Queering Up History: Sept 15th

"Queer Events On This Day In History...

1954 The Wolfenden Committee meets for the first time to study homosexual offenses in Britain and the treatment of those convicted. They would meet several times over a three-year period. Twelve of the 13 who served the full three years recommended that private, consensual homosexual behavior no longer be considered a crime. They suggested that the age of consent be set at 21, and stated that homosexuality cannot be legitimately considered a disease.

1967 The first issue of the monthly US gay magazine The Advocate premiered.

1969 In the backwash of the the Stonewall riots earlier in the year, the first issue of Gay Power is published in New York.

1983 After four years of legal wrangling, Toronto's gay newspaper, The Body Politic, finally wins its appeal against the Crown's attempt to try it in court for sending indecent material through the mail.

1986 Former US Air Force Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, whom the US military turfed out for being gay, is diagnosed with AIDS.

1989 Maud's in San Francisco, described as the world's oldest lesbian bar, closes after 23 years.

1994 Colorado attorney general Gale Norton confirms that Dr Paul Cameron had been paid to testify in defense of Amendment 2. The testimony was never used. She refused to disclose the amount, but Denver gay newspaper OutFront said the fee was $10,125. Cameron was expelled from the American Psychological Association in 1983 for falsifying research data about gays and lesbians, and was barred from practicing in Nebraska, the only state in which he had been licensed.

1996 The European Parliament approves a resolution urging an end to discrimination and unequal treatment directed toward homosexuals in every country in the European Union.

1997 US Vice President Al Gore gives a speech at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's annual gala. Among those honored at the event were Coretta Scott King, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, and the Mautner Project, a service organization for lesbians with cancer.

2000 Five male Toronto police officers raid a lesbian bathhouse filled with 300 female patrons. The constables toured the facility for an hour but no charges were laid, although the names and addresses of about 10 women were recorded. It was the first police raid of a bathhouse in Toronto since the infamous 1981 raids in which more than 200 men were arrested and subsequently acquitted."

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