Historical Timeline

The Buggery Act made sodomy a capital offense. As an English colony, the Province of Maryland was subject to this law from its founding in 1632 until American independence.

Following the creation of the United States, the Maryland state legislature adopted a statute that punished sodomy between free men with hard labor. Sodomy between enslaved men was subject to the death penalty.

Maryland changed the penalty for sodomy to 1–10 years in prison, and removed the distinction between enslaved men and free men.

Maryland enacted a statute prohibiting oral sex, whether heterosexual or homosexual, with a penalty of up to ten years of imprisonment and/or a one thousand dollar fine.

The Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights groups in the United States, was formed in Los Angeles, California by activist Harry Hay.

After a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City, over four hundred people protested the raid and drove the police away from the area.

A Maryland state commission recommended decriminalizing "private homosexual acts of adults" by a vote of 12-2, but the Maryland General Assembly subsequently refused to follow the recommendation.

Joseph Acanfora was removed from his teaching position at Parkland Junior High School in Rockville after news of his sexual orientation and past activism went public.

The American Psychiatric Association changed the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, though it would not remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders until 1987.

Maryland banned civil marriage between individuals of the same sex, becoming the first state to explicitly do so.

The Federal District Court denied Joseph Acanfora’s return to his teaching position in Spring 1973. Later, in Fall 1974, the United States Supreme Court denied him writ of certiorari, ending Joseph Acanfora’s attempt to regain his position.

The Maryland Senate passed a bill repealing the sodomy law of 1793, but it failed to pass the House. Similar bills later passed the Senate in 1977 and 1987, but were also rejected in the House.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control reported the first cases of a rare lung disease, which would be named AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) the following year.

Montgomery County Executive Charles Gilchrist signed Bill #65-83, which added sexual orientation to the county’s existing anti-discrimination law. Anti-gay activists attempted to force the bill to a referendum, but the county appeals court ruled in September that the petition for a referendum was invalid, allowing the bill to go into effect.

ACT NOW (AIDS Coalition to Network, Organize and Win), a coalition of ACT UP members, led “Seize Control of the FDA,” a protest at the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters in Rockville. The approximately 1,500 activists demanded that the FDA speed up its research, development and approval of drugs for AIDS.

Schochet v. State invalidated Maryland laws banning "unnatural and perverted sexual practices" between heterosexual adults in private and consensual settings.

Over one thousand protesters led “Storm the NIH” at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda. Protesters demanded that the NIH speed up its AIDS research, include activists and community members in its research committees, expand its research beyond the drug AZT, and include more women and people of color in research trials.

President Bill Clinton signed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” allowing gay and lesbian people to serve in the military, provided that they did not openly reveal their sexual orientation.

Williams became the first openly Gay person to be elected to a city- or county-wide seat in the state of Maryland.

The Montgomery County council voted to repeal an amendment to its 1984 anti-discrimination law that had permitted employers to refuse or dismiss employees who “advocated” homosexuality and whose job required that they be alone with children of the same sex. The controversial amendment was labeled the Hanna Amendment after city councilman William Hanna, who had introduced it in 1984.

The first Montgomery Pride festival was held on June 4, 1995 in Valley Mill Park. It was organized by the Gay and Lesbian Interests Consortium of Montgomery County.

The decision in Williams v. Glendening invalidated Maryland laws against private consensual oral sex between persons of the same sex.

In Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court ruled that laws criminalizing sodomy between consenting adults acting in private were unconstitutional.

Williams had served as mayor pro tempore of Takoma Park since 1997.

President Barack Obama signed the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly in the military.

In Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples.

The LGBTQ Bill of Rights expanded Montgomery County’s anti-discrimination code to include gender expression and HIV status. The bill explicitly bans LGBTQ+ discrimination in healthcare, nursing homes and personal care facilities.