May

May 1

May 1, 1974 - Studio One opens in Hollywood.

May 1, 1974 - Gay activists march in Portugal, for the first time, demanding an end to the country's sodomy laws and a repeal of all statutes that discriminate against gays and lesbians.

May 1, 1975 - Maine Legislators decriminalize homosexuality between consenting adults in private by repealing its sodomy laws, and lower the age of consent to 14.

May 1, 1975 - Published reports confirm that Paul Newman is having financing trouble with his attempt to bring The Front Runner to screen. Newman eventually allows his option to lapse.

May 1, 1976 - Christopher Street magazine debuts.

May 1, 1977 - Wyoming decriminalizes private consensual adult homosexual acts.

May 1, 1982 - Scientific American publishes an ad from the Lesbian and Gay Associated Engineers and Scientists. Science News refuses to run the ad.

May 1, 1984 - Advocate Men magazine debuts.

May 1, 1986 - Lesbian Ann Bancroft becomes the first woman to reach the North Pole by dogsled. The trip, which started from Ellesmere Island, took her two months.

May 2

May 2, 1895 - Lorenz Hart was born in New York.  Richard Rogers wrote the perfect scores for Hart's words.  They became some of the best songs of the '20s and '30s. It was a closely guarded secret he was gay.  No one knew until a biography came out 30 years after his death.

 

May 2, 1972 - J. Edgar Hoover dies, and leaves the bulk of his estate to Clyde Tolson, his "companion" of over 40 years.

May 3

May 3, 1912 - Writer May Sarton is born in Wendelgem, Belgium. The writer of some of the most lyric poetry of the 20th century, she is best known for her lesbian novel "Mrs Stevens hears the Mermaids Singing" in 1965.

 

May 3, 1976 - A Chorus Line wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama. (If you don't know why this belongs on the list - find it - see it.)

 

May 3, 1978 - In Toronto the Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario distributes Discrimination and the Gay Minority to the members of the Ontario  Legislature. Liberal leader Stuart Smith supports inclusion of sexual orientation in human rights code.

 

May 3, 1989 - Christine Jorgenson, pioneering transsexual, dies of cancer at age sixty-two.

May 4

May 4, 1993 - Angels in America: Millennium Approaches opens on Broadway.

May 5

May 5, 1913 - Tyrone Power was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Handsome, but not much of an actor, Power led a busy bisexual life in Hollywood and kept the studio busy keeping his name out of the papers..

 

May 5, 1974  - The Community Homophile Association of Newfoundland (CHAN) is formed becoming the first gay organization in province.

 

May 5, 1979 - In Saskatoon, the Saskatchewan Division of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) at annual convention supports legislation banning discrimination on basis of sexual orientation.

May 6

May 6, 1976 - Two Members of Ontario Provincial Parliament,  Margaret Campbell (Liberal - St George - downtown Toronto) and Ted Bounsell (NDP - Windsor) -- introduce  private members' bills to amend Ontario Human Rights Code to include sexual orientation. The bills are defeated.

May 7

May 7, 1840 - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky is born in Votinsk, Russia.  Assailed by many modern critics as better suited to writing for film than creating serious music, Tchaikovsky still remains popular.  A popular conspiracy theory has it that he was forced to commit suicide by authorities because he was gay.  Hardly likely, under Tsarist Russia, homosexuality was tolerated, though hardly condoned. 

 

May 7, 1977 - Ten groups attend the first Manitoba Gay Conference in Winnipeg and form the Manitoba Gay Coalition.

 

May 7 1982 - In  Toronto, Morality Squad officers appear at the gay paper The Body Politic office with search warrant but  leave empty-handed after brief search

May 8

May 8, 1978 - The trial begins of those in Truxx bar raid, charged with being keepers of a common bawdyhouse (house of prostitution).

May 9

May 9, 1860 - James M. Barrie the creator of Peter Pan was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland.  Married, he never consummated the union and preferred to spend his time with a group of young boys.  

 

May 9, 1972 The first issue of The Other Woman is produced in Toronto. Combination of several feminist newspapers. Predominant input is from lesbian feminists.

 

May 9, 1977  - In  Ottawa Private Barbara Thornborrow is confronted by officials in Canadian Armed Forces about her lesbianism. She decides to go public and fight before she is fired.

 

May 10

May 10, 320 BC - Theocritus is born in Syracuse.  As any student will tell you Theocritus developed the verse form known as the pastoral, a stylized and artful form usually about shepherds or cowherds who sing of love and friendship.  They were highly homoerotic.  No wonder, Theocritus was usually surrounded by a bevy of handsome young men,    

May 11

May 11, The Ladies of Llangollen - Eleanor Butler (1739- 1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755 - 1831) celebrated joint birthdays and shared their lives for a half century.  Both Irish aristocrats, they rain from their native Ireland to live in Wales together. The subject of several excellent books, they seem to have impressed their neighbors as well as London high society.  

May 12

May 12, 1975 - California decriminalizes same sex acts between consenting adults.

 

May 12, 1982 - Toronto police charge all nine members of the gay paper  The Body Politic editorial collective with publishing obscene material, related to "Lust with a very proper stranger," article on etiquette of fist-fucking in April issue.

May 13 

May 13, 1976 - Montreal police gay clubs including the Taureau d'Or, Studio One, the Stork Club, the Crystal Baths, and Jilly's, a lesbian bar.]

May 13, 1979 - In London, Ontario, the Ontario division of CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) at its annual conference opposes discrimination on basis of sexual orientation and urges local affiliates to include it in non-discrimination clauses of collective agreements.

 

May 14

May 14, 1883 - America's foremost female impersonator is born as Julian Eltinge in Newtonville, Massachusetts. Eltinge was a stage and silent film star with few realizing he was actually a man.  So popular was he that during the Korean War a troop ship was named in his, or rather, her honor.  No one knows how many American boys climbed onto the drag queen as they sailed to war without realizing it

 

May 14, 1974 - The first federal gay rights bill is introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Equality Act of 1974, would have amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act, by adding "sexual orientation, to the list of protected from discrimination.

 

May 14, 1976 - Montreal police raid Montreal's Neptune Sauna and arrest nineteen men, charging them with being found-ins in common bawdyhouse

 

May 14, 1981 - The Reagan administration cancels the White House subscription to The Advocate.

May 15

May 15, 356 BC - Alexander the Great is born in Macedonia. One of the greatest generals of all time, Alexander's love of Hephaestion is the stuff of legend.   

 

May 15, 1897 - The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, (Wissenschaftlich-Humanitres Komitee) was founded by Dr Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin, Germany.

 

May 15,1969 - Canada decriminalizes private same sex acts.

 

May 15, 1977 - 60 Minutes broadcasts a segment on child pornography, concentrating on "adult homosexuals who prey on small boys."

 

May 15, 1979 -  Teacher Don Jones is dismissed by the Smeaton, Saskatchewan because of a complaint to school board that he is gay.

 

May 15,1981 - A fraternity at the University of Florida circulates a petition stating, "Homosexuals need bullets - not acceptance" during Lesbian/Gay Awareness Week.

 

May 15,1988 - Teenagers from a conservative Catholic high school go on a bashing spree, beating one victim to death. They are later sentenced to 35 and 40 years in prison.

May 16

May 16, 1921 - The writer who created Auntie Mame was born in Chicago.  Patrick Dennis was almost as camp as his heroine and is the only author to have had three novels on the New York Times best-seller list at the same time (for 8 weeks in 1956). 

May 16-18, 1981 - The Fifth Binational Lesbian Conference in Vancouver draws women from across Canada, organizes first lesbian pride march.

May 17

May 17, 1866 - Composer Erik Satie is born in Honfleur, Calvados.  Throughout his life he lived in a tiny Paris room.  Dissatisfied with his compositions he returned to school when he was forty to study music formally.  Still his untutored works are among his most popular.

 

May 17, 1978 - The  Toronto Board of Education committee rehires John Argue as swimming instructor, overruling principal of school. Argue had been fired because he was gay.

May 18

May 18-19, 1974 - In Saskatoon, the first prairie conference of gay organizations, hosted by Saskatoon Gay Action.

 

May 18-21, 1978 - In Toronto, the second annual conference of MCC [Metropolitan Community Church] in Canada sees the election of a new Canadian coordinator and installation of Rev Brent Hawkes as pastor of MCC Toronto.

 

May 19

May 19, 1891 - John Vernou Bouvier III was born in New York City. The father of Jackie Bouvier Kenney Onasis was a well known womanizer what was little know was his manizing.  Among his lovers was Cole Porter.  A narcissist his Manhattan apartment was covered wall to wall with pictures of himself.

 

May 19-21, 1979 - A Bi-national [i.e., Canada and Quebec] Lesbian Conference is held at University of Toronto.

May 20

May 20-22, 1978 - The first bi-national gay youth conference is held in Toronto with delegates from English Canada and Quebec

May 20, 1979 - The first Mr. International Leather contest is held. The winner is David Klos.

May 21

May 21, 1916 - Harold Robbins is born in New York.  His original name was Francis Kane.  Robbins is the author of some of the best-selling blockbusters in publishing history.  Dreams Die First a novel featuring a bisexual hero was considered a landmark at the time. 

 

May 21, 1970 - Bella Abzug becomes one of the first major U.S. politicians to openly court the gay vote as she addresses a meeting of the Gay Activists Alliance while running for Congress in New York City.

 

May 21, 1975 - A Chorus Line opens on Broadway.

 

May 21, 1976 - Candidate Jimmy Carter announces that if elected he will support and sign a federal civil rights bill outlawing discrimination against gays and lesbians.

 

May 21, 1977 - The largest Canadian Gay Rights of Ontario demonstration to date converges on Queen's Park (The Ontario Legislature) with civil rights demands.

 

May 21, 1979 - Dan White is found guilty of lesser charges (voluntary manslaughter), but acquitted on murder charges, stemming from his assassination of S. F. Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Protests following the verdict turn into a riot.

 

May 21, 1985 - The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules that Georgia's sodomy laws are unconstitutional. (Note - this ruling is later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.)

May 22

May 22, 1976 - Police raid Montreal's Club Baths and charge twenty-seven men with being found-ins in a common bawdyhouse, part of  the Montreal Olympic crackdown. Montreal's Club Baths also had been raided two days earlier with 26 arrests

.May 22, 1979 - Supreme Court of Canada decides Vancouver Sun justified in refusing to print classified ad for Gay Tide, rules that it had "reasonable cause" to control content of advertising it accepted.

May 23

May 23, 1975 - Issue 18 of The Body Politic ordered off stands by Metro Toronto Police's Morality Squad because of a graphic cartoon called "Harold Hedd," depicting two men engaged in fellatio.

May 24

May 24, 1976 - Tales of the City makes its debut in The San Francisco Chronicle.

May 25

May 25, 1803 - Ralph Waldo Emerson is born in Boston.  The great 19th century essayist, poet and philosopher had a brief affair with a Harvard classmate and spent the rest of life trying to obliterate all references to it.   

 

May 25, 1895 - Oscar Wilde is sentenced to two years at hard labor after his conviction on sodomy charges.

 

May 25, 1965 - First openly gay demonstration for gay rights at the White House.

 

May 25, 1978 - The first "Gay Day" at Disneyland is held. More than 15,000 people attend and it's the largest private party ever held at Disneyland.

May 26

May 26, 1951 - Gay British spies Donald MacLean and Guy Burgess defect to the Soviet Union. Their defections sparked a witch hunt for gays in the British Foreign Office 

May 27

May 27, 1837 - Wild Bill Hickok is born in Troy Grove, Illinois.  His real name was James Butler Hickok.  Wild Bill really was wild with the men on the frontier and used his Lesbian buddy, Calamity Jane as a blind. Few people ever knew the pair's secret, and in the movies about their lives, not a mention was made by either Doris Day or Howard Keel. 

May 27, 1981 - The Alberta Conference of United Church of Canada passes a gay right resolution and votes to study possibility of ordination of gays.

May 27, 1993 - Russia decriminalizes consensual adult male to male sex acts.

May 28

May 28, 1912 - Nobel prize-winning novelist Patrick White is born in London.  

May 29

May 29, 1987 - Congressman Barney Frank (Democrat, Massachusetts), comes out.

May 30

May 30, 1431 - Joan of Arc burned at the stake for heresy. Her "crimes" included cross-dressing and inappropriate relationships with women.

May 30, 1977 - Columnist George Will applauds Anita Bryant and condemns gay rights ordinances as "part of the moral disarmament of society."

May 30, 1980 - Aaron Fricke wins his Rhode Island court battle, and takes a male date, Paul Guilbert, to his senior prom.

 

May 30, 1981 - Police raid on Pisces Spa in Edmonton resulting in sixty men being charged as keepers or found-ins in common bawdyhouse. The accused appeal at a specially arranged 5 am courtroom session permitted under little-used section of Criminal Code.

May 30, 1984 - The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a New York state law that prohibits loitering in a public place for the purposes of soliciting for or engaging in "gay sex."

May 30, 1986 - Fashion designer Perry Ellis dies of AIDS at the age of forty-six.

May 30, 1987 - Congressman Barney Frank comes out to the Boston Globe.

May 31

May 31, 1819 - American writer Walt Whitman is born in West Hills, Long Island.  In the 1950s, when Philadelphia wanted to name a bridge after him, there there protests in front of city hall because of his homosexuality. 

May 31, 1945 - Rainer Werner Fasbinder is born in Bad Worishofen, Germany.  Whether he was a genius or a hack is still debated by film scholars. His homosexuality, worn like a badge,  did little to tarnish his image as an enfant terrible of film.  His life was a continuous excess of S&M sex, alcohol, and drugs. That he died young surprised few. 

May 31, 1979 - Metro Toronto Police Commission responds to demands for disciplining of racist and homophobic officers by issuing a Declaration of Concern and Intent, which deals with discrimination and bigotry only in a general way.

May 31,1982 - The Body Politic and three officers of Pink Triangle Press go on trial in Provincial Court a second time to face charges of using the mails to transmit immoral and indecent material.