March 23-29
1998
U.S.: San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown leads a City Hall ceremony to marry 50 same-sex couples. * In Movieline, Angelina Jolie talks about her sexy scenes in Gia with Elizabeth Mitchell: ‘I wasn’t uncomfortable. It’s just not one of the things that makes me feel awkward. I also had a scene with a woman in Foxfire, but when the reviews came out, basically all they said was ‘Angelina Jolie has great tits.’ * In a speech to Wisconsin legislators, Green Bay Packers star Reggie White accuses the U.S. of going away from God and allowing homosexuality to ‘run rampant.’ ‘Homosexuality is a decision,’ said White, ‘It’s not a race.’ * Thailand: The annual transsexual beauty pageant takes place in Bangkok after a six year hiatus.
1993
U.S.: President Clinton says he would consider segregating gay troops. * In the conservative military town of Jacksonville, N.C., a public forum is held on the issue of gays in the military; 900 turn up, some waving bibles, to vent their anger at Clinton. Bob Esenwein, 73, says: ‘We despise gays and all other people usurping the country.’ * In Colorado, the Boulder police department refuse an offer to form an Explorer program with the local chapter of the Boy Scouts, because their ban on gay scoutmaster’s violates the city’s law against antigay discrimination. * The Rev. Jesse Jackson and 40 others are arrested while protesting the government’s policy of detaining 252 Haitians who are HIV-positive at Guantanamo Air Force Base. * Federal Judge Sterling Johnson Jnr., orders the Clinton Administration to provide better medical care to Haitian refugees.
1988
U.S.: Michael Joffrey, founder and artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, dies of respiratory failure (rumored to be AIDS) at age 57. * ACT UP/New York celebrates its first year in existence by demonstrating on the block opposite Wall Street; 175 are arrested. Canada: Toronto’s new AIDS activist group, AIDS ACTION NOW! holds a rally, march and candlelight vigil, to protest the government delays in releasing AIDS drugs. * Israel: The Knesset, the Israeli parliament, votes to repeal a law criminalizing homosexual activity. No one had ever been prosecuted under the 40-year-old law. * Netherlands: Leonard Bernstein conducts a concert in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, raising 120,000 Dutch guilders (U.S. $60,000) for the Dutch National AIDS fund.
1983
U.S.: The Gay Rights National Lobby announces that the Executive Board of the Service Employees International Union has endorsed gay-rights legislation. * Australia: The controversy over the North American Man/Boy Love Association spreads to Australia; a member of the Socialist Workers Party causes uproar at a Karl Marx Centenary Conference, stating publicly that he would line up members of NAMBLA and ‘shoot the lot of them.’