Events Measure Increased Visibility of Gays, Lesbians By Frank Bruni Knight-Ridder Newspapers 1983: OU.S. Rep Gerry Studds, D-Mass., becomes first member of Congress to acknowledge publicly his homosexuality. Disclosure comes after investigation into his affair 10 years earlier with a 17-year-old congressional page. OAFL-CIO votes to support gay rights legislation at federal, state and local levels, first labor organization to take such a stand. O``Torch Song Trilogy,'' a drama examining gay lives and loves, wins Broadway's Tony Award for Best Play. One of its producers pointedly thanks his male lover during the Tony telecast. 1984: OBerkeley, Calif., becomes the first U.S. city to extend spousal benefits to the live-in partners of gay and lesbian city employees who submit an affidavit of ``domestic partnership.'' OAbout 60 openly gay delegates or alternates attend the Democratic national convention in San Francisco. OGerry Studds is re-elected. 1985: OTwenty students form the first class at the Harvey Milk School, a public high school for gay and lesbian teen-agers in New York City. ORock Hudson dies of AIDS. Revelations that the macho movie star was afflicted with the disease and that he was gay challenge lingering stereotypes and confirm gay claim that gays are everywhere, but driven into hiding by bigotry and fear. OABC presents ``Consenting Adults,'' a movie starring Marlo Thomas as a mother coming to terms with her son's homosexuality. On NBC, ``An Early Frost,'' with Aidan Quinn, Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara, chronicles a gay man confronting AIDS and his family's shock. 1986: OAfter more than a decade of acrimonious debate, New York City passes a gay rights ordinance. Mayor Ed Koch assures residents: ``The sky is not going to fall.'' 1987: OIn an interview with the Boston Globe, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., becomes the second member of Congress to state openly that he is gay. Like Studds, he will be re-elected O by wide margins O in each of his subsequent bids for Congress. OThe New York Times lifts its ban on any use of the word ``gay'' as a synonym for ``homosexual.'' OBetween 250,000 and 500,000 gay men, lesbians and their supporters converge on Washington, D.C., for the largest gay rights demonstration ever held in this country. Hollywood celebrities, black leaders and prominent feminists join the throng. OThe AIDS Quilt O nearly 2,000 panels large and the size of two football fields O is laid out in its entirety on the Capitol Mall. ABC News' Peter Jennings picks gay activist and quilt organizer Cleve Jones as his ``Person of the Week.'' 1988: OChicago passes an ordinance to ban bias against gays. The proposal had floundered for years, largely due to stiff opposition from the Catholic Church. OA federal appeals court rules that U.S. Army regulations barring gays are unconstitutional and orders the reinstatement of Sgt. Perry Watkins, a 14-year veteran. 1989: OMassachusetts becomes the second state in the country O after Wisconsin in 1982 O to pass legislation banning discrimination against gays in employment, housing and other areas. OA widely publicized Gallup poll finds that while Americans have mostly negative feelings about the morality of homosexual behavior, more than 71 percent believe gays should have equal job opportunities. OThe American Bar Association's House of Delegates votes 251 to 121 in favor of supporting federal legislation to prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians. OA report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 30 percent of suicides by youths under 21 are committed by people who know or fear they are gay. It adds that homosexual youths are two to three times more likely than heterosexual ones to try suicide. The revelations fuel debate over what to say about homosexuality in schools. OUnder the headline ``Peek-a-Boo,'' New York's Outweek magazine publishes a list of 66 celebrities and public figures who are allegedly gay, but closeted. The article marks the beginning of controversial ``outing'' by some gay activists. OThe Nynex Yellow Pages, which prints business telephone numbers for the New York City area, announces that its next edition will provide a separate, individual heading for gay and lesbian services. OThe City College of San Francisco establishes the county's first Gay and Lesbian Studies department. Two years later, the City University of New York will open its Gay and Lesbian Studies center. 1990: OPresident George Bush signs the National Hate Crimes Act, the first to include gays with minority groups. The law orders a detailed study of crimes motivated by racial, ethnic, religious or anti-gay bias. For the signing ceremony, Bush invites gay activists to the White House, another first. OOf six openly lesbian candidates running for a variety of public offices across the country, five win. OReform Judaism O the largest branch of Judaism in the United States O votes to accept open, sexually active gays as rabbis. OFor three consecutive nights during New York City's gay pride week, the landmark Empire State Building is bathed in lavender lights. Building management had refused to do this in 1985 and 1986. OIn an MTV poll, more than 90 percent of the teen-agers surveyed say it would make no difference to them if they found out their favorite rock star was gay or lesbian. 1991: OAfter organizers of New York City's St. Patrick's Day parade tell an Irish- American gay group there is no room for them, Mayor David Dinkins mediates a settlement allowing the group to march O then gives up his place at the head of the parade to walk alongside its members. OMontefiore Hospital in New York City, with 9,500 employees, and Lotus Development Corp., a software manufacturer in Cambridge, Mass., with 3,100 employees, announce that they will offer health benefits to long-term partners of homosexual employees. OTwo widely publicized scientific studies support the position that homosexuality has as much to do with nature as nurture and is not a choice. One documents differences in the brains of homosexual and heterosexual bodies. Another, involving twins, shows that if one is gay, the other is almost three times more likely to be gay if the twins are identical than if they are fraternal. O``Roseanne,'' one of the highest-rated primetime TV shows, introduces a regular gay character played by veteran funnyman Martin Mull. This follows an ``L.A. Law'' episode that shows two female lawyers kissing on the lips. OConnecticut prohibits discrimination against gays in employment and housing. Hawaii prohibits discrimination in employment. 1992: OThree more states pass gay rights legislation, boosting the total to seven. California bans discrimination in employment and public accommodations but not housing. New Jersey and Vermont ban discrimination in all three categories. OThe Birmingham (Mich.) City Commission ignores some heated protest and votes unanimously to include gays among people protected from housing discrimination in the city, which becomes the seventh in Michigan to adopt some type of gay rights law. OTwo Baptist congregations in North Carolina take daring steps toward embracing gays. One in Raleigh holds a wedding-style ceremony to bless the union of two gay men. Another in Chapel Hill votes to license an openly gay divinity student as a preacher. OA Marvel Comics superhero named Northstar reveals to the series' 100,000 readers that he's gay, a first for mainstream comics. OAt the Democratic National Convention in July, openly gay delegates number 108 O a larger caucus than 34 of the state delegations. OThe much-ballyhooed season finale of ``Northern Exposure'' tells the story of the founding of the TV show's hometown, Cicely, Alaska, by two idealistic lesbians who want ``a community where all are equal, where all are valued.'' 1993: OThe Clinton administration announces the appointment of prominent gay rights advocate Roberta Achtenberg as assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the highest- level federal appointment ever for an openly gay person. OA 17-year-old character in the newspaper comic strip ``For Better or for Worse,'' which runs in about 1,400 newspapers, reveals that he is gay; 19 papers cancel the strip, while 50 request substitutions for some installments. OCongressional hearings commence on whether or not the U.S. military should lift its longstanding ban against gay servicepeople. OMinnesota becomes the eighth state in the country to pass gay rights legislation. X X X Sources: ``The Gay Decades'' by Leigh W. Rutledge; the files of Eric Marcus, author of Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights, 1945 to 1990; the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Detroit Free Press research by Frank Bruni and Chris Kucharski.