The Seventies (1970 – 1979 CE)

1970

Around this time, Jackie Shane moves to Los Angeles to take care of her mother and all but disappears from public life.
Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson found STAR.
Craig Rodwell helps to organize the first Christopher Street Liberation Day.
Carlotta appears in the film The Naked Bunyip.

Mariasilvia Spolato founds the Homosexual Liberation Front (FLO).
The Gay Activists Alliance pushes for a sweeping anti-discrimination ordinance in New York City. Sylvia Rivera campaigns with them until it becomes clear the ordinance will not protect gender non-conforming individuals.

Mariasilvia Spolato publishes The Homosexual Liberation Movements.
March 8: Mariasilvia Spolato is photographed carrying a sign that declares she loves a woman — making her the first woman in Italy to publicly come out of the closet. This costs her everything — her job, her home, and her family. She becomes a vagabond.
STAR opens a home for homeless queer youths, using money Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera earned as sex workers.
Marsha P. Johnson begins performing with the Hot Peaches.
Carlotta appears in four episodes of Number 96 — the first time an openly transgender actor portrays a transgender character on television.

Parts of Executive Order 10450 are struck down in court.
Marsha P. Johnson performs with the Angels of Light.
Dante Gill‘s mother passes away.
June 24: A fire is set at the Upstairs Lounge. The arson attack claims 28 lives, and is the deadliest attack on a gay bar until 2016.
June 25: Only one member of New Orleans’ clergy is willing to hold a service for the victims of the Upstairs Lounge fire. Father Bill Richardson of St. George’s Episcopal Church holds the service for 80 attendees — and receives over 100 complaints from his parishioners.
Sylvia Rivera speaks at a Christopher Street Liberation Day rally, and then interrupts Jean O’Leary’s speech.
July 1: Troy Perry arrives in New Orleans and holds a service for the victims of the Upstairs Lounge fire.

Rodger Dale Nunez — the only suspect in the Upstairs Lounge fire, and who confessed the arson four times — commits suicide.
Dante Gill is arrested by the FBI, but is not convicted of any crime.

February 4: The Olympic Clean Up in Montreal begins with a raid on Sauna Aquarius.
Marsha P. Johnson is photographed as part of Andy Warhol’s “Ladies and Gentlemen” series.
October 17 & 18: The Olympic Clean Up continues with raids on five gay bars in Montreal.
October 31: The Limelight and Baby Face are raided by police during the Olympic Clean Up.
November: 80 gay men are arrested in Montreal as part of the Olympic Clean Up.

Some time around this year, Althea Garrison petitions the court to change her name
January 23: Club Baths in Montreal is raided by police, part of the Olympic Clean Up. They cause more than $500 in property damage and arrest 13 men.
February 11: As part of the ongoing Olympic Clean Up, Sauna Cristal is raided.
May 14: Neptune Sauna is raided and 89 men are arrested. The Olympic Clean Up becomes more brutal over the next several days.
May 22: In what would ultimately become the last raid of the Olympic Clean Up in Montreal, Club Baths is raided again.
June 19: A demonstration of 300 protesters, organized by CHAR, marches across Montreal in protest of the Olympic Clean Up.
June 26: The first Rhode Island Pride Parade is held.
December 1: Matthew Shepard is born.

February 2: Dante Gill takes over a number of massage parlors formerly run by crime boss George Lee.
Dante Gill‘s massage parlor Gemini is bombed.
November: El Goya burns down in Tampa. Dante Gill invites Frank Cocchiara to manage the Taurean Models massage parlor.

Jeremy Bentham‘s 1785 essay “Offences Against Oneself” is published for the first time in “The Journal of Homosexuality”.
Craig Rodwell founds Gay People in Christian Science.
Rose Cleveland‘s letter to Evangeline Whipple are released to the public.
The police attempt, and fail, to bring down Dante Gill‘s criminal operations.

April: Cumberland High School refuses to give permission Paul Guillbert to bring Ed Miskevich to prom.
Dante Gill is arrested — but once again, avoids conviction for any crime.