This timeline provides information about the gay rights movement in the United States from 1924 to the present: including the Stonewall riots; the contributions of Harvey Milk; the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy; the first civil unions; the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York; and more.
1924
The Society for Human Rights in Chicago becomes the country's earliest known gay rights organization.
1948
Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, revealing to the public that homosexuality is far more widespread than was commonly believed.
1951
The Mattachine Society, the first national gay rights organization, is formed by Harry Hay, considered by many to be the founder of the gay rights movement.
1955
The first lesbian-rights organization in the United States, the Daughters of Bilitis, was established in San Francisco in 1955.
1956
The Daughters of Bilitis, a pioneering national lesbian organization, is founded.
1958
Joe Cino, an Italian-American theater producer, opens Caffe Cino. Caffe Cino is credited with starting the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. Six years after Caffe Cino opens, it hosts the first gay plays, The Madness of Lady Bright, by Lanford Wilson, and The Haunted Host, by Robert Patrick.
1962
Illinois becomes the first state in the U.S. to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults in private.
1966
The world's first the transgender organization, the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, was established in San Francisco.
1969
The Stonewall riots transform the gay rights movement from one limited to a small number of activists into a widespread protest for equal rights and acceptance. Patrons of a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, fight back during a police raid on June 27, sparking three days of riots.
1973
The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its official list of