This Day in Queer History

On this day, Quaker-influenced Pennsylvania repealed its capital sodomy law. The new penalty: whipping, property loss, and hard labor for a first offense. It was progress, measured in the currency of its time.

On this day in 1775, Franciscan chaplain Father Pedro Font described two-spirit people among the Yuma in his diary, documenting gender-diverse individuals in Indigenous communities long before Western categories existed.

On this day in 1873, Willa Cather was born. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist of frontier life lived with editor Edith Lewis for 39 years, and her writing quietly challenged rigid gender conventions throughout her career.

On this day, the Netherlands' Center for Culture and Leisure (COC) was established in Amsterdam, making it the oldest surviving LGBT rights organization in the world.

On this day in 2015, trans activist and lawyer Tamara Adrian won election to Venezuela's National Assembly. Forced to register under her male birth name, she made history despite the system working against her.