Gay Rights in the UK and further afield.

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We are starting at 1967 because homosexuality in the UK was illegal until this year.

 

1967

 

• Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalises homosexual acts between consenting adults over the age of 21 and in private.

 

1970

 

• London Gay Liberation Front (GLF) established in the UK.

 

1972

 

• First London Pride is held and attracts around 2,000 people.

• Gay News, the first gay newspaper, is founded.

 

1974 

 

• London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard is established in London.

• The 1st National TV/TS (Transvestite/Transexual) Conference is held in Leeds.

 

1980

 

• Sex between two men over 21 in private is decriminalised in Scotland.

• The first Black Gay and Lesbian Group is formed in the UK.

 

1982

 

• The Homosexual Offences Order decriminalises sex between two men over 21 in private in Northern Ireland. 

 

1983

 

• Guernsey decriminalises sex between two men.

 

1987

 

• The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) is established to promote acceptance for transgender people.

 

1988

 

• Section 28 introduced in the UK by the Local Government Act which prevents the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality which became enforced in Law.

• Stonewall UK formed in response to Section 28.

• Denmark becomes the first country to give legal recognition to same-sex partnerships. 

 

1990

 

• Jersey decriminalises sex between two men.

• Lesbian and Gay Police Association established in the UK.

• Manchester and Northern Ireland hold their first Pride events.

 

1992

 

• Brighton Pride is held for the first time.

• World Health Organisation declassifies homosexuality as mental illness.

• Isle of Man repeals sodomy laws.

 

1994

 

• Age of consent lowered to 18.

• Isle of Man decriminalises sex between two men.

 

1995

 

• Mermaids established to give appropriate information to young people, families or professionals working with gender variant young people.

 

1997

 

• Equality Network established in Scotland to ensure LGBT voices are heard in policy making.

 

1999

 

• Trans Day of Remembrance is founded in the US to remember all the people who were murdered as a result of transphobia.

• Admiral Duncan pub is bombed, killing 3 and injuring 70.

 

2000

 

• UK Government lifts ban on LGB people serving in the armed forces.

• Scotland abolishes Section 28.

• Age of consent lowered to 16.

 

2002

 

• Gay partners given the same rights as married couples.

 

2003

 

• Section 28 repealed in England and Wales.

• Regulations introduced for the prohibition of discrimination in employment based on the grounds of sexual orientation.

 

2004

 

• Gender Recognition and Civil Partnership Acts introduced.

• Sexual Offences Act 2003 swept away all previous legislation.

 

2005

 

• UK held first civil partnerships.

 

2006

 

• Isle of Man lowers age of consent to 16 and repeals Section 28.

 

2007

 

• The Equality Act outlaws discrimination on goods, facilities, services, education and public functions based on the grounds of sexual orientation.

 

2008

 

• Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act recognises same-sex couples as legal parents of children conceived through donated eggs, sperm or embryos.

• Gendered Intelligence (GI) is established in the UK.

 

2011

 

• Ban on gay men donating blood was revised to a 12 moth deferral before they can donate.

 

2014

 

• Same sex marriage becomes legal in the UK.

 

2015

 

• Royal Vauxhall Tavern first building the UK to be given special listing status based on its LGBT history.

• US legalises same-sex marriage.

 

2016

 

• Isle of Man legalises same-sex marriages.

• Gunman kills 49 people in LGBT nightclub PULSE in Orlando.

• President Obama declares The Stonewall Inn the USA’s first national monument to LGBT rights.

• North Carolina and other states, under the newly voted President Trump, introduces a Bathroom Bill to stop transpeople using public restrooms that do no match the gender for which they were assigned at birth.

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