Sunday, October 5, 2008

October 5

October 5, 1513 - Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovered what he claimed was a colony of cross-dressing males in present day Panama. It was reported that he massacred them.

October 5, 1840 - John Addington Symonds, one of the earliest scholars of gay and lesbian issues is born. He assisted Havelock Ellis in the writing of “Sexual Inversion.”

October 5, 1987 - The city commission of Traverse City Michigan voted unanimously to repeal a law banning the sale of condoms in city limits.

October 5, 1990 - Dennis Barrie, director of the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, was acquitted of obscenity charges after displaying a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit.

October 5, 1998 - The US Congress killed an amendment by Rep Frank Riggs (R-CA) which would have barred San Francisco from spending federal housing money to implement its domestic partner ordinance.

October 5, 1999 - African scholar Ali Mazrui criticized Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for targeting gay and lesbian citizens for harassment and arrest.

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