1975 in LGBTQ rights

This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1975.

Events

January

• 1 - California decriminalizes private consensual adult homosexual acts. ^{[1] [2]}
• 7 — A Maricopa County clerk issues a marriage license to a same-sex couple. ^[3]

February

• The first gay-oriented television commercial airs on two Washington, D.C. stations. The Lambda Rising bookstore sponsored the ads on episodes of Phil Donahue and Marcus Welby, M.D. . Stations balked at airing the ads, but relented after getting approval from the Association of Broadcasters Standards office. ^{[4] [5]}
• 6 - John Damien, a racing steward at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is fired from his job for being gay, sparking a legal battle that eventually leads to the inclusion of sexual orientation in the Ontario Human Rights Code in 1986. ^[6]

March

• 26 — Boulder County, Colorado clerk Clela Rorex begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. ^[7] Colorado Attorney General J.D. MacFarlane later issues an opinion that the licenses are invalid and orders that no additional licenses be issued. ^[3]

April

• Milton Shapp, governor of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, issues the first state executive order banning sexual orientation employment discrimination by the government. ^[8]

July

• 1 — The U.S. state of Washington decriminalizes private consensual adult homosexual acts. ^[9]
• 3 — The United States Civil Service Commission ends its policy of automatically disqualifying gay and lesbian applicants. ^[10]

Deaths

• February 10 — Lige Clarke, LGBT rights activist and journalist. Murdered in Vera Cruz, Mexico. ^[11]

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

References

1. Painter, George. "The History of Sodomy Laws in the United States - California". www.glapn.org. Retrieved 1 November 2023. After years of lobbying, and after the adoption of the explicit privacy language in the California Constitution, a consenting adults law was enacted in 1975.
2. Tayrien, Mary Lee (1976). "CALIFORNIA "CONSENTING ADULTS" LAW: THE SEX ACT IN PERSPECTIVE". San Diego Law Review. 13 (439): 440. Archived from the original on September 7, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2025.
3. Lahey, Kathleen A. and Kevin Alderson (2004). Same-sex Marriage: The Personal and the Political, p. 18. Insomniac Press. ISBN   1-894663-63-2
4. O'Bryan, Will (June 8, 2005). "Firmly Rooted". Metro Weekly. Archived from the original on September 15, 2015. Retrieved June 11, 2025.
5. Sue Levin, In the Pink: The Making of Successful Gay- and Lesbian-Owned Businesses, Haworth Press, 1999. ISBN   978-1560239413; Frank Muzzy, Gay and Lesbian Washington D.C., Arcadia Publishing, 2005. ISBN   0-7385-1753-4
6. Robert Rothon, "The forgotten hero". Xtra Magazine , January 17, 2007.
7. "Colo. Clerk Recalls Issuing Same-Sex-Marriage Licenses — In 1975". NPR.org. July 18, 2014. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
8. Burton, William (8 October 2018). "The story of how Pennsylvania's governor became an unlikely LGBTQ hero". LGBTQ Nation. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
9. "Chapter 9.79.100 RCW Dispositions Sex Crimes". Washington State Legislature. Retrieved June 11, 2025.
10. Johnson, David K. (2009). The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government, p 210. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press. ISBN   0226401960
11. Bullough, Vern L. (2002). Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Contextp. 239. Routledge. ISBN   1-56023-193-9