April 15-21
1996
U.S.: The Los Angeles chapter of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Teachers Network holds their 2nd Annual West Coast Conference, "Diversity: From Understanding to Appreciation." Featured speakers include Marsha Scott, deputy assistant to President Clinton and liaison to the gay and lesbian community, and Jamie Lee Curtis, actress and mother. * France: French authorities turn down a request from the Swedish government to allow gay couples—who can marry in their own country—to take romantic trips to Paris to be wed in the Swedish consulate there.
1991
U.S.: Brent Plott, a former employee of Merv Griffin, who claims he was the entertainer's lover, sues Griffin for half the profits from Wheel of Fortune and other businesses owned by the game show host. * Atlanta's Presbyterians vote to ask the national Presbyterian General Assembly to reject a report that recommends the ordination of homosexuals. * More than 100 activists commandeered every table at the Cracker Barrel outlet in Marietta, Ga., to protest the restaurant's policy of firing all gay/lesbian employees. * Women's buddy movie, Thelma and Louise, is in movie theaters. * The tabloids are filled with stories of John Travolta and his ex-driver Nassim Tahzid. According to Tahzid, "John was much more interested in Olivia Newton John's husband, Matt Lattanzi, than her." * Britain: Sixty members of the group Outrage! protest outside Canterbury Cathedral as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Carey, is enthroned. Signs say: "Stop Church Homophobia." Princess Diana and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu both wave to the protesters. * Elton John announces that he will donate all United Kingdom royalties from his future singles to AIDS/HIV charities. * Ireland: The Irish Family Planning Association is fined $1,000 for selling condoms at a Dublin record store. Under law, condoms may be sold only in pharmacies to people over 18.
1986
U.S.: Donna Deitch's Desert Hearts premieres in New York City. Based on Jane Rule's novel Desert of the Heart, the film is the first lesbian-produced feature about lesbians to be released commercially in the U.S. * In San Francisco, the Gay Rescue Mission opens a soup kitchen aimed at helping gay prostitutes. * France: Author Jean Genet, 75, dies in Paris.
1981
Greece: The Greek gay magazine Amphi is found guilty of a morals charge by an Athens court. The publication was charged with publishing "a picture depicting a robust man, naked, sitting and provocatively exhibiting in a scandalous manner his huge genitals, whereby sexual curiosity, stimulation, and imagination are strongly and intensely provoked, inciting minors to homosexual relations and various sexual abuses." * Britain: David Cook, a 24-year-old musician, is killed in London by an overdose of poppers. He is found slumped in the bath by a friend.
