The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision Friday that bans on gay marriage are unconstitutional, concluding decades of hard-fought battles by gay rights activists to grant marriage equality to all. Here is a timeline of milestones in the gay rights movement in the U.S.:
1953: President Eisenhower warns nation of growing homosexual-industrial complex
June 28, 1969: Riots break out at Stonewall in Greenwich Village in history’s only example of useful protest against being asked to leave a bar
December 15, 1973: American Psychiatric Association downgrades homosexuality from mental disorder to quirk
November 27, 1978: Gay rights activist Harvey Milk assassinated, setting the stage for Sean Penn’s Oscar-winning 2008 performance
September 1994: First gay TV character who has personality traits other than being gay scrapped by NBC executives
September 21, 1996-June 26, 2013: Marriage defended
September 21, 1998: Premiere of hit sitcom Will & Grace shows millions of Americans that gay people can be just as grating as heterosexuals
May 17, 2004: Massachusetts becomes first state to legalize gay marriage after Governor Mitt Romney makes first mistake of forthcoming presidential campaign
April 2, 2005: Public high school teacher Sarah Collins shows 15 minutes of the movie Philadelphia to a room full of teenagers
December 18, 2010: Senate repeals “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” granting LGBT military members the right to be absolutely terrified to serve openly
May 23, 2013: Boy Scouts of America officially allows gay scouts to be tolerated
July 16, 2014: In Life With Archie Issue 37, iconic all-American comic book character Archie Andrews dies throwing himself in front of a bullet aimed at his gay friend and loudly proclaiming “This comic book series is on the right side of history”
July 26, 2015: The Supreme Court rules that bans against gay marriage are unconstitutional, backdating the decision to 1993 to spare the nation from embarrassment
June 18, 2025: United States’ homosexual overlords sacrifice another 100,000 breeders to the flames
