DATES	EVENTS: 1533 - 1899
1533	The first anti-homosexual law is passed in England (25 Henry 8, chapter 6), which "adjudges buggery a felony punishable by hanging until dead. The Buggery Act was piloted through Parliament by Thomas Cromwell in an effort to support Henry VIII's plan for reducing the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts.... It was on the books primarily as a symbolic token of the supremacy of the secular courts over the ecclesiastical courts." 1
1624	The Buggery Act of Henry VIII is adopted by the original 13 American colonies. In 1624 Richard Cornish, Master of the ship Ambrose, anchored in the James River in Virginia, was hanged "for committing sodomy with the 29-year-old cabin boy William Couse." 1
1772	In July, Captain Robert Jones is convicted in England for sodomizing a 13-year-old boy. The age of consent at the time is 14. Sentenced to death, he is pardoned by the King on condition that he leave the country. During August and September the case is widely discussed in all the mainstream papers, and calls are made to reform the law. This is the first time the nature v. nurture issue is publicly debated. Homosexuals are thought to have "an inborn propensity." In this debate, "not only the entire literate class, but even labourers who had newspapers read to them at taverns -- would have been made fully aware of homosexuality: from explicit detailed descriptions of anal intercourse and masturbation; to legal, religious, and social attitudes to homosexuality; to supposed characteristics of homosexual men; to its prevalence across society. The attitudes to homosexuality reflected in the newspapers ranged from simple stereotypical homophobia... to more complex attitudes which included a defence of homosexuality on the grounds that it was a natural trait." 2
1821	"Mexican independence from Spain in 1821 brought an end to the Inquisition and ... homosexual oppression... The intellectual influence of the French Revolution and the brief French occupation of Mexico (1862-67) resulted in the adoption of the Napoleonic Code. This meant that sexual conduct in private between adults, whatever their gender, ceased to be a criminal matter." 3
1864	German lawyer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs publishes a pamphlet, Vindex: Social and Legal Studies on Man-Manly Love. He declares 'man-male love' to be inborn. Supposedly it is the natural, healthy expression of a 'female soul in a male body' - a condition he calls 'Uranism'. Those characterized by this condition he calls 'Uranians'. By means of this hypothesis, Ulrichs hopes to demonstrate the injustice of punishing sexual contact between men: Uranians do what they do because of what they are. No legislator, however, should punish people for what they are. Above all, Ulrichs wants to prevent the extension of the unreformed Prussian law against 'unnatural vice' to all German states. This threatens to occur as a result of German unification under Prussian leadership. (In Bavaria, Württemberg and Hannover the old law had already been abolished.) 4
1869	"German Karl-Maria Kertbeny, an Austrian-born journalist and human rights campaigner, put forward the view that homosexuality was inborn and unchangable, an argument which would later be called the 'medical model' of homosexuality.... In the course of [his] writings Kertbeny coined the word 'homosexual' as part of his system for the classification of sexual types.... Classical scholars have regretted Kertbeny's neologism ever since. The word homosexual combined a Greek prefix, homo, meaning 'same' with a Latin noun, sexus, meaning 'sex' (in the sense of gender). The rules of word-formation generally forbid combining Greek and Latin elements. Pure Greek forms would have been homoerotic and homoeroticist. The word also gives rise to confusion between the Greek homo and the Latin homo, meaning 'man,' as in homo sapiens. Many people have assumed that a homosexual is a person attracted to men, and that the word cannot therefore be applied to lesbians." 5
1871	King Wilhelm establishes the Second Reich in Germany, adopting a harsh penal code from Bavaria, including "Paragraph 175," which outlaws "lewd and unnatural behavior." This forces Karl Ulrichs to stop publishing educational pamphlets on homosexuality. Ulrichs later flees to France and dies in 1895. 6
1896	German Magnus Hirschfeld, M.D. publishes the pamphlet Sappho and Socrates, which describes the origin of homosexuality as taking place in a bisexual embryo. "Hirschfeld accounted for diversity in sexual orientation in terms of the bisexual nature of the developing fetus, but, in keeping with his training as a physician, he spoke of the 'brain' where Ulrichs had spoken of the 'mind.' Hirschfeld posited the existence, in the embryos of both sexes, of rudimentary neural centers for attraction to both males and females. In most male fetuses, the center for attraction to women developed, while the center for attraction to males regressed, and vice versa for female fetuses. In fetuses destined to become homosexual, on the other hand, the opposite developmental sequence took place." 7
1897	The first gay rights organization is formed in Germany by Magnus Hirschfeld, M.D., Adolf Brand and Max Spohr. It is called the Scientific Humanitarian Committee. By 1900 they publish 23 books, as well as collecting thousands of "prominent" signatures on a petition to abolish Paragraph 175. 6

DATES	EVENTS: 1900 - 1947
1903	The first large-scale survey on homosexuality, conducted by Magnus Hirschfeld and distributed to 6,611 German students and workers, finds that 2.2% of male respondents claim to have had sex with other men. Due to complaints, his studies are soon terminated by legal action. 4
1905	The Swiss psychiatrist Auguste Forel publishes his book The Sexual Question, which raises demands that are revolutionary for its time (abolition of most sex laws, marriage for same-sex couples etc.). Forel deliberately combines medical and socio-political viewpoints. 4 "In 1905’s Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Sigmund Freud put forward sexual theories, including his thoughts on the origins and meanings of homosexuality.... he saw homosexuality as the unconflicted expression of an innate instinct.... However, Freud also believed that even adult heterosexuals retain the homosexual component, albeit in sublimated form. Freud saw adult homosexuality as a developmental arrest of childhood instincts which prevent the development of a more mature heterosexuality." 8
1917	The Soviet Union abolishes all anti-gay legislation. 6 Eugen Steinach M.D. or Germany publishes his theories that testicular secretions in homosexual men are abnormal and that they drive brain development in a female rather than a male direction. He publishes the results of his experiment "transplanting a testicle from a heterosexual man into an 'effeminate, passive homosexual man.' According to the report, the man was totally 'cured' -- he was said to have lost all attraction to men and to have developed normal heterosexual feelings. Some further successes were reported, but eventually the procedure was exposed as ineffective." 7
1919	Hirschfeld establishes the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, which soon has 20,000 books in its library, and a staff to counsel gays and educate society. Other gay societies are soon established, along with a community center and committees to coordinate law reform measures. 6
1924	Biologist J.B.S. Haldane, observing some possible same-sex behavior in animals, writes "The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose." Since then homosexuality has been observed in over 450 animal species. 9
1928	On May 14, 1928 the National Socialist Party (Nazi) in Germany issues their official view on homosexuals: "It is not necessary that you and I live, but it is necessary that the German people live. And it can live if it can fight, for life means fighting. And it can only fight if it maintains its masculinity. It can only maintain its masculinity if it exercises discipline, especially in matters of love. Free love and deviance are undisciplined. Therefore, we reject you, as we reject anything which hurts our people. Anyone who even thinks of homosexual love is our enemy." 6
1928	The Reichstag Committee, by a vote of 15-13, approves the Penal Reform Bill, which abolishes homosexual crimes. The German Communists support this vote. Before the law could be put into effect the stock market crashes, the Bill is tabled, and the Nazis come to power. 6
1930	Hirschfeld visits the U.S., delivering a series of lectures to medical groups, advocating for the decriminalization of same-sex acts. 4
1932	Until this year, Hitler tolerates some gay Nazis, especially Ernst Rohm, who is head of the Brownshirt troopers, whom Hitler needed as an ally. By 1932, Rohm's group had grown to 500,000 members, and Hitler felt threatened. An assassination attempt fails, and Rohm flees to Bavaria. 6
1933	February: All gay bars and hotels are closed in Germany. March: The West German Morality League begins a campaign against Homosexuals, Jews, Negroes and Mongols. 6 May 6: "A Nazi goon squad plunders Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexology, which is then promptly closed by the authorities. The library is publicly burned four days later together with the books of other 'Un-German' authors like Freud, Brecht, Feuchtwanger, Werfel and Stefan Zweig. Most sexologists lose their opportunities to work, because they are Jewish. They flee into exile." 4
1934	On June 30, 1934, which is now called "The Night of the Long Knives," Hitler's troops raid a Bavarian resort and arrest Rohm, who is later shot. Simultaneously, 200 Brownshirt leaders suspected of homosexuality and allegiance to Rohm are rounded up and shot. The same day Hitler gives the order to purge all gays from the army. A law is passed requiring sterilization of all homosexuals, schizophrenics, epileptics, drug addicts, hysterics, and those born blind or malformed. 6
1936	As part of a clean-up campaign to prepare for the Munich Olympics, homosexual meeting places are raided and homosexuals are sent to concentration camps. All activities of the League of Human Rights are banned. 6
1938	Alfred C. Kinsey, a zoologist at Indiana University, begins his "mostly sociological studies of human sexual behavior." 4
1940	"What happened around 1940 ... more and more of the mass of the population began to identify as 'heterosexual' and see any homosexual behavior as transgressive; and secondly among self-identified 'queers' a shift in desired sexual partner took place. Previously 'queers' tended to prefer 'male' men but now 'queers' began to prefer other 'queers' as sexual partners." 10
1942	The Reich Ministry of Justice publicly adopts the death penalty for homosexuals. 2 Civilian records in Nazi Germany reveal 46,436 homosexuals were convicted and imprisoned under Paragraph 175 between the years of 1933-1943 (no records exist for the remainder of WWII). 6

DATES	EVENTS: 1948 - 1968
1948	Alfred Kinsey, et al. publish Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, which states: "Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that nature rarely deals with discrete categories... The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects..." (read more) The book shocks Americans, especially with its claim that 10% of the population could be homosexual. 4
1950s	"In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Republican demagogues charged that homosexuals had infiltrated the federal government under the Roosevelt and Truman administrations and that they posed a threat to national security. They considered communists and homosexuals both to be morally weak and psychologically disturbed. They also argued that homosexuals could be used by the communists—blackmailed by them—into revealing state secrets. This set off a Lavender Scare that affected the lives of thousands of Americans. Much of the vast apparatus of the Cold War loyalty/security system, initiated under the Truman administration and expanded under the Eisenhower administration, was focused on ferreting out and removing both communists and homosexuals from government positions. Civil servants describe horrendous interrogations by government security officials about their sex lives. Merely associating with 'known homosexuals'” or visiting a gay bar was considered strong enough evidence for dismissal.... Though a congressional committee spent several months in 1950 studying the threat homosexuals allegedly posed to national security, they could not find a single example of a gay or lesbian civil servant who was blackmailed into revealing state secrets-not one. Subsequent studies have confirmed this. But the myth of the homosexual as vulnerable to blackmail and therefore a security risk endured for decades." 11
1950	The Mattachine Society, considered the first modern gay rights organization, is formed in Los Angeles on November 11. "Harry Hay, the founder of the Mattachine Society in California, knew of the homosexual purges going on in Washington as early as 1948. He feared that as the Cold War with the Soviet Union escalated and American society took on a wartime footing, the purges would spread to the private sector and gays and lesbians would find it impossible to find employment. It was this sense of an “encroaching American fascism” that inspired him to found the Mattachine Society in 1950-1951. Working in a defense industry plant in Los Angeles, Hay understood the power of the federal government in setting employment policies." 11
1952	"In the 1952 presidential election, Republican campaign rhetoric portrayed Eisenhower and Nixon as 'God-fearing men' who were 'for morality.' They promised to clean up the mess in Washington, including the immorality in the State Department. Their Democratic opponent, Adlai Stevenson, was portrayed as an intellectual egghead with a 'fruity' voice. The rumors that Stevenson was a homosexual were so widespread that the tabloid magazine Confidential ran a cover story about 'How that Stevenson rumor started.' Because of the innuendo that permeated the campaign, some gay men at the time considered Stevenson the first gay presidential candidate." 11
1957	Dr. Evelyn Hooker publishes The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual, "in which she administered psychological tests to groups of homosexual and heterosexual people and asked experts, based on those tests alone, to select the homosexuals. The experiment, which other researchers subsequently repeated, demonstrates that homosexuals are no worse adjusted than the general population, and therefore being in their right minds would not, given an option, have chosen homosexuality over the more socially acceptable heterosexuality. As a result of her studies and the verifications thereof, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its handbook of disorders in 1973." 5
1955	Four lesbian couples in San Francisco found the Daughters of Bilitis, the first gay organization exclusively for women. "It was conceived as an explicitly lesbian alternative to other homophile groups of that era such as the Mattachine Society.... was influential throughout the 1950s and 1960s but was torn apart by factionalism in the 1970s. Its members split over whether to give more support to the gay rights movement or to feminism. 5
1960s	"Washington, D.C. became the center for a new militancy in the gay movement by the early 1960s. It was there, as gay men and lesbians began to organize and challenge the federal government's discriminatory policies, that they developed much of the rhetoric and tactics of the gay rights movement.... Perhaps the two most important tactics the Mattachine Society of Washington initiated were the use of public demonstrations and court suits. Public demonstrations like the 1965 picket in front of the White House were an effective way of garnering publicity for their cause. And legal challenges ultimately proved the most effective means of dismantling the government's anti-gay policies. Courageous men like Bruce Scott and Clifford Norton challenged their dismissals and won-suggesting that the courts were the best means of protecting the civil liberties of gay men and lesbians." 11
1962	As the U.S. war in Vietnam picks up momentum, some young men pretend to be gay in order to stay out of the armed forces. Rock legend Jimi Hendrix, although considered to have a "legendary appetite for women ... complained that he was in love with one of his squad mates" in order to obtain a discharge. 12
1968	"The British scholar Mary McIntosh investigates 'The Homosexual Role', coming to the conclusion that homosexuality is not a definite biological or psychological condition of certain individuals, which distinguishes them from everyone else, but rather a label attached to them by others and/or by themselves. It is a socially constructed role which is played voluntarily or involuntarily by some men and women, but not by others whose actual sexual behavior may not be much different. Ideas such as this eventually lead to a dispute between 'essentialists' (mostly natural scientists), who continue to believe in some essential homosexuality, and 'constructionists'" (mostly social scientists), who no longer share this belief." 4

DATES	EVENTS: 1969 - 1989
1969	July 28: Not long after 1:20 a.m. police raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. Beginning with cross-dressers, the crowd fights back. "The crowd's attacks were unrelenting. Some tried to light the bar on fire. Others used a parking meter as a battering ram to force the police officers out. Word quickly spread of the riot and many residents, as well as patrons of nearby bars, rushed to the scene. Throughout the night the police singled out many effeminate men and often beat them. On the first night alone 13 people were arrested and four police officers, as well as an undetermined number of protesters, were injured.... Bottles and stones were thrown by protesters who chanted 'Gay Power!' The crowd, estimated at over 2000, 'did battle' with over 400 police officers. The police sent additional forces in the form of the Tactical Patrol Force, a riot-control squad originally trained to counter anti-Vietnam War protesters. The tactical patrol force arrived to disperse the crowd. However, they failed to break up the crowd, who sprayed them with rocks and other projectiles.... Eventually the scene quieted down, but the crowd returned again the next night. While less violent than the first night, the crowd had the same electricity that was seen in the first. Skirmishes between the rioters and the police ensued until approximately 4:00 AM. The third day of rioting fell five days after the raid on the Stonewall Inn. On that Wednesday, 1,000 people congregated at the bar and again caused extensive property damage. Anger and outrage against the way police had treated gay people for decades previous burst to the surface. Leaflets were handed out saying, 'Get the Mafia and cops out of gay bars!'... The forces that were simmering before the riots were now no longer beneath the surface. The community created by the homophile organizations of the previous two decades had created the environment perfect for the creation of the Gay Liberation Movement. By the end of July the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was formed in New York and by the end of the year the GLF could be seen in cities and universities around the country. Similar organizations were soon created around the world including Canada, France, Britain, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand." 5
1970	June 28: "In commemoration of the Stonewall Riots, the GLF organizes a march from Greenwich Village to Central Park. Between 5,000 and 10,000 men and women attend the march. Many gay pride celebrations choose the month of June to hold their parades and events to celebrate 'The Hairpin Drop Heard Round the World.'" 5
1973	December: The Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association declares "by itself, homosexuality does not meet the criteria for being a psychiatric disorder." 4
1975	July 3: The U.S. Civil Service Commission decides to consider employment applications by lesbians and gay men on a case-by-case basis. 11
1977	Feb 7: The U.S. State Department announces that it will begin considering job applications from lesbian and gay men for employment in the foreign service. 11 Nov 8: Harvey Milk, "despite a national climate of hostility against gay people, he ran for office several times. He emerged as a figurehead for San Francisco's large gay community, and was called the 'Mayor of Castro Street.' He was elected city supervisor in 1977, the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the US. 5
1978	June 25: Artist Gilbert Baker, now known as the gay Betsy Ross, creates the Rainbow Flag. He designs the flag as a positive alternative to the Pink Triangle -- a symbol first used by the Nazis to identify homosexuals.... The original Rainbow Flag had eight stripes: fuchsia; red; orange; yellow; green; turquoise; blue; and, purple -- which represent sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic serenity and spirit. Nov 27: Former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White shoots and kills Mayor George Moscone and openly gay supervisor Harvey Milk. "White had resigned previously following the enactment of a gay rights bill which he had opposed.... Harvey Milk is widely regarded as a martyr for the gay community and the gay rights movement. Many Queer community institutions are named for Milk, including the Harvey Milk Institute and the Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Club in San Francisco, as well as a number of Queer-positive alternative schools in the United States, including Harvey Milk School in New York City." 5
1979	May 21: Dan White is convicted of voluntary manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and sentenced to seven years and eight months, a sentence widely denounced as lenient and motivated by homophobia. (White later committed suicide while on parole.) After the sentence, the gay community erupted into the White Night Riots; more than 160 people ended up in the hospital. 5
1981	June 5: AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is first reported in the United States when the Center for Disease Control reports that in the period October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California. 13
1986	June 30: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186, upholds "the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law that criminalized oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults." 5
1987	March 14: The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) is formed in March of 1987 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York. Three weeks later they hold their first protest on Wall Street. "ACT-UP uses non-violent direct action and often civil disobedience to bring attention to the AIDS crisis. ACT-UP also sought to stem the spread of HIV by engaging in frank public discussions about AIDS, sexuality and sexual practices. They are well known for their provocative demonstrations and their famous slogan/logo 'Silence = Death' with an inverted pink triangle, which is reminiscent of the pink triangle assigned to accused homosexual men in Nazi prison and death camps. s formed in New York City by Larry Kramer and about 300 other activists." 5

DATES	EVENTS: 1990 - Present
1991	June: In "A Difference in Hypothalamic Structure Between Heterosexual and Homosexual Men" published in Science (vol. 253, pages 1034-7) Simon LeVay et. al. state that the hypothalamus in the brains of gay men were a different size than those of straight men. 14 December: J.M. Bailey and R.C. Pillard et. al, publish a study of twins, concluding that "of the relatives whose sexual orientation could be rated, 52% of monozygotic cotwins, 22% of dizygotic cotwins, and 11% of adoptive brothers were homosexual." This study leads some to contend that homosexuality (since if it were totally inherited it would be 100% in monozygotic twins) is determined by both pre- and post-birth determinations. 15
1993	July: Dean H. Hamer, Ph.D. et. al, publishes their findings of "a correlation between homosexual orientation and the inheritance of polymorphic markers on the X chromosome," pointing toward at least some inheritance of sexual orientation. 5 July: The Clinton administration institutes its "Don't ask, don't tell" (Public Law 103-160) policy for gays and lesbians in the military. "The policy requires that as long as gay or bisexual men and women in the military hide anything that could disclose sexual orientation, commanders won't try to investigate their sexuality." 5
1996	Sept 21: President Bill Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars same-sex partners from receiving federal spousal benefits. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA): allows each state (or similar political division in the United States) to recognize or deny any marriage-like relationship between persons of the same sex which has been recognized in another state. explicitly recognizes for purposes of federal law that marriage is "a legal union of one man and one woman as husband and wife" and by stating that spouse "refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife." 5
1998	March: Dennis McFadden et. al. publish their findings that the inner ears of gay women work more like those of men. The discovery adds new support to the theory that sexual orientation may be predisposed at birth. 16 Sept 20: President Bill Clinton signs executive order banning anti-gay discrimination against any federal civilian employee. 11
1999	Dean H. Hamer, Ph.D. of the U.S. Laboratory of Biochemistry, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health publishes an article in Science which proposes that "sexual orientation is a complex trait that is probably shaped by many different factors, including multiple genes, biological, environmental, and sociocultural influences." 17 Bruce Bagemihl, Ph.D. published his book Biological Exuberance, Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), which chronicles homosexual and/or transgender activity in over 450 species of animals. 18 Anthony Bogaert, Ph.D., published an article in Archives of Sexual Behavior (Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 213-221) which stated: "The relation between sexual orientation and penile dimensions in a large sample of men was studied...On all five measures, homosexual men reported larger penises than did heterosexual men...Alterations of typical levels of prenatal hormones in homosexual men may account for these findings." 19
2002	September 16: Toshihiro Kitamoto et. al. publish their findings that they have found a way to "switch" homosexual behavior on and off in male fruit flies. The researchers were able to do this by temporarily disrupting synaptic transmissions in the flies. 16
2003	June 30: "U.S. Supreme Court [in a 6-3 decision, Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186] strikes down Texas sodomy state law banning private consensual sex between adults of the same sex. The court found that law and others like it violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. But legal analysts said the ruling enshrines for the first time a broad constitutional right to sexual privacy." 20 June 30: Dr. Rina Agrawal et. al. presents her findings at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology that 'Lesbians are more than twice as likely to suffer from a hormone-related condition [Polycystic ovary syndrome], fueling theories that hormones play a role in developing their sexuality.' 21 October: Robert L. Spitzer, M.D. et. al. publish an article in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior (Vol. 32, Issue 5, pp. 403-417) which concludes that "there is evidence that change in sexual orientation following some form of reparative therapy does occur in some gay men and lesbians." 22 October: Qazi Rahman, Ph.D. et. al. publishes a study which examined the eyeblink startle responses to acoustic stimuli of 59 healthy heterosexual and homosexual men and women. It concluded that "homosexual women showed significantly masculinized PPI [eye blink] compared with heterosexual women, whereas no difference was observed in PPI between homosexual and heterosexual men." Dr. Rahman stated in an interview that "because the startle response is known to be involuntary rather than learned, this strongly indicates that sexual orientation is largely determined before birth." 23
2004	February 12: "In an open challenge to California law, city authorities performed at least 15 same-sex weddings Thursday [2/12/04] and issued about a dozen more marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. By midafternoon, jubilant gay couples were lining up under City Hall's ornate gold dome and exchanging vows in two-minute ceremonies that followed one after another. 24 March 15: "A bloc of more than 50 Islamic states, backed by the Vatican, sought today to halt U.N. efforts to extend spousal benefits to partners of some gay employees. The initiative came less than two months after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan moved to award benefits to partners of gay employees who come from countries where such benefits are provided, such as Belgium and the Netherlands." 25 May 17: "Gay couples began exchanging vows here Monday [5/17/04], marking the first time a state has granted gays and lesbians the right to marry and making the United States one of four countries where homosexuals can legally wed." 24 November 2: 11 states voted to ban same-sex marriage. 26
2005	May: Dr. Ivanka Savic et. al, publish a study that show that homosexual and heterosexual men respond differently to two odors that may be involved in sexual arousal, and that the gay men respond in the same way as women. 27 June 3: A study published by Ebu Demir and Barry J. Dickson of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences show that a single gene in the fruit fly is sufficient to determine all aspects of the flies' sexual orientation and behavior. 28 June 30: The Spanish Parliament gives final approval to a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. 29 July 20: Canada signs gay marriage legislation into law, becoming the fourth nation to grant full legal rights to same-sex couples. 30
2006	June: Anthony Bogaert, Ph.D., in a 2006 article for the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 103, No. 28, pp. 10771-10774), conducted a study of 905 men and their siblings and found that the only significant factor for homosexuality in males was the number of times a mother had previously given birth to boys. Each older male sibling increased the chances of homosexuality by 33%. 31