1979 in LGBT rights

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This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1979.

Events

1 — The new Penal Code of Cuba enters into force, decriminalizing homosexual acts.^[1]

21 — The White Night riots occur in San Francisco after Dan White is convicted of two counts of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder in the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. White had employed the so-called "Twinkie defense".^[2]
29 — Los Angeles outlaws discrimination against homosexuals in private sector employment and in patronization of business establishments in its city. Mayor Thomas Bradley signs bills into effect July 2.^[3]

1
- Harry Hay, his partner John Burnside, Don Kilhefner and Mitchell L. Walker hold the Spiritual Conference for Radical Fairies gathering in Benson, Arizona, with over 75 men in attendance.^[4] The success of the event leads the men to form Radical Faeries.
- U.S. state of New Jersey decriminalizes private consensual homosexual acts.^[5]
14 — An education arbitration board in Smeaton, Saskatchewan, Canada, orders Don Jones to be reinstated in his teaching job after he was fired for being gay.

14 — The National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, the largest gay rights march to date, takes place in Washington, D.C., with about 100,000 people in attendance.

17 — United States District Court for the Central District of California Judge Irving Hill rules that the marriage of Australian Anthony Sullivan and Richard Adams, under a license issued by Boulder County, Colorado, in 1975, is not valid for purposes of Sullivan's immigration.^[6]

^ Lumsden, Ian (1996). Machos, maricones, and gays: Cuba and homosexuality. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. pp. 81–82. ISBN 1566393701.
^ Corsaro, Kim (May 18, 2006). "Remembering "White Night" - San Francisco's Gay Riot". San Francisco Bay Times. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
^ William N. Eskridge (30 June 2009). Gaylaw: Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet. Harvard University Press. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-674-03658-1.
^ Shively, from Bronski, p. 176
^ Waldron, Martin (August 12, 1979). "New Jersey Law Changes Reflect the New Morality: A Compilation from Other States". The New York Times. p. E5 – via ProQuest.
^ Murdoch and Price, p. 221

Murdoch, Joyce and Deb Price (2001). Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. the Supreme Court. New York, Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group. ISBN 0-456-01513-2.
Shively, Charley. "Harry Hay". Collected in Bronski, Michael (consulting editor) (1997). Outstanding Lives: Profiles of Lesbians and Gay Men. New York, Visible Ink Press. ISBN 1-57859-008-6.