The Nineties (1990 – 1999)

1991

  • Althea Garrison runs for Boston City Council.
  • Dung Hà becomes the lover of the influential crime boss Hùng Cốm — her influence in the criminal underworld of Hai Phong grows.

1992

  • Althea Garrison runs for the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She wins the election by 437 votes. She is subsequently outed in the Boston Herald by reporter Eric Fehrnstrom.
  • Craig Rodwell receives the Lambda Literary Award.
  • Carlotta officially stops performing with Les Girls.
  • July 6: Marsha P. Johnson is found dead. Her death is ruled a suicide.

1993

  • Laws criminalizing homosexuality are repealed in East Germany.
  • March: Craig Rodwell sells the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop to Bill Offenbaker.
  • June 18: Craig Rodwell passes away.

1994

  • East and West Germany reunited — decriminalizing homosexuality in West Germany.
  • The U.S. Postal Service releases a Ma Rainey commemorative stamp.
  • Matthew Shepard attends his senior year of high school at the American School in Switzerland because his father is working in Saudi Arabia.
  • Althea Garrison runs for re-election, and is defeated.
  • Carlotta publishes He Did it her Way: The Legend of Les Girls.

1995

1996

  • It is around this time that Jackie Shane moves to Nashville and disappears for several years.
  • Carlotta launches the show Carlotta & Her Beautiful Boys.

1997

  • Althea Garrison runs for Boston City Council.
  • Carlotta begins appearing as a panelist on the show Beauty & the Beast.

1998

  • A new group forms but adopts the name of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee.
  • Stormé DeLarverie is elected the vice president of the Stonewall Veterans Association.
  • October 6: Matthew Shepard meets two men at a bar in Laramie, Wyoming and is lured to their truck. They rob him and torture him, and leave him tied to a fence.
  • October 7: Matthew Shepard is discovered by cyclist Aaron Kreifels. He is in a coma, and is ultimately brought to Pudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins where he remains on life support.
  • October 12: Matthew Shepard is taken off of life support and passes away.

1999

  • Althea Garrison runs for Boston City Council.
  • The Church of Christian Science begins to allow gay and lesbian members.