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1950s
1959
 * Harold Call from the Mattachine Society of San Francisco, one of the first gay rights organization in the United States, speaks on campus on the “legal aspects of various sexual expressions."

1960s
1968 1969
 * Wiggsy Sivertsen begins work as a counselor at SJSU as the first openly lesbian person on campus and an advocate for LGBT rights.
 * The Gay Liberation Front fights for and eventually wins official recognition as a student organization at SJSU with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

1970s
1971 1973 1975 1976 1977 1978
 * The first gay pride celebration is held in San Jose at St. James Park.
 * Del Martin the founder of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian political organization in the United States, speaks at a conference on sexuality at SJSU.
 * The Gay Student Union and the Lesbian Feminist Alliance help organize and plan the first Gay Pride Day on campus. Their request for a formal recognition of Gay Pride Day is denied by the County Board of Supervisors and the City of San Jose.
 * Members of the Gay Student Union (GSU) and the Lesbian Feminist Alliance protest the showing of a movie (The Laughing Policeman) by Alpha Phi Omega fraternity at Morris Dailey Auditorium. They object to the movie's perpetuation of harmful and negative stereotypes of gay people and racial minorities.
 * Rita Mae Brown, a leader of the lesbian feminist movement, speaks at SJSU.
 * SJSU students participate in the Gay Freedom Day Rally in St. James Park celebrated annually thereafter as Gay Pride Day.
 * Barbara Grier, editor of the lesbian magazine The Ladder, speaks at SJSU on the importance of coming out and being visible so others can come out.
 * Elaine Noble, as a member of the Massachusetts State Assembly and the highest elected openly gay person in the United States, speaks at SJSU.
 * Harvey Milk wins a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors becoming the first openly gay person to be elected to public office.
 * Proposition 6, the Briggs Initiative proposes to ban gays and lesbians from working in California’s Public Schools. Members of SJSU's Gay Student Union and Lesbian Feminist Alliance speak at an Anti-Briggs Initiative Rally in St. James Park.
 * Wiggsy Siversten speaks out against the Briggs Initiative in a public debate at SJSU.
 * Supervisor Dan White murders Supervisor Harvey Milk in San Francisco. Members of the SJSU Gay Student Union give speeches and tributes to Harvey Milk at a memorial service at the Unitarian Church in San Jose.
 * The Sisters of Sappha a lesbian organization through the SJSU Women’s center, organizes “An Evening on Lesbos” at the Dance Club in San Jose. The Sisters also invite members of the SJSU Gay Student Union.

1980s
1980 1983 1984 1985 1987 1988
 * Kate Millett, a lesbian feminist activist, speaks at SJSU.
 * Leonard Matlovich, who was discharged from the Air Force for being a homosexual, speaks at SJSU.
 * SJSU students form the Gay and Lesbian Student Alliance (GALA) replacing the Gay Student Union and Lesbian Feminist Alliance. GALA later became the Gay, Bisexual, and Lesbian Alliance.
 * SJSU students Mary Jeffrey, Marilyn Cook and Karen Hester and alum Amy Caffrey create Sisterspirit, a women’s bookstore and coffeehouse near campus.
 * Wiggsy Sivertsen argues before the SJSU Academic Senate that the ROTC policy banning gay and lesbian students from the program violates the university's non-discrimination policy.
 * SJSU hosts the first AIDS Awareness Week to educate the SJSU community about AIDS. This would later become an annual event discussing LGBT issues.
 * Gay and lesbian SJSU employees form the group Staff for Individual Rights to organize against discrimination and harassment.
 * In the mid 1980s, Wiggsy Sivertsen begins teaching a gay and lesbian studies class on campus titled SOC 172: Alternatives in Lifestyle.
 * Leonard Matlovich speaks at SJSU about his experiences as a Vietnam veteran who challenged the military ban on gay service members and his later experiences with discrimination as a an AIDS victim.
 * The San Jose City Council approves an ordinance prohibiting discrimination against people with AIDS.
 * GALA members at SJSU wear white shirts to raise awareness about homophobia and the existence of gay and lesbians on campus.

1990s
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998
 * GALA sponsors the first ever gay and lesbian dance on campus during the annual Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week.
 * GALA members hold a vigil on campus in memory of AIDS victims Including SJSU employee Jerry Patterson.
 * Delta Lambda Phi, a gay fraternity, is founded at SJSU.
 * Panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt are displayed at SJSU. Memorials and tributes are made to SJSU students impacted by AIDS.
 * California Governor Pete Wilson vetoes AB 101 the “gay rights” bill which would have prevented discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation. SJSU students, faculty and staff from GALA and SIR organize an on-campus protest march called "Coming Out for AB 101" coinciding with National Coming Out Day.
 * The CSU Academic Senate hears proposal about banning the ROTC from campuses. The SJSU Academic Senate and Associated Students pass resolutions condemning the ROTC policy banning gay and lesbian recruits as discriminatory and demanding compliance with university policy.
 * GALA organizes a protest of the ROTC. The UPD arrests SJSU students Michael Kemmerer, Byl Hulse, and Ted Comerford (alumnus) for trying to raise the gay-pride flag in the MacQuarrie Hall courtyard.
 * Homophobic posters appear on walls of the art building. GALA demands that the incident be treated by the University Police Department as a hate crime and not just an act of vandalism.
 * GLAAD launches a Valentine’s Day protest against the San Jose Mercury News for their refusal to publish gay wedding announcements – specifically that of SJSU alumnus Mark Bonnie and Scott Williams. The protest is held in front of SJ Mercury News headquarters.
 * The Gay and Lesbian Faculty Staff Association forms on campus.
 * The ROTC program at SJSU removes questions about sexuality from their admissions interview in response to President Bill Clinton's signing of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" policy. This federal policy ensured gay and lesbian service members that they would not be asked about their sexual orientation during enlistment. Gay and lesbian students and faculty at SJSU argue that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is still discriminatory and therefore the ROTC policy toward gay and lesbian cadets remains a violation of the university's nondiscrimination policy.
 * Wiggsy Sivertsen speaks on behalf of the Gay and Lesbian Faculty and Staff Association at a forum at SJSU asking the CSU to adopt a policy to grant insurance benefits to same-sex couples.
 * A debate emerges on campus and in the Spartan Daily about the possibility of creating a Gay and Lesbian studies minor at SJSU.
 * As a result of the advocacy of gay and lesbian employees, SJSU’s Academic Senate votes to approve health insurance to all domestic (non- married) couples. Gay and lesbian faculty and staff at SJSU push the CSU system as a whole to offer benefits for same-sex partners.
 * SJSU alum and openly gay political leader Ken Yeager designs and teaches a new course on “Political Empowerment in the Gay and lesbian Community” in the political science department for SJSU.
 * After 14 years of lobbying from gay and lesbian students, faculty and staff, the SJSU Academic Senate votes to remove the ROTC from campus objecting to their discriminatory treatment toward lesbian and gay cadets in the program. The Academic Senate declares the ROTC policy and the larger “Don’t Ask, Don’t’ Tell" policy of the US military, a contradiction of the university’s nondiscrimination policy.
 * Students in SJSU's Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Alliance rally at the Student Union protesting Wilson's veto of AB 2810, which would have made California the first state to recognize unmarried couples as legal partners.
 * The lesbian sorority, Delta Lambda Kappa, is founded on campus.
 * The ROTC is allowed to operate on campus again after the federal government threatens to withdraw federal funding to SJSU and other universities that do not allow military training programs on campus.
 * Zachary Richard produces and hosts a radio show called Rainbow Radio on KSJS, the SJSU campus radio station. The weekly show addresses topics of interest to gay and lesbian youth.
 * Professor Lois Helmbold introduces a course on lesbian culture and history in the Women’s Studies program at SJSU.
 * A 21 year old gay college student named Matthew Shepard is murdered in Laramie, Wyoming. SJSU students respond by holding a candlelight vigil in Matthew Shepard’s memory to call attention to the issue of homophobia and hate crimes against gay people.
 * Some faculty and staff begin posting pink triangle Safe Zone flyers and stickers on campus in support of the LGBTQ community. University officials ask Martha O’Connell of FD&O a to remove the sticker citing it as a political statement. In response, O'Connell writes an editorial in the Spartan Daily calling attention to homophobia on campus.
 * Protest by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Faculty and Staff Association about Carl Karcher's funding of anti-gay legislation leads to the termination of the campus agreement with Carl’s Jr. The ouster of Carl’s Jr. from campus sparks a debate among students that results in homophobic letters to the Spartan Daily. Gay students form a group called the “Queer Revolution” and host an open forum to discuss the pervasive issue of homophobia on campus.

2000s
2000 2001 2002 2004 2005 2007 2008 2009
 * Students of Queer Revolution at SJSU speak out about California’s Proposition 22, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman thereby refusing to recognize same-sex marriages.
 * The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Faculty and Staff Association create the Wiggy Sivertsen Scholarship in her honor.
 * The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Alliance at SJSU observes the national Day of Silence to protest discrimination and to advocate for a resource center on campus.
 * The City of San Jose votes to recognize same-sex marriages. The proposal was drafted by Ken Yeager, an SJSU alum, instructor and the first openly gay San Jose City Council member.
 * SJSU students Jennifer Kemmet and Melinda McCallister wed at San Francisco’s City Hall after Mayor Gavin Newsom authorized marriage licenses for same-sex couples.
 * MFA graduate student Jana Marcus organizes the first Transgender Awareness Week on campus with a series of panels. Marcus creates a photo documentary exhibit titled Transfigurations.
 * The SJSU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Faculty and Staff Association advocate for gender neutral bathrooms and the inclusion of gender identity and expression in the university’s non-discrimination policies. Librarian Edith Crowe argues the rights of transgender individuals should be part of any organization's policies. Wiggsy Sivertsen requests that the chancellor update the nondiscrimination policy and add gender neutral bathrooms.
 * An SJSU student is denied the chance to donate blood on campus because he is gay. He argues that the policy violates the campus non-discrimination policy. SJSU administrators agree and respond by halting campus blood drives in protest of the Federal Drug Administration's policy banning gay men from donating blood.
 * On September 22, 2008, the LGBT Resource Center (later called the SJSU PRIDE Center) was founded on campus and led by director Bonnie Sugiyama.
 * Dr. Angela Krumm and Bonnie Sugiyama co-develop the Peers in Pride mentoring program to connect LGBTQ students with peer mentors.
 * A new student organization called Queers Thoughtfully Interrupting Prejudice (QTIP) forms at SJSU. QTIP sponsors a drag show highlighting issues impacting transgender people on campus.
 * Students from Queers Thoughtfully Interrupting Prejudice organize a LGBTQ+ rights march on campus.
 * El Pais, Trans Talk, Urban Pride, and Queer and Asian (Q&A) student organizations form on campus.
 * At the urging of LGBTQ+ students, faculty and staff, FD&O compiles a list of existing and potential gender neutral bathrooms on campus.
 * The first Rainbow Graduation celebration is held on campus for LGBTQ+ SJSU students.

2010s
2010 2012 2013
 * Transgender student health services hosts th first Queer Prom on campus.
 * Graduate student Andrew House, Professor Susan Murray, Dr. Angela Krumm, Melinda Chu-Yang, and members of Queers Thoughtfully Interrupting Prejudice and Peers in Pride organize the first Transgender Awareness Week on campus.
 * SJSU graduate student Olivia Sawi creates the Graduate and Professional Queers organization.
 * Candace Gingrich, an LGBT activist with the Human Rights Campaign, speaks on campus.
 * Unity House opens in SJSU student housing as a supportive living space for LGBTQIA students.
 * Tova Feldmanstern, LCSW, co-leads the Peers in Pride (PIP) program with Bonnie Sugiyama.

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
 * Graduate Queers (GQ) student organization forms.
 * Marian Sofish, SJSU Registrar, leads a CSU initiative for students to use an affirmed name on official campus documents.
 * The SJSU ace/aro (asexual and aromantic) meetup begins in the Pride Center on campus.
 * In the deadliest incident of violence against LGBTQ+ people in US history, a gunman kills 49 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. SJSU students participate in a memorial for Pulse victims at San Jose City Hall organized by MEChA de SJSU Co-Chair Martin Madrigal and PRIDE Center Director Bonnie Sugiyama.
 * Dr. Stephanie Preston becomes the first faculty fellow in the PRIDE Center and co-leads the Peers in Pride (PIP) program with Bonnie Sugiyama.
 * The California State Board of Education approves a new History/Social Science Framework for California public schools that aligns to the 2011 FAIR Education Act mandating the inclusion of the history of LGBT Americans in K-12 curriculum. The Social Science Teacher Preparation (SSTP) program at SJSU, under the direction of Professor Wendy Rouse, revises the program curriculum and organizes professional development workshops to prepare local teachers and SJSU teacher preparation students to teach LGBT history in California public school classrooms.
 * Bonnie Sugiyama and Matthew Capriotti launch the SJSU to Zero Campaign for HIV prevention education. The campaign not only focuses on reducing the rates of HIV transmission through preventative actions but also on working to reduce the stigma surrounding HIV testing and diagnosis.
 * Professor Lark Alder appointed faculty fellow in the PRIDE Center and starts QuArtzs program on campus.

2020s
2020
 * The SJSU PRIDE Center launches virtual programs to support students during the Covid-19 pandemic.