|
December 7
1682 - The Province of Pennsylvania, under a strong Quaker influence, repealed the capital sodomy law of 1676. The new law made a first offense punishable by whipping, loss of 1/3 of one's property, and six months hard labor. A second offense was punishable by life imprisonment. The revision made the province one of only two where a man could not be put to death for sodomy at the time. In West New Jersey, also a Quaker colony, no sodomy law was in effect.
1873 - Author Willa Cather is born.
1916 - The manager of a New York City Turkish bathhouse for men committed suicide after vice police raided the establishment and arrested 37 men.
1989 - In Turkey, journalist Ibrehim Eren was imprisoned for protesting police harassment of gays. He would be held for four months.
1993 - In Texas, Williamson County commissioners reversed a decision to deny Apple Computer tax breaks for a new facility in the county because of its policy of extending benefits to employees' same-sex domestic partners. Several of the commissioners, however, continued to express condemnation of "the gay lifestyle."
1997- Speaking before a Georgetown University audience of about 300, three Jesuits presented their different perspectives on how the church should regard and spiritually counsel gay men and lesbians. Cardinal James A Hickey objected to the debate because he felt that the conservative view on the wrongness of homosexuality would not get a fair hearing.
1999 - The school board in Orange California voted 7-0 to reject an application from students at El Modena High School to form a gay/straight alliance.
|