I put together a short 15 question quiz addressing different facts, figures, and facets of this long and diverse history. See how many you know, keep track of your answers along the way, then join me for a discussion in the comments section below.
Here we go! To find out the answers, highlight the black boxes underneath each of the questions. No cheating!
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1. The first same-sex couple to apply for a state marriage license, and to fight for that right in court, did so in...
a. California
b. Minnesota
c. Hawai'i
d. Massachusetts
But if you guessed California, you're not far off: in the same year Reverend Elder Troy Perry of the Metropolitan Community Church filed suit in Los Angeles for recognition of same-sex marriages performed in his church.
2. The first riot against police brutality towards the LGBT community took place in...
a. San Francisco
b. New York City
c. New Orleans
d. Los Angeles
As a direct result, the San Francisco Police Department established a liaison to improve its relationship with the queer community.
3. Who was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the United States?
a. José Sarria
b. Kathy Kozachenko
c. Harvey Milk
d. Elaine Noble
José Sarria was the first openly gay political candidate, making a failed bid for public office way back in 1961 (San Francisco Board of Supervisors).
4. What was the "Twinkie defense"?
a. A polemic on the dietary habits of lesbians
b. A pamphlet supporting the role of young gay men in the community
c. The legal strategy for lessening the sentence against murderer Dan White
d. None of the above
Contrary to popular belief, the lawyers did not argue that the junk food itself was responsible.
5. Which President's life was saved by a gay man?
a. Gerald Ford
b. Ronald Reagan
c. Richard Nixon
d. George W. Bush
6. What Supreme Court case invalidated sodomy laws across the country?
a. Bowers v. Hardwick
b. Lawrence v. Texas
c. Loving v. Virginia
d. Griswold v. Connecticut
Griswold was the case defining a right to privacy; Bowers was the first unsuccessful attempt to get the SCOTUS to strike down sodomy laws; and Loving was the case that ended laws against interracial marriage.
7. Who was Bayard Rustin?
a. Gay rights activist and organizer of MLK, Jr.'s 1963 rally in Washington, D.C.
b. Author, poet, and painter famous for discussing the queer side of the Harlem Renaissance
c. Octogenarian activist famous for being out since the beginning of the 20th century
d. First NBA player to come out gay, after retirement
But all of the choices were real figures in queer African American history. b) is Richard Bruce Nugent, author of "Smoke, Lilies, and Jade"; c) is lesbian activist Mabel Hampton, who lived out and proud for over 80 years, and d) is John Ameichi, formerly of the Orlando Magic and Utah Jazz, who came out in 2007.
8. The first transgender mayor in the United States was elected in...
a. 1978
b. 1996
c. 2004
d. 2008
9. The first Academy Award given to someone for playing an openly queer character went to...
a. Peter Finch
b. William Hurt
c. John Lithgow
d. Tom Hanks
10. By what name is the proposed "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act" more commonly known?
a. the Frank-Baldwin Act
b. the Harvey Milk Act
c. the Matthew Shepard Act
d. ENDA
11. How many openly gay politicians elected to federal office are currently serving?
a. None
b. 3
c. 5
d. 7
There are not and never have been any openly gay Senators.
12. What activist group got its start in 1987 with an act of civil disobedience at Wall Street that led to 17 arrests?
a. GLAAD
b. OutRage!
c. the Gay Liberation Front
d. ACT UP
13. Which U.S. president received a visit from We'wha, a Zuni two-spirit widely mistaken for "an Indian princess"?
a. Grover Cleveland
b. William Taft
c. Harry Truman
d. Ronald Reagan
14. How many countries have legalized same-sex marriage (not civil unions, but the full deal)?
a. 2
b. 4
c. 6
d. 8
Due to a recent high court decision, Nepal will be introducing same-sex marriage rights in the near future.
15. Gay performers (often in drag), who attracted a spike in popularity in New York of the 1920s and 30s, were known as...
a. pansies
b. travesties
c. illusionists
d. wildeans
A turn towards increasingly conservative views of public mores effectively shut these down, but by the 40s the term "pansy" had gained widespread currency as a euphemism for queerness.
Difficult, wasn't it?
My intention in writing this quiz wasn't to dig up the most obscure facts possible, but to show the relatively sparseness of widespread information about LGBT history.
Knowing the exact office of the first openly gay elected official may or may not strike us as vital, but it's important to know that gender fluidity was an accepted part of some Indigenous traditions as far back as recorded evidence goes, or that gay black activists were an integral part of the Civil Rights movement, or that queers have been involved and subsequently erased from some of the most major events of our shared American history.
One of the challenges we face is the lack of an inherited history. Many groups pass shared history on from generation to generation, parent to child, but queer children typically grow up without parents who share that history - forcing us to reinvent the wheel with each new generation.
I hope that this quiz encourages us all to research more about some of the people and events I discuss here. Putting it together was an eye-opener for me, as well.
Labels: lgbt history, pico, quiz

cognitive dissident on 12/11/2008 10:30 AM:
Kudos on writing a great quiz, although I must admit to being more than a little embarrassed to have scored 9/15 on a subject that I thought I knew much better than that.
Thanks for making that point about LGBT(Q) youth not inheriting their history, but rather having to discover it. It’s another obstacle to self-knowledge, and one which we could easily remove by teaching a more comprehensive history in schools. (I know it’s unrealistic, but I can dream, can’t I?)
Unknown on 12/11/2008 3:13 PM:
I got seven, with two total guesses, which is pretty pathetic given that I'm in grad school studying this period of history.
Perhaps more disturbingly, four of the five I knew came from general knowledge, not from anything I've learned in grad school. The exception was #15, where I got an assist from George Chauncey's masterful Gay New York, helpfully assigned by my advisor in a class last year.
Greetings, everyone!
Been a while since I posted here, but thanks to Nonpartisan for luring me back. Glad to see the site is chugging along beautifully as always.