What was happening in the gay and lesbian movement 5, 10, 15, and 20 years ago this month?

Aug. 29­Sept. 4

1994: 5 Years Ago

U.S.: The 10th annual Wigstock festival takes place on the Christopher Street Piers in New York City.*The Total Zone, a thriller written by Martina Navratilova is in bookstores. *A Pakistani man who lives with his American lover and works at a fast food restaurant in Kansas City is granted asylum in the U.S. because of Pakistani persecution of homosexuals. *In Napa, Calif., a jury finds James Jennings, 23, guilty of 2nd­degree murder in the 1993 stabbing death of Rev. Ronald Maupin, a 47­year­old chaplain at a local Catholic hospital. Maupin and Jennings had met at a gay bar in San Francisco, and the priest offered to drive Jennings back to his home in Napa to smoke marijuana together. Jennings agreed to let Maupin perform oral sex on him, but balked at Maupin’s suggestion that they have anal sex. Jennings exploded and stabbed the priest six times in the chest.*Gay sailor Keith Meinhold wins another round in his fight to stay in the U.S. Navy. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 3Û‚ ruling that the military can bar gays for saying they ‘desire’ gay sex or ‘intend’ to have gay sex, but it cannot bar gays simply for saying they are gay.

1989: 10 Years Ago

U.S.: In Fort Lewis, Wash., Brigadier Gen. John Hutton, formerly the personal physician of Pres. Ronald Reagan and now commander of an army medical center, reveals that Reagan had little conception of the seriousness of AIDS: “He (Reagan) accepted it like it was measles and it would go away.” In New York City the Whitney Museum of American Art places a full­page ‘open letter’ in the Washington Post to protest Sen. Jesse Helms’ amendment to ban federal funds for art that is deemed ‘obscene and indecent’ or that carries a homoerotic theme. Matlovich: The Good Soldier by Mike Hippler is in bookstores. * Australia: In Mildura, a lesbian sculptor is fined $400 for ‘exhibiting an obscene expression in a public place.’ The sculpture is described as a rustic hut with a bed inside of it. On the floor of the hut is written: “She ran her tongue like fire across my nipples. She slipped her hand in my cunt and grinned.”*Italy: Bologna becomes the first Italian city to allocate public housing for gay couples as a result of a recent change by the Italian government which now defines a family as a ‘group of cohabiting persons tied together by bonds of affection.’

1984: 15 Years Ago

U.S.: Sandra Gillis, an openly lesbian staff member on the Walter Mondale­Geraldine Ferraro campaign, is appointed as a paid liaison to the gay and lesbian community for the Democratic presidential ticket.*The 5th annual West Coast Women’s Music & Comedy Festival is held at the San Marcos Camp near Santa Barbara, Calif. Entertainers include: Cris Williamson, Ginni Clemens, Alive!, Kate Clinton and the Alberta Jackson Band.*I Once Had a Master and Other Tales of Erotic Love by John Preston is in bookstores.

1979: 20 Years Ago

U.S.: The 10th anniversary convention of DIGNITY, the organization of gay Catholics, is held at the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego, Calif.*Harry Hay, his lover John Burnside, and other gay men launch a new group called the Radical Faeries at the Spiritual Conference for Radical Faeries.