In Houston/Texas

Jack Valinski, Carol Clark and Brian Keever co-found the Pride Committee of Houston so that Pride could become a year-round project, separate from the Caucus.

July 4. Paul Broussard murdered, galvanizing the community.

August 30th Houston Post columnist, Juan R. Palomo, is dismissed from his job. He had planned on revealing his own sexual preference in a July 9th column decrying the lack of public outrage over the slaying of Paul Broussard, but the editors published a revised edition deleting the reference to his own homosexuality. When he discussed the conflict with his editors with the Houston Press, he was fired. Protests were led by supporters of Palomo’s from the Latino community and by Queer Nation Houston, which had formed in January. Thirty colleagues of his at the Post left their desks at deadline to pick up signs. Within the week, he was rehired. Q-Patrol, an affinity group began shortly after.

In response to the Broussard murder, the Houston Police Department start “Operation Vice Versa” an undercover sting operation in which officers posed as homosexuals. During the 15 days of "Operation Vice Versa," five undercover officers were attacked-sprayed with Mace and hit with a baseball bat and a tree branch. One policeman was punched in the face by a man who apologized after his arrest, saying he had thought the officer was "a damn queer."

LiB, Lesbians in Business formed, with Suzanne Anderson at the helm.

November 3. Phillip W. Smith, 24, shot outside Heaven at about 1:30 a.m. He died in Ben Taub Hospital about 3 a.m. of a gunshot wound to the chest. Three nights later a Queer Nation protest took place at the headquarters of the Houston Police Department.

Queer Nation activism, November 8, another protest, this time at City Hall.

Q-Patrol founded.

Founded in New Orleans in 1970, the Krewe of Olympus moved to Houston in 1991 and held its first ball the next year. Their chief aim is to present theatrical and educational events that perpetuate and continue Mardi Gras traditions and to raise money for community charities

State Representative Glen Maxey wins the run-off election to become the first openly gay official in the history of the state of Texas.

Texas Human Rights Foundation files a Friend of the Court Brief in the Texas Court of Appeals against the Texas Penal Code Section 21.06, the state's notorious anti-sodomy statue, while the Texas Attorney General pushes on with his appeal to have the law reinstated.

Lesbian/Gay Pride Week in Houston gains 501 (C)(3) status and takes on the new name PRIDE Committee of Houston, Inc.It is set to operate as a year-round organization to plan, organize, and manage events in celebration of Gay and Lesbian Pride Week. As one of its first acts, the new board establishes the Founder's Award, which it presents to Larry Bagneris, former president of the Gay Political Caucus and, from its inception until his move back to his native New Orleans, the driving force behind the parade's form and structure. In keeping with the parade's theme, “Pride = Power,” and its emphasis on the volunteerism of the community, the Gay/Lesbian Switchboard of Houston (which has served as a clearinghouse for information about the gay community, its people, organizations and their events for the past decade) is chosen Honorary Grand Marshal and leads more than 80 units, including a group from Texas A&M University. State Representative Debra Danburg, Congressional candidate Ben Reyes, City Councilwoman Shelia Jackson Lee, and Harris Country Precinct 1 Constable Jack Abercia appear at the post-parade rally, evidence of the increasing acceptance of gays and the recognition of their political power.

September. First Annual Houston Transgender Unity Banquet began as a way for the different Trans Groups to find a cohesive place to unify and to rid the community of divisiveness.

LHI, the Lesbian Health Initiative began in 1992, reaching out to all LGBT women.

The National Gay Task Force leads demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas, where Pat Buchanan has declared a culture war on gay and lesbian people.

October. While based in Austin, the publication Texas Triangle served all of Texas, lasting until around late 2004.

Feb 15. Publisher Greg Jeu started Outsmart Magazine, a monthly classy endeavor, covering the news, culture and social aspects of the community.

September. The Houston Area Bears were formed, a social and service organization.

After the death due to AIDS of business and activist Jay Hollyfield, the Hollyfield Foundation was endowed by his estate

Candace Gingrich, the outspoken lesbian half-sister of Speaker of the House and gay rights foe Newt Gingrich, is named Grand Marshal of the Houston Pride Parade. The choice thrusts a national spotlight on Houston's parade and adds Houston's voice to the growing national demand that there be an end to civilly sanctioned discrimination.

Marvin Davis, a.k.a. Lady Victoria Lust, one of the community's biggest AIDS fundraisers and founder of the Lady Victoria Lust Holiday Fund, dies suddenly of a Pulmonary Aneurysm.

QFest begins in 1996, when a group of maverick arts organizations collaborated and created The First Annual Houston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, better known as The HGLFF.

January 2. Annise Parker was sworn in on City Council as the first openly gay or lesbian elected official in the city of Houston.

Shortly after taking office Mayor Lee Brown makes good on a campaign promise to issue an executive order reversing the referendum of 1985 and issues executive order 1-8 banning discrimination against gay city employees. Councilman Rob Todd filed an injunction against it which held it up in the courts for a number of years.

May. A Gay & Lesbian Community Center has had a rocky history in Houston (see MAC) and restarted in May by leasing a building at 403 Hawthorne, and relocating in early 2003 to 3400 Montrose, and when that building was condemned, to the Dow School at 1900 Kane. Financial pressures led to its final closing around March of 2012.

November. Han-Net was the first internet presence that connected Houston GLBT activists, run by Brandon Wolf, and having up to 250 members at one point. Ran from 1998 to 2003.

Tyrone Garner and John Lawrence are arrested while having consensual sex in their Harris County apartment complex, after a false report of an armed intruder was given to police, setting the stage for a constitutional challenge to Section 21.06

In Austin, Charles Edward Lowery successfully uses the "Gay Panic" self-defense claim to avoid being convicted of the brutal murder of deaf and mute gay man Pablo Zuniga saying that Pablo made unwanted passes at him and then told him to drop his pants and give him his wallet.

PFLAG voted to include transgendered people in their mission statement

January. Houston Stonewall Young Democrats formed.

A record-breaking crowd of 100,000 watches as the intersection of Montrose and Westheimer glows with the light reflected off a disco ball measuring 8 1 / 2 feet across. An idea envisioned by Lee Harrington, the disco ball is made possible by funding from Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale who rides in the parade on a float with diva Martha Wash.

GCAM (Gulf Coast Archives and Museum of GLBT History, Inc.) founded in October.

The Houston Transgender community and its supporters began observing the Transgender Day of Remebrance in November of 1999 through the efforts of Vanessa Edwards Foster. It was held on the steps of City Hall with a candlelight vigil and reading of the previous years victims. Later the event was moved indoors to the Holocaust Museum of Houston, which was a fitting location because transgendered people were among the first grouops singled out by the Nazis.The event quickly overwhelmed the available space at the Museum and has since been held on the University of Houston Campus.