In conjunction with the celebration of October as LGBT History Month, The Huffington Post will be providing you with "Know Your LGBT History" updates! Check back throughout the month for a brief overview of some of the landmark moments throughout the course of our journey as LGBT and queer-identifying individuals.
44 B.C.: According to Quist, today marks the first day in recorded history with mention of same-sex marriage. Quist notes, "Cicero insults Mark Anthony for being promiscuous in his youth until Curio 'established you in a fixed and stable marriage, as if he had given you a stola.' A stola is the traditional garment of a married Roman woman. 'Although Cicero's sexual implications are clear, the point of the passage is to cast Anthony in the submissive role in the relationship and to impugn his manhood in various ways; there is no reason to think that actual marriage rites were performed.'"
1926: The New York Times printed a book review of Dr. Joseph Collins' “The Doctor Looks at Love and Life.” In this text Collins disputed the claim that same-sex love is pathological and famously claimed that "genuine homosexuality is not a vice, it is an endowment."
1981: The first National Conference on Lesbian and Gay Aging took place in California. Sponsored by the National Association For Gay and Lesbian Gerontology, it sought to "dispel myths about older lesbians and gay men, advance research, establish programs and services for lesbian and gay elders, and encourage and provide support for lesbian and gay gerontologists."
2002: Harry Hay, a pioneering gay civil rights activist, passed away. A major figure from the days of Stonewall, Hay reportedly "plant[ed] the idea among American homosexuals that they formed an oppressed cultural minority of their own, like blacks, and to create a lasting organization in which homosexuals could come together to socialize and to pursue what was, at the beginning, the very radical concept of homosexual rights."
