1900–1949 in LGBTQ rights

none June 2013 This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBTQ rights that took place in the 20th century before 1949. Events 1900s 1901 June 8 — The first documented same-sex marriage in Spain in post-Roman times is performed. Marcela Gracia Ibeas and Elisa Sanchez Loriga were married by a parish priest in A Coruña (Galicia), with Elisa using the male identity "Mario Sánchez". The priest later discovered the deception but the marriage certificate was never officially voided. 1907 On April 27, German newspaper writer Maximillian Harden publicly outed the homosexuality of Prince Eulenburg in the newspaper Die Zukunft, after previously outing General Kuno Grof von Moltke in 1906. Public trials followed, and, while neither were proven to have taken part on homosexual actions, both Eulenburg and Moltke lost their credibility and reputation. 1910s 1912 November — Following his arrest in Portland, Oregon, for shoplifting, 19-year-old Benjamin Trout tells police that he was "corrupted" by adult men in the town. George Painter Justice Finally Realized: The case of Edward McAllister Oregon State Bar Bulletin April 2001 http://www.osbar.org/publications/bulletin/01apr/justice.htm December 25, 2010 This news incites a moral panic which comes to be known as the Portland vice scandal. Dozens of men and boys are arrested on charges ranging from lewd behaviour to sodomy, Peter Boag Portland Vice Scandal (1912-1913) http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/portland_vice_scandal_1912_1913_/ The Oregon Encyclopedia December 25, 2010 and the state legislature responds by passing a law allowing for the forced sterilization of "sexual perverts".George Painter The Vice Clique Scandal of 1912-1913 http://www.glapn.org/604vice.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080704123243/http://www.glapn.org/604vice.html dead July 4, 2008 Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest December 25, 2010 1913 Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is published in France, marking the first time a modern Western author treats homosexuality openly in literature. 1916 The United States military begins issuing blue discharges, a form of Military discharge that was neither honorable nor dishonorable. During World War II, the blue discharge became the discharge of choice for commanders seeking to remove homosexuals from the ranks. 1917 Following the Russian Revolution, the Bolshevik government abolishes the entirety of the Empire's criminal code. This includes Article 995, which criminalized anal sex between males.Miller, p. 204 1919 Magnus Hirschfeld founds the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, a sexology research center, in Germany. February — an investigation into reports of homosexual activity among sailors in Newport, Rhode Island, results in a series of arrests, courts-martial and civilian criminal trials. Details of sailors ordered to act as sexual decoys led to political embarrassment for then-Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt. 1920s 1920 May 23 — Harvard University establishes an ad hoc committee to investigate homosexual activity at the school. Following two weeks of inquiries, Harvard expels several students. The tribunal becomes known as the "Secret Court" after records filed under that name are discovered in 2002. Helms Alan A shameful episode in Harvard history Boston Globe November 27, 2005 http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/11/14/a_shameful_episode_in_harvards_history/ July 14, 2010 1921 The UK House of Commons votes to extend the Labouchere Amendment, which criminalizes sexual acts between males, to women. The House of Lords rejects the measure.Miller, p. 185 1924 December 10 — The Society for Human Rights (SHR), the first LGBTQ rights organization in the United States, is founded by Henry Gerber and chartered by the state of Illinois.Hogan and Hudson, p. 244 SHR published the first known American LGBTQ publication, Friendship and Freedom.Bianco, p. 77 The Society existed for only a few months before it collapsed in the wake of the arrests of Gerber and several Society members.Bullough, p. 27 1927 The New York Assembly amends the state's obscenity code to ban the appearance or discussion of homosexuality on the public stage.Trailblazing: A History of Gay Rights in New York 1928 July 27 — The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall is published in England.Miller, p. 186 November 9 — The obscenity trial for The Well of Loneliness begins. On the 16th, Chief Magistrate Sir Chartres Biron declares the book obscene.Miller, pp. 187—89 1929 Section 171 of the Criminal Code of Cyprus is enacted as part of a new criminal code in the country, criminalizing homosexual acts between consenting male adults. It would be repealed in 1998. A committee of the Reichstag votes 15–13 to repeal Paragraph 175. However, in the wake of the worldwide Depression the full body never votes.Miller, p. 126 1930s 1933 May 6 — Members of the Nazi Party sack the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. A few days later they publicly burn the Institute's archives.Miller, p. 215 1934 January — The Soviet Union orchestrates mass arrests of homosexuals in Moscow and Leningrad.Miller, p. 206 March — The Soviet Union criminalizes consensual sexual acts between adult males as a crime against the State. Conviction carries a penalty of five years' hard labor. 1935 June 28 — The Nazis expand the language of Paragraph 175 to cover virtually any contact between men. Arrests under the expanded law skyrocket from under 1,000 in 1932 to over 8,500 in 1938.Miller, p. 220 1936 The Nazis establish the Federal Security Department for Combating Abortion and Homosexuality. 1938 A new Nazi directive allows for men convicted of gross indecency with another man to be sent directly to a concentration camp. 1939 January 12 — The Georgia Supreme Court rules that "The crime of sodomy as defined by statute cannot be accomplished between two women."Katz, p. 406 1940s 1940 A new Nazi directive requires any man arrested for homosexual activities with more than one partner be transferred to a concentration camp after completing his prison term. May — Psychiatrists Harry Stack Sullivan and Winfred Overholser formulate guidelines for the psychiatric screening of United States military inductees. While both believe homosexuals should not be inducted, their proposal does not explicitly exclude homosexuals.Bérubé, pp. 9—11 1941 May — The United States Army Surgeon General's office issues a circular that for the first time classifies "homosexual proclivities" as disqualifying inductees for military service. Similar exclusive policies are adopted by the United States Navy and the Selective Service.Bérubé, p. 12 December 21 – Aleister Crowley issues Liber OZ, stating that "Man has the right to love as he will:— "take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where, and with whom ye will." —AL. I. 51.The Early Editions Liber OZ Project http://liberozproject.com/complete-catalog/early-editions/Orpheus, 2019. 1942 August 6 — The Vichy government introduced a discriminative law in penal code: article 334 (moved to article 331 on February 8, 1945,Ordonnance by the Provisional Government of the French Republic) increased the age of consent to 21 for homosexual relations and 15 for heterosexual ones. 1943 Heinrich Himmler issues a directive that allows homosexuals to be released from concentration camps if they underwent castration. However, those who were released under this edict were sent to fight in the Dirlewanger Brigade, which for practical purposes was a death sentence.Miller, p. 227 As Allied forces begin liberating Nazi concentration camps, some American and British jurists conclude that the camps did not technically constitute prisons. If a gay man had served part of a prison sentence for violating Paragraph 175, he could be returned to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence. It is unknown how many men were returned to prison.Miller, p. 228 1944 October — TB MED 100 establishes homosexuality as a reason for disqualifying recruits into the Women's Army Corps.Bérubé, p. 32 1945 The Veterans Administration institutes a policy of denying G.I. Bill benefits to veterans holding blue discharges,Bérubé, p. 230 despite the explicit language of the Bill that the only discharge that disqualified a veteran was a dishonorable one.Mettler, p. 65 The VA renewed this directive in 1946 and 1949. Four honorably discharged gay World War II veterans found the Veterans Benevolent Association. Although primarily a social club, VBA formed in part in response to the sense of injustice that many gay veterans felt about being given blue discharges,Archer, p. 111 with its attendant negative legal and societal connotations. VBA worked in coalition with Black and labor organizations against the arbitrary issuance of blue discharges.Smith and Haider-Markel, p. 73 1946 January 30 — The House Committee on Military Affairs issues a report called Blue Discharges. The committee finds that the use of the blue discharge is discriminatory and singles out the VA for special criticism for denying blue discharge holders G.I. Bill benefits. Associated Press House body asks Army to abolish blue discharges The Troy (New York) Times Record 20 January 30, 1946 1947 July 1 — Congress discontinues the blue discharge, replacing it with two new classifications, general and undesirable. Associated Press Army to abandon 'blue' discharge Jefferson City (MO) Daily Capital News 1 May 21, 1947 At the same time, however, the Army changes its regulations to ensure that gay and lesbian service members would not qualify for general discharges.Bérubé, p. 243 1948 Harry Hay conceives of the idea of a homosexual activist group.Miller, p. 333 He develops this idea over the next two years, co-founding the Mattachine Society, the first sustained LGBTQ rights group in the United States, in 1950.Hogan and Hudson, pp. 382–3 Alfred Kinsey and the Institute for Sex Research publish Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, the first of two Kinsey Reports. 1949 The Préfet de Paris issues a decree banning men from dancing together in public places.Miller, p. 392 October — The newly consolidated United States Department of Defense standardizes anti-homosexual regulations across all branches of the military: "Homosexual personnel, irrespective of sex, should not be permitted to serve in any branch of the Armed Forces in any capacity, and prompt separation of known homosexuals from the Armed Forces is mandatory."Bérubé, p. 261 See also LGBTQ Timeline of LGBTQ history – timeline of events from 12,000 BCE to present LGBTQ rights by country or territory – current legal status around the world LGBTQ history in France LGBTQ movements Notes References Archer, Bert (2004). The End of Gay: And the Death of Heterosexuality. Thunder's Mouth Press. 1-56025-611-7. Bérubé, Allan (1990). Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two. New York, The Penguin Group. 0-452-26598-3. Bianco, David (1999). Gay Essentials: Facts For Your Queer Brain. Los Angeles, Alyson Books. 1-55583-508-2. Bullough, Vern L. (2002). Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context. New York, Harrington Park Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press. 1-56023-193-9. Hogan, Steve and Lee Hudson (1998). Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia. New York, Henry Holt and Company. 0-8050-3629-6. Katz, Jonathan (1976). Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A.. New York, Harper Colophon Books. 0-06-091211-1 (paperback edition). Mettler, Suzanne (2005). Soldiers to Citizens: The G.I. Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation. Oxford University Press US. 0-19-518097-6. Miller, Neil (1995). Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present. New York, Vintage Books. 0-09-957691-0. Orpheus F. 2019 On the Rights of Man: A Commentary on Liber OZ Pyramid Lodge Ordo Templi Orientis 978-1-7341643-1-2 http://liberozproject.com/announcing-on-the-rights-of-man/ none Smith, Raymond A. and Donald P. Haider-Markel (2002). Gay and Lesbian Americans and Political Participation: a Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. 1-57607-256-8. 20th century Category:1900s in LGBTQ history Category:1910s in LGBTQ history Category:1920s in LGBTQ history Category:1930s in LGBTQ history Category:1940s in LGBTQ history