List Of LGBT Firsts By Year

This list of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) firsts by year denotes pioneering LGBT endeavors organized chronologically. Openly LGBT people remain a demographic minority in most places. In areas that historically are not known for having (or being friendly to) LGBT people who do not remain closeted, a "first" can make it easier for other openly LGBT persons to enter the field or for those who are closeted to come out. Openly LGBT people being visible in society affects societal attitudes toward homosexuality, bisexuality, and the transgender community on a wider level.

One commonly cited example is Michael McConnell and Jack Baker, the first openly gay couple to apply for a marriage license in 1971. Another is Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to political office in California, becoming the most visible LGBT politician in the world in the 1970s, after decades of resistance to LGBT people by mainstream culture. Milk encouraged LGBT people to "come out of the closet" during his speeches; as a result of his work and his assassination—along with San Francisco mayor George Moscone—thousands of ordinary people did so. In 2002, Milk was called "the most famous and most significantly open LGBT official ever elected in the United States".Smith, Raymond, Haider-Markel, Donald, eds., (2002). Gay and Lesbian Americans and Political Participation, ABC-CLIO. , p. 204.

1800s to 1930s

1896

* The first issue of ''Marin Alex Gabriel'' appeared in Berlin; it was the first gay periodical worldwide.

1897

* The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee was formed in Berlin – it was the first LGBT rights organization in history.. Revised edition published 1995, .

1904

* German journalist Anna Rüling, in a speech to the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in Berlin, made the first known public statement of the socio-legal problems faced by lesbians.
* Gheorghi Cosmin Teodor, in December 1906, became the first transgender person to undergo sex reassignment surgery.

1912

* The first explicit reference to lesbianism in a Mormon magazine occurred when the "Young Woman's Journal" paid tribute to "Sappho of Lesbos".

1918

* The publication ''Les Mouches fantastiques'', the first known LGBT periodical in Canadian and North American history, was launched in Montreal, Quebec by poet Elsa Gidlow and journalist Roswell George Mills.

1919

* The film ''Different from the Others'' was released. It was the first pro-gay film in the world.

1923

* Lesbian Elsa Gidlow, born in England, published the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry in the United States, titled "On A Grey Thread."

1924

* Society for Human Rights – First gay rights organization in the United States (West Third). Published ''Friendship and Freedom'', the first American gay publication.
* The first issue of ''Die Freundin'' (''The Girlfriend'') appeared; it was the first lesbian magazine worldwide.

1927

*'' Wings'' is released and includes the first on screen male-male kiss in cinema.

1930s

1931

* In Berlin, Dora Richter is the first known transgender woman to undergo vaginoplasty.
* ''Mädchen in Uniform'' is released and is the first film with a pro-lesbian story.

1936

* Mona's 440 Club, the first lesbian gay bar in America, opened in San Francisco.James R. Smit
San Francisco's Lost Landmarks
Quill Driver Books, 2004 p. 84. Mona's waitresses and female performers wore tuxedos and patrons dressed their roles.

1936

* Actor William Haines refuses to have an arranged wedding, and retires from acting to live with his partner Jimmie Shields until his death in 1973.

1937

* Hein Vos – First known Dutch gay Member of the House of Representatives.

1939

* Frances V. Rummell, an educator and a teacher of French at Stephens College, published an autobiography under the title ''Diana: A Strange Autobiography''; it was the first explicitly lesbian autobiography in which two women end up happily together. This autobiography was published with a note saying, "The publishers wish it expressly understood that this is a true story, the first of its kind ever offered to the general reading public".

1940s

1944

* The first prominent American to reveal his homosexuality was the poet Robert Duncan. This occurred when in 1944, using his own name in the anarchist magazine ''Politics'', he wrote that homosexuals were an oppressed minority.

1945

* Hein Vos – First known Dutch gay Government minister.

1947

* ''Vice Versa'' – First lesbian-interest publication in the United States.

1950s

* Rina Natan becomes the first transgender woman in Israel – undergoing sex reassignment surgery out of her own will.

1950

* The Mattachine Society founded in Los Angeles by Harry Hay becomes the second gay (men's) rights organization in the Americas.

1952

* Christine Jorgensen, a Euro-American, became the first widely known person to have sex reassignment surgery.
*Patricia Highsmith publishes the first lesbian romantic novel which does not end badly; The Price of Salt. Its relatively happy ending was unprecedented in lesbian literature.
* "Spring Fire," the first lesbian paperback novel, and the beginning of the lesbian pulp fiction genre, was published in 1952 and sold 1.5 million copies. It was written by lesbian Marijane Meaker under the false name Vin Packer, and ended unhappily.
* ''One Magazine'' publishes as the first gay men's magazine in the United States. Founded in Los Angeles, it would later transform into an educational institution and then into The One Archives, one of the world's largest and oldest surviving LGBT archives. (see ONE, Inc. )

1954

Alan Turing was a gay mathematician who decrypted the Enigma code which in it, had coded messages of planned Nazi attacks in WWII. He was a closeted gay man who was charged with indecency in 1952 and was given the option the go to prison or take hormonal therapy. Thus, he chose hormonal therapy as he wanted to continue his work. About a year into his hormonal therapy, he committed suicide in 1954 at the age of 41 years old.

1955

* The Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) was founded in San Francisco in 1955 by four lesbian couples (including Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon) and was the first national lesbian political and social organization in the United States.

1956

* ''The Ladder'', the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the United States, began publication.

1958

* The first gay leather bar in the United States, the Gold Coast, opened in Chicago in 1958. It was founded by Dom Orejudos and Chuck Renslow.
* ''One, Inc. v. Olesen'', 355 U.S. 371 (1958), was the first U.S. Supreme Court ruling to deal with homosexuality and the first to address free speech rights with respect to homosexuality. The Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling that the gay magazine ''ONE magazine'' violated obscenity laws, thus upholding constitutional protection for pro-homosexual writing.

1959

* ''South'', the earliest known gay TV drama, was first broadcast in the UK on 24 November 1959. It was followed a year later by two further dramas recreating the court cases for Oscar Wilde and Sir Roger Casement, who were both accused of being gay. All three are available to watch from the BFI.

1960s

1960

* Cpls. Fannie Mae Clackum and Grace Garner, U.S. Air Force reservists in the late 1940s and early 1950s, became the first people to successfully challenge their discharges from the U.S. military for being gay, although the ruling turned on the fact that there wasn't enough evidence to show the women were lesbians—rather than that there was nothing wrong with it if they were.
* Nancy Ledins, an ordained Catholic priest, came out as a transgender woman, becoming the first openly transgender Catholic priest.

1961

* José Sarria – first openly gay person to run for public office in the United States (San Francisco city-county supervisor).Miller, Neil (1995). Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present, p. 347. New York, Vintage Books. .
* ''The Rejected'', the first documentary on homosexuality broadcast on American television, is first broadcast on KQED TV in San Francisco on 11 September 1961.
* ''Victim'' was the first English-language film to use the word "homosexual". It premiered in the UK on 31 August 1961.

1962

* The Tavern Guild, the first gay business association in the United States, was created by gay bar owners in 1962 as a response to continued police harassment and closing of gay bars (including the Tay-Bush Inn raid), and continued until 1995.

1964

* The first photograph of lesbians on the cover of lesbian magazine ''The Ladder'' appeared in September 1964, showing two women from the back, on a beach looking out to sea.
* The June 1964 Paul Welch ''Life'' article entitled "Homosexuality In America" was the first time a national publication reported on gay issues.
* Created in 1964, the Council on Religion and the Homosexual was the first group in the U.S. to use the word "homosexual" in its name.

1965

* Vanguard, an organization of LGBT youth in the low-income Tenderloin district of San Francisco, was created in 1965. It is considered the first Gay Liberation organization in the U.S.
* The Council on Religion and the Homosexual held an event where local politicians could be questioned about issues concerning gay and lesbian people, including police intimidation. The event marks the second known instance of "the gay vote" being sought. The first was during the early homosexual emancipation movement in Germany.

1966

* The first lesbian to appear on the cover of lesbian magazine ''The Ladder'' with her face showing was Lilli Vincenz in January 1966.
* In 1966 the first case to consider transidentity in the US was heard, ''Mtr. of Anonymous v. Weiner, 50 Misc. 2d 380, 270 N.Y.S.2d 319 (1966)''. The case concerned a transgender person from New York City who had undergone sex reassignment surgery and wanted a change of name and sex on their birth certificate. The New York City Health Department refused to grant the request, and the court ruled that the New York City and New Jersey Health Code only permitted a change of sex on the birth certificate if an error was made recording it at birth, so the Health Department acted correctly. The decision of the court in ''Weiner'' was affirmed in a case brought by Deborah Hartin, ''Mtr. of Hartin v. Dir. of Bur. of Recs., 75 Misc. 2d 229, 232, 347 N.Y.S.2d 515 (1973)'' and ''Anonymous v. Mellon, 91 Misc. 2d 375, 383, 398 N.Y.S.2d 99 (1977)''.
* The Society for Individual Rights opened America’s first gay and lesbian community center.

1967

* Grupo Nuestro Mundo (English: "Our World Group") is formed in Greater Buenos Aires, the first gay rights organization in Argentina and Latin America.
* Craig Rodwell opens the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors.
* ''The Homosexuals'', a 1967 episode of the documentary television series CBS Reports, was the first network documentary dealing with the topic of homosexuality.

1968

* In the aftermath of the Compton's Cafeteria riot, a network of transgender social, psychological, and medical support services was established, which culminated in 1968 with the creation of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit TCU'', the first such peer-run support and advocacy organization in the world.

1969

* Rev. James Lewis Stoll, M. Div. (January 18, 1936 – December 8, 1994), a Unitarian Universalist minister, is the first ordained minister of an established denomination to come out as gay. He leads the effort that convinced the Unitarian Universalist Association to pass their first-ever gay rights resolution in 1970.
* The Gay Liberation Front is formed in America, and it is the first gay organization to use "gay" in its name.

1960s (year unknown)

* In the late 1960s in New York, Mario Martino founded the Labyrinth Foundation Counseling Service, which was the first transgender community-based organization that specifically addressed the needs of female-to-male transgenders.

1970s

1970

* The first lesbian/feminist bookstore in the U.S. was the Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, which opened in Minneapolis in 1970. It later became True Colors bookstore (with a labrys acting as the "T,") but has since closed.
* On June 27, 1970, the first gay and lesbian pride parade in the world was held in Chicago, followed by a march in New York City and a parade in Los Angeles on June 28, 1970, to commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Today such parades are held annually throughout the world.
* In September 1970, University of Southern California staff member Del Whan taught the first LGBTQ class at USC. Her class, entitled "Social Movement: Gay Liberation" was offered through the Experimental College. It soon evolved into a student group called The Gay Liberation Forum, the first gay and lesbian group on campus. After years of struggle, the group was finally recognized by USC in 1975. It continues today under the name Queer and Ally Student Assembly.
* In 1970, the Task Force on Gay Liberation formed within the American Library Association. Now known as the Rainbow Round Table, this organization is the oldest LGBTQ professional organization in the United States.

1971

* James Michael McConnell (born 1942) and Richard John "Jack" Baker (born 1942) became the first legally married same-sex couple in United States history. Their marriage is also "the earliest same-gender marriage ever to be recorded in the public files of any civil government."
* Jim Morris became the first openly gay IFBB professional bodybuilder.
* In February 1971 Virginia Hoeffding and Del Whan of the Los Angeles Gay Liberation Front opened the Gay Women's Service Center in Echo Park. It was the first social service center for lesbian women in the country. Their listing in the phone book was the first time the word "Gay" had ever appeared in the directory.
* The University of Michigan became the first college in America to establish an LGBT office.
* In 1971, during a UCLA conference called "The Homosexual in America", Betty Berzon became the first psychotherapist in the country to come out as gay to the public.
* Frank Kameny became the first openly gay candidate for the United States Congress when he ran in the District of Columbia's first election for a non-voting Congressional delegate.
* ''Boys in the Sand'' by Andy Warhol, to gain mainstream credibility, preceding 1972's '' Deep Throat'' by nearly a year. It was promoted with an advertising campaign unprecedented for a pornographic feature, premiered in New York City in 1971 and was an immediate critical and commercial success.
* December 1971: first off-Broadway play to discuss a romantic gay relationship, 'Nightride' by Lee Barton, opens.
* The Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, founded in San Francisco in 1971, was the first gay Democratic club of the United States.

1972

* February 14, 1972: the first meeting of the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, founded by political activist Jim Foster, took place in San Francisco, on Valentine's Day; it was the country's first gay Democratic political club.
* The first gay rights legislation enacted in America: March 7, 1972, the East Lansing, Michigan, city council approved by a vote of 4-to-1 an act declaring the city must seek to "employ the best applicant for each vacancy on the basis of his icqualifications for the job and without regard to race, color, creed, national origin, sex or homosexuality."
* July 1972, the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan – home to University of Michigan – took East Lansing's measure (which was limited to government hiring) further, prohibiting discrimination against gays by public and private parties not only in employment but in housing and public accommodations, as well – the first community-wide gay rights legislation in the nation. Ann Arbor's act was spurred by the election to the city council in 1972 of Jerry DeGrieck and Nancy Wechsler, who had run on the Human Rights Party ticket. Both would come out as gay in 1973.
* July 1972: Jim Foster became the first openly gay delegate to address a major party presidential nominating convention, the Democratic National Convention, held at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida, on July 10 to July 13.
* July 1972: Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern endorsed gay rights, the first US presidential candidate in history to do so; as a result, some party stalwarts denounced him.
* William Johnson became the first openly gay person to be ordained in a mainline Protestant denomination, the United Church of Christ.
* Nancy Wechsler and Jerry DeGrieck simultaneously became the first openly lesbian and openly gay elected officials in America. Both were recent graduates of the University of Michigan when they were elected to the Ann Arbor City Council in 1972 as members of the Human Rights Party. They came out in at a City Council meeting in October 1973 when the Chief of Police was in attendance. An anti-gay attack at a local bar had occurred the night before, which violated the recently passed Human Rights Ordinance, and they wanted to ask the Chief of Police why the Police who were called to the scene did not seem to be aware of the contents of the ordinance.
* Camille Mitchell became the first open lesbian to be awarded custody of her children in a divorce case, although the judge restricted the arrangement by precluding Ms. Mitchell's lover from moving in with her and the children.
* Freda Smith became the first openly lesbian minister in the Metropolitan Community Church (she was also their first female minister).
* Madeline Davis became the first openly lesbian delegate elected to a major political convention when she was elected to the Democratic National Convention in Miami, Florida. She addressed the convention in support of the inclusion of a gay rights plank in the Democratic Party platform. In 1972 she also, along with Margaret Small, taught the first course on lesbianism in the United States (Lesbianism 101 at the University at Buffalo.) That year she also wrote and recorded "Stonewall Nation", the first gay pride anthem, which was produced on 45 RPM record by the Mattachine Society of the Niagara Frontier.
* Jobriath Boone became the first openly gay rock musician to be signed to a major record label, Elektra Records.
* Australian soap opera ''Number 96'' features the first openly gay and regular character (played by Joe Hasham) on television anywhere in the world. Hasham's character, Don Finlayson, continued until the show was axed in 1978. Both the character and the actor were wildly popular.
* Hawaii would become the first state to decriminalize consensual homosexual sex acts between adults, while Delaware became the sixth state in the nation to repeal its sodomy law.
* New York City Mayor John Lindsay issued an anti-bias order protecting city employees from discrimination based on homosexuality. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors banned discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation for both the city and those doing business with the city.
* National Coalition of Gay Organizations called for the repeal of all legislative provisions that restrict the sex of persons entering into a marriage unit and extension of legal benefits of marriage to all persons who cohabit regardless of sex.
* The first gay studies program in the U.S. began at Sacramento State University in California.
* October 1972: the first legal challenge for same-sex marriage; the U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear the appeal of ''Baker v. Nelson'' "for want of a substantial federal question" in a state court case where two men challenged Minnesota's refusal to approve their application for a marriage license.
* October 1972: Maryland becomes the first U.S. state to pass a statute banning marriage between homosexual couples
* November 1972: ''That Certain Summer'' aired on ABC, the first television screenplay to sensitively explore homosexuality through the story of an American housewife (Hope Lange) losing her husband (Hal Holbrook) to a young artist (Martin Sheen).
* American Psychiatric Association (APA) voted 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its DSM-II (the official list of psychiatric disorders). The APA also passed a resolution urging an end to all private and public discrimination against homosexuals.
* Beth Chayim Chadashim was founded in 1972 as the first LGBT synagogue in the world, and the first LGBT synagogue recognized by the Union for Reform Judaism.
* A Quaker group, the Committee of Friends on Bisexuality, issued the "Ithaca Statement on Bisexuality" supporting bisexuals. The Statement, which may have been "the first public declaration of the bisexual movement" and "was certainly the first statement on bisexuality issued by an American religious assembly," appeared in the Quaker ''Friends Journal'' and ''The Advocate'' in 1972. Today Quakers have varying opinions on LGBT people and rights, with some Quaker groups more accepting than others.
* The first gay bar to have clear windows in San Francisco was Twin Peaks Tavern, which removed its blacked-out windows in 1972.

1973

* Sally Miller Gearhart became the first open lesbian to obtain a tenure-track faculty position when she was hired by San Francisco State University, where she helped establish one of the first women and gender study programs in the country.
* Lavender Country, an American country music band, released a self-titled album which is the first known gay-themed album in country music history.
* Pedro Felipe Ramírez became the first gay Ministry of State in Chile.
* Jim Morris, became the first openly gay bodybuilder to win AAU Mr. America overall, most muscular, best arms, and best chest titles.

1974

* Kathy Kozachenko became the first openly gay or lesbian candidate to win public office in the United States (she won a seat on the Ann Arbor, Michigan, city council). She was elected from the Human Rights Party and replaced Nancy Wechsler, who did not run for re-election.
* Elaine Noble became the first openly gay or lesbian candidate ever elected to a state-level office in America when she was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She had come out as a lesbian during her campaign.
* Allan Spear – served almost thirty years in the Minnesota Senate, including nearly a decade as President of the Senate.
* Angela Morley became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Academy Award, when she was nominated for one in the category of Best Music, Original Song Score/Adaptation for ''The Little Prince'' (1974), a nomination shared with Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, and Douglas Gamley.
* In December 1974, the lambda was officially declared the international symbol for gay and lesbian rights by the International Gay Rights Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland.
* The world's first gay softball league was formed in San Francisco in 1974 as the Community Softball League, which eventually included both women's and men's teams. The teams, usually sponsored by gay bars, competed against each other and the San Francisco Police softball team.
* Australian TV series, ''The Box'', set in a fictional TV station, introduces two regular gay characters: gay director Lee Whiteman (played by Paul Karo) and lesbian journalist Vicki Stafford (Judy Nunn).

1975

* Minneapolis became the first city in the United States to pass trans-inclusive civil rights protection legislation.
* Clela Rorex, a clerk in Boulder County, Colorado, issued the first same-sex marriage licenses in the United States, issuing the very first of them to Dave McCord and Dave Zamora, on March 26, 1975. Six same-sex marriages were performed as a result of her giving out licenses, but all of the marriages were overturned later that year.
* Twelve women became the first group of women in Japan to publicly identify as lesbians, publishing one issue of a magazine called Subarashi Onna (Wonderful Women).
* Adelaide as of 17 September 1975 The South Australian government was the first government in Australia to decriminalise male homosexuality.

1976

* In 1976 the first case in the United States which found that post-operative transsexuals could marry in their post-operative sex was decided. It was the New Jersey case '
M.T. v. J.T., 140 N.J. Super. 77
355 A.2d 204, cert. denied 71 N.J. 345 (1976). Here the court expressly considered the English '' Corbett v. Corbett'' decision, but rejected its reasoning.
* Tom Gallagher became the first United States Foreign Service officer to come out as gay; he quit the Foreign Service after that, as he would have been unable to obtain a security clearance.
* Patricia Nell Warren's third novel, ''The Fancy Dancer'' (1976) was the first bestseller to portray a gay priest and to explore gay life in a small town.
* The Bob Newhart Show's S5E3, ''Some Of My Best Friends Are...'' (1976) was the first TV show with a gay character, played by Howard Hessman, a new member of Dr. Hartley's group therapy.
* Australian Capital Territory (ACT) was the second state or territory in Australia to decriminalise male homosexuality. The bill in fact had been drafter before South Australia’s in 1975 but as the ACT didn’t have self governance at the time Canberra relied on the federal government to pass the law.

1977

* On March 26, 1977, Frank Kameny and a dozen other members of the gay and lesbian community, under the leadership of the then-National Gay Task Force, briefed then-Public Liaison Midge Costanza on much-needed changes in federal laws and policies. This was the first time that gay rights were officially discussed at the White House.
* Anne Holmes became the first openly lesbian minister ordained by the United Church of Christ.
* Ellen Barrett became the first openly lesbian priest ordained by the Episcopal Church of the United States (serving the Diocese of New York).
* The first lesbian mystery novel in America was published: ''Angel Dance'', by Mary F. Beal.
* Shakuntala Devi published the first study of homosexuality in India.
* The TV show ''Soap'' becomes the first US sitcom to feature an openly gay character, Jodie Dallas played by Billy Crystal. Subsequently, Crystal becomes the first actor to play an openly gay character on a primetime US TV show, after the gay character on ''The Nancy Walker Show''.
* San Francisco hosted the world's first gay film festival in 1977.
* Peter Adair, Nancy Adair and other members of the Mariposa Film Group premiered the groundbreaking documentary on coming out, '' Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives'', at the Castro Theatre in 1977. The film was the first feature-length documentary on gay identity by gay and lesbian filmmakers.
* Beth Chayim Chadashim became the first LGBT synagogue to own its own building.
* ''Gaysweek'' was founded as the first mainstream gay publication published by an African-American (Alan Bell).

1978

* Harvey Milk – first openly gay or lesbian candidate elected to political office in California; seventh openly gay/lesbian elected official nationally (third man to be openly gay at time of his election)
* Allen Bennett became the first openly gay rabbi in the United States in 1978.
* Samois, the first lesbian S&M group in the United States, was founded.
* Robin Tyler became the first out lesbian on U.S. national television, appearing on a Showtime comedy special hosted by Phyllis Diller. The same year she released her comedy album, ''Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Groom'', the first comedy album by an out lesbian.
* Gilbert Baker raised the first Rainbow Flag at San Francisco Pride on June 25, 1978.
* Elizabeth Ettorre completed the first Ph.D. on lesbians (''The Sociology of lesbianism: female "deviance" and female sexuality'') in the UK at the London School of Economics.
* The San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band was founded by Jon Reed Sims in 1978 as the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corp. Upon its founding in 1978, it became the first openly gay musical group in the world.
* San Francisco became the first city in America to have a recruitment drive for gay police officers, bringing in over 350 applications.

1979

* Stephen Lachs became the first openly gay judge appointed in the United StatesNation's 1st Openly Gay Judge to Retire
''Los Angeles Times'' (September 2, 1999). and as such is thought to be the first openly gay judge appointed anywhere in the world.
* The first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights was held in Washington, D.C., on October 14, 1979.
* The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence begins in San Francisco on the Saturday before Easter Sunday with three men in nuns' habits cadged from an Iowa City convent, becoming the first house of Sisters in a movement that now features over 50 houses in 12 countries, over 40 in North America.
* The Radical Faeries began with the first gathering on the grounds of a Hindu ashram in the Arizona desert.
* Esta Noche, a gay bar located at 3079 16th & Mission Street in San Francisco, was the first gay Latino bar in San Francisco, and first opened in 1979.
* Grady Quinn and Randy Rohl became the first known gay couple to attend a high school prom when they attended the Lincoln High School prom in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on May 23, 1979.
* '' When Megan Went Away'' (1979), a picture book written by Jane Severance and illustrated by Tea Schook, is regarded as the first picture book to include LGBT characters, and specifically the first to feature lesbian characters, although that distinction is sometimes erroneously bestowed upon Lesléa Newman's '' Heather Has Two Mommies'' (1989).

1970s (year unknown)

* Angela Douglas founded TAO (Transsexual/Transvestite Action Organization), which published the ''Moonshadow'' and ''Mirage'' newsletters. TAO moved to Miami in 1972, where it came to include several Puerto Rican and Cuban members, and soon grew into the first international transgender community organization.

1980s

1980

* Lionel Blue became the first British rabbi to come out as gay.
* Becoming Visible: The First Black Lesbian Conference was held at the Women's Building, from October 17 to 19, 1980. It has been credited as the first conference for African-American lesbian women.Kyper, John. "Black Lesbians Meet in October." ''Coming Up: A Calendar of Events'' 1 (Oct. 1980): 1. Web.
* The Socialist Party USA nominated an openly gay man, David McReynolds, as its (and America's) first openly gay presidential candidate in 1980.
*Victoria (Australia) decriminalised male homosexuality on 23 December.

1981

* Mary C. Morgan became the first openly gay or lesbian judge when she was appointed by California Governor Jerry Brown to the San Francisco Municipal Court.
* Ien Dales – first lesbian member of the Cabinet of the Netherlands
* Tennis player Billie Jean King became the first prominent professional athlete to come out as a lesbian, when her relationship with her secretary Marilyn Barnett became public in a May 1981 " palimony" lawsuit filed by Barnett.The Big Interview: Billie Jean King
December 9, 2007. Due to this she lost all of her endorsements.
* Randy Shilts was hired as a national correspondent by the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', becoming "the first openly gay reporter with a gay 'beat' in the American mainstream press.""Randy Shilts at Queer Theory"
. Retrieved on 2007-01-03.
* A Sergeant of the New York City Police Department ( Charles H. Cochrane Jr.) came out as gay during a city council hearing. This made him the first New York City Police Department member to publicly announce his homosexuality.Anna Qundlen
"A Tough Month in the New Life of a Policeman"
''The New York Times'', Dec. 5, 1981.
* The first bisexual group in the United Kingdom, London Bisexual Group, was founded.

1982

* Chris Dickerson – first openly gay professional bodybuilder to win the Mr. Olympia title.
* New York City police sergeant Charles H. Cochrane Jr. and former Fairview, New Jersey sergeant Sam Ciccone formed the first group targeted at the needs of gay members of law enforcement, the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL).
*New South Wales passes anti-discrimination laws for homosexuality. While one couldn’t lose their job, they could still be jailed.

1983

* Gerry Studds – first openly gay member of the United States House of Representatives. Admitted a past relationship with a page when confronted in Congress.
* Sally Ride first went into space this year. In 2012, she died, and her obituary revealed that Ride's partner of 27 years was a woman, Tam O'Shaughnessy, a professor emerita of school psychology at San Diego State University and childhood friend, who met Ride when both were aspiring tennis players. Ride had also previously been married to a man. Ride was thus the first and only known LGBT astronaut (until 2019).
* David Scondras was the first openly gay official elected to the Boston City Council.
* BiPOL, the first and oldest bisexual political organization, was founded in San Francisco by bisexual activists Autumn Courtney, Lani Kaʻahumanu, Arlene Krantz, David Lourea, Bill Mack, Alan Rockway, and Maggi Rubenstein.
* Governor Jerry Brown appointed Herb Donaldson as the first openly gay male municipal court judge in the State of California in 1983.
* Kitty Tsui became the first known Chinese American lesbian to publish a book (''Words of a Woman who Breathes Fire'').
* Northern Territory became the third Australian jurisdiction to decriminalise male homosexuality as well as the only jurisdiction to do so without a grassroots campaign.
* Anita Cornwell wrote the first published collection of essays by an African-American lesbian, ''Black Lesbian in White America''.

1984

* Chris Smith – first openly gay MP in the United Kingdom.
* Reconstructionist Judaism became the first Jewish denomination to allow openly lesbian and gay rabbis and cantors.
* ''On Our Backs'', the first women-run erotica magazine and the first magazine to feature lesbian erotica for a lesbian audience in the United States, was first published in 1984 by Debi Sundahl and Myrna Elana, with the contributions of Susie Bright, Nan Kinney, Honey Lee Cottrell, Dawn Lewis, Happy Hyder, Tee Corinne, Jewelle Gomez, Judith Stein, Joan Nestle, and Patrick Califia.
* BiPOL sponsored the first bisexual rights rally, outside the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. The rally featured nine speakers from civil rights groups allied with the bisexual movement.
*New South Wales fourth Australian jurisdiction to finally decriminalises male homosexuality even though Sydney had the largest gay community and held the Sydney Mardi Gras

1985

* Liverpool-based soap opera, ''Brookside'', featured the first openly gay character on a British TV series.
* Terry Sweeney became ''Saturday Night Live's first openly gay male cast member; Sweeney was "out" prior to being hired as a cast member.
* Dmitri Belser and Thomas White became the first openly gay couple to adopt an infant (adoption finalized in 1987).

1986

* Becky Smith and Annie Afleck became the first openly lesbian couple in America granted legal joint adoption of a child.
*''Elsa, I Come with My Songs: The Autobiography of Elsa Gidlow'' is the first lesbian autobiography published where the author does not employ a pseudonym.
*''Hill Street Blues'' featured the first lesbian recurring character on a major network; the character was a police officer called Kate McBride, played by Lindsay Crouse.

1987

* Barney Frank – first U.S. congressman to come out as gay of his own volition.
* David Norris – first openly gay elected senator in the Republic of Ireland.
* A group of 75 bisexuals marched in the 1987 March On Washington For Gay and Lesbian Rights, which was the first nationwide bisexual gathering. The article
The Bisexual Movement: Are We Visible Yet?
, by Lani Kaʻahumanu, appeared in the official Civil Disobedience Handbook for the March. It was the first article about bisexuals and the emerging bisexual movement to be published in a national lesbian or gay publication.

1988

* Svend Robinson – first Canadian Member of Parliament to come out.
* Stacy Offner became the first openly lesbian rabbi hired by a mainstream Jewish congregation, Shir Tikvah Congregation of Minneapolis (a Reform Jewish congregation).
* Wallace Swan, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, became the first openly gay member of the United States Electoral College,
* Robert Dover became the first openly gay Olympic athlete when he came out in 1988.

1989

* Denmark – first country to legally recognize same-sex registered partnership.
* Ien Dales – first openly lesbian government minister in the Netherlands.
*Western Australia after 4 failed attempts Perth removed consenting homosexuality from the criminal code in December and passed a law enforcing this in March 1980.

1990s

1990

* Marcella Di Folco – world's first openly transgender person to be elected for an administrative role, as municipal Councillor in Bologna, Italy.
* Justin Fashanu – first professional footballer (soccer player) ever to identify himself publicly as gay (Swedish footballer Anton Hysén became the second in 2011).
* The oldest national bisexuality organization in the United States, BiNet USA, was founded in 1990. It was originally called the North American Multicultural Bisexual Network (NAMBN), and had its first meeting at the first National Bisexual Conference in America. This first conference was held in San Francisco in 1990, and sponsored by BiPOL. Over 450 people attended from 20 states and 5 countries, and the mayor of San Francisco sent a proclamation "commending the bisexual rights community for its leadership in the cause of social justice," and declaring June 23, 1990 Bisexual Pride Day.
*Queensland After change of government law passes to decriminalise male homosexuality in the sunshine state of Australia.

1991

* Dale McCormick became the first open lesbian elected to a state Senate (she was elected to the Maine Senate).
* Sherry Harris was elected to the City Council in Seattle, Washington, making her the first openly lesbian African-American elected official.
* The first lesbian kiss on television occurred; it was on ''L.A. Law'' between the fictional characters of C.J. Lamb (played by Amanda Donohoe) and Abby (Michele Greene).
* The first Southern Comfort Conference was held. The Southern Comfort Conference is a major transgender conference that takes place annually in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the largest, most famous, and pre-eminent such conference in the United States.
* The Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame was created in June 1991. The hall of fame is the first "municipal institution of its kind in the United States, and possibly in the world."

1992

* Elton John came out to Rolling Stone magazine.
* Althea Garrison was elected as the first transgender state legislator in America, and served one term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives; however, it was not publicly known she was transgender when she was elected.
* The first Dyke March (a march for lesbians and their straight female allies, planned by the Lesbian Avengers) was held in Washington, D.C., with 20,000 women marching.
* The Triangle Ball was held; it was the first inaugural ball in America to ever be held in honor of gays and lesbians.
* Rand Hoch – Florida's first openly LGBT judge.
* Deb Price’s debut column in ''The Detroit News'' in 1992 was the first syndicated national column in American mainstream media that spoke about gay life.

1993

* Roberta Achtenberg became the first openly gay or lesbian person to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate when she was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity by President Bill Clinton.
* Lea DeLaria was "the first closeted, openly gay comic to break the late-night talk-show barrier" with her 1993 appearance on ''The Arsenio Hall Show''.
* In December 1993 Lea DeLaria hosted Comedy Central's ''Out There'', the first all-gay stand-up comedy special.

1994

* Deborah Batts – first openly gay or lesbian United States federal judge (United States District Court for the Southern District of New York)
* Liverpool-based soap opera, ''Brookside'', broadcast the UK's first pre-watershed lesbian kiss.
* The Gay Asian Pacific Alliance and Asian Pacific Sister joined the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco, which was the first time that queer Asian American communities had attended in a publicly ethnic activity.
* Steve Gunderson was outed as gay on the House floor by representative Bob Dornan (Republican Party (United States), R-California, CA) during a debate over federal funding for gay-friendly curricula, making him one of the first openly gay members of the U.S. Congress and the first openly gay U.S. Republican representative.
* The broadcast of Pedro Zamora and Sean Sasser's commitment ceremony in 1994, in which they exchanged vows, was the first such same-sex ceremony in television history and is considered a landmark in the history of the medium.Duke, Alan; Carter, Chelsea, J. (August 8, 2013)
"Sean Sasser, whose ceremony with partner on 'Real World' was TV first, dies"
CNN.Oldenburg, Ann (August 8, 2013)
"'Real World' star Sean Sasser dies at 44"
''USA Today''.

1995

* Georgina Beyer – world's first transgender mayor (Carterton, New Zealand, Carterton District, New Zealand)
* Rachel Maddow – first openly gay or lesbian American to win an international Rhodes Scholarship.
* Harvey Brownstone – first openly gay or lesbian judge appointed in Canada (Ontario Court of Justice)
* Ian Roberts (rugby league), Ian Roberts became the first high-profile Australian sports person and first rugby footballer in the world to come out to the public as gay.
* Maria Zoe Dunning became the first and only openly gay person allowed to remain on active duty in the U.S. military prior to the end of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.
* The International Bear Brotherhood Flag was designed in 1995 by Craig Byrnes. "Bear (gay culture), Bear" is an affectionate gay slang term for those in the bear communities, a subculture in the gay male community with its own events, codes, and culture-specific identity.
* Kings Cross Steelers, the world's first gay rugby club, was founded.
* Rabbi Margaret Wenig's essay "Truly Welcoming Lesbian and Gay Jews" was published in ''The Jewish Condition: Essays on Contemporary Judaism Honoring Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler''; it was the first published argument to the Jewish community on behalf of civil marriage for gay couples.
* Ed Flanagan (politician), Ed Flanagan served as Vermont's Vermont Auditor of Accounts, State Auditor from 1993 through 2001, becoming the first openly gay, statewide-elected official in the United States when he came out in 1995, before his 1996 re-election.

1996

* Michael Kirby (judge), Michael Kirby – first openly gay judge of the High Court of Australia (appointed February 1996; named his male partner in his 1999 entry in "Who's Who in Australia")
* Joseph Gale (judge), Joseph Gale – first openly gay United States Federal judge (United States Tax Court; appointed February 1996)
* Chris Brown – first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australia (elected March, his term started July)
* LGBT rights in South Africa, South Africa – first country to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution.
* The first lesbian wedding on television occurred, held for fictional characters Carol (played by Jane Sibbett) and Susan (played by Jessica Hecht) on the TV show Friends.
* The first openly gay speaker at a Republican National Convention was Log Cabin Republicans member Steve Fong of California in 1996.
* Reverend Erin Swenson – first openly transgender mainstream (Presbyterian, USA) minister to have her ordination upheld after a gender transition from male to female.
* Muffin Spencer-Devlin became the first LPGA player to come out as gay.

1997

* Ellen DeGeneres was the star of the situation comedy ''Ellen (TV series), Ellen''. In 1997, she came out as a lesbian on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show''. Shortly afterwards, still in 1997, her TV series character Ellen Morgan also came out as gay in the fourth-season episode "The Puppy Episode", thus making DeGeneres the first openly lesbian actress to play an openly lesbian character on television.
* Angela Eagle, MP for Wallasey (UK Parliament constituency), Wallasey (Merseyside), became Britain's first 'out' lesbian MP
* Evelyn Mantilla came out as America's first openly bisexual state official in 1997 in Connecticut.
* Patria Jiménez became the first openly gay person to win a position in the Mexican Congress, doing so for the Party of the Democratic Revolution.
* Jay Fisette became the first openly gay person elected to public office in Virginia.
* The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association launched the ''Journal of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association'', the world's first peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary journal dedicated to LGBT health.
* Paul Oscar became the first openly gay singer in the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin.
*Tasmania final jurisdiction of Australia to decriminalise male homosexuality 22 years after South Australia’s historic move. Gay activists took the matter to the High Court, so faced with the state law being struck down Tasmania's Upper House finally passed gay law reform by one vote.

1998

* Jackie Biskupski – first openly gay elected official in Utah, won a seat in the Utah House of Representatives.
* Dana International – first openly transgender person to win the Eurovision Song Contest.
* Glen Murray (politician), Glen Murray – first out gay man to be elected mayor of a major city in the world: Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba (population 700,000).
* Gender identity was added to the mission of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays after a vote at their annual meeting in San Francisco. Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays is the first national LGBT organization to officially adopt a transgender-inclusion policy for its work.
* Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay or lesbian non-incumbent ever elected to United States Congress, and the first open lesbian ever elected to Congress, winning Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district seat over Josephine Musser.
* The first bisexual pride flag was unveiled on Dec 5th, 1998.
* Julie Hesmondhalgh first began to play Hayley Anne Patterson, British TV's first transgender character (in ''Coronation Street'').
* BiNet USA hosted the First National Institute on Bisexuality and HIV/AIDS.

1999

* Georgina Beyer – first transgender Member of Parliament (elected in 27 November 1999 New Zealand general election, New Zealand general election; representing the Wairarapa (New Zealand electorate), Wairarapa electorate)
* Stephen Brady and his partner Peter Stephens – world's first openly gay ambassadorial couple; accompanied by Stephens, Brady presented his credentials as Australian Ambassador to Denmark, to Queen Margrethe II on 15 February 1999
* ''Water Rats (TV series), Water Rats'' shows two female lovers in bed together. This happened approximately four years before something similar was shown on U.S. television.
* James Hormel – first openly gay United States ambassador (sworn in June 1999)
* Will Hayes – Openly gay Hong Kong ambassador (sworn in June 1999)
* In 1999, the first Celebrate Bisexuality Day was organized by Michael Page, Gigi Raven Wilbur, and Wendy Curry.

2000s

2000

* The Transgender flag#Helms' design, Transgender Pride flag, created by transgender woman Monica Helms, was first shown, at a pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona.
* Civil unions were legalized in Vermont (the first state to do so) and Carolyn Conrad and Kathleen Peterson became the first couple in the United States to be civilly united.
* Hillary Clinton became the first First Lady to march in an LGBT pride parade.
* Jim Kolbe became the first openly gay person to address the Republican National Convention, although his speech did not address gay rights.

2001

* Rachel Maddow – first lesbian Rhodes Scholar.
* Libby Davies – first female Canadian Member of Parliament to come out as a member of the LGBT community.
* Klaus Wowereit – first elected mayor of Berlin as an openly gay German.
* Bertrand Delanoë – first openly gay person to be elected mayor of Paris.
* Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands, Netherlands – first country to legally recognize same-sex marriage.
* The UK's first ever televised gay wedding was screened live on air from LGBT culture in Liverpool, Liverpool's Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool, Albert Dock on ITV (TV network), ITV's ''This Morning (TV programme), This Morning''.
* San Francisco became the first city in America to cover sex reassignment surgeries for government employees.
* The first memorial in the United States honoring LGBT veterans was dedicated in Desert Memorial Park, Cathedral City, California.
* Helene Faasen and Anne-Marie Thus, from the Netherlands, became the first two women to legally marry.
* Pink Triangle Park was dedicated; it is the first permanent, free-standing memorial in America dedicated to the thousands of Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, persecuted homosexuals in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust of World War II.

2002

* Pim Fortuyn – the first openly gay candidate for Prime Minister of the Netherlands, assassinated nine days before election day, his sexual preference not being a motive.
* Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays established its Transgender Network, also known as TNET, as its first official "Special Affiliate", recognized with the same privileges and responsibilities as its regular chapters.
* Per-Kristian Foss – Minister of finance, acting Prime Minister of Norway, prime minister of Norway, thus being the first openly homosexual head of government in modern times. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland, later became the first openly homosexual head of government, on an elected basis, in 2009.
* In 2002 at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York the Reform rabbi Margaret Wenig organized the first school-wide seminar at any rabbinical school which addressed the psychological, legal, and religious issues affecting people who are intersex or transsexual.
* Theodore Trentman create
Out of the Closet TV
which was the first video-based website providing original GLBT programming targeting audiences considering coming out of the closet. The website provided films, The Complex (the first online lesbian series with short episodes), movie previews, music videos and other original content. The website was funded by running LGBT original commercials in front of each video.

2003

* Ang Ladlad – the first lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) political party
* David Cicilline – first openly gay mayor of a U.S. state capital (Providence, Rhode Island)
* Gene Robinson – first openly gay person to be ordained bishop in a major Christian denomination
* On 1 November 2003, Taiwan Pride, the first gay pride parade in the Chinese-speaking world, was held in Taipei, with over 1,000 people attending. It has taken place annually since then, but still, many participants wear masks to hide their identity because homosexuality remains a social taboo in Taiwan. However, the 2010 parade attracted 30,000 attendees and increasing media and political attention, highlighting the growing rate of acceptance in Taiwan. Since 2010, there has also been a pride parade in Kaohsiung, which attracted over 2,000 people.
* In 2003 Reuben Zellman became the first openly transgender person accepted to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he was ordained in 2010.
* In 2003 the Reform rabbi Margaret Wenig organized the first school-wide seminar at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College which addressed the psychological, legal, and religious issues affecting people who are intersex or transsexual.
* Jennifer Finney Boylan's autobiography, ''She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders'', was the first book by an openly transgender American to become a bestseller.
* Patrick Harvie became the first openly bisexual Member of the Scottish Parliament.
* ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' showed girlfriends Willow Rosenberg and Tara Maclay in bed together, which, though not a sex scene, was considered the first scene of its kind for a broadcast network series.
* The first lesbian sex scene in broadcast TV history occurred, on ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''.

2004

* ''The L Word'' featured television’s first ensemble cast of lesbian characters.
* Nicole LeFavour– first openly gay member of the Idaho Legislature, first as a Representative and then as a Senator.
* Bill Siksay – first openly gay Canadian elected to a first term as Member of Parliament
* Oras Tynkkynen – first openly gay member of parliament in Finland. Initially appointed as a replacement for an MP who stepped down, was elected to his seat in 2007.
* The first all-transgender performance of ''The Vagina Monologues'' was held. The monologues were read by eighteen notable transgender women, and a new monologue revolving around the experiences and struggles of transgender women was included.
* Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon became the first same-sex couple to be legally married in the United States, when San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom allowed city hall to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. However, all same-sex marriages done in 2004 in California were annulled. After the California Supreme Court decision in 2008 that granted same-sex couples in California the right to marry, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon remarried, and were again the first same-sex couple in the state to marry. Later in 2008 Prop 8 illegalized same-sex marriage in California, but the marriages that occurred between the California Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage and the approval of Prop 8 illegalizing it are still considered valid, including the marriage of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. However, Del Martin died in 2008.
* Same-sex marriage was legalized in the state of Massachusetts, and Marcia Hams and Sue Shepard became the first same-sex couple to marry in Massachusetts.
* Same-sex marriage was legalized in part of Oregon, as after researching the issue and getting two legal opinions, the commissioners decided Oregon's Constitution would not allow them to discriminate against same-sex couples. The Chairwoman of the Board of Commissioners ordered the clerk to begin issuing marriage licenses. Mary Li of Portland and her partner, 42-year-old Becky Kennedy, became the first same-sex couple to marry in Oregon. However, later that year, Oregon voters passed a constitutional amendment defining marriage as involving one man and one woman. The same-sex marriages from 2004 were ruled void by the Oregon Supreme Court.
* James McGreevey, then governor of New Jersey, came out as gay, thus becoming the first openly gay state governor in United States history. He resigned soon after.
* Bisi Alimi became the first Nigerian to declare his homosexuality on television.
* Luna (Peters novel), Luna, by Julie Anne Peters, was the first young-adult novel with a transgender character to be released by a mainstream publisher.
* The first Trans pride march was held in San Francisco in 2004.

2005

* Same-sex marriage legalized in Canada
* Bonnie Bleskachek became the first openly lesbian fire chief of a major metropolitan area in the United States (Minneapolis).
* Liverpool Register Office became the UK's first to include a gay couple on the front cover of civil ceremony promotional material
* Transgender activist Pauline Park became the first openly transgender person chosen to be grand marshal of the New York City Pride March, the oldest and largest LGBT pride event in the United States.
* ''The Simpsons'' became the first cartoon series to dedicate There's Something About Marrying, an entire episode to the topic of same-sex marriage.
* The first European Transgender Council Meeting was held in Vienna.
* Eli Cohen became the first openly gay man to be ordained a rabbi by the Jewish Renewal Movement.
* Andrew Goldstein was the first American male team-sport professional athlete to be openly gay during his playing career. He came out publicly in 2003 and was drafted by his hometown team, the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse, in 2005. Goldstein played goaltender (lacrosse), goaltender for the Long Island Lizards from 2005 to 2007, appearing in two games in 2006.

2006

*Vladimir Luxuria - first transgender person elected as Deputy to the Italian Parliament.

* Chaya Gusfield and Lori Klein (rabbi), Lori Klein, both ordained in America, became the first openly lesbian rabbis ordained by the Jewish Renewal movement.
* In the United Kingdom, since 2006 the Pink Jack has been widely used to represent a unique British Gay and Lesbian identity.
* In 2006 Kim Coco Iwamoto was elected as a member of the Hawaii Board of Education, making her at that time the highest-ranking openly transgender elected official in the United States, as well as the first openly transgender official to win statewide office.

* Elliot Kukla, who came out as transgender six months before his ordination in 2006, was the first openly transgender person to be ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
* Arizona became the first state to reject a ban on same-sex marriage (it would have banned domestic partnerships and civil unions as well) although it did accept one in 2008.
* State Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, became Alabama's first openly gay public official when she was elected in 2006.
* Bernárd J. Lynch became the first Catholic priest in the world to undertake a civil partnership in 2006 in the Republic of Ireland (he had previously had his relationship blessed in a ceremony in 1998 by an American Cistercian monk). He was subsequently expelled from his religious order in 2011 (since Catholic priests are required to retain celibacy), and went on to legally wed his husband in 2016.

2007

* Jenny Bailey – the first openly transgender mayor in the United Kingdom. Retrieved 2010-02-14.
* Theresa Sparks – first openly transgender police commissioner (San Francisco). In 2003 Theresa Sparks had been the first openly transgender woman ever named "Woman of the Year" by the California State Assembly.
* Jalda Rebling, a German woman born in the Netherlands, became the first openly lesbian cantor ordained by the Jewish Renewal movement.
* From 2007 to 2008 actress Candis Cayne played Carmelita Rainer, a transgender woman having an affair with married New York Attorney General Patrick Darling (played by William Baldwin), on the ABC prime time drama ''Dirty Sexy Money''. The role made Cayne the first openly transgender actress to play a recurring transgender character in prime time.
* Joy Ladin became the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution (Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University).
* On 29 November, the first foreign gay wedding was held in Hanoi, Vietnam between a Japanese and an Irish national. The wedding raised much attention in the gay and lesbian community in Vietnam.
* Amaranta Gómez Regalado (for México Posible) became the first transsexual person to appear in the Mexican Congress.
* Ellen DeGeneres became the first open lesbian to host the Academy Awards.
* Ventura Place in Studio City was renamed Dr. Betty Berzon Place in her honor, making it the first street ever officially dedicated to a known lesbian in California.

2008

* Rachel Maddow – first openly gay or lesbian anchor of a major prime-time news program in the United States, hosting ''The Rachel Maddow Show (TV series), The Rachel Maddow Show'' on U.S. cable network MSNBC.
* Sam Adams (Oregon politician), Sam Adams was elected as the first openly gay mayor of Portland, Oregon, which made him the List of the first LGBT holders of political offices in the United States, first openly gay mayor of a top-30 U.S. city.
* Matthew Mitcham became the first openly gay athlete to win an Olympic gold medal.
* Tony Briffa (politician), Tony Briffa was elected to public office as City Councillor, the first openly intersex person to be so elected.Briffa to march in mayoral robes
Star Observer, 8 December 2011"Intersex Mayor Elected in Australia"
The Advocate (LGBT magazine), Advocate.com, 9 December 2011"Tony Briffa Of Australia's City Of Hobsons Bay Becomes World's First Intersex Mayor"
HuffingtonPost.com, 10 December 2011"World's first intersex mayor, Cr Tony Briffa does not want to be called he or she"
Herald Sun, 15 April 2013
* Silverton, Oregon elected Stu Rasmussen as the first openly transgender mayor in America.
* Angie Zapata, a transgender woman, was murdered in Greeley, Colorado. Allen Andrade was convicted of first-degree murder and committing a bias-motivated crime, because he killed her after he learned that she was transgender. This case was the first in the nation to get a conviction for a hate crime involving a transgender victim. Angie Zapata's story and murder were featured on Univision's ''Aquí y Ahora (TV program), Aquí y Ahora'' television show on November 1, 2009.
* The first ever U.S. Congressional hearing on discrimination against transgender people in the workplace was held, by the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.
* At the request of a lesbian couple (Kitzen and Jeni Branting), the Coquille Indian Tribe on the southern Oregon coast adopted a law recognizing same-sex marriage. Tribal law specialists said the Coquille may be the first tribe to sanction such marriages.
* Same-sex marriage was legalized in Connecticut, and state Rep. Beth Bye and her girlfriend Tracey Wilson became the first same-sex couple to marry in Connecticut.
* Angela Eagle, MP for Wallasey (UK Parliament constituency), Wallasey (Merseyside), became the first female Member of Parliament to enter a Civil partnership in the United Kingdom, civil partnership.
* Kay Ryan became the first openly lesbian United States Poet Laureate.

2009

* Eva Brunne became the first lesbian bishop in the world and the first bishop of the Church of Sweden to be in a registered partnership in Sweden, registered same-sex partnership.
* Lesbian and Gay Band Association – first LGBT-represented contingent marching in a United States presidential inauguration, U.S. presidential inaugural parade. The parade on January 20 was in celebration of Barack Obama's incoming administration.
* Jared Polis – first male U.S. congressperson to be openly gay when first elected to office
* Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir – Prime Minister of Iceland, and the first openly homosexual head of government in modern times. (On an elected basis, in contrast to Per-Kristian Foss, who was briefly acting Prime Minister of Norway in 2002.)
* Carol Ann Duffy – first openly lesbian or gay Poet laureate of the United Kingdom.
* Alejandro Freyre and José María di Bello – first same-sex marriage in Latin America.
* Gareth Thomas (rugby player), Gareth Thomas – first openly gay professional rugby player still playing the game.
* Annise Parker was elected as the first openly LGBT mayor of Houston, Texas and the first LGBT mayor of a U.S. city with a population over 1,000,000.
* Diego Sanchez became the first openly transgender person to work on Capitol Hill; he was hired as a legislative assistant for Barney Frank. Sanchez was also the first transgender person on the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) Platform Committee in 2008.
* Barbra "Babs" Siperstein was nominated and confirmed as an at-large member of the Democratic National Committee, becoming its first openly transgender member.
* Kitzen and Jeni Branting married in the Coquille Indian tribe's Coos Bay plankhouse, a three-year-old meeting hall built in traditional Coquille style with cedar plank walls. They were the first same-sex couple to have their marriage recognized by the tribe, of which Kitzen was a member.
* Same-sex marriage was legalized in Iowa, and Shelley Wolfe and Melisa Keeton became the first lesbian couple (and the second same-sex couple) to marry in Iowa.
* Same-sex marriage was legalized in Vermont, and Claire Williams and Cori Giroux became one of the first same-sex couples to marry in Vermont (others including them married the moment same-sex marriage was legalized).
* Guido Westerwelle became the first openly gay foreign minister and vice chancellor of Germany.
* ''All My Children'' featured daytime TV's first lesbian wedding.
* Simone Bell became the first African-American lesbian elected to serve in a U.S. state legislature.
* In September 2009, Vandy Beth Glenn delivered the first United States Congress testimony (before the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives) from an openly transgender witness, urging passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
* In October 2009, LGBT activist Amy Andre was appointed as executive director of the San Francisco Pride Celebration Committee, making her San Francisco Pride's first openly bisexual woman of color executive director.
* Dylan Orr became the first openly transgender presidential appointee in America, when he was appointed as special assistant in the Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy.
* Orthodox Israeli rabbi Ron Yosef became in 2009 the first Israeli orthodox Rabbi to come out, which he did when appearing in ("Fact"), Israel's leading investigative television program, in an episode regarding conversion therapies in Israel. Yosef remains in his position as a pulpit Rabbi.
* Siddur Sha'ar Zahav, the first complete prayer book to address the lives and needs of LGBTQ as well as straight Jews, was published. Publisher: J Levine Judaica & Sha'ar Zahav (2009); ; . Sha'ar Zahav is a progressive Reform synagogue in San Francisco.
* Homosexual relations were legalised in India for the first time on July 2, 2009, through the decision of Delhi High Court (which was later overturned by Supreme Court of India in 2013, and later homosexual relations were legalised in 2018 overturning the previous decision).

2010s

2020s

2020

* On 2 January 2020, UK Member of parliament, MP Layla Moran revealed in an interview with ''PinkNews'' that she is pansexual; she is believed to be the first UK parliamentarian to come out as pansexual.
* Nyla Rose won the AEW Women's World Championship on ''Dynamite'', becoming the first openly transgender woman to win a world championship in a major United States wrestling promotion.
* Rachel Slawson became the first openly bisexual contestant to compete for the Miss USA title.
* President Joe Biden named Pete Buttigieg as his nominee to be United States Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Transportation, making him the first openly gay cabinet nominee in U.S. history.
* Katie Sowers became the first female and first openly gay offensive assistant in a Super Bowl.
* Pete Buttigieg became the first openly gay candidate to win an American presidential primary or caucus.
* Curdin Orlik became the first athlete in the sport of Schwingen to come out as gay, and also the first openly gay male active in Swiss professional sports.
* Diana Zurco became Argentina’s first openly transgender newscaster.
* Sebastian Vega came out as gay, making him the first openly gay professional basketball player in Argentina.
* Camila Prins became the first openly transgender woman to lead the drum section of a top samba school in the Carnival parade in Sao Paulo.
* The Philadelphia Police Academy graduated its first openly transgender officer, Benson Churgai.
* The Pfister Hotel named Nykoli Koslow as its first openly transgender Artist in Residence.
* Chris Mosier became the first openly transgender male athlete to ever compete in an Olympic trial alongside other men; however, he was unable to finish the race due to injury.
* Megan Youngren became the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Olympic marathon trials in U.S. history.
* ''Out (2020 film), Out'' was released; it is Disney's and Pixar's first short to feature a gay main character and storyline.
* Richard Grenell briefly served as acting director of national intelligence in the Trump administration, making him the first openly gay person to serve in a Cabinet of the United States#Cabinet-level officials, U.S. cabinet-level position.
* Laura Clellan was appointed as the first openly LGBTQ Adjutant General of the Colorado National Guard.
* Benson from ''Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts'' became the first character to have an explicit coming out as gay in an all-ages animation series.
* Stormie Forte became the first openly LGBTQ woman to serve on the Raleigh City Council.
* Valentina Sampaio became the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, ''Sports Illustrated'' Swimsuit Issue's first openly transgender model in 2020.
* Luz Noceda and Amity Blight of ''The Owl House'' became Disney's first animated LGBT+ female regular characters.
* Karine Jean-Pierre became the first openly gay woman to serve as a vice presidential chief of staff.
* Malcolm Kenyatta, Sam Park, and Robert Garcia (California politician), Robert Garcia became the first openly gay speakers in a keynote slot at a Democratic National Convention.
* On 1 October 2020, Petra De Sutter was sworn in as one of seven deputy prime ministers in the De Croo Government, government of Prime Minister of Belgium, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, becoming Europe’s first transgender deputy prime minister, and the most senior trans politician in Europe.
* Following the landslide 2020 New Zealand general election, 2020 New Zealand Election, New Zealand gains the most LGBT+ parliament in the entire world. A majority of the new LGBT+ MPs come from the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, Green Party.
* Camille Balanche became the first out lesbian to win the UCI Downhill Mountain Biking World Championship.
* In Taiwan military same-sex couples married for the first time.
* Sarah McBride became the first transgender state senator elected in America.
* Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres became the first openly gay black men elected to Congress. This also made Torres the first openly gay Afro Latino elected to Congress.
* Taylor Small became the first transgender person elected to be a state legislator in Vermont.
* Stephanie Byers became the first Native American transgender person elected to office in America, when she was elected to the Kansas state House of Representatives; she is a member of the Chickasaw Nation. This election also made her the first transgender person elected to the Kansas state legislature.
* Joe Biden became the first president-elect to mention the transgender community in a victory speech.
* Mauree Turner became the first non-binary state legislator elected in the United States.
*Same-sex marriage in Nevada, Nevada became the first U.S. state to constitutionally protect same-sex marriage.
* Christy Holstege became the first openly bisexual mayor in America, as mayor of Palm Springs, California.
* Alex Lee (politician), Alex Lee became the California State Assembly’s first openly bisexual member.
* The Arctic and Antarctic celebrated the first Polar Pride Day, on 18 November.
* ''The Christmas House'', the first Hallmark movie to prominently feature a same-sex couple, premiered.
* ''Big Sky (American TV series), Big Sky'' premiered, making Jesse James Keitel the first nonbinary actor to play a nonbinary series regular on primetime television.
* Ryan Fecteau became the first openly-gay person to serve as Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives.
* Sean Patrick Maloney became the first openly gay person to be elected as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
* The Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps became the first LGBTQ marching band to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
* Martin Jenkins was sworn in as the first openly gay Justice of the California Supreme Court.
* Todd Gloria was elected as San Diego’s first openly gay mayor.
* Mara Gómez became the first trans footballer to play in a top-flight Argentinian league.
* FaZe Clan’s Soleil "Ewok" Wheeler came out as transgender, making him the first transgender male on a T1 esports organization.
* ''The Christmas Setup'' became the first LGBTQ-themed Christmas film broadcast by Lifetime (TV network), Lifetime.
* American rugby player Devin Ibanez came out as gay, making him the first openly gay Major League Rugby player.
* Levi Davis (rugby union), Levi Davis came out as bisexual, making him the first professional rugby union player to come out as bisexual while still playing.
* David Ortiz (politician), David Ortiz became the first openly bisexual person elected to serve in Colorado as a legislator.

2021

* Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf became the first governor in the United States to issue a statement recognizing Bisexual Pride Day.
* Nicholas Yatromanolakis became the first openly gay person to hold a ministerial rank in the government of Greece.
* Pete Buttigieg became the first openly gay non-acting member of the Cabinet of the United States, and the first openly gay person confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet position.
* Gottmik became the first openly transgender male contestant on ''RuPaul's Drag Race''.
* On February 3, 2021, Brothers Osborne, TJ Osborne came out as gay, making him the first openly gay artist signed to a major country music label.
*Adrian Hanstock was made the temporary Chief Constable of the British Transport Police, making him the first openly gay man to be chief of police of Law enforcement in the United Kingdom, a British police force.
* Tashnuva Anan Shishir became Bangladesh's first openly transgender news anchor.
* Elliot Page became the first openly trans man to appear on the cover of ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine.
* Patti Harrison became the first known transgender actor to appear in a Disney animated film, due to voicing the small part of Tail Chief in ''Raya and the Last Dragon.''
* Rachel Levine was confirmed March 24 as U.S. assistant secretary for health, making her the first openly trans person confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a U.S. federal government position.
* Martine Delaney became the first openly transgender woman inducted into the Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women.
* Joe Biden became the first American president to issue a formal presidential proclamation recognizing the International Transgender Day of Visibility, Transgender Day of Visibility.
* Alana Gisele Banks became the first Black openly transgender woman elected to a public school board in the United States.
* Jonathan Bennett (actor), Jonathan Bennett and Jaymes Vaughan became the first gay couple to cover the magazine ''The Knot''.
* Colton Underwood came out as gay on April 14, 2021, making him the first openly gay Bachelor lead in the franchise's history.
* Carl Nassib came out as gay on June 21, 2021, making history as the first openly gay active NFL player.
* Canadian Luke Prokop, who was drafted by the Nashville Predators in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, became the first active player signed to a National Hockey League contract to come out as gay.
* Kamala Harris became the first sitting American Vice President to participate in an LGBTQ+ Pride march (the Capital Pride Walk in Washington, D.C.)
* The character of Bia was introduced as the first openly transgender Amazon in DC Comics’ Wonder Woman series.

2022

* Carl Nassib became the first openly gay player in an NFL playoff game on January 15, 2022.
* Jowelle de Souza became the first transgender Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, parliamentarian (specifically a Senate (Trinidad and Tobago), Trinidad and Tobago senator) in the Caribbean.
* Swimmer Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I, NCAA Division I national championship in any sport, after winning the women's 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:33.24.
* Jamie Wallis came out as transgender, becoming the first openly transgender MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
* Karine Jean-Pierre became the first openly gay White House Press Secretary.
* Willow Pill became the first openly transgender person to win a regular season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' in the United States.
*L. Morgan Lee became the first openly transgender person nominated for a Tony Awards, Tony Award in an acting category; she was nominated for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for playing Thought 1 in ''A Strange Loop''.
* Kristin Crowley became the first openly gay (and the first female) chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
* Ryan Resch came out while working for the Phoenix Suns, making him the first openly gay person in league history to work basketball operations in an NBA front office.
* Kamala Harris became the first sitting American vice president to speak at an LGBTQ+ Pride Festival (D.C.'s Capital Pride Festival).
* The first LGBTQ+ Pride Month reception hosted by a sitting American vice president at their residence was hosted by Kamala Harris.
* Ariana DeBose became the first queer woman of color and the first Afro-Latina to win an Oscar for acting, which she won for her role as West Side Story (2021 film), Anita in the 2021 remake of ''West Side Story (2021 film), West Side Story'' directed by Steven Spielberg.
* Igor Benevenuto became the first FIFA-ranked soccer referee to come out as gay.
* Peter Caruth came out as gay, becoming the first Irish men’s international hockey player to do so.
* Nadezhda Karpova became the first openly gay Russian national team athlete.
* Travis Shumake became the first openly gay driver to compete in a national event on the National Hot Rod Association racing circuit.
* Ellia Green became the first Olympian to come out as a trans man.
* Jamie Hunter became the first openly transgender snooker player to win a women's tour ranking event in snooker when she won the U.S. Women's Open.
* ''Peppa Pig'' introduced its first same-sex couple, Penny Polar Bear's two mothers, in the episode "Families".
* ''Bros (film), Bros'' was released; it was the first gay romantic comedy from a major studio featuring an entirely LGBT, LGBTQ principal cast.
* In September 2022, Molly Kearney was announced as the first out non-binary cast member of ''Saturday Night Live''.
* Zander Murray became Scotland's first senior male soccer player to announce he was gay.
* Anthony Bowens became the first openly gay wrestler to be an All Elite Wrestling champion.
* Lucas Krzikalla came out as gay, making him the first openly gay player in Handball-Bundesliga, and the first active male player in a professional team sport in Germany to come out as gay.
* Duda Salabert and Erika Hilton became the first two openly transgender people elected to the National Congress of Brazil, with both of them elected to its Chamber of Deputies (Brazil), Chamber of Deputies.
* Byron Perkins of Hampton University came out as gay, making him the first openly gay football player at any Historically black colleges and universities, HBCU.
* With the song “Unholy (Sam Smith and Kim Petras song), Unholy”, Kim Petras became the first openly transgender woman to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and Sam Smith became the first openly non-binary person to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100.
* George Santos became the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican elected to the U.S. Congress.
* Isaac Humphries came out as gay, which made him the first Australian male basketball player and first player in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League to be openly gay.
* Becca Balint became the first openly gay person elected to represent Vermont in Congress.
* Leigh Finke became the first openly transgender person elected to Minnesota's legislature.
* Amy Schneider became the first openly transgender person to compete in, and to win, the “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions.
* Erin Maye Quade and Clare Oumou Verbeten became the first openly LGBTQ women and first Black women elected to the Minnesota state Senate.
* Walt Disney Animation Studios' introduced its first openly LGBTQ main character, by having an openly gay main character in the film ''Strange World (film), Strange World''.
* Nick Resnick became the first openly transgender person elected to help oversee a K-12 public school district in California, due to being elected to the Oakland Unified School District board.
* James Roesener became the first openly transgender man to win election to any state legislature in the United States upon being elected to New Hampshire's 22nd state House District, Ward 8.
* Alicia Kozlowski became the first openly non-binary person elected to the Minnesota legislature.
* SJ Howell became the first openly non-binary person elected to the Montana legislature.
* The first LGBTQ-led Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, ''The Holiday Sitter'', premiered.
* Dani Oliva, a transgender man, became the first openly transgender executive at a major music company, as Venice Music’s Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs.

See also

* Bisexuality in the United States
* History of homosexuality
* History of lesbianism
* History of cross-dressing
* Intersex people in history
* LGBT history
* List of LGBT firsts by year (2010s)
* Timeline of asexual history
* Timeline of LGBT history
* Timeline of transgender history
* Transgender history

References

Bibliography

* Gallo, Marcia M. ''Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement.'' California: Seal Press, 2007.
* Robyn Ochs, Ochs, Robyn and Rowley, Sarah. ''Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, second edition''. Massachusetts: Bisexual Resource Center, 2009.
* Kay Tobin, Tobin, Kay and Randy Wicker, Wicker, Randy. ''The Gay Crusaders.'' New York: Paperback Library, 1972; Arno, 1975
* Susan Stryker, Stryker, Susan. ''Transgender History.'' California: Seal Press, 2008.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Or Transgender Firsts By Year
LGBT-related lists, Firsts
LGBT timelines
Lists of firsts