1980s

1980

Paul Cameron, former psychology instructor at the University of Nebraska, begins publishing pseudo-scientific pamphlets "proving" that gay people commit more serial murders, molest more children, and intentionally spread diseases. Expelled from the American Psychological Association in 1983 for ethics violations, Cameron will continue to produce bogus "studies" widely cited by anti-gay groups.

1980’s AIDS crisis. Fundamentalists' claims that AIDS is a "punishment from God." The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) forms, and takes to the streets coast to coast in protest, forcing the government to be more responsive to all its citizens. President Ronald Reagan does nothing to stop AIDS since it is viewed as a “gay disease.” He does not publicly mention the word “AIDS,” nor does he attempt to provide funding for AIDS, until seven years into his presidency.

KU finally recognizes Gay Services of Kansas as a group (at some point, it is referred to as Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas, or GLSOK). Funding will not come for another two years.

1981

Moral Majority allies in Congress propose the Family Protection Act, which would bar giving federal funds to "any organization that suggests that homosexuality can be an acceptable alternative lifestyle." Despite President Reagan's endorsement, the bill is defeated.

The Council for National Policy, a highly secretive club of America's most powerful far-right religious activists, begins meeting quarterly at undisclosed locations. Among the members will be R.J. Rushdoony, who calls for death penalty for homosexuals, and anti-gay crusaders James Dobson, Beverly and Tim LaHaye, Jerry Falwell, Tony Perkins and Phyllis Schlafly. George W. Bush will meet with the Council during his first campaign for president.

1982  

The Department of Defense formalizes World War II-era policies against allowing homosexuals to serve, issuing a directive that says "Homosexuality is incompatible with military service" because it undermines discipline, good order and morale. Almost 17,000 gay soldiers will be discharged during the 1980s, though a 1989 Defense Department study will find gay recruits "just as good or better" than heterosexuals.  

With the approval of GLSOK members, officers go before the KU Student Senate finance committee for funding. The Senate agrees to fund the group, allocating $493 in the 1982-1983 school year.

1983

Pat Buchanan, communications director for President Ronald Reagan, calls AIDS "nature's revenge on gay men."

Kansas becomes the first state to amend its incest law specifically to make same-sex incest a crime.

1984

The Coalition on Revival is founded to promote "Christian government" in the U.S. and to agree on theological tenets--including anti-gay principles--that fundamentalists can rally around. Board members include Tim LaHaye, D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries and Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association. Founder Jay Grimstead later tells “The Advocate” (an lgbt magazine), "Homosexuality makes God vomit."

Mar 15  The first domain name is registered: symbolics.com.

1985

Addressing the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Paul Cameron uses the AIDS crisis to suggest that "the extermination of homosexuals" might become necessary. The following year, Colorado's Summit Ministries will publish "Special Report: AIDS." Co-authored by Cameron, the popular pamphlet blames gay men for the epidemic and calls for a national crackdown on homosexuals.

1986  

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds Georgia’s sodomy law (Bowers v. Hardwick); the Court decides that states can outlaw private homosexual acts between consenting adults. Four years later, Justice Lewis Powell, the swing vote, will tell New York University law students, "I probably made a mistake in that one."  

The Lawrence city commission refuses to acknowledge Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week. After complaints from the lgbt community, the Lawrence Department of Human Relations conducts a study which confirms local incidents of discrimination against gays and lesbians. They recommend that the words “sexual orientation” be added to the city’s existing anti-discrimination ordinance. For two years, the issue will be left untouched.

1987

41,027 persons are dead and 71,176 persons diagnosed with AIDS in the U.S.

After years of negligent silence, President Ronald Reagan finally uses the word "AIDS" in public. By then, 25,000 people have died of it. Reagan sides with his Education Secretary, William Bennett, and other conservatives who say the Government should not provide sex education information. On April 2, 1987, Reagan states: "How that information is used must be up to schools and parents, not government. But let's be honest with ourselves, AIDS information can not be what some call 'value neutral.' After all, when it comes to preventing AIDS, don't medicine and morality teach the same lessons?" (In 1992, Barbra Streisand will state in an address to an AIDS Project Los Angeles fundraiser: "I will never forgive my fellow actor Ronald Reagan for his genocidal denial of the illness' existence, for his refusal to even utter the word AIDS for seven years, and for blocking adequate funding for research and education which could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.")

The Names Project Foundation is founded. It is the custodian of The AIDS Memorial Quilt, which also begins in 1987. The Quilt memorializes the lives of people who died of AIDS.

1988

Aug 2  Reagan prohibits federal agencies from discriminating against employees infected with HIV, but refuses to seek a law banning such discrimination nationwide, as recommended by his AIDS commission. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., comments: "The Reagan administration has done its best to avoid making even a single helpful AIDS decision in the eight years of the Reagan presidency. They handpick a commission and then don't even have the courage to accept its recommendations."  

Pressured by the local group Citizens for Human Rights in Lawrence, the city commission decides to vote on adding sexual orientation to the City’s existing anti-discrimination ordinance. Opposition exists from the Alliance of Citizens for Traditional Values, who state that the City’s study does not prove discrimination. They argue that including “sexual orientation” would force local businesses to establish affirmative action for gays. Influenced by the religious right, the commission votes 3-2 against the proposed amendment.    

World AIDS Day is initiated following a summit of health ministers who meet in London in January 1988.

1989  

The Christian Coalition is founded by Pat Robertson.  

The Kansas Supreme Court interprets the state’s sodomy law as not criminalizing cunnilingus. The Kansas legislature acts swiftly to “correct” the oversight, but accidentally includes heterosexual cunnilingus. Then they “correct” that error by rewording the law to re-legalize heterosexual cunnilingus.  

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report on gay teens estimates that they are two to three times more likely than other teens to attempt suicide.  

Lawrence lesbians formally begin holding potlucks on the first Friday of every month (although potlucks had been going on many years prior to that).  

Members of Congress who support lifting the ban of gays serving in the military release draft copies of two internal Pentagon reports that find homosexuals in the military pose no security risk and in many cases, made better soldiers than heterosexuals.

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