Thursday 02-02-2017 - 16:54

LGBT+ History Month has been celebrated in the UK since February 2005 with the purpose of remembering the impact LGBT+ people have had on history and looking forward to how we can build a more equal and progressive future. Our own LGBT+ Association have lots of events happening throughout the month which you can find out about here. Read below to find out about some of the key dates and reasons why LGBT+ activists have fought for equality over the years. 

 

 

 

• 1533 - Buggery Act introduced by Henry VIII brought sodomy within the scope of statute law and made it punishable by hanging.
   
• 1861 - Offences Against the Person Act formally abolished the death penalty for buggery in England and Wales.
   
• 1869 - First published use of the term ‘homosexuality’ (Homosexualitat) by K.M. Kertbeny, a German-Hungarian campaigner.
   
• 1885 - Labouchere amendment passed 7 August (Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act). Created the offence of ‘gross indecency’ and thus became the first specifically antihomosexual act.
   
• 1895 - The trials of Oscar Wilde and his sentencing to two years prison with hard labour under the 1885 Act.
   
• 1897 - George Cecil Ives organizes the first homosexual rights group in England, the Order of Chaeronea. 1921 – In England an attempt to make lesbianism illegal for the first time in Britain's history fails.
   
• 1928 – The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall is published in the UK and later in the United States. This sparks great legal controversy and brings the topic of homosexuality to public conversation.
   
• 1957 – The Wolfenden Committee's report recommends decriminalizing consensual homosexual behaviour between adults in the United Kingdom 1959 – ITV, at the time the UK's only national commercial broadcaster, broadcasts the first gay drama, South, starring Peter Wyngarde.
   
• 1967 - Sexual Offences Act came into force in England & Wales and decriminalised homosexual acts between two men over 21 ‘in private.’
   
• 1969 - Stonewall riot began in New York on the night of 27/28 June. 1970 - First ever organised lesbian and gay pride march took place on 28 June in New York City commemorating the previous year’s Stonewall riot. London Gay Liberation Front (GLF) founded at the London School of Economics. First gay demonstration in the UK.
   
• 1971 - Lesbians invaded the platform of the Women’s Liberation Conference in Skegness, demanding recognition.
   
• 1975 - Action for Lesbian Parents founded after three high-profile custody cases where lesbians were refused custody of their children.
   
• 1980 - Male homosexuality decriminalised in Scotland. European Commission ruled unanimously that the British government was guilty of breaching Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights by refusing to legalise consenting homosexual behaviour. First black lesbian and gay group founded.
   
• 1982 - Male homosexuality decriminalised in Northern Ireland. Terrence Higgins Trust launched.
   
• 1984 - Chris Smith, MP for Islington South in London, first MP to come out as gay while in office.
   
• 1985 - South Wales miners joined the Pride march to thank lesbians and gay men who supported them during the coalminers strike.
   
• 1987 - A South Staffordshire councillor called for 90% of lesbians and gays to be gassed to prevent the spread of AIDS. 1988 - Section 28 introduced, preventing the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality by local authorities. 25,000 protested against it. Lesbians abseiled in the House of Lords and also got into BBC1’s newsroom in protest.
   
• 1994 - House of Commons voted to reduce gay male age of consent to 18. 1997 - On 1 May the British general election went to Labour and gave seats to out-gays Ben Bradshaw and Stephen Twigg. Labour MP Angela Eagle was the first lesbian British MP to come out voluntarily.
   
• 1999 - On 30 April, a bomb exploded in the Admiral Duncan, a gay pub in Old Compton Street, Soho. Three people died. The Court of Appeal support a right to treatment for gender reassignment under the National Health Service.
   
• 2000 - Government lifts the ban on lesbian and gay men serving in the armed forces. 2001 - Age of consent reduced to 16 for all. First same-sex partnerships registered in London at the GLA.
   
• 2002 - Equal rights granted to same sex couples applying for adoption. Alan Duncan became the first serving British Conservative Party MP to voluntarily come out publicly as gay.
   
• 2003 - Repeal of Section 28. Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations became law on 1 December making it illegal to discriminate against lesbians, gay men and Bi people in the workplace.
   
• 2004 - Sexual Offences Act abolishes the crimes of buggery and gross indecency. Civil Partnership Act passed in November, giving same-sex couples the same rights and responsibilities as married heterosexual couples.
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• 2004 - The Gender Recognition Act comes into law giving transgender people legal recognition in their preferred gender (male or female), allowing them to acquire a new birth certificate and affording them full recognition of their acquired gender in law for all purposes, including marriage.
   
• 2006 - The Equality Act 2006 - which makes discrimination against lesbians and gay men in the provision of goods and services illegal - gains Royal assent on 16 February.
   
• 2008 - The Sex Discrimination (Amendment of Legislation) Regulations 2008 — adds protection from discrimination for trans people in the areas of the provision of goods, services, facilities and premises.
   
• 2009 – Prime Minster Gordon Brown makes an official public apology on behalf of the British government for the way in which Alan Turing was chemically castrated for being gay, after the war. Opposition leader David Cameron apologies on behalf of the Conservative Party, for introducing Section 28 during Margaret Thatcher’s third government.
   
• 2013 - Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 passes through Parliament allowing for same – sex marriages to be performed in the summer of 2014.

Content created by NUS UK.