Houston LGBT History Timeline

1940s & Prior

Year

In Houston/Texas

Other Events in United States

1912
April 12, "Girl is Fined $12.45 for Walking in Street Dressed in Man's Garb."  
1925
June 26, A Houston newspaper article notes the arrest of a crossdresser.  
1930s
  During Chicago's "Pansy Craze" Ernest W. Burgess carries out the country's first extensive research project into homosexuality.
1936

August. Pink Elephant opens at 1115 Bell St., Houston, (corner of Bell and Fannin, now a parking lot), was open until December 1984, or 48 years

The Wagon Wheel Nite Club, at Airline & Little York, Houston, offered female impersonator entertainment during its run from 1936 to 1938, when it burned down (or was burned down)

 
1936
See article on Houston's Gay Thirties  

1940
 

 

1941
 

 

1942
 

 

1943

 

 

1944
 

Poet Robert Duncan, part of the Berkeley Renaissance, publishes The Homosexual in Society, one of the earliest formulations of a theory of gay rights in America

1945
 

 

1946
 

The Rev. George Augustine Hyde heads the firstchurch known to openly minister to and with homosexuals in the U.S.

1947
 

"Lisa Ben" begins publishing Vice Versa, the nation's first Lesbian periodical. See this link for every issue, and more.

1948
 

Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Kinsey, et al Homosexuality is presented as a natural part of the continuum of human sexuality. The findings on the incidence of homosexuality was far higher than anyone had suspected.

Harry Benjamin is introduced by Alfred Kinsey to a boy who wants to become a girl, and whose mother seeks a treatment to assist, rather than thwart the child. The following year, he begins treating transsexuals in San Francisco and New York with hormones. The Institute for Sexual Science had not previously done this; the treatment was entirely new.

1949
 

Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote

The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal

1940s & Prior
1950s

1960s

1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s

Houston's Gay Thirties