Timeline of 2009 LGBT Anniversaries 4
In the forty years since the Stonewall riots, and the emergence of the gay liberation movement, a process of historical archaeology has been underway. Its aim has been to make the hidden past visible.
This timeline of anniversaries is a look into what we now know of this hidden past, and also the revealed present.
Gay’s the Word bookshop in London raided by Customs and Excise
1984, 25 years ago
Imported titles were seized, and thousands of books that were on their way from the United States were denied clearance. An antiquated law that was part of the Customs Consolidation Act of 1876 was used to charge Gay’s the Word with conspiracy to import indecent books.
Registered Partnership laws
1989, 20 years ago
The first Registered Partnership laws are introduced for same-sex couples in Denmark.
Registered Partnerships afford most of the same rights as marriage, although this excludes the right to adoption and the right to marriage in a church. (Same-sex couples were given equal rights of joint adoption in Sweden in 2005, UK, Belgium and Iceland in 2006, Denmark and Norway in 2009.)
The Scandinavian registered partnership laws are short, and state that wherever the word “marriage” or “spouse” appears in the country’s laws, it will also be construed to mean “registered partnership” or “registered partner”.
Death of jazz musician Billy Tipton
1989, 20 years ago
It was discovered that he was in fact a woman. Tipton had lived as a man for more than fifty years.
Billy Lee Tipton was born in 1914 and brought up as Dorothy Lucille Tipton. Tipton began dressing as a man in 1933. Opportunities for women performing jazz were limited, and Tipton adopted her father’s nickname, Billy. By 1940 Tipton was living as a man in his private life as well as in his career.
Tipton had relationships with women, and kept the secret of his biological gender by inventing a story that he had been in a serious car accident which had badly damaged his genitals and broken some ribs, and that to protect the damaged chest he had to bind it.
thirtysomething
1989, 20 years ago
An episode of thirtysomething ‘Strangers’ which dealt with two contrasting relationships in the show, contained a scene in which two gay men were in bed talking, and despite the fact that the actors were not allowed to touch each other during the scene, it was too much for some advertisers.
Five of the show’s regular sponsors pulled out of the episode, costing ABC approximately $1.5 million in advertising revenue.
ABC did not air the episode in repeats the following year for fear that it would again result in advertiser desertion.
The thirtysomething producer Richard Kramer, who also wrote the episode, said, “I’m really sickened by this and feel we’re being censored by advertisers who are not equipped to make this judgment. At this point in history, it’s up to organizations like ABC to show they will not be victims of advertisers’ whims.”
Age of consent for gay men reduced in the UK from 21 to 18
1994, 15 years ago
The Conservative MP Edwina Currie introduced an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to lower the age of consent for homosexuality 16, in line with that for heterosexual acts.
The amendment was defeated by 308 votes to 280. A compromise amendment that lowered the age of consent to 18 passed.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled that this was a breach of Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8 of the Convention. The House of Lords opposed the rulings of the House of Commons in 1997, 1998 and 2000. The Lords were overruled in 2000 and the age of consent equalized.
Ikea ad
1994, 15 years ago
An Ikea television ad featuring two men shopping for a table is screened, and is the first to show gay men as an everyday couple.
Ikea withdrew the ad after receiving bomb threats and did not produce another ad with a same-sex couple until 2007.
The 2007 ad won an award in the category of Outstanding Commercial at the third annual US Images In Advertising Awards for best demonstrating inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals (GLBT) in mainstream print, broadcast and internet advertising campaigns.
Queer Youth Alliance founded in the UK
1999, ten years ago
David Joseph Henry and Charlotte Lester founded the Alliance as a civil rights group. In December 2006 it changed its name to Queer Youth Network.
Instrumental in overturning Kent County Council’s ‘mini-Section 28′ policy after a long campaign, the Network is known for its vibrant, rowdy protests and youth-led campaigns. The organisation is one of the growing number of groups in Britain to have reservations about the Government’s new Civil Partnerships bill that aims to give equal rights to same sex couples.
The National Queer Youth Conference is hosted annually by the Queer Youth Network. The Queer Youth Network launched Queer Youth Radio in the summer of 2006. The Network is celebrated for its successful campaign work.
Queer as Folk premiered on Channel 4 in the UK
1999, ten years ago
It was a landmark in the representation of gay men on television. The first and second series (2000) of Queer as Folk were written by Russell T Davies, who was in 2005 responsible for the revival of Doctor Who on the BBC.
In 2000 the US network Showtime and Temple Street Productions co-produced an American version. The show was only available on pay-for-view cable. In 2006 the Viacom owned channel Logo began broadcasting an edited, commercially sponsored Queer as Folk.
For a personal recollection of Queer As Folk:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
1999, ten years ago
In the last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that year, the Emmy nominated ‘Hush’, the character of Tara was introduced. The relationship between Tara and Willow was dealt with in the same way that all the other relationships on the series were. It was a fact and not a message.
When Tara was killed at the end of the sixth season in 2002 there were complaints that the gay character always gets killed off, even though many of the cast had been killed off throughout the run of the series. The character of Tara was no different.
The knee-jerk reaction of the gay viewers only demonstrated how much farther there is to go in the treatment of LGBT characters in the media.
The Gender Recognition Act becomes law in the UK
2004, 5 years ago
This meant that transgender people were entitled to full legal recognition of change of gender.
The Act was drafted in response to court rulings from the European Court of Human Rights. It was introduced in the House of Lords in late 2003, and passed by the House of Lords in February, 2004. The House of Commons passed it in May.
The former Conservative MP and member of the Lords, Norman Tebbit, who had characterised reassignment surgery as “mutilation”, tried to include an amendment to wreck the Bill. Baroness O’Cathain introduced an amendment to allow religious groups to exclude transsexual people. (She also tried to introduce an amendment to wreck the civil partnerships bill that same year.)
There has been some controversy surrounding, and some misuse of, the Gender Recognition Certificate. Its existence is protected as private information under the Act. Disclosure of its existence, or a person’s transsexual history, if one has obtained knowledge of it in an official capacity, is a criminal offence.
The Civil Partnership Act was also passed in 2004, although its effects would not come into play until December 2005.
