Event Timeline: 1970s

1970: Detroit Free Press publishes feature on city's homosexual community.

1970: Activists form Detroit Gay Liberation Front, bringing militant gay activism to Michigan.

1970: Episcopal bishop withholds funds from Detroit church for allowing Gay Liberation Front meetings.

1970: Fire forces closure of Sam "Bookie" Stewart's Diplomat Bar in Detroit.

1970: Gay Liberation Movement registers as a student group at Michigan State University.

1970: University of Michigan President Robben Fleming denies Gay Liberation Front use of campus facilities for gay conference.

1970: Women's Liberation Movement first meets at Michigan State University.

1971: Gay groups from around Michigan march on state capitol in Lansing.

1971: Gay Liberation Front organizes at Wayne State University.

1971: Gayle Rubin calls a meeting of Ann Arbor lesbians, resulting in formation of the Radicalesbians at the University of Michigan.

1971: Grand Valley Gay Alliance holds public "pit session" featuring "real life" homosexual.

1971: Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit holds its first services.

1971: Short-lived Detroit chapter of Daughters of Bilitis forms.

1971: University of Michigan hires Jim Toy and Cyndi Gair as first human sexuality advocates.

1972: Gay Liberator reports on arrests for accosting and soliciting in Rouge Park in Detroit.

1972: Ann Arbor celebrates first officially designated "Gay Pride Week" in the U.S.

1972: Ann Arbor City Council adopts ordinance protecting individuals from discrimination based on sexual preference.

1972: Detroit voters reject new charter with sexual orientation provision.

1972: Detroit's first gay community center opens during Christopher Street celebrations.

1972: East Lansing City Council bans anti-gay discrimination in housing, employment, and public accomodations.

1972: East Lansing ends bias against homosexuals in city hiring.

1972: Effort begins to amend University of Michigan by-laws to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

1972: Effort to repeal Michigan sodomy law fails in state legislature.

1972: First statewide gay pride march held in Detroit.

1972: Lansing's first gay community center opens.

1972: Lt. Gov. James Brickley endorses repeal of laws against private homosexual activity.

1972: Picketers accuse Ann Arbor's Flame Bar of excluding drag queens.

1972: Skip Davis, chair of Detroit community center, is shot outside gay dance.

1973: Ann Arbor City Council members Nancy Wechsler and Jerry DeGrieck come out at meeting.

1973: Detroit's first gay tavern guild, Detroit Associates, is organized.

1973: First Everywoman's Weekend is held at Michigan State University.

1973: Gay Awareness Women's Kollective files complaint against Rubaiyat in Ann Arbor.

1973: Gay Radio Collective begins "Gayly Speaking," weekly program on WDET-FM in Detroit.

1973: Michigan Synod of the Christian Reform Church votes to welcome celibate homosexuals.

1973: Republican-controlled Ann Arbor City Council revokes Pride Week endorsement.

1973: Thieves steal Gay Pride Week banner at Michigan State University.

1973: Two lesbian mothers from Lapeer win child custody case.

1973: Voters accept new Detroit charter with sexual orientation provision.

1974: Lesbian Connection begins publishing in East Lansing.

1974: Michigan Catholic drops Brian McNaught's column after he comes out as gay.

1974: Activists zap American Psychiatric Association convention in Detroit urging further reforms regarding gays.

1974: Gay Awareness Women's Kollective disrupts Ann Arbor City Council for inaction on Rubaiyat complaint.

1974: Gold Coast Saloon opens on E. Seven Mile in Detroit.

1974: Kathy Kozachenko is elected as an open lesbian to the Ann Arbor City Council.

1974: Lesbians and gays urge House committee to add protections for gays in proposed Michigan civil rights law.

1974: Menjo's opens on W. McNichols in Detroit.

1974: Michigan State University professor Marilyn Frye begins teaching feminist philosophy course.

1974: Six gay men are arrested by plainclothes Niles police for accosting and soliciting at a public restroom.

1974: Students at Central Michigan University urge the hiring of a gay advocate.

1975: Annual convention of Episcopal Diocese of Michigan rejects opening of ministries to homosexuals.

1975: Association of Suburban People forms in suburban Detroit.

1975: By a 64-36 margin, Ypsilanti voters reject a proposed human rights ordinance which would end discrimination based on sexual preference.

1975: Collective organizes A Woman's Bookstore, later Womanspace, in Ann Arbor.

1975: Dignity becomes Flint's first gay organization.

1975: Gay Academic Union holds regional conference at the University of Michigan.

1975: Graduate employees at the University of Michigan secure protections for gays in union contract.

1975: Lesbian group Aradia forms in Grand Rapids.

1975: Slim turn-out disappoints organizers of Gay Pride Week in Detroit.

1975: Todd's opens on E. Seven Mile in Detroit.

1976: Gay Liberator publishes final issue.

1976: Leaping Lesbian begins publishing in Ann Arbor.

1976: Daniel Tsang, freelancing for the Michigan Free Press, questions Pres. Gerald Ford on gay rights during his visit to Ann Arbor.

1976: David Krumroy begins publishing Metro Gay News.

1976: Detroit gay man Brian Hyman killed while walking in Palmer Park neighborhood.

1976: Dignity chapter is started in Grand Rapids.

1976: First Michigan Womyn's Music Festival is held on original site in Hesperia.

1976: Gay Community Center opens on S. Forest in Ann Arbor.

1976: Michigan legislature enacts Eliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act without protections for lesbians and gays.

1976: Michigan State Police launch summer campaign against homosexual activity at I-75 and I-96 rest areas.

1976: The Deck opens on E. Jefferson in Detroit.

1976: University of Michigan campus radio station begins broadcasting "Closets Are For Clothes."

1977: Ann Arbor-Washtenaw NOW takes stance against A Woman's Bookstore policy of excluding men.

1977: Detroit police arrest up to sixty men in crackdown on public sex in Rouge Park.

1977: Former Radicalesbians member Denise Turner starts Alleycat/Prostitution Education Project in Ann Arbor.

1977: Frontrunner, new organization for black gay men, forms in Detroit.

1977: Michigan House resolution honoring anti-gay crusader Anita Bryant dies in committee.

1977: Michigan Organization for Human Rights holds founding meeting.

1977: Michigan State University includes sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policy.

1977: Michigan's first transgender organization Crossroads is founded for Flint and Detroit area crossdressers.

1977: Motherwit Books and More opens in Lansing.

1977: ONE in Detroit board of directors considers motion to dissolve organization.

1977: Ruby's Flaming Bar, later the R&R, opens on Michigan Avenue in Detroit.

1977: Warren City Council endorses Anita Bryant's crusade against gay rights.

1978: Metro Gay News ceases publication.

1978: Bill Kain opens the Department Store, later the Copa, on S. Saginaw Street in Flint.

1978: Dignity chapter forms in East Lansing.

1978: Gay Youth Group for Ann Arbor area high school students begins meeting at Ozone House.

1978: Michigan Appeals Court upholds child custody ruling against Ann Arbor lesbian Margareth Miller.

1978: Michigan State University elects openly gay Dan Jones student body president.

1979: Bomb threat fails to disrupt MOHR annual convention in Southfield.

1979: Detroit enacts human rights ordinance with provisions barring bias based on sexual orientation.

1979: Gay Michigan State University sophomore James Dallas Egbert III disappears into campus steam tunnels.

1979: Gov. William Milliken denies stifling data on homosexuality in state prisons.

1979: Hundreds from Michigan take part in first National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights.

1979: Kalamazoo Police arrest 42 for homosexual activity in sting operation in a public restroom.

1979: Lansing Association for Human Rights is founded.

1979: Michigan Supreme Court restores custody of Jillian Miller to her lesbian mother Margareth.

1979: TNT Health Club opens on W. Eight Mile in Detroit.

1979: Two month crackdown on public sex in Detroit parks and rest areas leads to arrests of 73 men.