This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1981.

Events

February

* 5 –

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

police raid city bathhouses, arresting 286 people and charging 20 for operating a brothel (see

Operation Soap Operation Soap was a raid by the Metropolitan Toronto Police against four gay bathhouses in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which took place on February 5, 1981. Just less than three hundred men were arrested, the largest mass arrest in Canada since the ...

). No sex work was uncovered. * 6 – About 3,000 protestors stage the largest-ever

sit in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to m ...

protests in Toronto streets to decry city police raids on bath houses. This became seen as Toronto's version of the Stonewall Riots. * 10 – In the United States, Christian advocacy group

Moral Majority Moral Majority was an American political organization associated with the Christian right and Republican Party. It was founded in 1979 by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell Sr. and associates, and dissolved in the late 1980s. It played a key role in ...

announces a $3 million fund to fight against homosexuality in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. * 20 – Protest crowds in Toronto swell to 4,000 in the fight to stop police crackdown on bathhouses.

March

* 1 – The Billy DeFrank Lesbian and Gay Community Center first opens its doors in a two-room store front in downtown

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

. * 6 – Toronto Gay Community Council holds first meeting.

April

* 4 – First

Gay Pride Parade A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events ...

takes place in Paris.

May

* In France, the government of François Mitterrand decriminalises gay sex. * 14 – The

Reagan administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...

cancels the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

's subscription to '' The Advocate''.

June

* 5 – The United States

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

receives the first known reports of what would come to be known as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), found in the gay communities of Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.

July

* 3 – The New Democratic Party of Canada calls for amending the "bawdyhouse" section of the Canadian

Criminal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

, which is often used to raid gay bathhouses.

October

* 22 —

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

judgment in ''

Dudgeon v. United Kingdom ''Dudgeon v the United Kingdom'' (1981) was a European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case, which held that Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 which criminalised male homosexual acts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland violate ...

'' evaluates Northern Ireland's criminalisation of homosexual acts between consenting adults as contrary to the right to respect to private life.

December

* 1 – The legislature of the Canadian province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

defeats an amendment which would have added "sexual orientation" to the human rights code.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1981 In LGBT Rights LGBT rights by year 1981 in LGBT history