May, 2016: The Obama administration publicly supports transgender students. The Obama administration announced that they are preparing to designate New York’s Stonewall Inn, the site of those historic riots in 1969, the first-ever national monument dedicated to gay rights. May, 2016: The Stonewall Inn will become a national monument.
Senators Jeff Merkley, Tammy Baldwin, and Cory Booker, as well as Representative David Cicilline formerly introduced The Equality Act, which would make LGBTQ individuals a protected class and grant them basic legal protections in areas of life including education, housing, employment, credit, and more. July 23, 2015: The Equality Act is introduced. This rule went into effect, but now-President Donald Trump rescinded this right, again banning transgender people from the military as of April, 2019. Defense Secretary, Ashton Carter, announced that the military would lift a ban that prevents transgender Americans from serving in the country’s armed forces.
July, 2015: The military will allow transgender Americans to serve openly in the military. Defense Secretary, Ashton Carter, announced that it would officially be added to the anti-discrimination policy. Though “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed in 2011, sexual orientation was still not a protected class (unlike race, religion, sex, age, and national origin) under the Military Equal Opportunity Policy - until June of 2015, when the U.S. June, 2015: Sexual orientation is added to the military’s anti-discrimination policy. history, the words “lesbian,” “bisexual,” and “transgender,” were used in the president’s State of the Union address, when President Obama mentioned that, as Americans, we “respect human dignity” and condemn the persecution of minority groups.Īpril, 2015: Obama calls for end to conversion therapy.Īfter the tragic suicide of a transgender teenager who was subjected to Christian conversion therapy, President Obama publicly called for an end to the dangerous practice meant to change people's sexual orientation or gender identities. January, 2015: President Obama acknowledges the LGTBQ community in the State of the Union address.įor the first time in U.S. But in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled DOMA to be unconstitutional, which meant same-sex couples married in their own states could receive those federal benefits. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which became a law in 1996, declared that marriages between gay or lesbian couples were not recognized by the federal government, meaning those couples could not receive legal benefits - like Social Security and health insurance - that straight married couples could.
The new law expanded previous hate crime legislation to officially categorize crimes motivated by actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability as hate crimes. The act was named for two men who were murdered in hate crimes - Matthew Shepard because he was gay, and James Byrd, Jr. President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act becomes a law. October, 2009: The Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Vermont became the first state in the country to give same-sex couples the right to enter into civil unions - legal partnerships which would grant those couples the same rights and benefits as those in legal marriages. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), voluntarily came out as gay, making him the second openly gay member of congress, and the first to come out voluntarily, in the country’s history.Īpril, 2000: Vermont takes a huge step toward same-sex marriage legalization. After spending six years on Capitol Hill, Rep.