THE NEW MILLENNIUM
As the country entered a new epoch—and weathered the controversial tenure of a Republican president—LGBT topics became wedge issues like never before.
2000
  • Vermont becomes the first U.S. state to legalize civil unions
  • The U.S. version of Queer as Folk premieres on Showtime
    > > Watch the complete series @ LogoOnline.com
    > > A day in the life with Robert Gant
  • HRC head Elizabeth Birch becomes the first leader of an LGBT organization to ever speak at the Democratic National Convention
  • Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes) comes out of the closet on NBC's hit medical drama ER while Bianca, daughter of Erica Kane (Susan Lucci), comes out on the ABC soap All My Children
  • Gay contestant Richard Hatch is the first winner of pioneering reality competition Survivor
2001
  • Ellen DeGeneres emcees an acclaimed Emmy Awards ceremony shortly after the September 11 attacks
  • The Netherlands legalizes same-sex marriage, making it the first country to do so
  • Gay passenger Mark Bingham is believed to have banded together with others on United flight 93 to wrest control of the plane from hijackers
  • Director Steven Spielberg steps down from an advisory board of the Boy Scouts of America, saying that he could no longer associate with a group that engages in discrimination
  • Lance Loud, best known for coming out as gay on the reality show An American Family, dies
  • China declassifies homosexuality as a mental illness
2002
  • New York state bans sexual orientation discrimination in the private sector
  • Canadian teenager Marc Hall wins an injunction permitting him to bring his boyfriend to his prom
  • Sweden legalizes adoption for same-sex couples
  • Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated by Volkert van der Graaf
  • The Buenos Aires city government approves a civil union law, which makes it the first Latin-American city to legally recognize same-sex unions
  • Gay rights pioneer Harry Hay dies
2003
  • The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case of Lawrence v. Texas that sodomy laws are unconstitutional
  • Ellen DeGeneres premieres her successful daytime talk show
  • V. Gene Robinson is confirmed as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church
  • The U.S. Census Bureau releases figures that show 34.3% of all households headed by lesbian couples and 22.3% of those headed by gay male couples are raising children
  • Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, a Republican from Colorado, introduces the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, in the U.S. House of Representatives
  • Queer Eye for the Straight Guy premieres on Bravo
  • Michael Stark and Michael Leshner wed in Ontario, making their marriage the first legal same-sex marriage in Canada
  • Wal-Mart adds sexual orientation to its corporate nondiscrimination policy
  • The Massachusetts supreme judicial court rules that it violates the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage
  • AIDS Memorial Quilt creator Cleve Jones is fired from the Names Project Foundation, the organization overseeing th quilt
2004
  • Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon become the first same-sex people to be granted a marriage license in the Unites States when city officials in San Francisco start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples
  • New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey announces he is a "gay American," then resigns
  • Massachusetts begins performing same-sex marriages while 13 U.S. states ban such unions
  • Jason West, the mayor of New Paltz, N.Y., announces that the town will start performing civil marriages for same-sex couples
  • Domestic partnerships are legalized in New Jersey
  • Scissor Sisters eponymous debut album reaches #1 on the U.K. charts
    • Scissor Sister perform Take Your Mama

  • The L Word premieres on Showtime
  • The Oliver Stone film Alexander has much of its gay content snipped on its way into theaters


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