jerry Brown appoints Mary Morgan to the San Francisco Municipal Court. She is the first openly lesbian judge in the U.S. * Filmmaker John Waters, after the release of Polyester, says: "The last of my films that my parents saw was Mondo Trasho in 1968 ... they left the theater in tears and told me I was going to die in a mental institution, go insane or commit suicide." * The Gay Community Center in Seattle closes for financial reasons. * Alec Waugh, 83, dies in Tampa, Fla., two weeks after suffering a stroke. The author came to prominence with his novel Loom of Youth, published in 1917, and the first book to refer to homosexual relationships in the English public schools. * Screenwriter Marvin Braverman files a $5 million lawsuit against Twentieth Century Fox, claiming the studio didn't pay him for writing a script about a gay comic hero. Braverman claims his 1977 script was turned into the movie Zorro, the Gay Blade.
