Our goals:;xNLx;+ To create positive and visible film programs relevant to lives of LGBTQ+ identified people;xNLx;+ To educate the community about LGBTQ+ issues;xNLx;+ To produce and promote the best in LGBTQ+ community building events;xNLx;+ To support and partner with other organizations to enlighten the public;xNLx;;xNLx;This timeline was designed, compiled and written by Bears Fonte, copyright 2017.
US immigration law is modified to ban "persons with abnormal sexual instincts" from entering the United States.
In 1918, the city acquired Barton Springs, a spring-fed pool that became the symbol of the residential city.
A German film produced during the Weimar Republic, Different From the Others was banned at the time of its release, later burned by Nazis and was believed lost for more than forty years.
1920 Census gives Austin a population of 34,876. Electric streetcar lines ran from Hyde Park in the north to Travis Heights in the south, and from Lake Austin in the west to the heart of East Austin with 23 miles of track.
Often called one of the first art films to be made in the U.S., this Charles Bryant directed film was rumored to have used an entirely gay cast in homage to original writer Oscar Wilde, , as per star and producer All Nazimova's demand.
Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc), The film stars Walter Slezak as the titular Michael, the young assistant, model and lover to the artist Claude Zoret (Benjamin Christensen), who steals from his lover to feed his carnal relationship with a woman.
Henry Gerber and six other men in Chicago found the Society for Human Rights, the United States' first known gay-rights organization.
Eva Kochever, a Polish-Jewish immigrant, opens "Eve Addam's Tearoom" in Greenwich Village. The lesbian gathering place had a sign at the door which read, "Men are admitted but not welcome." In 1926, the tea room was raided, and Eva Kochever was deported, charged with "disorderly conduct" and writing an "obscene" book, Lesbian Love. Meanwhile, Blueswoman Ma Rainey is arrested in her house in Harlem for having a lesbian party. Her protege, Bessie Smith, bails her out of jail the following morning. Rainey and Smith were part of an extensive circle of lesbian and bisexual African-American women in Harlem.
"A City Plan for Austin, Texas," prepared for the City Plan Commission in 1928, most infamously institutionalized racial segregation. It recommended a plan to move "the negro population" east of East Avenue, where I-35 is today.
Radclyffe Hall's Well of Loneliness, a novel banned in England for its lesbian content, is published in the United States and becomes an immediate best-seller. In 1929, an appellate court holds that the book is not obscene, and the book is even more widely distributed.
Population 53,120. The Robert Mueller Municipal Airport opens its doors for commercial air traffic. During the early and mid-1930s Austin experienced the harsh effects of the Great Depression. Nevertheless, the town fared comparatively well, sustained by its twin foundations of government and education and by the political skills of Mayor Tom (Robert Thomas) Miller, who took office in 1933, and United States Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson, who won election in 1937. Its population grew at a faster pace during the 1930s than in any other decade during the twentieth century, increasing 66 percent from 53,120 to 87,930. By 1936 the Public Works Administration had provided Austin with more funding for municipal construction projects than any other Texas city during the same period. The University of Texas nearly doubled its enrollment during the decade and undertook a massive construction program. Johnson procured federal funds for public housing and dams on the Colorado River.
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral guidelines that was applied to most United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, who was the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945.
After the death of her mother, teenage Manuela (Hertha Thiele) is sent off to a boarding school run by the autocratic Fräulein von Nordeck (Emilia Unda). Initially withdrawn from the other girls due to her grief and anger at being sent away, Manuela is drawn out of her shell by the beautiful and sympathetic young teacher Elizabeth von Bernburg (Dorothea Wieck). But when Manuela's fondness for her teacher turns into a romantic attachment, it becomes a school-wide scandal.
Eleanor Roosevelt and her lover, journalist Lorena Hickok, begin their voluminous correspondence as Roosevelt moves into the White House. During one separation Hickok writes: "I've been trying today to bring back your face. Most clearly I remember your eyes, with a kind of teasing smile in them, and the feeling of that soft spot just north-east of the corner of your mouth against my lips."
Wonder Bar, a 1934 American musical directed by Lloyd Bacon with musical numbers created by Busby Berkeley, is one of Warner Brother's biggest hits. One scene involved a handsome man asking a dancing couple if he could cut in. The female partner, expecting his attention, agrees, only to see him dance with her male partner. Al Jolson then flaps his wrist and says, "Boys will be boys! Woo!" This scene almost caused the Production Code to reject the film, and was featured in the opening scenes of the documentary film The Celluloid Closet (1996).
The 1935 flood was caused by almost 20 inches of rain that fell throughout the upper central basin and the Hill Country in early June. That was on top of 9-inch rains in late May that saturated the basin. With no effective flood-management system (the months-old LCRA was securing federal funds to build its dams), the floodwaters swept into Austin, inundating the downtown district. On its June 16 front page, the Sunday Austin American-Statesman published a picture of a houseboat washing over the Austin Dam – an iconic image that even today illustrates the Colorado’s unchecked power. Mansfield Dam was completed in 1941 to impound Lake Travis and prevent this sort of flooding.
Sigmund Freud writes "Letter to an American Mother," urging compassion and tolerance for homosexuality.
Mona's 440 Club, the first lesbian bar in America, opened in San Francisco in 1936. Mona's waitresses and female performers wore tuxedos and patrons dressed their roles.
The Jewel Box Revue, a troupe of female impersonators, begins touring the US from its base at the Jewel Box in Miami. The show is integrated, featuring African-American, Latino, Native American, and white performers, and would eventually be introduced by Storme DeLarverie in drag as a man.
Timeout: "Look, the status of this immortal 1939 fantasy as a cornerstone of gay pop culture is beyond dispute: the presence of the young, still-undamaged Judy Garland in the lead, the shrieking diva-dom of Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West, the glow of those glittering ruby slippers. The term ‘friend of Dorothy’ didn’t come about by accident, after all. Beneath the radiant surface, however, LGBT interpretations of a Kansas farmgirl’s long, colourful journey home can be more idiosyncratic, whether you see sanctuary in her merry band of socially ill-fitting outsiders or simply in the all-singing, all-dancing, rainbow-hued fantasia of Oz itself. Either way, from Garland’s plaintively sung ‘Over the Rainbow’ onwards, it’s a paean to the virtues of living life in Technicolor."
Population 87,930. In nearby Bastrop, Camp Swift trained infantry and combat nurses, andaAs a Prisoner of War Camp, it housed mostly German soldiers captured from Rommel’s elite Afrika Corp. On any weekend, 20 – 25,000 soldiers would be trucked to Bastrop (the city) on flatbed trucks where they would board buses to Austin care of the Kerrville Bus Company.
Working with psychiatrists, the military develops guidelines for recruiters in order to identify and exclude gay men from the services.
The Army conducts an investigation of lesbian activity at the Women's Army Corps training center in Georgia. Its findings lead to a call for more stringent screening of WAC recruits.
Otto Preminger's film noir casts Clifton Webb as Waldo Lydecker, an effete companion to the film's title character and cornucopia of gay stereotypes.
The Holocaust ends and it is estimated that between about 3,000 to about 9,000 homosexuals died in Nazi concentration and death camps, where they wear the 'pink triangle.' It is estimated that between about 2,000 to about 6,000 homosexual survivors in Nazi concentration and death camps were required to serve out the full term of their sentences under Paragraph 175 in prison. The first gay bar in post-World War II Berlin opened in the summer of 1945, and the first drag ball took place in American sector of West Berlin in the fall of 1945.
The first North American lesbian publication, is written and self-published by Lisa Ben (real name Edith Eyde) in Los Angeles. Lisa Ben was an anagram for lesbian.
The State Department begins firing suspected homosexuals under President Truman, strengthened in 1953 under Eisenhower, By 1955, anti-gay witch hunts cost more than 1,200 men and women their jobs with the federal government.
Impeccably dressed Brandon (John Dall) and his equally impeccably dressed, great and good friend Philip carefully plan, and coolly execute a ''thrill'' murder of their long-time friend, David Kentley, whose impeccably dressed, still-warm body they've just hidden in an antique chest that occupies a prominent place in their living room. Always able to get around censors with a deft touch, Hitchcock never makes the homosexuality of the characters overt, but still manages to add another few entires in the long list of gay psychopaths.
Kinsey's study of sexuality in the US reveals that 50 percent of American men and 28 percent of American women have "homosexual tendencies," shocking the American public.
Ingmar Bergam's film follows a needy couple traveling back to Stockholm. Meanwhile, a widow resists seductions from her cross-dressing lesbian friend.
Population 132,459. Roads and Cars have replaced the streetcar system, and music is starting to shape the town, including the Skyline Club on North Lamar that opened in 1948
Jean Genet’s unbelievably sexy film, set in a prison, has one of the all-time top homoerotic moments in cinema when the two inmates share a cigarette through a small hole by blowing the smoke into the mouth of the other. A stunning exploration of sex, power & violence.
The Mattachine Society, a "homophile" organization aimed at promoting tolerance of homosexuality, is founded in Los Angeles by Harry Hay.
"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.[133][134] It was written by lesbian Marijane Meaker under the false name Vin Packer
The American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual lists homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance.
Trans-pioneer Christine Jorgensen becomes the first widely publicized person to have undergone sex reassignment surgery, in this case, male to female, creating a world-wide sensation.
Austin’s first television station, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson’s KTBC-TV, takes to the air. Now FOX 7, KTBC-TV, was the first TV station in Central Texas. It was originally owned by Texas Broadcasting Company (thus our call letters, KTBC) but was later bought by Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird. Also, the Burnet Drive-In Opens.
The Diana Foundation was founded on 19 March 1953 in Houston, TX by a small group of friends. The Diana Foundation is a nonprofit organization and recognized as the oldest continuously active gay organization in the United States and hosts two annual fundraising events including its Diana Awards.
Glen or Glenda is a 1953 American drama film written, directed by and starring Ed Wood (credited in his starring role as "Daniel Davis"), and featuring Bela Lugosi and Wood's then-girlfriend Dolores Fuller. The film is a docudrama about cross-dressing and transsexuality, and is semi-autobiographical in nature. Wood himself was a cross-dresser, and the film is a plea for tolerance. It is widely considered one of the worst films ever.
Mathematical and computer genius Alan Turing commits suicide by cyanide poisoning, 18 months after being given a choice between two years in prison or libido-reducing hormone treatment for a year as a punishment for homosexuality. A succession of well-known men, including Lord Montagu, Michael Pitt-Rivers and Peter Wildeblood, were convicted of homosexual offences as British police pursued a McCarthy-like purge of Society homosexuals.
Austin History Center: Robert Thomas (Tom) Miller served as Austin's mayor from 1933 through 1949, and again from 1955 until 1961. He was a skillful politician and dedicated public servant who was responsible for the development of many of Austin's municipal facilities and services. As a staunch supporter of Roosevelt and a personal friend of LBJ, Tom Miller was able to use his Washington ties to secure for Austin the benefits of many federal projects. Under Miller, Austin received the first federal housing project, land was acquired for Bergstrom Air Force Base and Robert Mueller Airport, construction of the Lake Austin dam was completed, and public facilities such as playgrounds, libraries, parks, and community centers were developed. He took an interest in the African-American citizens of Austin, appointing some to city boards and allocating funds for improvements to East Austin streets and parks. Mayor Tom Miller ushered Austin into a new era as a major urban center.
Del Martin, Phyllis Lyon, and six other women found Daughters of Bilitis, the first national lesbian rights group, in San Francisco.
Vincente Minnelli’s film Tea and Sympathy, revolves around the rumors and innuendo that destroy the reputation of a student at a boys’ boarding school; the boy’s road to redemption challenges postwar conformity, group masculinity, and smothering mothers—but never, of course, the closet. For that reason, gay critics have dismissed Tea and Sympathy in the decades since 1956.
Lillian Hellman’s play, debuted amidst controversy in 1934. dealing explicitly with homosexuality, was a huge hit (despite depictions of homosexuality on stage being illegal). When Hollywood decided to adapt the play, the newly enacted Hays Code demanded the excisement of homosexuality from the resulting film, 1936’s These Three, directed by William Wyler. Instead of a rumored lesbian relationship, one of the women was accused of having an affair with the other’s fiancé.
The United States Supreme Court rules in favor of the First Amendment rights of a gay and lesbian magazine, marking the first time the United States Supreme Court had ruled on a case involving homosexuality.
Some Like It Hot, a 1959 American romantic comedy film set in 1929, directed and produced by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon, follows two musicians who dress in drag in order to escape from mafia gangsters whom they witnessed commit a crime inspired by the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Some Like It Hot opened to largely positive reviews, is today considered to be one of the greatest film comedies of all time and is also notable for featuring cross dressing, and for playing with the idea of homosexuality, which led to its being produced without approval from the Motion Picture Production Code. The code had been gradually weakening in its scope during the early 1950s, due to increasing social tolerance for previously taboo topics in film, but it was still officially enforced. The overwhelming success of Some Like It Hot was a final nail in the coffin for the Hays Code.
With a population of 186,545, Austin experiences the civil rights movement like everywhere else. White and African American students from several area colleges picket businesses on Congress Avenue urging “integration of lunch counters.” The Texas, Varsity, Paramount and State Theaters are targets of stand-ins by segregationists. On July 11, 1961, five hundred African American students are eligible to transfer to white schools as a result of the Austin ISD Board of Education’s decision to continue its desegregation policy into the elementary schools.
Essentially a remake of Different From the Others, this Basil Dearden film starring Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Syms was the first English language film to use the word "homosexual." Closeted gay lawyer Melville Farr is horrified when former lover Jack becomes the latest victim of a vicious blackmailer. Intent on exposing the shady criminal, Melville tracks down other men who have fallen victim to the same blackmailer, potentially jeopardising his promotion to the Queen's Counsel and his sham marriage to his wife Laura. As Melville moves closer to his prey, he finds an unlikely ally in Detective Inspector Harris, a copper determined to stamp out this opportunistic hate crime.
Hollywood studios alter the production code to allow the depiction of gay men and lesbians again, as long as the subject is treated with "care, discretion, and restraint."
Illinois becomes first state to decriminalize homosexual contact between consenting adults.
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