October 2

October 2, 1650 - The Plymouth colony court found Sara Norman guilty of lewd behavior on a bed with Mary Hammon. She was given a warning and ordered to publicly acknowledge her unchaste behavior. (The death penalty in Plymouth applied only to sex between men.)

October 2, 1973 - Dr Howard Brown, former New York City health administrator, came out. He later became director of the National Gay Task Force.

October 2, 1985 - Actor Rock Hudson died of complications from AIDS. His death resulted in greater attention to the AIDS epidemic.

October 2, 1987 - The Minnesota Supreme Court refused to rule on the constitutionality of the state’s sodomy law, which allowed the law to remain on the books.

October 2, 1987 - Commissioner John Markl of Traverse City Michigan resigned after Cindy and Dean Robb organized a petition campaign to demand that he be recalled after making homophobic remarks. The couple called his resignation a victory for civil and human rights. According to Dean Robb, nearly all of the volunteers he and his wife organized to get signatures were heterosexual.

October 2, 1990 - Metropolitan police met with members of the London direct action group OutRage to discuss their concerns after several actions directed at UK law enforcement agencies.
October 2, 1997 - “Variety” objected to the Motion Picture Association of America’s decision to give the movie “Bent” an NC-17 rating, pointing out that the sex scenes were far less graphic than heterosexual sex scenes in movies which receive R ratings.

October 2, 1999-California governor Gray Davis signed three gay rights bills.