April 6-12
1998
U.S.: In Washington, D.C., friends of Steve Michael, a local AIDS activist, carry his body along Pennsylvania Avenue before coming to a stop outside the White House to accuse President Clinton of being a ‘murdering liar,’ because of his AIDS policy. * George Michael is arrested for performing ‘lewd acts’ in a Beverley Hills park restroom. * Jay Leno says: ‘The rules for evacuating lifeboats in L.A. are women and children first, then men who dress like women, then women who dress like men, and then men.’ * Country superstar Tammy Wynette dies. The Elton John AIDS Foundation is one of the three charities she wanted fans to donate to. * ABC cancels the Ellen show. * New Zealand: Lesbian writer Paula Boock’s teen love story Dare, Truth or Promise wins the New Zealand Post Children’s Book of the Year award. * Bahamas: The Prime Minister, Rt. Honorable Hubert Ingram, issues a strong letter supporting gay tourists visiting the island, after demonstrators protested the lesbian Olivia Cruises. * Britain: Street activist group, OutRAGE! Disrupt Easter services at Canterbury Cathedral to protest the Church of England’s stance on homosexuality.
1993
U.S.: Richard Schmiechen, 45, the film producer who won an Academy Award for The Times Of Harvey Milk, dies from AIDS. * Richard C. Failla, the first openly gay man to be elected to the New York State Supreme Court, dies from AIDS at age 53. * Queer In America by Michelangelo Signorile is in bookstores. * Britain: Holly Johnson, former singer with Frankie Goes To Hollywood, tells the Times newspaper that he is HIV positive.
1988
U.S.: The Seventh-Day Adventist Church files a federal lawsuit against Seventh-Day Adventist Kinship International Inc., a support group for gay Adventists. They are trying to stop the group from using the church’s name. * Britain: David Hockney threatens to cancel a show at London’s Tate Gallery to protest Clause 28, which prohibits government funds being used to ‘promote’ homosexuality.
1983
U.S.: In San Francisco, the Lesbian Rights Project publishes a booklet called Lesbian Mother Litigation Manual. * Gay Men’s Health Crisis buys up all 17,597 seats at a performance of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, then resell them to raise money for AIDS. Leonard Bernstein conducts the circus symphony. * Naiad Press publish a paperback version of Jane Rules 1964 first novel, Desert Of The Heart. Later it became the movie, Desert Hearts.