This Day in Queer History

On this day, Mary Emma Woolley was born. The first female student at Brown University and president of Mount Holyoke College, she lived in a loving relationship with Professor Jeanette Marks for fifty-five years.

On this day, James Chesser married George Burton, who had presented as George Ann Holly. Believed to be the first recorded legal marriage between two men in America, both were later charged with sodomy.

On this day in 1935, Monique Wittig was born in France. A radical lesbian, feminist theorist, and co-founder of France's Women's Liberation Movement, she argued that heterosexuality was a political regime that must be overthrown.

On this day in 1944, feminist photographer JEB (Joan E. Biren) was born. A co-founder of The Furies Collective with Rita Mae Brown and Charlotte Bunch, she spent decades documenting LGBTQ+ lives through her lens.

On this day in 1953, Danitra Vance was born. The first Black woman to join SNL's repertory cast, she won an Obie Award and broke barriers in comedy before breast cancer took her life at 40.

On this day, advice columnist Dear Abby was asked if homosexuality was a disease. She replied: 'No! It is the inability to love at all which I consider an emotional illness.'

On this day in 1981, Toronto City Council appointed lawyer Arnold Bruner to study police-gay community relations, five months after the infamous bathhouse raids exposed systemic abuse.

On this day in 1982, the Ministry of Health removed homosexuality from its official list of mental illnesses, rejecting decades of pathologizing queer identity.

On this day, The Brothers debuted on Showtime as the first U.S. television show with a gay lead character. Two conservative brothers rally around their younger sibling after he comes out in 1980s Philadelphia.

On this day in 1999, a Kinsey Institute study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that gay men were generally better endowed than heterosexual men, possibly linked to prenatal hormone levels.

On this day in 2000, Wade Richards, poster boy for the ex-gay ministry Love in Action, revealed his orientation never changed. His declaration that ex-gay ministries cannot change sexual orientation struck a powerful blow against conversion fraud.

On this day, gay activists took over the general assembly of the Church of England, demanding equality for LGBTQ+ people within the institution and challenging centuries of religious exclusion.

On this day, Tammy Smith became the first openly gay U.S. general in American history. She married Tracey Hepner at the Jefferson Memorial in 2012 and went on to serve as a Major General in the Army Reserve.