A lot of people seem to not know this, so...here's a (sort of) brief non-comprehensive timeline of (primarily) USian super recent queer history (warning for a lot of anti-queer violence and discrimination):
1980: Gender Identity Disorder first appeared in the DSM-III
1980: Inhibited sexual desire (ISD), later renamed Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD) first appeared in the DSM-III
1981: AIDS was first noticed by doctors in LA, NYC, and San Francisco in clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in gay/bi men.
1983: Gerry Studds became the first openly gay member of Congress after being censured for a 1973 sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male congressional page. He was later reelected six more times.
1987: Barney Frank became the first voluntarily openly gay member of Congress
1992: U.S. Navy Petty Officer Allen Schindler was murdered by a shipmate after having been repeatedly harassed for being gay. This became a major incident cited in the debate leading up to the passage of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT)
1993: Brandon Teena, a trans man, was sexually assaulted and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska. His story became the subject of the 1999 film Boys Don't Cry.
1993: In Baehr v. Miike, the Hawaii Supreme Court's decision suggested the possibility that Hawaii's prohibition on same-sex marriage may be unconstitutional.
1994: Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue (DADT), passed in 1993, comes into effect. This law prohibited discrimination or harassment within the military of closeted gay or bisexual members of the military, while also banning openly gay or bisexual individuals from serving in the military. An estimated >13,000 individuals were discharged before its repeal
1996: The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed and came into effect. It defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman and allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages.
1997: The Otherside Lounge, a lesbian bar, was bombed by Eric Robert Rudolph, the "Olympic Park Bomber"
1998: Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay person elected to the House of Representatives and the first open lesbian elected to Congress
1998: Matthew Shepard was beaten and tortured in Laramie, Wyoming, later dying from his injuries
1998: Rita Hester, a Black trans woman, was murdered in Allston, Massachusetts. Her death inspired the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
1999: The trans pride flag was created by Monica Helms
2001: The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) was founded by David Jay
2002: After a wave of state statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage, 43 states have some form of ban against same-sex marriage
2003: Lawrence v. Texas, a landmark Supreme Court decision, struck down the sodomy law in Texas and invalidated sodomy laws in 13 other states.
2004: Massachusetts became the first US jurisdiction to license and reocognize same-sex marriages, as a result of the 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health.
2008: The California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal. This was overturned by Proposition 8, a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage that was found unconstitutional in 2010.
2008: Timothy Ray Brown, identified as The Berlin Patient, was announced to be the first person cured of HIV/AIDS.
2009: Same-sex marriage is legalized in Connecticut following the the Connecticut Supreme Court's 2008 ruling in Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health. 10 more states and DC would legalize same-sex marriage before United States v. Windsor.
2009: The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law. It classified attacks based on sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as mental or physical disability, as hate crimes
2009: AVEN members walked in the San Francisco Pride Pride as the first asexual entry in an American pride parade
2011: DADT was repealed, allowing gay and bi individuals to openly serve in the military
2012: Kyrsten Sinema became the first openly bisexual person to be elected to Congress
2012: Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay senator
2013: United States v. Windsor, a landmark Supreme Court Decision, ruled that DOMA was unconstitutional and that the federal government couldn't interpret "marriage" and "spouse" to only apply to different-sex unions
2013: The DSM-5 eliminated Gender Identity Disorder and instead referred to Gender Dysphoria, which focuses attention on those who feel distressed by their gender identity
2013: The DSM-5's criteria for Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder and Male Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder excluded individuals who self-identify as asexual
2015: Obergefell v. Hodges, a landmark Supreme Court decision, ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples. This required all states to perform and recognize same-sex marriages as equal to different-sex marriages. Prior to Obergefell, same-sex marriage was at least partially legal in 38 states, Guam, and DC.
2016: A mass shooting was committed in the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando by Omar Mateen, leaving 49 dead and 53 wounded. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack
2018: Openly trans individuals were allowed to join the military
2018: Danica Roem became the first openly trans person to be elected to and serve in a U.S. state legislature
2020: Bostock v. Clayton County, a Supreme Court decision, ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employement discrimination against queer people.
2020: A second man was announced to have been cured of HIV using a stem-cell treatment.
Feel free to add on to this, and let me know if any of the links are broken.
