1861 – Sarah Emma Edmonds changed her identity to a man named Franklin Thompson and joined the Union army. She was one of 400 documented cases of women who dressed as men as part of the war effort. She changed back to her female identity after being wounded in the war. She eventually married a man and raised three children.

1862 – Jennie Hodgers, disguised as a man named Albert Cashier, enlisted in the Union army in Illinois and fought for three years until the end of the war. They continued living as a man after the war.

1868 – Fourteenth Amendment Ratified. This is the most cited amendment in Supreme Court civil rights cases and has been the basis for landmark civil rights cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges. Gay rights advocates cite this amendment in support of equality for future court cases.

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law, which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

1870 – Bayard Taylor publishes the novel Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania, considered by some academics to be the first U.S. gay novel.

1886 – Henry James writes the book, The Bostonians, about a long-term relationship between two women and the term “Boston Marriages” develops to describe two women living together, independent of financial support from a man.