The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) introduces Hollywood's first self-regulatory code of movie ethics, which discourages filmmakers from including frank depictions of sex and sexuality and bans outright any mention of homosexuality. The so-called "Hays Code" becomes mandatory on July 1, 1934.April 19, 1929
A New York City appellate court rules that, contrary to a verdict reached earlier by a lower court, Radclyffe Hall's 'The Well of Loneliness' is not obscene. The decision clears the way for even wider distribution of the best-selling novel.
April 23, 1990
President George H. W. Bushsigns The Hate Crime Statistics Act, which requires the Department of Justice to collect and publish statistics for five years about hate crimes motivated by prejudice based upon race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnic origin. It is the first law to extend federal recognition to lesbians and gay men.
April 27, 1953
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10450, mandating the dismissal of all federal employees determined to be guilty of "criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct . . . [including] sexual perversion." Numerous state and city governments soon adopt similar policies.
April, 1966
The Society for Individual Rights (SIR) opens the first gay community center in the United States in San Francisco.
Rikki Streicher opens Maud's Study, possibly the longest-lasting lesbian bar anywhere, in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury.
