Timeline of UK LGBT History

This is a timeline of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history in the United Kingdom throughout the centuries.

Jump to 21st century

Note: strictly speaking the year 2000 belongs to the 20th century, but for convenience it is treated here as belonging to the 21st (and similarly with other centuries).

1st century BC

 * 55 BC – Julius Caesar's first invasion of Britain.

1st century AD

 * AD 43 – Roman invasion and establishment of the province of Britannia.

2nd century

 * 122 – Emperor Hadrian visits Britain.

3rd century

 * 286 – Britain becomes independent from the Roman empire for ten years under Carausius and Allectus.

4th century

 * 343 – the emperor Constans visits Britain.

5th century

 * 410 – usual date for the end of Roman rule in Britannia.

6th century

 * c547 – Death of King Maelgwn of Gwynedd.
 * 597 – St Augustine becomes first Archbishop of Canterbury.
 * late 6th century – Findchán and Áid the Black cursed by St Columba.

7th century

 * 670 – St Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, prescribes fasts and penances for various homosexual acts.

9th century

 * 804 – Death of Alcuin.
 * 850s – a woman from Wimborne Minster was supposedly elected Pope Joan.

11th century

 * 1066 – Battle of Hastings and Norman conquest of England.

12th century

 * 1100 – Death of King William II.
 * 1102 – Council of London condemns homosexuality.
 * 1109 – Death of Saint Anselm
 * 1123 – Rahere founds St Bartholomew's Hospital.
 * 1125 – Hilarius writing around this time.
 * 1167 – Death of Saint Aelred
 * 1187 – Gerald of Wales describes the practice of same-sex marriage in Ireland.
 * 1199 – Death of King Richard I

13th century

 * c.1290 – Publication of Fleta, first book to suggest a punishment (which was not enforced) for homosexuality in English law.

14th century

 * 1327 – summary execution of Piers Gaveston.
 * 1327 – Murder of King Edward II.
 * 1376 – The Good Parliament petitions King Edward III to banish foreign traders for having introduced "the too horrible vice which is not to be named".
 * 1386 – Richard II makes Robert DeVere Duke of Ireland.
 * 1391 – Death of Sir John Clanvowe and Richard Neville.
 * 1395 – John Rykener arrested for cross-dressing.

15th century

 * 1400 – Death of King Richard II

16th century

 * 1533 – Buggery Act 1533 brings in the death penalty (hanging) for gay sex in England.
 * 1541 - Nicholas Udall convicted of buggery and imprisoned.
 * 1542 - The Laws in Wales Act 1542 extends English laws, including the Buggery Act 1533, to Wales.
 * 1593 - Death of Christopher Marlowe in suspicious circumstances.

17th century

 * 1603 – King James VI of Scotland becomes King of England as James I, uniting the two crowns but not yet the two countries.
 * 1625 – Death of King James I.
 * 1625 – Death of Francis Bacon (philosopher).
 * 1628 – Assassination of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
 * – Jeremy Farrer found "abusing himself in a sodomitical manner" in a church.
 * 1631 – Mervyn Tuchet beheaded for alleged sodomy with his page.
 * 1660 – Foundation of the Royal Society by John Wilkins and others.
 * 1664 – Death of Katherine Philips.
 * 1678 – Titus Oates invents the "Popish Plot".
 * 1682 – Arabella Hunt's marriage is dissolved as her husband is discovered to be a woman.
 * 1688 – "Glorious Revolution" brings William III to power.



18th century

 * 1702 – William III dies, succeeded by Queen Anne.
 * 1703 – First performance of Tunbridge-Walks by Thomas Baker, containing a "molly" character.
 * 1706 – Thomas Vaughan convicted of blackmail.
 * 1707 – Act of Union unites England and Scotland as the Kingdom of Great Britain.
 * 1726 – Three men convicted of sodomy following cases brought by Thomas Newton and raids on Mother Clap's Molly House.
 * – Death of Sir Isaac Newton, Britain's greatest scientist, sometimes considered to have been gay.
 * 1727 – Charles Hitchen convicted of attempted sodomy.
 * 1732 – Beggar's Benison Club founded in Anstruther, Scotland.
 * 1737 – Robert Thistlethwayte, Warden of Wadham College Oxford, flees to France to escape prosecution.
 * 1742 – First performance of Handel's Messiah.
 * 1748 – Publication of Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett, including an explicitly gay character.
 * 1749 – Publication of Fanny Hill by John Cleland, sometimes thought to have been a homoerotic work in disguise.
 * – Publication of a defence of homosexuality, Ancient & Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd by Thomas Cannon.
 * 1772 – Robert Jones publishes the first book on figure skating, but is convicted of sodomy.
 * 1780 – The Ladies of Llangollen set up home together.
 * 1781 – Edward Onslow forced to resign his seat in Parliament and flee to France.
 * 1784 – William Beckford's affair with William Courtenay is publicised, causing them both to flee the country.

19th century

 * 1801 – Act of Union creates the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
 * 1806 – Gay club discovered in Great Sankey, Cheshire.
 * 1807 – Suicide of James Massey
 * 1810 – The White Swan, Vere Street raided.
 * 1822 – Percy Jocelyn deposed as Bishop of Clogher for "Sodomitical practices".
 * 1824 – The Vagrancy Act 1824 limits cruising.
 * – Suicide of Lord Castlereagh.
 * 1835 – James Pratt and John Smith were the last two men to be hanged for sodomy in England.
 * 1859 – sudden resignation of Charles John Vaughan as Headmaster of Harrow School, for reasons not explained until the 1970s.
 * 1861 – The Offences against the Person Act 1861 abolished the death sentence for gay sex.
 * 1864 – Robert Browning's poem "Sludge the Medium" denounces Daniel Dunglas Home.
 * 1865 – James Barry, army surgeon, dies and is allegedly found to have been a woman.
 * 1866 – The case of Hyde v Hyde and Woodmansee established the definition of marriage in English law.
 * 1871 – "Fanny" and "Stella" (Ernest Boulton and Frederick Park‎) acquitted of sodomy and cross-dressing.
 * 1880 – The police raid a drag ball in Manchester.
 * 1883 – Publication of A problem in Greek ethics by John Addington Symonds, one of the first essays in defense of homosexuality in the English language.
 * 1885 – Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 made "gross indecency" (homosexual acts, even in private) a crime. The "Labouchere Amendment" was known as the “Blackmailer’s Charter”.
 * 1889 – the Cleveland Street scandal
 * 1895 – Oscar Wilde convicted of gross indecency.
 * – Winston Churchill successfully sues for libel.
 * 1897 – First English-language publication of Sexual Inversion by Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds, the first medical textbook about homosexuality.
 * 1898 – Birth in Hull of Elsa Gidlow, Canadian/American lesbian poet.
 * 1899 – Public Morality Council formed.

20th century

 * 1900 – Death of Oscar Wilde.
 * – Death of Samuel Butler.
 * 1909 – Death of Renée Vivien.
 * 1912 – Birth in Worthing of Harry Hay, later a leading gay activist in the United States.
 * 1914 – Henry Scott Tuke elected to the Royal Academy.
 * 1916 – Execution of Sir Roger Casement.
 * 1921 – Parliament rejects an attempt in the Criminal Law Amendment Bill 1921 to ban sex between women.
 * 1924 – Death of Marie Corelli
 * 1928 – Publication of lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall.
 * 1929 – Death of Edward Carpenter.
 * 1933 – A court in London heard of "disgusting behaviour" at Selina Hopps' dance club.
 * 1936 – Death of Hugh Lygon.
 * 1936 – Oliver Baldwin appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands.
 * 1938 – Sigmund Freud flees from Austria and takes up residence in Hampstead
 * 1943 – Ethel Walker, painter, made a Dame.
 * 1946 – Sir George Mowbray convicted of importuning.
 * – Sir Alec Guinness said to have been fined for cottaging.
 * 1950 – Harry Hay helps found the Mattachine Society in the USA.
 * 1951 – Roberta Cowell has sex-change surgery.
 * 1952 – Alan Turing convicted of gross indecency.
 * 1953 – Sir John Gielgud convicted of importuning.
 * – Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean flee to Moscow.
 * – European Convention on Human Rights comes into force.
 * 1954 – Lord Montagu of Beaulieu convicted of gay offences.
 * – Suicide of Alan Turing
 * 1955 – Publication of Homosexuality by D J West.
 * 1956 – Knighthoods awarded to Anthony Blunt (cancelled in 1979) and John Wolfenden
 * 1957 – Wolfenden Report recommends decriminalisation of homosexuality.
 * 1958 – Albany Trust and Homosexual Law Reform Society formed.
 * – Ian Harvey MP arrested in St James's Park.
 * 1959 – Screening on ITV of South, thought to be the first gay-related drama on British television.
 * 1960 – Georgina Turtle (previously George Turtle) has her birth certificate changed from male to female.
 * 1961 – Release of the film Victim.
 * 1962 – John Vassall arrested and charged with spying.
 * 1963 – Founding of lesbian magazine Arena Three.
 * 1964 – Death of Nancy Spain in an air crash.
 * – Ellis Powell dropped from Mrs Dale's Diary.
 * 1965 – Founding of lesbian organisation Kenric.
 * – Rose Robertson founds Parents Enquiry.
 * 1966 – Founding of trans organisation the Beaumont Society.
 * – publication of trans-related book I want what I want.
 * 1967 – Sexual Offences Act 1967 partially decriminalises sex between men in England and Wales.
 * – North Western Homosexual Law Reform Committee formed, later to be re-founded as CHE.
 * – Joe Orton murdered by his partner.
 * 1968 – the Home Secretary confirms that Sir Ewan Forbes is male and can succeed to the baronetcy, despite having been registered and originally borught up as female.
 * 1969 – the Stonewall riots in New York.
 * – founding of the Scottish Minorities Group.
 * 1970 – First GLF meeting.
 * – Death of E M Forster
 * 1971 – the Corbett v Corbett case, involving April Ashley, established the precedent that a person's sex could not legally be changed from what it was at birth.
 * – London Friend formed.
 * – CHE London Group Seven (later Croydon Area Gay Society) founded.
 * – GLF Gay March: first London Gay March took place protesting against the unequal age of consent for men.
 * 1972 – release of trans-related film, I want what I want.
 * – Allegro Music Group formed.
 * – Gay News first published.
 * – first London Pride march and carnival.
 * 1973 – Death of Sir Noël Coward.
 * 1974 – London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard launched.
 * 1975 – Brighton and Hove LGBT Switchboard launched.
 * – Gay Sweatshop theatre company founded.
 * 1976 – John Curry wins a gold medal for skating at the Winter Olympics.
 * – Death of composer Benjamin Britten.
 * 1977 – Death of Sir Terence Rattigan
 * – Peter Mitchell stamds as "Westminster Campaign for Homosexual Civil Rights" candidate in the Cities of London and Westminster South by-election.
 * 1978 – Tom Robinson releases the song "Glad to be Gay".
 * – the film Nighthawks is released.
 * 1979 – CHE moves its office to London.
 * – Jeremy Thorpe acquitted of conspiracy to murder.
 * – Gay Humanist Group founded (now GALHA).
 * 1980 – Heaven, the first all-week gay nightclub, opens in London.
 * – Scotland decriminalises male homosexuality.
 * 1981 - London Bi Group forms, the first bi-specific social/support group.
 * 1982 – Terrence Higgins Trust the HIV/AIDs charity formed.
 * 1983 – Long Yang Club founded for gay Asians and non-Asians.
 * – Northern Ireland decriminalises male homosexuality.
 * 1984 – Chris Smith MP, Culture Secretary, becomes first MP to come out as gay whilst in office. In 2005, he was the first politician to disclose he was HIV positive.
 * - First BiCon bisexuality conference.
 * – Silver Moon women's bookshop founded.
 * – Drew Griffiths, playwright, murdered by a pickup.
 * 1985 – Goslings Swimming Club founded.
 * 1986 – GLC and metropolitan county councils abolished.
 * – Death of Sir Peter Pears.
 * – London Gay Symphony Orchestra founded.
 * 1987 – Gay men convicted for S&M sex in Operation Spanner.
 * – Pink Paper founded.
 * 1988 – Section 28 passed.
 * 1989 – Stonewall (UK) launched.
 * – London Raiders LGBT Softball team begins.
 * – Quim magazine founded.
 * – Rose's club founded.
 * 1990 – UK-MOTSS founded.
 * 1991 – Death of Freddie Mercury.
 * 1992 – Death of Francis Bacon (artist).
 * – Europride held in London.
 * – Gay Men Fighting AIDS founded (later GMFA and HERO).
 * – Diversity Choir founded.
 * 1993 – Back Pocket Guide to London first published.
 * – Colin Ireland, the "gay slayer", murders five men he had met in the Coleherne.
 * 1994 – Age of consent for gay men reduced to 18.
 * 1995 – Adonis Art Gallery founded.
 * – Bi Community News magazine launches.
 * – Mermaids founded for children with gender dysphoria.
 * – Launch of South London Gays.
 * 1996 – Derek Rawcliffe banned from acting as an assistant bishop in the Ripon diocese.
 * 1997 – Angela Eagle is first sitting MP to come out as lesbian.
 * 1998 – LGBT Consortium founded.
 * – The Bolton Seven convicted for consensual sex.
 * – Queer Notions mental health group founded in Liverpool.
 * 1999 – Admiral Duncan pub bombed (30 April).
 * – Last SLAGO Conference.
 * – Soho Masses begin.
 * – Michael Cashman elected to European Parliament.

21st century

 * 2000 – Ethical Standards in Public Life etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 repeals Section 28 in Scotland.
 * – Removal of ban on gay people serving in the Armed Forces.
 * – "ADT" is awarded compensation for being convicted for private group sex.
 * – Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 equalises the age of consent.
 * 2001 – Croydon Friend closed.
 * 2002 - First Cake Awards presented.
 * 2003 – Section 28 repealed in England and Wales.
 * – Rev Jeffrey John rejected as Bishop of Reading.
 * – Europride held in Manchester.
 * – Discrimination at Work on the grounds of sexual orientation becomes illegal.
 * 2004 – Civil Partnership Act 2004 gives legal equal rights to lesbian and gay couples.
 * – Gender Recognition Act 2004 allows people to legally change gender.
 * – Gay and Lesbian Arts and Media closes.
 * – Lesbian and Gay Employment Rights closes.
 * – James Clark is appointed British Ambassador to Luxembourg.
 * 2005 – Murder of Jody Dobrowski.
 * – First Civil partnerships performed.
 * 2006 – Europride held in London.
 * – Alegri founded.
 * 2007 – Sexual Offences (Jersey) Law 2007 lowers the Age of consent in Jersey to 16.
 * – Publication of the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Law in Relation to Issues of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
 * – Death of Paul Wilde
 * 2008 – Age of consent lowered to 16 in Northern Ireland.
 * 2009 – First Derek Oyston Film Award.
 * – Grindr launched.
 * – London AIDS Memorial Campaign launched.
 * 2010 – LGBT London website set up.
 * – Death of Antony Grey.
 * – Death of Griffith Vaughan Williams.
 * – Ian Campbell becomes Britain's first openly gay mayor.
 * 2011 – LGBT History Project website set up.
 * – Diversity Role Models launched.
 * – First Out Café London, closes after 25 years.
 * – Civil partnership ceremonies permitted on religious premises.
 * 2012 – Europride held in London.
 * – Death of Allan Horsfall.
 * – Michael Peacock acquitted on obscenity charges.
 * 2013 – Government introduces Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill; it becomes law as the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013.
 * – Death of Ray Gosling
 * - Death of Georgina Somerset and discovery that Roberta Cowell died two years before.
 * - Posthumous royal pardon for Alan Turing.