Top 10 Important Moments In LGBTQ History

This 1969 event is often cited as having kicked off the American gay rights movement. The Stonewall Inn was a popular gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village and it was common for establishments catering to the LGBTQ community to be targets for police raids. On June 28, 1969 however, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn decided to fight back. Many of those present that night were people of color. The clash ended up lasting for days, with community organizers rallying to fight for safe spaces for these marginalized members of society. In the years that followed, the gay rights movement took enormous strides.

On the first anniversary of the events that took place at the Stonewall Inn, celebrations were organized nationwide to commemorate that pivotal moment. Parades were held in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. These events weren’t actually referred to as pride parades in the ‘70s, but rather as “Gay Liberation Marches” or “Gay Freedom Marches”. The parades have since expanded to take place worldwide, and have gained a more festive vibe over the years, in a slight shift from the original spirit of activism and protest.

Harry Benjamin was a doctor specializing in endocrinology and sexology whose work has been linked to the progress of the trans movement. Benjamin was a colleague of the famed Alfred Kinsey, who introduced him to a child who was born male and wanted to transition to being female. Rather than discourage the process, Benjamin studied the medical possibilities for cases such as this. In 1966, he published his seminal work “The Transsexual Phenomenon,” which outlined the procedure by which people could transition from one sex to the other. Prior to this, trans people were treated with electroconvulsive therapy or even lobotomy to rid them of their predilections.

Published in 1968, the second Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-II, listed, among many other conditions, homosexuality. Sadly, this view was in line with the thinking and practices of the age. In 1973 however, the American Psychiatric Association called for a vote among its members on whether they thought homosexuality should be classified as a disorder or not. A significant majority voted to remove it, but ended up replacing it with a "sexual orientation disturbance". It was arguably only in 1987 that it was completely removed from the DSM.

Phyllis Randolph Frye, a prominent trans activist and, as of 2010, associate judge, has organized a series of critical conferences discussing transgender rights and the law over the years. The first one took place in Houston, Texas in 1992 and was attended by law professionals as well as trans community members. Many of the presentations and discussions were transcribed and went on to be printed for public use. These documents, referred to as “the reference books,” went on to serve as the building blocks for various studies on legal challenges of the trans community.

The full name of the law is the “Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act”, which serves to commemorate two victims of hate crimes in the US. The act serves as an expansion on the United States federal hate-crime law of 1969 by adding amendments for crimes based on “perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability”. President Barack Obama signed the act into law in 2009, which additionally requires the FBI to track crime statistics based on gender and gender identity, which they previously had not done.

In 1994, then-president Bill Clinton instituted the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, which stopped LGBTQ people from openly serving in the US military. This caused approximately 13,000 people to be removed from military service. In 2010, Barack Obama signed a repeal act into law, but it wasn’t until 2015 that a positive change was made to the army’s anti-discriminations policy. Now, sexual orientation is listed under the Military Equal Opportunity Program as a protected class, meaning that members cannot be discriminated against because they are gay.

In the early 2010s, the Department of Managed Health Care (or DMHC) finally ensured that insurance companies complied with California’s mid-2000s enactment of the Insurance Gender Nondiscrimination Act. This law was a landmark decision in terms of transgender health care rights. Despite the act, however, some insurance companies still attempted to limit funds given for gender reassignment surgeries and other costs pertaining to a gender transition. By officially banning exclusions for people who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming through this directive, the state guaranteed that trans people would have the same access to health insurance as everyone else living in the state.

Even before he was first elected in 2008, Barack Obama positioned himself as a champion for all people, including those from the LGBTQ community. Under his leaderships, many strides were made toward ultimate equality, but one of his most significant gestures was a subtle one. In his state of the union address in 2015, the president said the words “lesbian,” “bisexual” and “transgender”. This was the first time these words had ever been spoken during such an address. This may not seem significant upon first thought. But when you think about how he acknowledged a community that’s so used to being marginalized just by saying those words, then its importance becomes much more clear.


Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Minneapolis Becomes 1st City to Prohibit Discrimination Against Transgender People (1975)

Medicare Must Cover Sex (or Gender) Reassignment Surgery (2014)

The road to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States was a long and challenging one. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to allow marriage between same sex partners and many states followed in the proceeding years. In 2013, The Defense of Marriage Act, which legally defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, was struck down by the Supreme Court. Nonetheless, there continued to be challenges, even in states that recognized these unions. As of June 26th, 2015 however, the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for individual states to forbid marriage between same-sex couples.