( Aug. 12-18 )
1996
U.S.: In Springfield, Mo., the Assemblies of God, a conservative evangelical church with 1.4 million U.S. followers, joins the Southern Baptists in urging their members to boycott Walt Disney Corp's products and theme parks for what church leaders call the entertainment company's "moral shift." * Maj. Debra Meeks, an Air Force major accused of having a lesbian relationship with a civilian woman is found not guilty of charges of sodomy and conduct unbecoming of an officer. Pamela Dillard testified that she and Meeks had a sexual relationship. She said Meeks threatened her with a gun when the relationship ended, but Meeks denied all charges. * A survey sponsored by Harris and Associates found that 6 out of 10 Americans disapprove of gay marriages, 61 percent disapprove of a female couple who live together adopting a child, and 65 percent disapprove of two men who live together adopting a child. * In Richmond, Va., lesbian mother Sharon Bottoms ends her three-year battle for custody of her son, when she decides to abandon her appeal in return for lengthier and more frequent visits with her child, Tyler Doustou, 5, who is living with her mother, Pamela Kay Bottoms. * In San Jose, Calif., Silicon Valley's Santa Clara County establishes a domestic-partners registry allowing gays, lesbians and unmarried heterosexuals to register their relationships. * Australia: Residents of Gays Road in the mining and farming town of Emerald, force the local council to change their name because they are fed up with being labeled homosexuals. It's now known as Hogans Road.
1991
U.S.: The 16th Michigan Womyn's Music Festival takes place. * The 1992 International Conference on AIDS, originally scheduled to be held in Boston, is to take place in Amsterdam, because of U.S. policy restricting HIV-infected visitors and immigrants from entering the country.
1986
U.S.: The Weekly World News publishes an article about the gay demonstrations over the U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow states to ban gay sex. The headline reads: GAYS THREATEN CIVIL WAR! ONWARD SISSY SOLDIERS! PEEVED PANSIES REVOLT! "Hordes of howling homosexuals are in a foot-stamping snit because the Supreme Court won't okay their bizarre bedtime practices...and they're threatening to prance out of the closet and scratch our eyes out ... ." * Alice Waier, an adopted sister of the late Rock Hudson, files papers in a Los Angeles Court in an attempt to get the $8.5 million the actor left in his will. Waier claims a gay conspiracy "influenced the deceased away from family relationships and into a lifestyle contrary to the deceased's traditional and previous upbringing." * Carole Migdan, an openly lesbian activist, is elected chair of the San Francisco County Democratic Central Committee.
1981
U.S.: The Celluloid Closet, Vito Russo's groundbreaking book about gays in the movies, is in bookstores. * The California Gay Rodeo, Hoedown, and Country Fair takes place at the San Francisco Cow Palace. * The 2nd conference of lesbian and gay Seventh Day Adventists takes place in Guerneville, Calif. * The 1st convention of the Gay Atheists League of America is held in San Francisco. * Britain: Sammy Maddocks, 17, is sentenced to three months for burglary and put in a detention center. It wasn't until Sammy had spent a night in the all-male facility that officials became aware that Sammy was a girl.