Houston LGBT History Timeline

1950s

Year

In Houston/Texas

Other Events in United States
1950
  The Mattachine Society founded by Harry Hay and friends in Los Angeles.

Bi-racial Knights of the Clock founded by Merton Bird and W. Dorr Legg in Los Angeles

1951
 

Edward Sagarin publishes The Homosexual in America: A Subjective Approach, under the name Donald Webster Cory, a pseudonym chosen to allude to Gide’s Corydon. It is the first widely read non-fiction book in the U.S. to present knowledgeably and sympathetically the plight of the homosexual as told from the inside rather than the outside

1952
 

American Psychological Association Classifies Homosexuality as a Mental Disorder

ONE, Inc. founded, taking its name from a famous quote by Thomas Carlyle, "A mystic bond of brotherhood makes all men one"

1953

11 April, Waco. A “statewide convention of homosexuals” was raided by 17 detectives, police and Texas Rangers. Storming a South Waco cottage on LaSalle St. they found 67 mostly Dallas men, with several wearing women's clothing, makeup and high heels. A photo of Tommy Gene Brown, wearing a pearl-embroidered wedding gown, appeared on the city newspaper front page.

Sexual Behavior in the Human Female by Kinsey, et al

ONE Magazine begins publication

Ex-GI George Jorgensen becomes Christine Jorgensen. Jorgenson was not the first person to undergo sex-change surgery, but her media-savvy personality and glamorous looks made her a household name

1954

March 25. First Diana Awards in Houston, TX...still having their awards every year, and giving funds raised to local charities, the group is the oldest, continually active gay organization in America. Their website, the Story, Part 1 Part 2

 

1955
  The Ladder Daughters of Bilitis Founded in San Francisco by Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin and three other lesbian couples to provide an alternative to the bar scenebegins publication

Publication of Jame Baldwin's Giovanni's Room

1956
 

The Ladder begins publication

Publication of Jame Baldwin's Giovanni's Room

1957
 

Evelyn Hooker paper Adjustment of the Overt Homosexual published in the Journal of Projective Techniques, XXI, 1957, pp. 18-31

Obscenity trial for Allen Ginsberg’s Howl

Ann Bannon’s first pulp fiction novel Odd Girl Out

1958
 

ONE magazine wins suit against the U.S.P.S. Afterwards, lesbian and gay publications could be sent through the mail.

Artists Chuck Renslow and Domingo Orejudos (a.k.a. "Etienne") establish the first leather bar in the U.S., the Gold Coast, which continues to sponsor the International Mr. Leather contest each Memorial Day weekend.

1959
   

1940s & Prior
1950s

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