GLAA members, Michael Singerman, Frank Kameny, Barrett Brick, RicK Rosendall, and Craig Howell, marching at Capital Pride 1990s.

1991

• GLAA initiates Condom Availability Coalition, which leads to adoption by Public Health Commissioner in 1992 of condom availability program in District schools and prisons.
• GLAA leads effort, in coalition with Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV) and other groups, to launch first annual Walk Without Fear, a community rally, march, and candlelight vigil against anti-gay and -lesbian violence.

1992

• DC Council passes Health Care Benefits Expansion Act, popularly known as the Domestic Partnership bill, after years of coalition leadership by GLAA.
• GLAA, with the collaboration of the Gay and Lesbian Education Fund, produces a dramatic 60-second public awareness radio spot, which it runs on stations WMZQ and WPGC, describing the consequences of homophobia and calling for the listener to speak out against bigotry.

1993

• DC Council reforms District sodomy statute with language drafted by GLAA member Frank Kameny, legalizing private, consensual sodomy.
• GLAA member and Community Pioneer, Barrett Brick, delivers “A Sacred Obligation,” at the dedication of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation Friday, April 23, 1993.

1994

• GLAA and GLOV succeed in getting Hate Crimes law implemented by DC police after years of struggle.

Tyra Hunter

1995

• GLAA works with other groups to pressure the District government to pay AIDS service providers on time
• GLAA participates in first annual political forum during Lesbian and Gay Freedom Festival on the state of the local gay and lesbian movement.
• GLAA files amicus brief in lawsuit against proposed DC School Prayer Initiative, which is ruled "patently unconstitutional" in April 1996 and kept off the ballot.
• GLAA joins in protest and pressure against DC Fire Department in response to the death of transgendered citizen Tyra Hunter following the withholding of proper emergency treatment from her after a traffic accident; pressure is kept on Fire Chief Otis Latin when the department's investigation into the incident is bungled.

1996

• GLAA helps persuade the District government to reconsider its 1995 ruling that the Boy Scouts of America is a "distinctly private club" that may bar gays from participating as leaders or scouts.
• GLAA launches its website (glaa.org) to facilitate participation by gay and lesbian citizens in the District's political process through online access to GLAA materials such as testimony, position papers, candidate ratings, information on upcoming events, and a directory of DC officials.

1997

• Gay rights supporters claim a partial victory against the Boy Scouts of America when, after a long delay, the DC Office of Human Rights issues a finding that paid BSA employees are covered by the DC Human Rights Act.
• With support from The Crew Club and the Gay and Lesbian Business Guild, GLAA launches an advertising campaign in The Washington Blade, City Paper, Metro Weekly, and InTowner, in which GLAA questions the District government's priorities and criticizes the Metropolitan Police Department and the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs for their harassment of gay businesses.
• GLAA joins the Metropolitan Police and Criminal Justice Review Task Force established by the DC Branch of the NAACP.

1998

• GLAA persuades the DC Corporation Counsel to withdraw offensive arguments from the government's brief in a civil suit brought against the District government by the mother of the late Tyra Hunter, a transgendered citizen (see 1995 item). One of the withdrawn arguments had been that the DC Fire Department was not covered by the DC Human Rights Law.
• GLAA and GLOV participate in the Mayor's Citizens Advisory Committee on the Selection of the Chief of Police, which plays an active role in the process leading to the confirmation of Charles Ramsey (Chicago's deputy police superintendent, with a strong record in community-based policing) as the new Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. Upon his swearing-in he immediately seeks a meeting with gay leaders, as does the new Commander of the MPD Homicide Division, Ross Swope.
• GLAA, in a broad-based coalition including local chapters of ACLU and NAACP, succeeds in pushing legislation through the DC Council re-establishing a Citizen Complaint Review Board to investigate citizen complaints of police abuse.
• GLAA and the DC Coalition join the Federation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Statewide Political Organizations, and begin working with the Federation and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, along with a broad-based coalition of local activists, to plan Equality Begins at Home in DC for the week of March 21-27, 1999.

1999

• GLAA and the DC Coalition sponsor DC's Equality Begins at Home — a week-long series of events timed to coincide with similar efforts at statehouses throughout the country — featuring a rally in Freedom Plaza and lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill urging members of Congress to respect DC Home Rule and oppose homophobic amendments to the DC Appropriations Bill.
• Mayor Anthony Williams, after aggressive organizing and lobbying efforts by GLAA and others, agrees to seek an out-of-court settlement in the case of Tyra Hunter, a transgendered citizen who died in August 1995 following an automobile accident after emergency medical workers withdrew care and ridiculed her when they discovered her male genitalia. The DC Corporation Counsel continues to drag its feet for several months after the announcement.
• The DC Appropriations Working Group — a coalition including GLAA, ACT UP Washington, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, congressional staffers, and many others working closely with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton — succeeds for the first time in defeating on the House floor an anti-gay amendment that would prohibit adoptions in the District by unmarried couples.
• Mayor Anthony Williams, faced with a veto-proof DC Council majority opposed to HIV names reporting, announces that he will keep his campaign promise to GLAA and respect confidentiality concerns by implementing a unique-identifier-based system for tracking cases of HIV infection. GLAA had laid the groundwork for this by lobbying extensively and by obtaining written pledges on the issue from mayoral and council candidates during the 1998 election.

2000

• Superintendent Arlene Ackerman issues an anti-harassment directive for DC Public Schools in response to GLAA lobbying for such a policy to protect all students including sexual minority youth.
• Fulfilling a pledge made by Mayor Williams in 1999, the District agrees to pay Margie Hunter $1.75 million in settlement of her lawsuit against the city for the wrongful death of her transgendered child, Tyra, as a result of discrimination and medical malpractice following an automobile accident in August 1995.

2001

• The Office of Citizen Complaint Review opens for business after several years of efforts by GLAA, ACLU/NCA, NAACP-DC, and others.
• At the request of DC Office of Human Rights Director Charles Holman, members of GLAA and the Intersex Society of North America brief OHR staff on intersexuality and its medical, ethical and legal dimensions.
• After a lobbying campaign by a coalition of local and national groups, the DC Appropriations bill for FY 2002 is passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by the president without a spending ban on the District's 1992 domestic partnership law — the Health Care Benefits Expansion Act — finally allowing the law to be implemented.

2002

• The District begins registration of domestic partners after ten years of being prohibited from doing so by the U.S. Congress.
• The Human Rights Amendment Act of 2002 becomes law, amending the DC Human Rights Act to make harassment a form of discrimination under the Act, and to make explicit the right of persons to sue the District government for violations under the Act.
• The DC Board of Education, complementing the DC Council passage of the Human Rights Amendment Act, amends school policies to prohibit harassment and sexual harassment.

2003

• Activist John Aravosis launches the "Safe Streets DC" web campaign against police inaction in the District.
• The Health Care Decisions Act of 2003 becomes law, amending the DC Code to include domestic partners and close friends among the persons authorized to make health-care decisions for incapacitated individuals.

2004

• GLAA releases report identifying 212 rights and responsibilities of marriage in the District of Columbia.
• The Elimination of Outdated Crimes Amendment Act of 2003 becomes law, repealing outdated anti-sex laws including those against adultery and fornication. Thanks to the efforts of GLAA progenitor Frank Kameny, a provision of the new law prevents the government from using the undefined common law to prosecute people for crimes that have been repealed.

Poster for "We Are Family - Unity Weekend."

2005

• GLAA co-sponsors “We Are Family – Unity Weekend, Fighting Oppression and Homophobia in the Black Community, the Black Church and the Black March.”
• Agreeing with GLAA's recommendation, Council Chairman Linda Cropp breaks up the unwieldy Committee on Human Services to create a new Committee on Health. She names gay Councilmember David Catania (Independent, At-Large) as its chair, and he immediately pursues an aggressive program of reform.
• The First Amendment Rights and Police Practices Act of 2004, authored by Councilmember Kathy Patterson with strong backing from the ACLU, GLAA and other groups, becomes law, providing additional protections for the exercise of peaceful free speech in the District of Columbia.

Signage from GLAA's protest against Iranian persecution of LGBT people. Photo by Rick Rosendall.

2006

• GLAA prepares extract of GLBT- and HIV/AIDS-related entries from State Department Country Human Rights Reports for 2005, makes it available online as a resource for international human rights activists.
• The Human Rights Clarification Amendment Act of 2005 becomes law, making explicit the intent of the D.C. Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression.
• The Domestic Partnership Equality Act of 2005 becomes law, adding several rights and responsibilities to domestic partners that already apply to spouses.
• GLAA joins protests against Iranian persecution of GLBT people.

Frank Kameny with picket signs from the Smithsonian exhibit.

2007

• GLAA prepares extract of GLBT and HIV/AIDS-related entries from State Department Country Human Rights Reports for 2006, makes it available online as a resource for international human rights activists.
• Four bills supported by GLAA — the Domestic Partnerships Joint Filing Act of 2006, Domestic Partnership Property Equity Act of 2006, Homeless Shelter Monitoring Amendment Act of 2006, and Safe and Stable Homes for Children and Youth Amendment Act of 2007 — become law.
• DC Superior Court Judge Geoffrey M. Alprin finds probable cause against D.C. Fire & Emergency Medical Services personnel and management in the case of EEO Expert Kenda Kirby, who had charged Fire/EMS with creating a hostile work environment and discriminating based on sex/gender, sexual orientation/gender identity and personal appearance/physical characteristics. GLAA, which provided financial assistance to Ms. Kirby to help cover her legal costs, urges Mayor Fenty to instruct Attorney General Linda Singer to make a prompt and just settlement with Ms. Kirby; the city drags its feet.

The Smithsonian displays the actual picket signs from the first gay protest at the White House in 1965. Frank Kameny is pictured behind Jack Nichols in the front. Photo UPII/Corbis-Bettmann.

• The One-Time Relocation of Licensees Displaced by the Ballpark and Skyland Development Project Amendment Act of 2007, introduced by Councilmember Jim Graham, is passed and becomes law after heavy lobbying by GLAA, but it is watered down so heavily due to pressure from Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. that it is doubtful any of the displaced gay clubs will actually be able to relocate.
• GLAA and activist Peter Rosenstein lead community mobilization effort to prevent the decentralization of the Metropolitan Police Department's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU). Police Chief Cathy Lanier meets with community leaders and agrees to preserve the core unit while expanding the unit's reach into patrol areas throughout the city.
• The Smithsonian displays Frank Kameny's historic picket signs (August 31, 2007).

2008

• GLAA prepares extract of GLBT and HIV/AIDS-related entries from State Department Country Human Rights Reports for 2007, makes it available online as a resource for international human rights activists.
• A broad coalition of transgender equality supporters, including the DC Trans Coalition and GLAA, opposes a proposed rulemaking that would effectively exempt the D.C. Department of Corrections (DOC) from the requirements of the DC.
• Human Rights Act (DCHRA) as they protect transgender detainees.
• The proposed rulemaking is withdrawn, and a new policy is developed which, while still short of the coalition's goal, improves protections by such changes as establishing a Transgender Committee in DOC and allowing detainees access to hormone therapy.
• GLAA testifies on the confirmation of Peter Nickles as D.C. Attorney General, noting that instead of confronting the entrenched homophobia and transphobia within the Office of the Attorney General, he has exacerbated the problem during his tenure as Acting AG.
• GLAA urges the Council not to confirm him unless he: stops efforts to weaken the rules enforcing transgender protections under DCHRA; ends OAG’s opposition to the Domestic Partnership Judicial Determination of Parentage Act of 2008; and commits to consulting the GLBT community on legal protections for GLBT people and their families.
• The Council's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary votes not to confirm Nickles, but is overruled by the full Council. Nonetheless, GLAA's efforts lead to a productive series of meetings with Nickles and his staff attorneys on both the transgender protections and the parentage bill.
• The Safe Marriage Amendment Act of 2007, supported by GLAA as amended, becomes law. It eliminates archaic provisions voiding marriages between idiots, lunatics, and those physically incapable of entering into the marital state; and repeals the requirement of a premarital blood test, which state after state has determined to be cost-ineffective and counterproductive.
• The Domestic Partnership Police and Fire Amendment Act of 2008, supported by GLAA and introduced by Councilmembers Phil Mendelson, Jack Evans, and Carol Schwartz, passes. It gives domestic partners equity in retirement benefits; includes them as survivors for purposes of police and fire retirements; and includes them among the relatives responsible for hospitalization costs of a mentally ill relation. It becomes law March 25, 2009.
• The Kameny Papers opens.

2009

• GLAA releases 10 Talking Points on Marriage Equality.
• GLAA’s blog, the GLAA Forum, is officially launched.
• Marriage Recognition Bill becomes law in Washington, DC.
• DC Council passes the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 (Bill 18-482) (Authored by Councilmember David Catania, along with Chairman Vincent C. Gray, Councilmembers Phil Mendelson, Kwame R. Brown, Michael A. Brown, Jim Graham, Jack Evans, Mary M. Cheh, Muriel Bowser, and Tommy Wells).
• President Obama signs the Hate Crimes Bill.
• Department of State HIV/AIDS Travel Ban Lifted.

• Marriage Equality becomes law in Washington, DC on March 3, 2010.

Looking Ahead

To quote then GLAA president Rick Rosendall who, when he made these remarks during GLAA’s 25th Anniversary Gala back in 1996, was paraphrasing former South African President Nelson Mandela:

We have taken a moment here to rest... to look back on the distance we have come. But we can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and we dare not linger, for our long walk is not yet ended.

REFERENCES

• Clendinen, Dudley and Adam Nagourney (1999). Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America. New York, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684810913.

• Kaiser, Charles (1997). The Gay Metropolis: 1940-1996. New York, Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0395657814.