Queering Up History: Sept 16th

Queer Events On This Day In History...

1730 In Amsterdam, Lourens Hosponjon is executed for sodomy.

1992 Robert Sawyer of Brattleboro Vermont pleads not guilty to charges that he murdered his ex-girlfriend, Judith Hart Fournier, after she left him for a woman. She had a restraining order, but Sawyer violated it repeatedly. The case sparked a demand for anti-stalking legislation.

1992 Fifty-eight year old Roy Downs files a complaint of brutality against the Ft Worth Police Department. He was arrested during a series of raids on gay bars, and officers beat and verbally abused him.

1994 Richard Hongisto, a former San Francisco police chief, is convicted of civil rights violations. He had ordered the removal of an issue of Bay Times, a gay newspaper, from the stands.

1997 Alberta singer K.D. Lang is invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada, a high official Canadian government award recognizing national achievement.

2004 Manitoba becomes the fourth province in Canada to allow gay marriage as the Court of Queen's Bench rules in favour of same-sex weddings in the western province.

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