53 percent of voters in Colorado approve a ballot initiative that bans state and municipal rights ordinances for lesbians and gay men. In Oregon, a similar initiative fails at the polls.
November 5, 1973
The United States Supreme Court rules that Florida's anti-sodomy laws are constitutional.
November 7, 1961Legendary San Francisco drag performer José Sarria (pictured), the first openly gay person to run for public office in the United States, receives almost 7,000 votes in the election for city supervisor.
November 8, 1977
San Franciscans elect Harvey Milk to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, making him the first openly gay elected official of a large American city.
November 9, 1996
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown signs the landmark Equal Benefits Ordinance, requiring all companies that do business with the City to provide domestic partner benefits to their employees.
November 11, 1950
Rudi Gernreich, Harry Hay, Bob Hull, Dale Jennings, and Chuck Rowland hold the first of the weekly meetings in Los Angeles that lead to the formation of a homophile organization they will name the Mattachine Society.
November 15, 1636
The Plymouth Colony (in present-day Massachusetts) issues English North America's first complete legal code, in which "Sodomy, rapes, buggery" constitute one of eight categories of crimes punishable by death.
November 16, 1964
Randy Wicker is a guest on The Les Crane Show, making him the first openly gay person to appear on national television. Following the broadcast, he receives hundreds of letters from isolated lesbians and gay men across the country.
November 20, 1934
Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour, a largely sympathetic account of two schoolteachers accused of lesbianism by one of their students, loosely based upon an actual case in 19th-century Scotland, opens on Broadway to rave reviews and sellout audiences.
November 30, 1995On the eve of World AIDS Day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention releases a public service television announcement cautioning men to have "smart sex," America's first government-sponsored advertising campaign aimed at gays. - via the GLBT Historical Society
