1975 in LGBTQ rights
| List of years in LGBT rights |
|---|
| (table) |
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1975.
Events
[edit]January
[edit]- 1 - California decriminalizes private consensual adult homosexual acts.[1][2]
- 7 — A Maricopa County clerk issues a marriage license to a same-sex couple.[3]
February
[edit]- The first gay-oriented television commercial airs on two Washington, D.C. stations. The Lambda Rising bookstore sponsored the ads on episodes of Phil Donahue and Marcus Welby, M.D.. Stations balked at airing the ads, but relented after getting approval from the Association of Broadcasters Standards office.[4][5]
- 6 - John Damien, a racing steward at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is fired from his job for being gay, sparking a legal battle that eventually leads to the inclusion of sexual orientation in the Ontario Human Rights Code in 1986.[6]
March
[edit]- 26 — Boulder County, Colorado clerk Clela Rorex begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.[7] Colorado Attorney General J.D. MacFarlane later issues an opinion that the licenses are invalid and orders that no additional licenses be issued.[3]
April
[edit]- Milton Shapp, governor of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, issues the first state executive order banning sexual orientation employment discrimination by the government.[8]
July
[edit]- 1 — The U.S. state of Washington decriminalizes private consensual adult homosexual acts.[9]
- 3 — The United States Civil Service Commission ends its policy of automatically disqualifying gay and lesbian applicants.[10]
Deaths
[edit]- February 10 — Lige Clarke, LGBT rights activist and journalist. Murdered in Vera Cruz, Mexico.[11]
See also
[edit]
- Timeline of LGBT history — timeline of events from 12,000 BCE to present
- LGBT rights by country or territory — current legal status around the world
- LGBT social movements
References
[edit]- ^ Painter, George. "The History of Sodomy Laws in the United States - California". www.glapn.org. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
After years of lobbying, and after the adoption of the explicit privacy language in the California Constitution, a consenting adults law was enacted in 1975.
- ^ Tayrien, Mary Lee (1976). "CALIFORNIA "CONSENTING ADULTS" LAW: THE SEX ACT IN PERSPECTIVE". San Diego Law Review. 13 (439): 440. Archived from the original on September 7, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2025.
- ^ a b Lahey, Kathleen A. and Kevin Alderson (2004). Same-sex Marriage: The Personal and the Political, p. 18. Insomniac Press. ISBN 1-894663-63-2
- ^ O'Bryan, Will (June 8, 2005). "Firmly Rooted". Metro Weekly. Archived from the original on September 15, 2015. Retrieved June 11, 2025.
- ^ Sue Levin, In the Pink: The Making of Successful Gay- and Lesbian-Owned Businesses, Haworth Press, 1999. ISBN 978-1560239413; Frank Muzzy, Gay and Lesbian Washington D.C., Arcadia Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0-7385-1753-4
- ^ Robert Rothon, "The forgotten hero". Xtra Magazine, January 17, 2007.
- ^ "Colo. Clerk Recalls Issuing Same-Sex-Marriage Licenses — In 1975". NPR.org. July 18, 2014. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
- ^ Burton, William (8 October 2018). "The story of how Pennsylvania's governor became an unlikely LGBTQ hero". LGBTQ Nation. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
- ^ "Chapter 9.79.100 RCW Dispositions Sex Crimes". Washington State Legislature. Retrieved June 11, 2025.
- ^ Johnson, David K. (2009). The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government, p 210. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226401960
- ^ Bullough, Vern L. (2002). Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Contextp. 239. Routledge. ISBN 1-56023-193-9
