This Day in Queer History

On this day in 1513, conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovered a community of cross-dressing males in present-day Panama and, according to reports, fed at least 40 of them to his dogs. Colonial brutality at its worst.

On this day, the Homosexual Information Center protested at the Los Angeles Times offices. The paper had refused to print the word 'homosexual' in advertisements, even for a group discussion announcement. Visibility demanded ink.

On this day, the Supreme Court ruled in Wainwright v. Stone that Florida's sodomy law was not unconstitutionally vague, reversing a lower court ruling and upholding the state's power to criminalize queer intimacy.

On this day in 1974, Elaine Noble became the first openly gay or lesbian person elected to a U.S. state legislature, winning a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

On this day in 1985, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation protecting people with AIDS from discrimination, reinforcing the city's role as a leader in the fight against the epidemic.

On this day in 1992, a New York State Bar Association committee recommended granting low-income same-sex couples access to state-subsidized housing, pushing for economic equity alongside legal recognition.

On this day, a Saskatchewan judge ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry in that province, adding another Canadian jurisdiction to the growing list.

On this day in 2009, intersex Vietnamese citizen Pham le Quynh Tram won legal recognition as a woman. The government later reversed it, forcing her back under her male birth name in a cruel erasure.