It is important to note that there existed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, communities, and relationships long before these terms became commonplace. Gay and lesbian relationships existed in ancient Rome and Greece communities and are shown in a variety of art from that time. The years when common terms began to be used are listed first followed by important LGBTQ history events:
Lesbian – 1732 – the term lesbian first used by William King in his book, The Toast, published in England which meant women who loved women.
Homosexual – 1869 – Hungarian journalist Karl-Maria Kertheny first used the term homosexual.
Bisexual – 1894/1967. 1872 – the pamphlet, “Psychopathia Sexualis” was translated from German and one of the first times the term bisexual is used. 1967: Sexual Freedom League formed in San Francisco in support of bisexual people.
Gay – 1955 – the term gay was used throughout Europe earlier, but this is the year most agree that gay came to mean same-sex relationships between men.
Transgender – 1965 – John Oliven, in his book, Sexual Hygiene and Pathology, used the term transgender to mean a person who identifies with a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth.
Colonial Life and Founding of the Nation (1607-1770)
1607 – Founding of Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America.
1619 – Approximately 20 Africans sold into slavery in Jamestown, Virginia.
1620 – Colonial Plymouth established with Puritan norms. Mayflower contract signed by the men in the group “…for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith…” Established gender norms that determined the nuclear family unit was the basis for all other institutions such as government or church. Men held leadership positions, while women’s purpose was submissive and to “please your husband and make him happy.”
1624 – Richard Cornish of the Virginia Colony is tried and hanged for sodomy.
1630 – Massachusetts Bay Colony was established believing they had made a “covenant with God to build an ideal Christian community.”
1631 – Massachusetts Bay General Court, in accordance with Puritan religious and moral beliefs, declared that the following were considered sex crimes and were punishable by whipping, banishment or execution: fornication, adultery, rape, and sodomy.
1637, 1638 – Trials of Anne Hutchinson in the Massachusetts colony for holding religious meetings in her home since she was not allowed to hold these types of meetings in the male-dominated churches. She was banned from the community.
1649 – Sarah White Norman and Mary Vincent Hammon are charged with “lewd behavior” in Plymouth, Massachusetts, believed to be the first conviction for lesbian behavior in the new world.
1687 – New England Primer published and used in colonial schools (90 pages). Some consider this as the first school-based textbook. Content included letters and words, as well as religious-based prayers and instruction such as, “God created man, male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.”
1691 – Virginia passes the first anti-miscegenation law, forbidding marriage between whites and blacks or whites and Native Americans (overturned in 1967 in Loving v. Virginia).
1714 – Sodomy laws in place in the early colonies and in the colonial militia. These laws remained in place until challenged in 1925.