1972 in LGBTQ rights

This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1972.

Events

• San Francisco prohibits employment discrimination based on sexual orientation in the public sector. The city also prohibits companies that have contracts with the city from discriminating based on sexual orientation. ^[1]
• The U.S. state of Ohio repeals its sodomy law. ^{[2] [3]}

January

• 1 — U.S. state of Hawaii repeals its sodomy law. ^[4]

March

• 1 - Different parts of Norway legalize homosexual activity and age of consents becomes equal. ^[5]
• 7 — East Lansing, Michigan, becomes the first United States city to ban discrimination against homosexuals in housing, public accommodation, and employment. ^[6]

April

• 1 — U.S. state of Delaware decriminalizes consensual homosexual acts between adults. ^[4]
• 5 - Lithuania, Georgia, Estonia, Turkmenistan, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, all a part of the Soviet Union, recognizes the right to change legal gender with surgery. ^[5]
• 21 - In Sweden, it becomes legal to change genders, but requires surgery. ^[5]
• 21 - In Norway, homosexuality is decriminalized. ^[5]

June

• 27 — Gay News , the first gay magazine in the United Kingdom, publishes its first issue. ^[7]

July

• 1 — The U.K. Gay Liberation Front holds the first ever U.K. Gay Pride in London. ^{[8] [9]}
• 12 — Delegates Jim Foster and Madeline Davis become the first openly LGBT people to address a major U.S. political party's convention at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. ^[10]
• 24 — Peter Maloney announces his candidacy for the Toronto Board of Education in the Toronto municipal election, 1972, becoming Canada's first known openly gay political candidate. ^[11]

October

• 10 — The United States Supreme Court issues its ruling in Baker v. Nelson , in which the plaintiffs sought to have Minnesota's restriction of marriage to different-sex couples declared unconstitutional. The Court dismisses the case "for want of a substantial federal question". ^[12]

Deaths

• August 2 — Paul Goodman, U.S. poet, writer, and public intellectual. The freedom with which Goodman revealed, in print and in public, his homosexual life and loves proved to be one of the many important cultural springboards for the emerging gay liberation movement of the early 1970s. ^[13]
• December 31 — Henry Gerber, German-born American LGBT rights activist. Founded the Society for Human Rights, the first LGBT organization in the United States. ^[14]

See also

• LGBTQ portal

• Timeline of LGBT history — timeline of events from 12,000 BCE to present
• LGBT rights by country or territory — current legal status around the world
• LGBT social movements

Notes

1. "The 1970s". SF Gay History. 27 September 2015. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
2. "Ohio". www.glapn.org. Archived from the original on 23 September 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
3. "Ohio Prohibited Consensual Sexual Activity Laws". FindLaw . Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
4. William N. Eskridge, Dishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America, 1861-2003 (NY: Penguin Group, 2008), 201, available online, accessed April 9, 2011
5. "1972 in LGBT Rights History". Equaldex. Archived from the original on April 21, 2025. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
6. Faderman, p. 228; American Independent: Todd Heywood, "East Lansing celebrates nation’s oldest LGBT nondiscrimination law," March 6, 2012 Archived March 18, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , accessed March 6, 2012
7. "Gay News 1972". British Library. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
8. "The Gay Liberation Front". LSE History. 25 April 2023. Archived from the original on 13 July 2023. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
9. "'What I learnt from the first Pride march 50 years ago'". openDemocracy. 1 July 2022. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
10. Bianco, p. 318
11. "Homosexual plans to run for seat on school board". Toronto Star , July 25, 1972.
12. Baker v. Nelson , 409US810 (United States Supreme Court2010-10-10).
13. "Paul Goodman 1911-1972". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
14. "Henry Gerber". Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 2009-07-03. Retrieved 2009-08-26.

References

• Bianco, David (1999). Gay Essentials: Facts For Your Queer Brain. Los Angeles, Alyson Publications. ISBN   1-55583-508-2.
• Faderman, Lillian (2007). Great Events From History: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Events, 1848-2006. Salem Press. ISBN   1-58765-264-1.