Michael Bedwell
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2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the White Night Riot. “He got away with murder!”
The night the man who murdered Harvey Milk got away with murder, there 12 incinerated police cars, 150 arrests, and dozens of arrests.
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Inconvenient truths: Potholes along the yellow brick road of LGBTQ history
The word “faggot” does not come from burning gays at the stake.
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Stop saying Harvey Milk was the first out gay person elected to public office
He wasn’t even second. Here are the women who were first.
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Reed Erickson was a trans man who bankrolled early LGBT movements
Fundraising is central to the LGBTQ movement today. But decades ago, several organizations depended on one trans man.
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Black lesbian Ernestine Eckstein was protesting when most gays thought protests were crazy
Closeted gays and even many early gay organizations criticized her for being visible and active.
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Frank Kameny devoted his life to fighting for gay rights. He lived to see the end of DADT.
Kameny replaced “Homosexuality is unfortunate” with “Gay is good” long before many LGBTQ historic figures were even out.
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In 1972, gay people spoke at the Democratic National Convention for the first time
They had to speak at 5 a.m. and were followed by a straight woman who accused them of pedophilia, but they spoke.
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3 years before Stonewall, gay activists protested all over the country on same day
All over the country, protests about the military’s ban on gay soldiers were organized. Liberals and conservatives alike hated it.
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In 1976, the Supreme Court slapped down a sodomy law challenge with just four words
It all started with a Help Wanted ad.
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Remembering transgender pioneer Christine Jorgensen
There was a media storm of coverage in the 1950’s after she transitioned.
