1714 – Sodomy laws in place in the early colonies and in the colonial militia. These laws remained in place until they were challenged in 1925. Most sodomy laws were punishable with death, but states began to remove capital punishment from sodomy laws in the early 19th century.

1775 – Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin Louis Freiherr von Steuben, also referred to as Baron von Steuben, was a Prussian-born army officer who joined the American revolutionary war effort and was appointed by General George Washington as temporary Inspector General of the U. S. Continental Army. As a result of his exceptional work, Congress formalized his appointment to that position on Washington’s recommendation with the rank of Major General and Washington made him his chief of staff through the remainder of the war. He is considered one of the most significant figures of the revolutionary war. Evidence supports the conclusion of some historians that von Steuben was gay and had longtime male companions. He never married and adopted two of his male companions to enable them to inherit part of his estate upon his death.

1778 – Lieutenant Gotthold Frederick Enslin of the Continental Army becomes the first documented service member to be dismissed from the U.S. military for homosexuality. Read more at U.S. History Naval Institute Blog / Timeline of Military Gay History.

1789 – Olauda Equiano, a formerly enslaved person, publishes the narrative, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African. It was one of the first widely read narratives of slave life at the time. In it, he describes same-sex relationships he had with other men and the existence of same-sex relationships within the slave culture since slaves were not allowed to marry.

1857 – James Buchanan inaugurated the 15th president of the United States. A bachelor from Pennsylvania, Buchanan was in a long-term live-in relationship with William Rufus King, a U.S. Senator from Alabama and later briefly served as Vice President of the U.S. under President Franklin Pierce until his death. Evidence is limited (letters between them were said to be destroyed by their families) but at least some historians feel enough to be convinced that Buchanan and King were in a gay relationship.

1860 – Walt Whitman, considered by many academics to be either gay or bisexual, publishes a cluster of homoerotic poems under the title Calamus

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.

1888 – William Dorsey Swann, an African American man born into slavery, the first known person to self-identify as “queen of drag”, and a group of men are detained in the earliest recorded arrests for female impersonation in the United States at Swann’s 30th birthday party. Swann resisted arrest, fought the charges but was convicted and unsuccessfully sought a presidential pardon making it one of the earliest attempts to stand up for gay rights

1890 – The term, Lesbian, first used in a medical dictionary.

1892 – The pamphlet, “Psychopathia Sexualis” was translated from German and one of the first times the term bisexual was used. Written by Richard van Kraft-Ebbing. Translated by Charles Gilbert Chaddock.

1895 – The Cercle Hermaphroditos, founded in NYC, was the first known informal transgender advocacy organization in the United States.

1903 – The Ariston Bathhouse raid takes place in New York City, which became the first recorded police raid against an LGBT venue in US history. As a result of the incursion, 26 men were arrested and 12 of them were prosecuted on sodomy charges.

1907 – Gertrude Stein meets Alice B. Toklas, sparking a legendary romance. In Paris, the two women set up a salon that connects many great writers and artists, including gays. Stein publicly declares her love for Toklas in print in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, published in 1933.

1910-Pauli Murray – Born Anna Pauline Murray, Pauli as they preferred to be called was an African-American civil rights and women’s rights activist, attorney, professor and later in life, Episcopal priest. Pauli had several long-term relationships with women and preferred to dress in more male associated clothing and is considered by some scholars to have been transgender male or gender fluid. Pauli broke barriers in Black women’s higher education, including being the first African-American to receive a Doctor of Juridical Science from Yale Law School. Pauli made significant contributions to legal cases in the areas of civil rights and women’s rights. Pauli was a co-founder of the National Organization for Women and authored a book considered the “bible” of the civil rights movement, among many other trailblazing accomplishments.

1917-1935 – The Harlem Renaissance. Historians have stated that the renaissance was “as gay as it was black.” Some of the lesbian, gay or bisexual people of this movement included writers and poets such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Zora Neale Hurston; Professor Alain Locke; music critic and photographer Carl Van Vechten, and entertainers Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters and Gladys Bentley.

1924 – The Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization, was founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago who had emigrated from Germany. The organization ceased to exist after most of its members were arrested.

1928 – Radclyffe Hall, an English author, published what many consider a groundbreaking lesbian novel, The Well of Loneliness. This caused the topic of homosexuality to be a topic of public conversation in both the United States and England.

1934 – The Motion Picture Association starts enforcing the Hays Code, which in practice banned the representation of explicit LGBT characters onscreen, except for those who were depicted as villains or criminals.

1939 – The Jewel Box Revue was established in 1939 in Miami by a gay male couple, Danny Brown and Doc Brenner. It was the first racially integrated drag revue in America. It later moved to New York and created a touring company that traveled to theaters and night club venues all across America. In the 1960s, Storme DeLarverie served as MC of the troupe, the only lesbian in an all gay male cast, and considered instrumental in sparking the Stonewall riots. T. C. Jones, a native of Scranton, PA, became a star performer in the Revue leading to one of the earliest cross-over careers of a drag entertainer in stage theater, television, movies and music.

1941 – Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, all U.S. citizens participated in the war effort and enlistments occurred at the rate of 14,000 per day in 1942. Gay and lesbian people joined as well – men in the military living in same-sex dorms, and women as part of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) and in factories on the home front found themselves in same-sex surroundings as well. In addition, men who fought in Europe, during their leave time, found same-sex relationships more relaxed than in the U.S.

1944-1945 – As the war came to an end, U.S., British and Soviet forces liberated people held in Nazi concentration camps in Germany.

1945 – German Homosexual men, designated by a pink triangle on their clothing, were the last group to be released from the Nazi concentration camps after liberation by the Allied forces because Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code stated that homosexual relations between males to be illegal. Nearly 100,000 homosexual men were rounded up and taken to the concentration camps during the war.

1948 – Alfred Kinsey, an American biologist and sexologist at Indiana University issues the first report, Sexual Behavior of the Human Male, was published and discussed male homosexuality (Also known as the Kinsey report).

1950 – U.S. Congress issues the report entitled “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government” is distributed to members of Congress after the federal government had covertly investigated employees’ sexual orientation. The report states that since homosexuality is a mental illness, homosexuals “constitute security risks” to the nation. The investigation by the U.S. Senate led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, with chief counsel Roy Cohn, was known as the Lavender Scare and resulted in the firing of many gay men and women from the federal government.

1950 – The Mattachine Society formed in Los Angeles, California by activist Harry Hay and is one of the first sustained gay rights groups in the United States. The organization focused on social acceptance and other support for homosexuals. Various branches formed in other cities.

1952 – Christine Jorgensen became one of the most famous transgender people when she underwent a sex change operation and went on to a successful career in show business.

1952 – The American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual lists homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance that could be treated.

1952 – U.S. Congress passed, and President Harry S. Truman signed into law the Immigration Act that barred “aliens afflicted with a psychopathic personality, epilepsy or mental defect.” Congress made clear that this was meant to exclude “homosexuals and sex perverts.”

1953 – Kinsey Report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, was published and discussed female homosexuality.

1953 (April 27) – Executive Order 10450 issued by President Dwight D. Eisenhower banning homosexuals from working for the federal government stating they are a security risk. This order stays in place until 1993 when President Bill Clinton and the U.S. Congress enact the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law.

1955 – Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian rights organization founded in San Francisco, California by Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. They hosted private social functions, fearing police raids, threats of violence and discrimination in bars and clubs. They began publishing their newsletter The Ladder in 1956. The organization lasted until 1969.

1957 – Frank Kameny, an astronomer for the U.S. Army Map Service, was released from government service because of his homosexuality, an outgrowth of Executive Order 10450. He had earned his doctorate in astronomy from Harvard University and was a professor of astronomy at Georgetown University before taking a government position. Kameny appealed the decision to the Supreme Court but was rejected.

1958 – One v. Olesen (Supreme Court Decision)
Without oral arguments, the Supreme Court issued a decision stating that first amendment free speech rights protected the publishing of “One Magazine”. Up to this point in time the U.S. Postal Service had the power to open any magazine or mail they determined to be “obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious.” They also had the power to keep lists of people who received such publications; and had lists of homosexual men who received the publication, “One Magazine.” The publication was a gay man’s publication associated with the Mattachine Society.

1961 – Jose Sarria becomes the first openly gay candidate to run for public office in the U. S., running for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He lost his race. He was a chef, drag queen and army veteran who started two of the earliest LGBTQ+ organizations in San Francisco in 1960 and 1963, the second lasting 17 years.

1961 – Frank Kameny, an astronomer dismissed from government service, forms the Washington D.C. branch of the Mattachine Society (The society was originally founded in Los Angeles in 1950).

1961 – Philadelphia activists form the Janus Society to work for LGBTQ+ civil rights.

1962 – Illinois becomes the first state to decriminalize homosexual acts between two consenting adults in private.

1963 – Bayard Rustin, an associate of Martin Luther King, and a gay African American man helped organize the March on Washington that culminated with King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Rustin had an extensive resume of activism in the Black civil rights movement and was considered one of MLK’s closest associates. He was born in West Chester, PA and attended Cheyney University. His outing as a gay man forced him to accept a less prominent role in the civil rights movement in later years.

1965 – in April 150 gender non-conforming people came to Dewey’s Coffee Shop in Philadelphia to protest the fact that the shop was refusing to serve young people in “non-conformist clothing”. Members of the Janus Society of Philadelphia and other community members organized the protest and when three protesters refused to leave after being denied service, they, along with a black gay activist, were arrested. This led to a picket of the establishment organized by the black LGBTQ population. Later, in May of that same year another sit-in was organized, and Dewey’s agreed to end their discriminatory policies.

1965 – The first LGBTQ+ organization in central Pennsylvania, a chapter of the Philadelphia-based Janus Society, was founded by Richard Schlegel. It only lasted about 6 months when Schlegel was fired from his high-profile job with the PA Department of Highways and moved away.

1965 – The Harrisburg police and the PA Liquor Control Board conducted raids on the Clock Bar, a gay bar in Harrisburg, and on the State Street area and arrested about two dozen men. Their names were printed in the newspaper and many lost jobs, family and friends and at least one died by suicide.

1965 through1969 – The Annual Reminders were held at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4. The Annual Reminders were protests held to remind the American public that LGBTQ+ people were not granted full rights and equality with the rest of Americans. Pickets were organized by members of the Mattachine Society, the Janus Society of Philadelphia and other east coast homophile groups to raise awareness and bring attention to LGBTQ+ civil rights issues.
Kiyoshi Kuromiya, one of the organizers of the Annual Reminders, was a gay man born in a Japanese American internment camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming in 1943. He attended the University of Pennsylvania to study architecture and lived his adult life in Philadelphia. He was openly gay and began his gay activism marching in the Annual Reminders, a series of protest marches held on July 4 from 1965-1969 at Independence Hall. He was active in the Homophile Action League and a co-founder of the Gay Liberation Front in Philadelphia in 1969. He started the Gay Coffee Hour in 1972, the first gay organization on the University of Pennsylvania campus. He was also involved in other activist movements in the 1960s and 70s, including Black civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests. He attended the 1963 March on Washington where he met Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, becoming a close friend to King and his family. He participated in many activist protests and actions throughout the country. In the 1980s, he became very active in HIV/AIDS work, including ACT UP and the Critical Path Project and newsletter. He wrote the ACT UP Standards of Treatment for HIV/AIDS. He was a writer and collaborated with architect and futurist Buckminster Fuller on six books.

1966 – In April, four activists from the Mattachine Society staged a “Sip-In” at Julius a bar in Greenwich Village, to protest the NY State Liquor Authority’s discriminatory policies against homosexuals. In August, transgender people and drag queens in San Francisco reacted to ongoing harassment by the police force with the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot. After several days, the protests stopped.

1967 – A January 1 raid on the Black Cat Tavern in Los Angeles led to a February 11 protest outside the gay bar against ongoing police harassment. In November, the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop opened in New York City by Craig Rodwell. The bookshop was the first of its kind in the U.S. that was devoted to gay history and gay rights.

1968 – Rev. Troy Perry starts a new Christian denomination based on full acceptance of LGBTQ+ people called the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, based in Los Angeles. It has since grown to more than 200 congregations in 37 countries, including MCC of the Spirit in Harrisburg and Vision of Hope MCC in Mountville, Lancaster County.

1968 – On May 9, the largest pre-Stonewall student gay rights demonstration occurred at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania when about 200 students protested the decision made by the college’s president to cancel a lecture by Richard Leitsch, president of the Mattachine Society of New York.

1969 (beginning June 28) – The Stonewall Riots. The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar in Greenwich Village in New York City. In response to an unprovoked police raid on an early Saturday morning, over 400 people, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight people protested their treatment and pushed the police away from the area. Some level of rioting continued over the next several nights, which closed the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Riots became a pivotal, defining moment for gay rights.

1969 – Gay Liberation Front organization formed in New York following the Stonewall Riots to advocate for sexual liberation for all people.

1969 – The Gay Activist Alliance formed in New York by a group who were not satisfied with the direction of the Gay Liberation Front. Their purpose was more political, and they wanted to “secure basic human rights, dignity and freedom for all gay people.”

1970 – The first gay pride marches were held in New York and a few other cities across the United States on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots

1971 – Richard John Baker and James Michael McConnell apply and are granted a marriage license in Blue Earth County, Minnesota after discovering the county has no laws prohibiting same sex marriage. On September 3, 1971, both men became the first legally married same sex couple in U.S. history.

1972 – Dr. John E. Freyer, a prominent psychiatrist and instructor at Temple University in Philadelphia, spoke to the American Psychiatric Association annual conference at Dr. Henry Anonymous, to advocate as a gay psychiatrist for removing homosexuality from the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual list of mental disorders.

1973 – The American Psychiatric Association, after considerable advocacy by Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, Dr. John Fryer and members of the Mattachine Society, changed the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder. It was not until 1987 that homosexuality was completely removed from the APA list of mental disorders. The APA found that “the latest and best scientific evidence shows that sexual orientation and expressions of gender identity occur naturally…and that in short, there is no scientific evidence that sexual orientation, be it heterosexual, homosexual or otherwise, is a freewill choice.”

1973 – The National Gay Task Force was founded in Washington, D. C. as a national organization to advocate for LGBTQ+ civil rights. It later changed its name to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and currently the National LGBTQ Task Force.

1973 – The Up Stairs Lounge arson fire in New Orleans resulted in 32 deaths and 13 injured at this gay bar in New Orleans. A large number of the casualties were members of the New Orleans Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) who had gathered at the bar after church service. Until the Pulse Nightclub shootings in 2016, it was the largest mass-casualty attack against the LGBTQ+ community ever committed in the U.S.

1973 – The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund was founded, based in New York City, to provide legal services to affect change for LGBTQ+ civil rights through the courts.

1974 – Elaine Noble became the first openly gay person to be elected as a state legislator; she served in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives for two terms.

1974 – Activist Jerry Brennan founded Gay Community Services in Harrisburg, which then split into two organizations in 1975, the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard of Harrisburg and Dignity/Central PA. Both organizations lasted for about 30 years.

1974 – Mark Segal, a gay activist from Philadelphia became the first openly gay activist to have an official meeting with a sitting governor when he met with Gov. Milton Shapp. The meeting led Gov. Shapp to create a task force of state officials and LGBTQ+ community activists to discuss changes to public policy.

1975 – The first gay rights bill was introduced in the U.S. Congress. It died in committee.

1975 – Governor Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation for state employees. It is the first state to grant such protection.

1976 – Governor Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania signed an executive order creating the Pennsylvania Council for Sexual Minorities, the first governmental body in the nation devoted to improving public policy for LGBTQ+ people. It was in existence for ten years embedding important public policy improvements benefiting LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania.

1976 – Governor Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania signed a proclamation for Gay Pride Week, the first such proclamation from any governor in the nation.

1977 – President Jimmy Carter became the first president to welcome gay and lesbian activists to the White House. A group of activists met with Midge Costanza, an aide to Carter, to talk about creating an agenda of public policy initiatives

1977 – Harvey Milk elected county supervisor in San Francisco and becomes the third “out” elected public official in the United States. He was assassinated the following year, along with Mayor George Moscone, by Dan White, a fellow county supervisor.

1978 (June 25) – In San Francisco, the Rainbow Flag designed by Gilbert Baker, was first flown during the Gay Freedom Parade; the flag became a symbol of gay and lesbian pride.

1978 – Gay Rights National Lobby was founded in Washington, D. C. to lobby for LGBTQ+ civil rights legislation. Its founder started the Human Rights Campaign Fund in 1980 as a political action committee and the two groups later merged into what is currently known as the Human Rights Campaign, or HRC, the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying group in the U.S.

1979 – National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Over 100,000 people gathered in support of gay and lesbian rights.

1979 – Chapters of the national organization of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) are founded across the United States.

1981 (June 5) – AIDS Epidemic begins. The U.S. Center for Disease Control reported the first cases of a rare lung disease, which would be named AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) the following year. There were a total of 583,298 U.S. men women and children who would die from AIDS through 2007.

1982 – Wisconsin becomes the first state to pass statewide non-discrimination legislation based on sexual orientation

1983 – Gerry Studds, a sitting member of Congress from Massachusetts, was outed and censured by Congress for an inappropriate relationship with a Congressional page and became the first openly gay member of Congress. Barney Frank, also from Massachusetts, became the first Congressman to come out as gay voluntarily in 1987.

1985 – The AIDS Quilt concept was conceived and implemented by Cleve Jones, an LGBTQ+ activist in San Francisco.

1986 – Bowers v. Hardwick (Supreme Court Decision)
By a vote of 5-4 that a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults was legal and that there were no constitutional protections for acts of sodomy. (Was overruled in 2003: See Lawrence v. Texas).

1987 – The organization ACT UP formed in New York. The purpose of ACT UP was to impact the lives of people living with AIDS, to advocate for legislation, medical research and treatment, and to bring an end to the disease.

1988 (Dec. 1) – The World Health Organization (WHO) declared December 1 as the first World AIDS Day.

1990 – Joy Ufema Counsel established York House Hospice, in York, PA, one of just a few hospices around the country dedicated to end of life care for AIDS patients. Ufema was the first specialist in the nation to conceptualize and implement hospice care, known as a nurse-thanatologist. She was the subject of a television movie, A Matter of Life and Death, starring Linda Lavin.

1993 – The U.S. Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” that allowed gay and lesbian people to serve in the military. They would not be asked their sexual orientation during enlistment screening.

1996 – Romer v. Evans Supreme Court Case. The Court ruled in a 6–3 decision that a state constitutional amendment in Colorado preventing protected status based upon homosexuality or bisexuality did not satisfy the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

1997 – Ellen DeGeneres, a comedian, TV actor and television host was one of the first popular entertainers who publicly came out as a lesbian during an interview on the Oprah Winfrey show and then became the first openly gay character on the TV show, “Ellen.” She was then highlighted on the cover of Time Magazine and other news organizations.

1998 – Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming, was brutally attacked and tied to a fence in a field outside of Laramie, WY and left to die because he was gay. He died from his wounds several days later. This was one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in America and resulted in a federal law passed 10 years later in 2009 called the “Hate Crimes Prevention Act”, a federal law against bias crimes directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people.

1999 – The Transgender Day of Remembrance was created by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, an American transgender woman to memorialize the murder of transgender woman Rita Hester in Massachusetts. The event is held each year on November 20.

2003 – Lawrence v. Texas (Supreme Court Decision)
Ruled by a vote of 6-3 that a Kansas law criminalizing gay or lesbian sex was unconstitutional declaring the importance of constitutional liberty and privacy consistent with the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Also overturned the court decision in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) stating that the court had made the wrong decision.

2008 (November) – Proposition 8 passes with a 52% yes vote in California declaring that marriage is between a man and a woman.
2010 – The U.S. Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” so that gay and lesbian people could serve openly in the military. One person present at the signing ceremony in the White House was Frank Kameny who had been released from military service in 1958 because of discriminatory policies against gay and lesbian people.

2013 – U.S. v. Windsor / Repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act – DOMA (Supreme Court Decision)
By a vote of 5-4 ruled that defining marriage as just between a man and a woman is unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996 and stated that marriage or legal unions are between one man and one woman. This decision ruled the congressional law as unconstitutional and that states have the authority to define marital relationships.

2015 – Obergefell v. Hodges (Supreme Court Decision)
The Court voted 5-4 that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This decision mandated that states must allow same-sex couples to legally marry.

2015 – Dr. Rachel Levine was appointed by Gov. Tom Wolf to be Pennsylvania’s Physician General and in 2017 as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, the first transgender person to hold a cabinet position in Pennsylvania.

2016 – Pulse Nightclub shooting at this gay bar in Orlando, FL by a single gunman resulted in 50 deaths and 58 injured making it the largest mass-casualty attack against the LGBTQ+ community in U.S. history.

2021 – Pete Buttigieg was appointed Secretary of Transportation and Dr. Rachel Levine as assistant secretary of Health by President Joe Biden making them the two highest ranking openly gay and transgender officials respectively ever to serve in the U.S. government.

2021 – Richie Torres became the first openly gay Afro-Latino elected to Congress, serving New York’s 15th Congressional district.

From the inaugural speeches of Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Barack Obama, and John F. Kennedy:

FDR: Shall we pause now and turn our back upon the road that lies ahead? Shall we call this the promised land? Or shall we continue on our way? For “each age is a dream that is dying, or one that is coming to birth.”

Obama: “Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive… that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it.”

America: In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come.

Kennedy: The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it–and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.