1967-03-07 CBS Television Airs "The Homosexuals"

CBS television airs The Homosexuals, the first network TV documentary in the U.S. on gay men. Narrated by Mike Wallace, a well-respected newscaster, it featured long segments with psychiatrists who considered homosexuals to be mentally ill, and an interview with a gay man whose face was blocked from view and who declared “I’m sick in a lot of ways.” An estimated 40 million Americans saw the show.

1967-05-22 Supreme Court issues ruling in Boutilier vs. INS

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court rules, in Boutilier v. INS, that under the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, the Immigration and Naturalization Service can exclude foreign nationals who were homosexual from coming to the United States. Congress, it said, clearly intended that homosexuals be included under the phrase of “psychopathic personality,” a category of individuals who were excluded from the United States. The decision involved Clive Boutilier, a Canadian.

1967-11-24 Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore Opens in NYC

Craig Rodwell opens the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, the nation’s first gay and lesbian bookstore, on Mercer Street in NYC, declaring it “a book shop for the homophile movement.” Rodwell later moved the store to Christopher Street, just a block away from the site of the Stonewall Inn and the 1969 riots that gave birth to the gay liberation movement. The store, which remained open until 2009, was a hub of political networking for many years.