THE SEXY SEVENTIES
As the 1970s ended, gays and lesbians were becoming ever more powerful, rising to public office and remaking art and community in a whole new way.
1975
  • Vietnam vet Leonard Matlovich is discharged from the military for being gay and lands on the cover of Time
  • Openly gay movie director Pier Paolo Pasolini is murdered
  • The magazine Blueboy is first published
  • A national gay rights bill, HR 166, is introduced in the House of Representatives
  • The California sex bill becomes the first law in the country that specifically decriminalizes consensual sex acts to clear both houses of a state legislature; Gov. Jerry Brown signs it
  • War veteran Bill Sipple saves President Ford's life during an assassination attempt, then sues newspapers that out him over invasion of privacy
  • Boulder County clerk Cela Rorex begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, though the state attroney general voids all of them a month later
1976
  • The Australian Capital Territory decriminalizes homosexuality between consenting adults in private and equalizes the age of consent
  • Gay porn star Jack Wrangler marries cabaret singer Margaret Whiting
    > > Jack Wrangler
    > > Margaret Whiting
  • In a Chicago Tribune story, Bette Midler claims she “did not have a gay following” and “wouldn’t know a homosexual if I saw one”
  • The American Psychological Association adopts a policy recommending that a parent’s sexual orientation not be the primary concern in child custody cases
  • A Chorus Line wins 9 Tony Awards
    > > Video excerpt of One (Finale)
    > > Video excerpt of I Hope I Get It
    > > Biography of Michael Bennett
  • Rudi Cox of San Francisco becomes the first openly gay deputy sheriff in the nation
  • A Detroit court awards Carmen Leo $200,000 in damages after he claims a rear-end automobile accident made him gay
1977
  • Harvey Milk is elected to the San Francisco board of supervisors
  • Dade County, Fla. enacts an ordinance banning discrimination against gays, but it is repealed the same year after a militant antigay campaign led by Anita Bryant
    >> 1969 Florida Orange Juice TV Commercial
    • Anita Bryant recieves a pie in the face

  • The Log Cabin Republicans organization is formed
  • A fire at the Everard Baths, a gay bathhouse in New York City, kills 9 people
  • Episcopal priest Malcolm Boyd becomes the first prominent clergyman to come out as gay in a mainstream Christian denomination
  • Fourteen lesbian and gay activists meet with Presidential Liaison to Minority Communities Midge Costanza, marking the first official visit of gay activists to the White House
  • The Supreme Court declines to hear appeals from two Washington State public school teachers who were fired because of their homosexuality
1978
1979
  • The first national gay rights march on Washington, D.C., draws more than 100,000 demonstrators
  • Harry Hay organizes the first Radical Faeries gathering in Arizona
  • Gay activist Harry Britt is appointed to Harvey Milk's seat on the San Francisco board of supervisors
  • Cuba and Spain decriminalize homosexuality
  • New York's Lesbian Herstory Archives starts a nationwide effort to collect images of lesbians
  • Gov. Jerry Brown signs an executive order that prohibits antigay discrimination in California state hiring
  • New York gay activists disrupt filming of the controversial William Freidkin film Cruising
    > > Movie trailer for Cruising


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