1990s

1990

University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney founds Promise Keepers, which holds all-male stadium revivals promoting "traditional masculinity" throughout the 1990s. McCartney calls homosexuals "a group of people who don't reproduce, yet want to be compared with people who do reproduce," and says, "Homosexuality is an abomination of Almighty God."

July  A Community Task Force on Racism, Discrimination and Human Diversity is set up by the Lawrence City Commission at the request of an ad hoc work group that includes faculty and administrators from KU and Haskell Indian Junior College and representatives from the city's Human Relations Commission. The Task Force, headed by Ann Weick, is formed to discuss possible discrimination in Lawrence and ease tensions surrounding the recent deaths of many Native Americans.

1991  

Amanda Donohoe, who plays a bisexual on "L.A. Law," kisses a female on the lips, on live TV. Religious and right-wing groups are up in arms.

Pat Robertson founds the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), run by Christian Right attorney Jay Sekulow. ACLJ will be instrumental in fighting gay marriage, calling it a cancerous "perversion" that "directly attacks the family, which is the most vital cell in society."

The Lawrence Task Force recommends the formation of the Lawrence Alliance Against Racism and Discrimination (later called the Lawrence Alliance). An Advisory Board to the Lawrence City Commission, the Alliance advocates for Lawrence citizens and works with the Commission to create a discrimination-free environment in Lawrence.  

The Freedom Coalition of Lawrence is formed. It is a grassroots community organization which supports civil rights for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation. The Coalition will push for the amendment of the Lawrence city code to include sexual orientation.  

May  In Hawaii, one gay and two lesbian couples jointly file a lawsuit alleging that the denial of marriage licenses by the state Department of Health (in Dec 1990) is unconstitutional (Hawaii’s constitution forbids sex discrimination). In Oct 91, a circuit Court judge throws out the case before a trial. The couples appeal that ruling to the Hawaii Supreme Court.

1992

"The Gay Agenda," a 20-minute video featuring racy scenes filmed at gay-pride marches, is released by Ty and Jeannette Beeson of the Antelope Valley Springs of Life church in Lancaster, CA. It poses as a teaching tape, revealing what one person calls the "hidden" side of gay life. Using amateur footage from gay parades and demonstrations, the tape stars doctors and scholars and "recovered" homosexuals who recite lists of unsourced statistics on what they say are the unhealthy practices of gay men. Aired by Pat Robertson's "The 700 Club," it becomes one of the most widely viewed pieces of anti-gay propaganda. The film continues to circulate today.

Fall  Ten thousand copies of “The Gay Agenda” are distributed to voters in Colorado and Oregon, in time to influence voting on anti-gay initiatives that were on the ballots in those states.

Remarks made by Pat Robertson in a fundraising letter: "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."  

At the Republican National Convention in Houston, Pat Buchanan famously declares in a prime time speech: "There is a culture war going on in our country for the soul of America." Cheering audience members wave signs reading "Family Rights Forever, 'Gay' Rights Never."  

Nov  Oregon defeats Measure 9, which would have added the following to the Oregon Constitution: "All governments in Oregon may not use their monies or properties to promote, encourage or facilitate homosexuality, pedophilia, sadism or masochism. All levels of government, including public education systems, must assist in setting a standard for Oregon's youth which recognizes that these behaviors are abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse and they are to be discouraged and avoided." Since then, the Oregon Citizens Alliance, a conservative group active in Oregon politics, continues to introduce a series of watered-down ballot measures along the same lines as Measure 9. All continue to fail.  

Nov  Colorado’s Amendment 2 is approved by 53 percent of voters. It repeals existing anti-discrimination ordinances in Aspen, Boulder and Denver and prohibits the passage of any such future ordinances. One of the organizers, Tony Marco, hones a "special rights" argument, claiming that gay people are inordinately wealthy and politically powerful, and neither need nor deserve the rights they "demand."  

Digital Queers forms. DQ's initial goal is to bring the gay rights movement into the digital age by applying the powerful tools of high-technology to regional, state, and national grassroots organizations. It later evolves into a high-tech consulting firm, fundraising foundation, and e-mail-based grassroots network.  

1993  

Jan 21  Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 45th President. He appoints Joycelyn Elders as the first black Surgeon General.  

Feb  The Olathe, KS school district orders “Annie on My Mind” (about lesbian relationships written for adolescents) removed from school shelves; the book is burned in Kansas City at a demonstration held on the steps of the board of education offices. Two high school seniors (one is Stevie Case, who later becomes a KU student) and the ACLU sue the Olathe School District in Dec. (This drama will play out in Olathe until 3 years and over $160,000 later.)  

Feb 26  The World Trade Center in NYC is bombed.  

President Clinton's proposal to lift the ban on openly gay military personnel sends anti-gay activists into action, shutting down phone lines to Congress with hundreds of thousands of calls in protest. "Honestly," asks D. James Kennedy in a fundraising letter for Coral Ridge Ministries, "would you want your son, daughter, or grandchild sharing a shower, foxhole, or blood with a homosexual?"  

Mar  Mosiac (later known as Netscape) is publicly made available as a Web browser. This browser is the first to be available for Microsoft Windows, the Macintosh, and the Unix X Window System, which makes it possible to bring the Web to the average user.

LGBT activists in Kansas begin to use e-mail more widely and learn to use online material such as gophers and Mosiac. Although terribly flakey, online correspondence greatly increases the speed by which information is passed between Kansans.  

The Hawaii Supreme Court rules that, under Hawaii's Constitution (the Hawaii constitution forbids sex discrimination, the so-called Equal Rights Amendment that failed to become part of the federal constitution ten years prior), allowing civil marriage licenses only for opposite-sex couples and not for same-sex couples is sex discrimination. The court orders the state to show what "compelling" interest justifies such discrimination in civil marriage. Anti-gay groups begin a campaign to "defend marriage," with legal challenges led by ACLJ's Jay Sekulow.  

Eighteen far-right members of the Kansas House of Representatives announce a resolution asking the U.S. Congress to deny any request for protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation. (“A RESOLUTION memorializing Congress to refrain from enacting or amending any legislation that would define certain sexual or life-style preferences as having protected class status.”) Members are:  Representatives Shallenburger and King, Boston, Bryant, Cornfield, Donovan, Jennison, Lawrence, Lloyd, Mollenkamp, Myers, Neufeld, Shore, M. Smith, Snowbarger, Vickrey, Wagle and E.Wells.  

June  LGBT March on Washington. Activists march to protest “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and the lack of AIDS funding. This is Fred Phelps’ first trip to a gay event; the press covers his antics and he eats it up. Plus, it becomes something that the entire family enjoys doing together.  

July  Equality Kansas is formed to educate Kansans on growing anti-gay legislation.  

Sept 7  Sharon Bottoms loses custody of her 2-year-old son Tyler in Virginia. The Circuit Court states that Sharon Bottoms is an "unfit parent" because her relationship with her lover April Wade is "illegal and immoral." Parsons awards custody of Tyler to Bottoms' mother, Kay Bottoms even though Sharon testifies that Kay’s live-in lover sexually molested Sharon for five years when she was a child. Parsons also restricts Sharon Bottoms' visitation to one day a week, outside her home. Wade, whom Tyler regards as a parent, is forbidden from seeing him.  

Sept 9  The U.S. Senate passes legislation to discourage homosexual enlistment in the military, calling homosexuality an "unacceptable risk" to morale. Tougher than Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" proposal, the measure would allow a future defense secretary to reinstate questioning of recruits on their sexuality.  

Sept 28  The House passes the same policy as the senate. Within days, Clinton signs the measure with no fanfare and little public notice.  

Nov 20  Don't ask, don't tell (Public Law 103-160) passes. It prohibits anyone who is not heterosexual from disclosing his/her sexual orientation, or from speaking about any homosexual relationships, including marriages or other familial attributes while serving in the United States armed forces.  

The Cobb County (GA) Commission passes a resolution calling homosexuality "incompatible with the standards to which this community subscribes." Organizer Gordon Wysong declares, "We should blame them for every social problem in America." Cobb County will be dropped as a host for 1996 Atlanta Olympic events because of its anti-gay stance.  

Dec 31 Brandon Teena, whose birth name was Teena Brandon, is murdered in Humboldt, NE by two men who are furious to discover that he is anatomically a female. Teena passes easily as a man in Humboldt, but is discovered to be biologically and legally female by local police following his arrest on a misdemeanor check forgery charge two weeks prior to his slaying. Police publicly release this information to the local newspaper, the "Falls City Journal." One week later, on Christmas Day 1993, Teena is raped and assaulted at a Christmas party by two men. These same two men murder Teena on New Year’s Eve. Teena's life and death eventually become the subject of two critically acclaimed films: the 1998 documentary “The Brandon Teena Story” and the 1999 feature “Boys Don't Cry.”  

1994  

The Queer Resources Directory (QRD), the original lgbt resource on the Internet, becomes active. It is actually set up in 1991 but is not widely used because it pre-dates widespread public access to the Internet by several years.  

Rosanne Barr kisses Mariel Hemingway on her sitcom “Rosanne.”  

Feb 17  Randy Shilts, a journalist covering AIDS for the "San Francisco Chronicle" and author of “And the Band Played On: People, Politics, and the AIDS Epidemic,” dies of AIDS at the age of 42. Fred Phelps attempts to picket his funeral, stating that AIDS and death is God's punishment on Shilts for an immoral life. The picket lasts 50 seconds because the crowd pelts the Phelps’ with eggs, verbal abuse and (they claim) one brick.  

The Hawaii Legislature reacts to the Hawaii Supreme Court decisions in 1993 by amending the marriage law to specify that marriage is between a man and a woman. Legislators also create an 11-member Commission on Sexual Orientation and the Law to review what rights and benefits would be denied to same-sex couples should marriage be denied to them. Ostensibly this is done to promote a future domestic partnership bill that would convey those rights, while calling it something other than marriage. (Because of a court challenge over the Commission's membership, the Legislature dissolves the first commission in 1995 and creates a new seven-member Commission on Sexual Orientation and the Law. The new Commission is told to examine major legal and economic benefits extended to opposite-sex married couples but not to same-sex couples, public policies, and to identify recommendations to address any identified discrimination against same-sex couples. In December, the Commission recommends that the 1996 Legislature legalize same-sex marriage or, as an alternative, create a "domestic partnership" law to grant same-sex couples many of the rights and liabilities of marriage without their being married. This will set the stage for an all-out war on gay marriage in Hawaii during 1996.)  

March  The first lgbt conference at a Kansas university is held at KSU. A second conference follows at KSU in Oct 94.  

Manhattan, KS forms the Flint Hills Alliance which meets every 1st and 3rd Thursday.  

KSU creates a listserv for KSU students (QSA-L).  

Manhattanites create the Kansas Rainbow Listserv (KR-L) for statewide lgbt issues.  

May 16-18  More than 40 religious right-wing organizations from all over the country, led by Focus on the Family (FOF), hold a secret summit in Colorado to map out a strategy or achieving their top goal of the 1990's: the defeat of gay and lesbian rights in all its forms. The better-known organizations represented at the event include the Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America, The American Family Association, Accuracy in Media, Colorado for Family Values, Family Defense Council, and Family Research Council, a group associated with the FOF. This strategy is also promoted by the Traditional Values Coalition's "Gay Rights, Special Rights," a 40-minute video claiming gay rights will erode the civil rights of African Americans. Among the attendees at the secret summit is Kansas Representative Darlene Cornfield who states "I believe the lord wanted me in the Legislature." She states that she is anti-choice, and opposed to gay rights. "I just believe the Bible from cover to cover," she said. Read more at: http://www.qrd.org/qrd/rights/right.wing.antigay.conf-bay.windows-06.23.94. Another good article can be read at: http://www.qrd.org/qrd/religion/anti/navigators/inside.glen.eyrie.castle.txt.

Summer  KSU student newspaper begins online editions.  

Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders states at a United Nations conference on AIDS that young people should be taught that masturbation is “a normal part of sexuality, and if you're going to do it, do it in private." Under pressure from religious conservatives, Clinton asks her to resign.  

June 26  Pride March in New York: Stonewall 25th anniversary. Hundreds of lbgts march on the United Nations to affirm the human rights of lesbian and gay people. Featured at the parade is a gigantic 30-foot wide, one-mile long rainbow flag that is carried through the parade route by over 10,000 volunteers.  

June 29 "Topeka Capital-Journal" reporter Jon Michael Bell files a lawsuit against Stauffer Communications (who owns the "Topeka Capital-Journal") for overtime pay and to clarify who owns the material he has collected and written on the life of Fred Phelps and his family. Bell attaches his work, “Addicted to Hate,” to the lawsuit as Exhibit A, thus making it available to everyone. The "Topeka Capital-Journal" never publishes this story, although it releases watered-down portions of it. Read "Addicted to Hate" here: http://www.rslevinson.com/gaylesissues/features/collect/phelps/bl_phelpsmain.htm.  

House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich defines a “Contract with America,” a list of campaign promises signed by himself and other Republican candidates for the House of Representatives. The promises are designed to unite the various factions of the party and provide a contrast with the policies of the Democratic Party. The Contract represents a triumph of Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, and the American conservative movement.  

The Virginia Appeals Court reverses the decision of the Circuit Court and allows Sharon Bottoms to regain custody of her son. Sharon Bottoms’ mother appeals to the Virginia Supreme Court, which rules in favor of Sharon Bottoms in 1995.  

Sept  Sharon Levin and Kristi Parker, Wichita, roll out the first issue of "The Liberty Press," Kansas’ only lgbt news magazine. It is still in operation.  

Oct  The "Report of the Task Force to Study the Concerns of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Students, Staff, and Faculty at KSU" is completed. Several recommendations are made. Read them at: http://www.debtaylor.com/deb/articles/task.html.  

Nov  Marvin McClendon, a 16-year-old black male, confesses to killing two gay men in Laurel, MS. Circuit Court Judge Billy Joe Landrum agrees to allow HIV testing of the two murder victims. Activists fear that positive results could lead to a case dismissal on the grounds of "justifiable homicide" in that killing someone with HIV, or someone who is presumed to be HIV positive, would not only be acceptable but excusable by law on the grounds of self-defense, or afraid of being infected with AIDS.   

Nov  The Freedom Coalition brings a request to City Hall and the comminssion to add sexual orientation to Lawrence’s City Human Relations policy. They deliver a 45-page proposal, including personal stories of discrimination in the community, answers to potential objections, and a list of comparable communities which have passed similar laws (such as Boulder, CO and Columbia, MO). They include a list of more than 1,500 citizens (including gay author William S. Burroughs), 37 businesses and other community groups who publicly support the request. The push to add sexual orientation becomes known as Simply Equal.  

Nov  Republicans gain 54 seats and take control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time since 1954. Newt Gingrich becomes Speaker of the House.  

1994-95  Lawrence PFLAG forms.  

1995  

Jan  The Christian Coalition pledges to spend one million dollars promoting the House Republican Agenda.

“The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party,” by fundamentalist activists Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams, claims gays weren't victimized in the Holocaust, but instead helped mastermind the extermination of Jews. Repudiated by credible historians, the book is nevertheless praised by the Family Research Council and sold by several anti-gay organizations.

Jan 95  Sam Brownback begins his first term in office.  

The 1995 Kansas Legislature begins its own Newt Gingrich style of "Contract With America" by introducing three measures that would restrict discussion, or even the mention of Lesbians and Gays, in public schools:

1. HR 2301, also known as the Darlene Cornfield Amendment, requires sex education school teachers to limit their discussion of sex to "heterosexual marriage," forcing educators to present such information only in the context of abstinence or marriage. This measure, co-sponsored by Shallenburger, is later defeated.  
2. HCR 5009 would amend the state Constitution with language that would give parents the 'exclusive right' to determine how their children will be taught in public schools. If passed, the amendment would create a legal basis to allow creationism to be taught along side science in the classroom, and allow parents to censor school libraries and curriculum, especially when dealing with issues such as sex education and diversity. According to one Kansas lgbt activist, "It would effectively remove any discussion of Lesbian and Gay issues from all public schools."
3. HB 2092 would rescind the Quality Performance Accreditation program, which prepares public school students in Kansas to live, learn and work in a global society. "Conservatives are using this bill to kill the QPA program, in part, because it demands that all people, including Lesbians and Gays, be treated frankly and objectively during the presentation of relevant course material," says Doug Glaze of Equality Kansas.  

Feb  Chaplains for the Kansas House and Senate begin every session with non-inclusive prayers in spite of complaints from a Jewish House member and the ACLU. House Speaker Tim Shallenburger says he isn't going to do anything about it. "I don't think there's a problem," Shallenburger states. "The only problem is in the minds of a few people."  

April 2  House Speaker Newt Gingrich proposes on "This Week with David Brinkley" that the military should return to the policy of discriminating against qualified personnel who happen to be gay or lesbian. This is in direct opposition to Gingrich's 1992 statement to the Associated Press, where he said he saw no reason to expel people from the military "for purely private behavior."  

April 19  Timothy McVeigh bombs the Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City.  

Fall  Hemenway begins his first academic year as Chancellor at KU.  

April 28  Kansan Max Movsovitz is arrested for sodomy solicitation in Topeka ’s Gage Park. Instead of paying the fine like others before him, he vows to fight it in court. Specifically, Max decides to fight the constitutionality of the Topeka’s "Solicitation of Sodomy" ordinance and the Kansas sodomy law (Max is arrested for admitting his willingness to have oral sex with an undercover cop who initiates the conversation. In other words, talking dirty gets him arrested.)  

Senator Jesse Helms introduces two anti-gay bills in Congress. The first bill, numbered S.23, would give a special exemption from workplace nondiscrimination policies to government employees who voice prejudices against lesbian and gay co-workers. The second bill, S. 25 would “stop the waste of taxpayer funds on activities by Government agencies to encourage its employees or officials to accept homosexuality as a legitimate or normal lifestyle.”  

Summer  In spite of his panic defense, a Mississippi jury finds Marvin McClendon guilty of executing two gay men in Laurel, Mississippi.  

May 2  In a 3-2 vote, the City Commission of Lawrence votes to add the words "sexual orientation" to the city's existing Human Relations Ordinance.  

Fall  As a member of the Student Health Advisory Board, graduate student Christine Robinson persuades KU’s student health insurance carrier to add a domestic partner health insurance plan. It is available to students beginning in 1996.  

Nov  Justice Thomas Van Bebber of the U. S. District Court rules that while a school district is not obligated to purchase any book or books, it cannot remove a book from library shelves unless that book is deemed educationally unsuitable. Van Bebber rules that "Annie on My Mind" is not educationally unsuitable, and that its removal constituted "viewpoint discrimination."  

Dec  Max Movsovitz is convicted of violating Topeka's ordinance against solicitation of sodomy following his trial in Municipal court.  He is ordered to pay $499 and stay out of Gage Park for two years, a sentence similar to that of the nearly 60 other men who are arrested in the year-long sting operation.  

1996  

Max Movsovitz appeals his case to the Shawnee County District Court; it upholds the lower court’s ruling.  

The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Amendment 2 (Romer v. Evans) in a landmark 6-3 ruling. In its decision, the Court makes clear that antigay sentiment does not justify governmental discrimination and shatters the "special rights" rhetoric of those who oppose equal treatment for lesbians and gay men. The Court rules that Amendment 2 violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee that all citizens have a fundamental right to equal protection laws.

The National Pro-Family Forum, dedicated to "one man-one woman" marriage, holds its first secret meeting in a Memphis church cellar with representatives from more than 20 major anti-gay groups. Before the end of the year, forum members successfully push the Defense of Marriage Act, a symbolic measure defining marriage as between a man and a woman, through Congress.

The Southern Baptist Convention announces a boycott of Disney parks and products because the company gives insurance benefits to partners of gay workers and allows "Gay Days" at its theme parks. "Beware of the Magic Kingdom," Focus on the Family advises parents. Gay Day protests become a staple of the anti-gay movement. The boycott will not be lifted until 2005.

Summer  KSU transitions from BITMAIL (KSUVM) to UNIX (PINE) e-mail accounts, making information dissemination faster, easier, and more efficient.  

Sept  H.R. 3396, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) passes. It defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws, and provides that states need not recognize a marriage from another state if it is between persons of the same sex.  

Sept  The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) fails in the Senate, 49-50. It is the U.S. federal law that would prohibit discrimination against employees by their employers on the basis of sexual orientation. ENDA will be introduced again in 1997, 1999, and 2002 but will fail to gain enough support in Congress to be debated or passed. Its current form is (S. 1705/H.R. 3285), introduced in 2003. The Human Rights Campaign, an lgbt organization that is among the primary lobbyists for the bill, wants transgender protections to be included in this bill. Read more here: http://www.uua.org/uuawo/new/article.php?id=429.

Sept 10-20  Judge Chang of the First Circuit Court of Hawaii hears the case at a nine-day, bench trial. Deputy state Attorney General Rich Eichor argues on behalf of Director Lawrence Miike of the state Department of Health, which has jurisdiction over marriage licenses. The state fails to effectively show that a compelling interest exists to justify same-sex civil marriage discrimination.

Dec 3  The Hawaii court rules that civil marriage law cannot discriminate against gay and lesbian couples. The state is ordered to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Dec 4  As expected, Deputy Attorney General Eichor requests that Judge Chang "stay" his decision, pending an appeal of the decision to Hawaii's Supreme Court. Judge Chang issues the stay, because he doesn’t want to have to undo marriages should they be overruled.

Dec  A federal court jury finds that three high school administrators in Ashland, WI violated the rights of former student Jamie Nebonzy. Ashland officials agree to pay $900,000 plus up to $62,000 in Jamie's potential medical expenses. Jamie is the student who, from middle school until he dropped out of high school, suffered years of abuse from fellow students. Jamie required surgery for many injuries he suffered during various attacks. One year, students performed a mock rape on him in front of an entire class. In another year, students pushed his head into a toilet and urinated on him. Even though Jamie and his parents repeatedly asked school officials to discipline Jamie’s attackers, nothing happened. In fact, Jamie was told by one school official that he must learn to expect such treatment since he is gay.

1997

March  Kansas lgbts narrowly escape from being included as criminal registrants in the "Kansas Crimes Against Children and Sex Offender Registration Act," also known as Senate Bill (SB) 291. This bill represents changes in the current "Kansas Sex Offender Registration Act" (K.S.A. 22-4901 et seq.) in order to bring Kansas in compliance with Megan’s Law, which requires the registration of those convicted of capital murder, murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter. Registration also provides law enforcement officers with a current data base reflecting the criminal history, identification, and present location of known criminals within their communities. The public could be made aware of offenders living within their communities, and therefore be able to take measures needed to increase their personal safety. Initially, SB 291 would require persons convicted under K.S.A. 21-3535 (the current consensual sodomy law) to be registered as sex criminals, along with molesters and rapists, and be reported to local law enforcement agencies and neighbors. In short, anyone who had been convicted of consensual adult sodomy (for example, those arrested for solicitation in Gage Park, Topeka) would be required to register with the State as a violent sex offender. This version passed through the Senate before a lesbian lawyer from Lawrence noticed the inclusion and made others--including the Attorney General’s office and Kansas-wide queer activists--aware of its existence.

April 30  Ellen DeGeneres' character on the TV sitcom "Ellen" comes out as a lesbian, initiating protests and boycotts of sponsors led by Donald Wildmon and Jerry Falwell, who calls the actor "Ellen Degenerate."

April  Both houses of the Hawaii legislature approve a Constitutional amendment that would expand the power of state lawmakers to restrict marriages to opposite-sex couples. The amendment must be placed on a statewide ballot in a Constitutional Convention and voted on to adopt the amendment. But Hawaii residents vote to NOT hold a Constitutional Convention.

May  Hawaii's legislators bow to pressure from conservative religious groups and pass a bill putting a constitutional amendment to the voters on Nov. 3, 1998: shall the legislature have the power to reserve marriage to opposite sex couples?  At the same time, the Hawaii Legislature passes a law that allows same-sex couples to enter into a reciprocal beneficiary relationship. Couples secure the following benefits from a reciprocal beneficiary relationship: inheritance without a will, ability to sue for the wrongful death of their reciprocal beneficiary, hospital visitation and health care decisions, consent to postmortem exams, loan eligibility, property rights (including joint tenancy), tort liability and protection under Hawaii domestic violence laws. This law remains in effect (with some changes) today.

1998  

Feb  Lawrence women form the Women’s Activity Group, or WAG.  

Feb  Two Kansas legislators send a memo to all Kansas regents universities, asking each university to forward a list of all courses containing content related to homosexuality and bisexuality. What the legislators intend to do with such information is unknown. The “Chronicle of Higher Education,” a very prestigious higher education magazine, reports on the memo. In the end, only Fort Hayes State refuses to respond to the request. Other universities run elementary name searches (i.e. "bisexuality," "homosexuality") and come up with only a handful of course listings. No one knows why the request was made and the "mystery legislators" never come forward. Kansas Governor Bill Graves calls the request "stupid." For more information: http://www.turnleft.com/witchhunt/.

April 24  The Kansas Court of Appeals upholds the constitutionality of the Topeka "Solicitation of Sodomy" ordinance and the Kansas Sodomy law.  

April  Shawnee County (Topeka) Treasurer Rita Cline ceases contract negotiations with BA Merchant Services Inc. (in a plan to offer tax-payment services by telephone) after learning the company is an affiliate of San Francisco-based BankAmerica Corp.  In accordance with San Francisco's ordinance, BankAmerica provides spousal benefits to same-gender partners it employs. Cline uses this as her reason for withdrawing from negotiations with BA Merchant Services; she will not do business with companies that break Kansas law (homosexuality is still illegal in Kansas). "They were trying to cram a California law down my throat and that didn't sit well with me," Cline says to a "Topeka Capital-Journal" reporter. Rita Cline was alerted to San Francisco's domestic partner ordinance by Fred Phelps. (Cline will resign from office in 2003 amid allegations she misused public money; in Dec 2004 she will file for personal bankruptcy.)  

June 9  The Topeka City Council strips Mayor Joan Wagnon of her power to appoint members of the Topeka Relations Commission (HRC) because she appoints an openly gay man and a lesbian to the city’s nine-person HRC, which is a regulatory arm for discrimination in Topeka. She had wanted the group to discuss whether or not sexual orientation should be included in Topeka’s human rights ordinance. The City Council also disbands the current commission in order to remove the two gay appointees. (The City Council bowed to pressure by hatemonger Fred Phelps and local NAACP president, Rev. K.E. Hill, who called the gay commissioners “stated supporters of. . . sinful acts.”)

July 14  The Kansas Supreme Court refuses to hear Max Movsovitz’ appeal. Max decides not to appeal his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. He continues to live in Topeka. (An interesting note on Thomas Pfortmiller, the Topeka Police officer who posed as a gay man looking for fun and who got Max to say he was “in to oral sex”: In Sept 2005, he will be sentenced to 16 months in prison for stealing thousands of dollars intended for undercover drug buys and using the money to fund his gambling habit. Originally charged with 100 felonies and misdemeanors, Pfortmiller will plead no contest in July 2005 to 50 felonies.)

July-August  Emporia State University quietly removes “sexual orientation” from its non-discrimination policy. Upon review by Joe Barron, legal counsel to ESU, he advises them that there is "no legal basis" for including it since there are no state or federal laws to that effect. Barron also says he "didn't think it appropriate" for a state agency--which the university is--to take it upon itself to institute a policy which federal and state legislators did not decide to do. Even though ESU's non-discrimination policy does not include "sexual orientation," Barron states that "didn't mean improper behavior would be tolerated." The policy had been in effect since 1990. In 1999, fueled by the growing anti-gay sentiment across Kansas, the Faculty Senate at ESU will create a Non-Discrimination Statement which states that ESU does not tolerate discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, gender, parental status, marital status, status as a veteran, disability status, age, or sexual orientation. It will be signed by President Schallenkamp.  

KU forms a Domestic Partner Task Force (headed by Christine Robinson) and successfully persuades the University to open "family student housing" to same-sex couples and the day care center to those with children.  

August  The U.S. House defeats the Hefley Amendment, which would have rolled back all non-discrimination policies covering sexual orientation in the federal government.  

Rhetoric and actions of the extremists in 1998:

In response to this craziness, columnist Ellen Goodman asks: “If 1994 was the Year of the Angry White Male, is 1998 being cast as the Year of the Angry Heterosexual?”

Oct  University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepherd is murdered in Laramie, WY. The two men taunt "It's Gay Awareness Week!" as they pistol-whip him. Police testimony indicates that Matthew did not make a pass at his assailants, which didn't stop them from referring to him repeatedly as "queer" and "faggot." By the time the beating is over, Matthew's head is entirely covered with blood except, as a sheriff's deputy explains, "where he'd been crying and the tears went down his face."  Fred Phelps pickets Shepherd’s funeral.

From "The Family Research Charade" by FranK Rich (Dec 5 98 NY Times):

In the aftermath of the Wyoming killing, the same groups that worked overtime to stigmatize gay people have mounted a furious propaganda defense to assert that their words and ads demeaning gay people have nothing to do with any anti-gay crimes.

Given that these are the same groups that claim the "pro-gay" rhetoric of an Ellen DeGeneres or Joycelyn Elders foments homosexuality, it isn't easy for them to argue now that their own words have no consequences. So they instead attack those who call them on their game, hoping we might be intimidated and shut up. As one of their apologists, Hadley Arkes, wrote in a "Wall Street Journal" opinion piece, my columns on this subject are "vibrant with a hatred of the Family Research Council and evangelical Christians."

Nov  Georgia overturns its sodomy law, saying it violates the Georgia Constitution’s guarantee of a right to privacy.  

Nov 3  Hawaii voters approve the constitutional amendment that gives the legislature the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples. This effectively prevents same-sex marriage in Hawaii for now. In 2000, Hawaii’s domestic partnership status will be referred to as "reciprocal beneficiary" and will confer numerous rights, but not health insurance via a partner's employer.  

Dec  Sheriff’s deputies responding to a false report of an armed intruder inside an apartment catch two men having sex and arrest them, setting up a case that eventually brings an end to Texas’ rarely enforced, 119-year- old law against sodomy. People widely believe that this is a staged “accident.”

1999

Vermont Democratic Gov. Howard Dean signs a law sanctioning same-sex civil unions, entitling gay couples to marital rights and benefits. Anti-gay leader Gary Bauer calls it "an unmitigated disaster" that is "worse than terrorism."

Kansas passes the Romeo and Juliet law in Senate Bill 149, a sixty-page omnibus bill introduced to the Kansas Senate at 11:30 p.m. on May 13, 1999, the last day of the session. It mandates lighter sentences (a maximum of 15 months in prison) for illegal sex between young people who are similar in age. The law stipulates that in order for the lesser sentence to apply, the two parties must engage in consensual sex, be less than four years in age apart and between 14 and 19, involve no third party in the exchange, and be members of the opposite sex.

Oct 23  Televangelist Jerry Falwell sits down with a group of gay and lesbian Christians, pledging to "look very carefully" at the tone of "what we write and what we say" about homosexuality. But Falwell, the founder of the Moral Majority in the 1970s, insists that he will not change his stance that living openly as a gay man or lesbian is contrary to the will of God. 

Dec 29  The Olathe school district announces it will not appeal the court's decision. “Annie on My Mind” is restored to library shelves.

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