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Don Baker, holding sign that says "March On Washington October 14, 1979" with Texas silhouette.

The Dallas Teacher, Navy Vet, and Devout Christian Who Fought to Overturn Texas’s Sodomy Law

Unlikely activist Don Baker scored a landmark win for gay rights in Texas 42 years ago this week.
by Bruce Selcraig via Texas Monthly on August 14, 2024
A naked David Opal signaling a peace sign with his hands on a TV screen in front of a background of a 1970s themed living room.

What Became of the Oscar Streaker?

After Robert Opel dashed naked across the stage in 1974, he ran for President and settled into the gay leather scene.
by Michael Schulman via The New Yorker on January 30, 2023
Black and white photo of a Chicago street at nighttime, 1920s

Why Did Gay Rights Take So Long?

A quiet movement that began in the 1920s didn’t disappear—it just went underground.
by Michael Waters via The Atlantic on November 9, 2022
The book cover for Vice Patrol

Vice, Vice, Baby

The history of patrolling sex in public.
by Max Fox via Bookforum on September 7, 2021
Illustration parody of Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Gay Things Are

Gay marriage was a victory, we’re told—but a victory for what?
by Yasmin Nair via Current Affairs on August 12, 2021
Members of Mattachine Society

Harry Hay, John Cage, and the Birth of Gay Rights in Los Angeles

Five men sat together on a hillside in the late afternoon, imagining a world in which they did not have to hide.
by Alex Ross via The New Yorker on June 25, 2021
Julie and Hillary Goodridge talking to reporters

Why the Marriage-Equality Movement Succeeded

The author of “The Engagement" discusses the activists, politicians, and judicial figures who were at the forefront of the battle over same-sex marriage.
by Isaac Chotiner, Sasha Issenberg via The New Yorker on June 10, 2021
Gay Pride march from "Gay and Proud" video

The History of Pride

How activists fought to create LGBTQ+ pride.
by Meg Metcalf via Library of Congress on June 1, 2020
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy during the Pride 2014 parade in San Francisco, California.

Writing Gay History

How the story itself came out.
by Jim Downs via Humanities on June 27, 2019

Before Stonewall, There Was a Bookstore

Networks of activists transformed Stonewall from an isolated event into a turning point in the struggle for gay power.
by Jim Downs via The Atlantic on June 27, 2019
Pride parade passes the Stonewall Inn.
partner

Stonewall's Legacy and Kwame Anthony Appiah's Misuse of History

The New York Times should have done a better job fact-checking Appiah’s essay. Philosophy may be allegorical. History isn’t.
by Alan J. Singer via HNN on June 23, 2019
Marchers holding banner at Pride parade

The Stonewall Riots Didn’t Start the Gay Rights Movement

Giving Stonewall too much credit misses the movement’s growing strength in the 1960s, sociologists note.
by Greggor Mattson via JSTOR Daily on June 12, 2019
A group of people celebrating Pride outside of Stonewall.

Stonewall: The Making of a Monument

Ever since the 1969 Stonewall Riots, L.G.B.T.Q. communities have gathered there to express their joy, their anger, their pain and their power.
by Cheryl Furjanic via New York Times Op-Docs on June 4, 2019

Edmund White on Stonewall, the ‘Decisive Uprising’ of Gay Liberation

At what point does resistance become the only choice?
by Edmund White via Literary Hub on April 30, 2019

The Briggs Initiative: Remembering a Crucial Moment in Gay History

The lessons from a critical California election in which voters rejected a virulently homophobic ballot measure.
by Trudy Ring via The Advocate on August 31, 2018
David Mullins and Charlie Craig in front of the Supreme Court.
partner

We're Looking at the Masterpiece Cakeshop Case All Wrong. And So Did The Supreme Court.

Why the Masterpiece Cakeshop decision was a major loss for gay rights.
by Jim Downs via Made By History on June 6, 2018

The Most Dangerous Gay Man in America Fought Violence With Violence

Four decades ago, Raymond Broshears armed his disciples to keep LGBT people safe from violent homophobes.
by Eric Markowitz via Newsweek on January 25, 2018

From “Sip-in” to the Hairpin Drop Heard Round the World, Protests Can Work

A small act of protest that resulted in significant change.
by Nancy Unger via Nursing Clio on March 23, 2017
Group of men including clergy.

Unearthing The Surprising Religious History Of American Gay Rights Activism

Years before Stonewall, many clergy members were standing on the front lines for gay rights.
by Jaweed Kaleem via HuffPost on June 28, 2014
Gerry Studds faces reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on July 20, 1983.

Gerry Studds: The Pioneer Gay Congressman Almost Nobody Remembers

His story of coming out was so shrouded in scandal, so drenched in professional embarrassment, that its broader significance may forever be overshadowed.
by Jennifer Bendery, Sam Stein via HuffPost on February 20, 2014
People pose next to a National Park Service sign for the Stonewall National Monument.

Stonewall National Monument Declaration: Annotated

In June 2016, President Obama proclaimed the first LGBTQ+ national monument in the United States at the site of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City.
by Barack Obama, Liz Tracey via JSTOR Daily on June 24, 2025
Trans activist Sylvia Rivera during her “Y’all better quiet down” speech at an early gay pride rally in New York City, 1973.

Why Are Trans People Such an Easy Political Target? The Answer Involves a Surprising Culprit.

Making a whole group of people this vulnerable does not just happen overnight.
by Zein Murib via Slate on April 7, 2025
Anita Bryant speaking at microphone.

She Launched the Modern Antigay Movement in America. It Worked—Just Not as She Intended.

Anita Bryant’s legacy is not what she hoped—but her destructive message lives on.
by Josh Levin via Slate on January 11, 2025
"Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right" book cover.

The History of Gay Conservatism

LGBTQ voters overwhelmingly went for Harris, but the idea that gay voters are always going to be solidly blue is a myth.
by Roger Lancaster via Damage on December 11, 2024
A sign reading "Ladies" above a doorway.

“The Relationship Between Public Morals and Public Toilets”

Christine Jorgensen and the birth of trans bathroom panic.
by Nikita Shepard via Nursing Clio on November 27, 2024
Nan Lurie's "Women's House of Detention drawing in Greenwich Village.

How Greenwich Village Became America’s Bohemia

Greenwich Village’s bohemian and queer culture roots lie in its history of incarcerating women, notably via the Women’s Court and House of Detention.
by Hugh Ryan via The Gotham Center on November 20, 2024
Man waving a rainbow flag.

The Complicated, Disputed History of the Rainbow Flag

Who created it? What was it meant for? And how did it come to be what it is today?
by Christina Cauterucci via Slate on June 19, 2024
Victims of AIDS participate in the National March for Gay Rights in Washington D.C. in 1987.

The First National Coming Out Day 35 Years Ago Took on Reagan and AIDS Stigma

On Oct. 11, 1988, at the height of the AIDS crisis and a wave of homophobia, people were asked to take a daring step by declaring publicly that they were gay.
by Nora Neus via Washington Post on October 11, 2023
A banner that reads "HTG: High Tech Gays," surrounded by a crowd of people and balloons.

How Work Has Shaped the LGBTQ Community

And the ways capital took advantage of the state's policing of sexuality.
by Ryan Reft via The Metropole on September 26, 2023
Side-by-side of LGBTQ+ pride flag above fetish shop, and local LGBTQ+ activist Roland Palencia

Searching For Silver Lake: The Radical Neighborhood That Changed Gay America

For decades, these Los Angeles streets have played host to key events in LGBTQ+ history. But gentrification has transformed the area.
by Lois Beckett via The Guardian on July 2, 2023
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