United States of America

The home for archives from the United States of America.

LGBTQIA+ History in the United States

A general overview of LGBTQIA+ movements and historical events.

Turn of the Century (1890s-1900s)

• Library of Congress, Chronicling America, first record using term "homosexual" in a piece titled "Cause and Cure of Anarchy" (1898) in the Omaha Daily Bee. The piece describes Luigi Lucheni, an Italian anarchist who assassinated Empress Elisabeth of Austria the same year, stating "he was like Caserio... in temperament a homo-sexual". Caserio may be referring to Italian anarchist Sante Geronimo Caserio, who assassinated President of France, Marie François Sadi Carnot in 1894. The article is largely an attempt at psychoanalyzing people with anarchist leanings but has no real scientific or medical basis.
• Library of Congress, Chronicling America, next record using term "homosexuality" in a piece by Voice of the People titled "How the Southern Pacific Scabs were Herded" (1915). The piece describes homosexuality and prostitution as forms of degeneracy which are allegedly popular topics being discussed by scabs waiting for work. The article is written from the perspective of a union worker reporting to a Louisiana socialist newspaper.

1920s

• A Chicago newspaper remarks on the opening of the Institute for Sex Science in Germany under Dr. Hirschfeld.
• William J. Fielding publishes a book titled "Homosexual Life" in 1925. The book is an attempt at psychoanalyzing sexuality but has no real scientific or medical basis.
• Mae West's play The Drag is banned in the State of New York, some of the cast is arrested. The play is reported to have had strong "homosexual" themes (1927).

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World War II (1930s-1940s)

December 1934

• Waterbury Democrat, a newspaper in the State of Connecticut describes a Nazi purge and mass arrests in two articles in December 1934. 1000 arrests of gay citizens in German cities are reported between two days.
• Another newspaper in the State of California, Imperial Valley Press, shares the alleged denial from the Nazi government.

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May 1938

• The Evening Star, a newspaper for the Washington D.C., describes in May of 1938 the sentence of tennis player Baron Gottried von Cramm, "world's no. 2 amateur tennis player". He was allegedly sentenced to ten months in prison under section 175, which the Nazis used to criminalize gay relationships.

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October 1945

• A piece published across several newspapers in the USA in May of 1945 detailing war crimes being tried against the Nazis over the treatment of 40,000 prisoners, including gay prisoners.

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Post-War (1940s-1960s)

• Homophile Movement (1950s-1960s)
• Mattachine Society (1950s-1960s)

Blue Discharges 1947

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McCarthy and Republican Senators Pursue "Homosexuals" in Federal Agencies (1950)

• The Nome Nugget, a newspaper in the State of Alaska, publishes an article reporting "American foreign policy has been influenced by pro-communists, homosexuals, and a mastermind spying for Russia" (March 29, 1950).

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Stonewall (1960s-1980s)

• Christopher Street Liberation Day
• Gay Freedom Day

HIV/AIDS Crisis (1980s-1990s)

• ACT UP

State Archives

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• Washington D.C.