Brandon Teena's killer is still alive today, but 11 years ago today he began the trial that decided his ultimate fate.
TODAY IN HISTORY (May 15):
1869 - In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.
1905 - Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km²), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.
1928 - Release of the animated short "Plane Crazy", featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
1933 - The Broadway Brevities, a New York weekly tabloid, carried a story which warned of rampant "third-sexers" who had descended on Broadway and were making life intolerable for normal people.
1935 - Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, founder of Berlin's Institute for Sexual Science and The Scientific Humanitarian Committee, died in Nice, France.
1940 - Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in the United States.
1969 - Canada decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults.
1977 - A 60 Minutes segment on child pornography blamed the problem on homosexuals.
1981 - During the University of Florida's Lesbian and Gay Awareness Week a fraternity circulated a petition saying "Homosexuals need bullets, not acceptance. When asked why, the organizer said that he didn't believe in queers, and it was fun. They collected fifty signatures.
1988 - In Hartford Connecticut, Richard Reihl was bludgeoned to death by two teens who had tortured and robbed another gay man the night before. The defense argued that they were good, religious, all-American boys who deserved compassion. The judge sentenced them to 35 and 40 years.
1988 - In Texas, Richard Lee Bednarski and nine friends went out looking for gay men to harass. Bednarski killed 34 year old Tommy Trimble and 27 year old Lloyd Griffin. He would be found guilty, and the judge would be criticized for giving him a light sentence. Explaining the reason for the sentence, the judge stated that killing gay men was not a serious crime.
1988 - After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
1995 - John Lotter's trial began for the murder of Brandon Teena and his two friends. He would be found guilty and sentenced to death. Born on this day:
1856 - L. Frank Baum, American author (d. 1919)
1859 - Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1906)
1902 - Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1976)
1909 - James Mason, English actor (d. 1984)
1923 - Richard Avedon, American photographer (d. 2004)
1926 - Peter Shaffer, English playwright
1930 - Jasper Johns, American painter
1937 - Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
1937 - Trini López, American musician
1941 - K.T. Oslin, American musician
1951 - Chazz Palminteri, American actor
1953 - George Brett, baseball player
1956 - Dan Patrick, American sportscaster
1967 - John Smoltz, baseball player
1969 - Emmitt Smith, American football player
1974 - Ahmet Zappa, American musician
1981 - Jamie-Lynn Sigler, American actress
Still loving the Gay Day!
Posted by: MT | May 15, 2006 at 12:38 PM
Me too; we should all support it.
Posted by: Jake | May 15, 2006 at 10:43 PM