Oct 30, 2009   | COMMENTS     

To help commemorate the Blade’s 40th anniversary, employees worked to identify the top 40 headlines from our archives.

These headlines often represent single events, but sometimes are used thematically to encompass a series of related events. Each one survived several rounds of voting to make the cut and determine its order in the final list.

The stories are a mix of local and national events that helped shape the LGBT movement.

40 1982: An investigation by the Washington Blade reveals that the FBI is spying on D.C. gays. Sources said the FBI and D.C. police were looking into prostitution with adults or minors, the sale and distribution of child pornography and possible infiltration by foreign intelligence agents. The Blade, which interviewed more than 25 people to verify that the investigation was taking place, found that D.C. gay bars, bar owners and some patrons were under surveillance. Spokespeople for the D.C. police and the FBI denied that gays were being singled out for different treatment.

39 1998: “Will & Grace” debuts in September, marking a significant change in Hollywood’s presentation of LGBT people, their lives and relationships. The sitcom featured Will Truman, a gay lawyer living in New York City, and his straight friend and roommate Grace Adler, an interior designer. Storylines in the comedy involved Will and Grace’s problems seeking romantic relationships as well as struggles in maintaining their own friendship. The most successful TV series featuring gay characters, “Will & Grace” ran for eight years, earned 16 Emmys and made it into the Nielsen Top 20 for half of its network run.

38 2007: U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) is arrested after allegedly soliciting an undercover male officer for sex at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. He entered a guilty plea to a charge of disorderly conduct, but then attempted unsuccessfully to withdraw his plea. Craig, who had a staunch anti-gay voting record, denied that he was gay at a subsequent press conference. After initially announcing plans to step down, Craig later reneged and served out the remainder of his Senate term.

37 2005: “Brokeback Mountain,” one of the most lauded gay films, is released in the U.S. on Dec. 16. The film, based on E. Annie Proulx’s short story of the same name, starred Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as two cowboys who meet in the summer of 1963 while herding sheep in Wyoming and fall in love. The film was a commercial and critical success. “Brokeback Mountain” picked up eight Oscar nods, and won for best director (Ang Lee), screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana) and score (Gustavo Santaolalla). But it failed to win the best picture Oscar, despite its nomination, triggering claims of homophobia.

36 1992: In October, more than 500,000 people come to see the NAMES Project’s AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall. The 23,000 panels on display covered more than 15 acres around the Washington Monument, and the Quilt included panels from every state and 28 countries. The Quilt was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in 1987, during the National March on Washington for Lesbian & Gay Rights. In January of 1993, the NAMES Project was invited to march in President Clinton’s inaugural parade.

35 1988: In June, the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic, a 13-member panel, released a comprehensive report of 583 recommendations to address the AIDS epidemic. Among the recommendations were calls for the expansion of existing federal laws to protect people with AIDS from discrimination and new laws to protect the confidentiality of test results. Ian Macdonald, drug policy adviser under President Ronald Reagan, reduced the many recommendations to a simplified 10-point plan, such as evaluating the health care financing system and studying the need for anti-discrimination legislation.

34 1991: The country’s first Black Gay Pride Day is held in Washington, D.C., drawing 800 participants. Activists Welmore Cook, Theodore Kirkland and Ernest Hopkins organized the event in response to their concern of supporting the increasing number of HIV-positive black people in the District. The event raised nearly $3,000 for AIDS charities with the support of the D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbians & Gay Men and the Inner City AIDS Network.

33 1979: Hours after Harvey Milk assassin Dan White receives a sentence of voluntary manslaughter on May 21, more than 2,000 angry gay demonstrators march from the Castro Street area to City Hall in what became known as the White Night riots. The San Francisco Police Department and local gays had intensely strained relations at the time, and both police officers and demonstrators were injured during the riots, which caused thousands of dollars in property damage.

32 1976: Former nun-turned-gay rights activist Jean O’Leary is elected as the first openly gay delegate to the 1976 Democratic National Convention. O’Leary, who started the Lesbian Feminist Liberation in 1972 and co-founded National Coming Out Day in 1987, was ...