Queering Up History: Sept 20th

Queer Events On This Day In History...

1958 Barbara Gittings founds the East Coast chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (an early lesbian organization in the US) in New York City. Less than a dozen women attended the first meeting which was held at the offices of the local Mattachine Society.

1973 Lesbian tennis star Billie Jean King defeats misogynist Bobby Riggs in "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match.

1978 Ronald Reagan publicly states his opposition to California's Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Amendment. It would have banned gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools, as well as anyone who openly supported civil rights for gays and lesbians.

1994 Houston assistant police chief Art Contreras admits that police officers violated policy by wearing ski masks during a series of raids on gay bars.

1995 Human Welfare and Community Action Commission in Berkeley votes to include transgendered people in its anti-discrimination policy.

1996 US President Bill Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act which defines marriage in the United States as a union between a man and a woman.

1996 Twenty-four Filipinos in Saudi Arabia receive the first fifty lashes of a 200 lash sentence for homosexual behavior. After the sentence was completed they were deported.

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