February 1, 1949
The Paris Prefect of Police issues a decree that forbids men from dancing together in public.
February 4, 2004
The Massachusetts high court rules that only full and equal marriage rights for gay couples, not merely civil unions, are constitutional.
February 5, 1981
Toronto police raid four bathhouses, arresting 20 men as "keepers of a bawdy house" and 286 men as "found-ins." The action set a North American record for the number of men arrested for being gay in a single police campaign.
February 6, 1989
The American Bar Association's House of Delegates passes a referendum urging federal rights legislation for lesbians and gay men. The vote: 251-121.
February 8, 1994
Meeting in Strasbourg, France, the European Parliament approves a resolution affirming a broadly defined gay and lesbian rights agenda, including the right to marry. The next day, Pope John Paul II issues a statement condemning the action.
February 9. 1977
San Francisco hosts the world's first lesbian and gay FILM festival.
February 10, 1976
Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury becomes the first mainstream comic strip to feature a gay male character.
February 11, 1965
At the trial of the four people arrested at the Council on Religion and the Homosexual's New Year's Ball in San Francisco, the judge orders members of the jury to find the defendants not guilty. The decision is a turning point in the homophile movement's fight for gay and lesbian civil rights.
February 12, 2004
City officials in San Francisco begin issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples and perform the first known civil marriages of same-sex couples in the U.S. The mayor officiates at the first ceremony for human rights activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. More than 80 couples wed the first day.
February 23-24, 1933
Adolf Hitler's government begins its persecution of homosexuals with directives closing gay and lesbian clubs, banning homophile publications, and dissolving homosexual rights groups. On February 1, 1942, a legal amendment formally extends the death penalty to men found guilty of having sex with each other.
