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Gender Equality is not only a fundimental human right, but necessary for a peaceful and sustainable world.

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Gender rights arent just for the she/her and he/him pronouns, but for the LGBTQ+ community to bring foward awarness of those who identify diffrent.

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In the matter of LGBTQIA+ rights, we started behind - it wasn't until 1990 that homosexuality was declassified as a mental disorder by the World Health Organization, despite the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaiming, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

And while society has made advancements, according to the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, "Consensual same-sex relations are still criminalized in close to 70 countries. Only one out of three countries legally protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation, only one out of ten protect people based on gender identity, and only a handful based on sex characteristics."

As a marginalized group, LGBTQIA+ people can face challenges and hostilities in accessing health care and legal protections. They are "more likely to experience human rights violations including violence, torture, criminalization, involuntary medical procedures and discrimination. In addition, they face denial of care, discriminatory attitudes and inappropriate pathologizing in healthcare settings," per the World Health Organization.

UNFPA believes everyone is entitled to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and is guided by the 1994 International Conference of Population and Development ( ICPD) Programme of Action, adopted by 179 governments, which recognizes that reproductive health includes the right of all people to have a satisfying and safe sex life.

In its commitment to leaving no one behind, UNFPA works toward a world where LGBTQIA+ people are afforded the same rights as others, for example, access to gender-based violence services in the COVID-19 response. UNFPA is part of the joint UN programme 2gether 4 SRH R, which promotes SRHR for key populations in East and Southern Africa. Other initiatives have helped develop a Transgender Health Strategy and piloted psychosocial counselling for gender non-conforming people in Jamaica; integrated SRHR and HIV prevention and treatment services for gender-diverse people and distributed dignity kits tailored for transgender people in Bangladesh; raised HIV awareness in Haiti; provided sexual health education in Myanmar; improved access to HIV prevention measures in Lesotho and Botswana; empowered key populations in Kyrgyzstan; helped people at risk of HIV start small businesses in the Philippines; and supported universal sexual and reproductive health education in Lao People's Democratic Republic.

In addressing the needs of LGBTQIA+ people, we've come some distance with further yet to go. We vow continued commitment to not straying from the path, eyes fixed on the horizon, true and lasting equality our destination.

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Equality in dignity and rights for LGBTQIA+ people

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Everyone has a role to play to ensure equality in dignity and rights for #LGBTQIA+ people. See how@UNFPAis taking action:

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Although the Gender Equality project is mainily focoused on WOmens rights, men are also included in gender equality.

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Gender equality can only happen when women and men are advancing toward that goal together.

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Gender equality is essential to create a safer, better, more prosperous, and sustainable world. Unfortunately, women are not still safe in their own house, or in the communities, they do not have equal legal or social status in many countries. Till now there are 49 countries without any laws to protect against sexual violence or abuse and in 18 countries, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working. Women's rights activism and feminist movements have started gaining momentum over the last two decades. These 5 gender equality campaigns made a huge impact over the last few years by engaging common people, leaders, empowering women, to create a more gender-equal, sustainable world.

Founded by UN Women in 2014, HeForShe movement aims in breaking social norms by signing primarily up men and boys to support gender equality. HeForShe believes that Gender equality is not a women's issue but a threat to global human rights. They work as a systematic platform to engage boys and men in partnership with women in taking direct actions to eradicate discrimination, violence, and oppression against women. Since it's launch, hundreds of thousands of men across all walks of society, including Global leaders, diplomats, CEOs have committed to this innovative initiative as a change maker. IMPACT 10x10x10 is a pilot initiative of HeForShe, where leaders from three sectors-Governments, corporate and academia would be engaged to a top-down approach in making real changes and measurable progress in gender equality issues in their respective sector. #HeForShe
Also Read: Gender Equality Begins At Home: A Personal Reflection
UniTE to End Violence Against Women is a campaign launched by United Nations Secretary-General in 2008 to end all forms of violence against all women in the world by actively engaging Policymakers as well as leaders from civil societies, private sectors, individuals and communities. The UNiTE campaign aims to enforce and implement laws and action plans to prevent violence against women and girls by educating and involving people from diverse backgrounds. This campaign also aims to address the worldwide use of sexual violence as a tactic of armed conflict. One of the key targets of the UNiTE campaign also is involving men and boys as an active change-maker in this fight against sexual violence against women.

In October 2011, UN Women and Canada jointly developed this online platform on women's economic empowerment. Since then Empower Women has spread across 190 countries, created more than 410 Champions for women's economic empowerment, and is the leading global movement for women's economic empowerment. They are dedicated to empowering women economically by engaging and educating both women and men as advocates and change-makers through a common platform by networking, sharing, peer learning and mentoring. #EmpowerWomen
Also Read: Dr. Lina Abirafeh's interview about her work to end gender-based violence.
In 2006, Tarana Burke started the Me Too movement to extend support and empathy to survivors of sexual violence by creating a larger network of survivors. What started as a grass root level campaign in 2006, became a global movement by 2017 through viral#Metoo hashtag on social media and created a huge impact in several countries in the world. The purpose of this movement was to help the survivors heal and de-stigmatize and to validate the trauma and pain of the survivors. This movement is the voice of survivors of sexual harassment and violence and led by survivors for survivors. They were also fighting for systemic changes in the social and criminal justice system. #MeToo

Girl Up is an initiative of the United Nations Foundation to engage and empower girls to stand up for each other and change the world. Girl Up provides leadership training and resources to girls to become gender equality advocates and leaders. Girls Up partnered with the United Nations to fund programs in five key areas -education, health, safety, leadership, and documentation. Gris Up was started as a campaign for American girls in 2010, but soon it began a global movement towards creating a network of girl leaders to transform the communities. To date, Girl Up has supported more than 34,000 girls worldwide through their different programs.
Also Read: Ananya Kamboj : Using Sports to Empower Girls and Women

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Top 5 Gender Equality Campaigns | Rights of Equality

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Gender equality is essential to create a safer, better, more prosperous, and sustainable world. Unfortunately, women are not still safe in their own house, or in the communities, they do not have equal legal or social status in many countries.

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There is no one solution to gender equality

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There is no one solution to gender equality

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12 Steps to Achieve Gender Equality in Our Lifetimes

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Anna Leach explains that an inclusive, coordinated, multi-faceted approach is needed to achieve gender equality.

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Women and girls represent half of the worlds population and therefore also half of its potential. But gender inequality persists everywhere and prevents social progress On average, women in labor market still earn 23 percent less than men globally and women spend about three times as many hours in unpaid domestic and care work as men.l

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Girls and boys see gender inequality in their homes and communities every day - in textbooks, in the media and among the adults who care for them.

Parents may assume unequal responsibility for household work, with mothers bearing the brunt of caregiving and chores. The majority of low-skilled and underpaid community health workers who attend to children are also women, with limited opportunity for professional growth.

And in schools, many girls receive less support than boys to pursue the studies they choose. This happens for a variety of reasons: The safety, hygiene and sanitation needs of girls may be neglected, barring them from regularly attending class. Discriminatory teaching practices and education materials also produce gender gaps in learning and skills development. As a result, nearly 1 in 4 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are neither employed nor in education or training - compared to 1 in 10 boys.

Worldwide, nearly 1 in 4 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are neither employed nor in education or training - compared to 1 in 10 boys.

Yet, in early childhood, gender disparities start out small. Girls have higher survival rates at birth, are more likely to be developmentally on track, and are just as likely to participate in preschool. Among those who reach secondary school, girls tend to outperform boys in reading across every country where data are available.

But the onset of adolescence can bring significant barriers to girls' well-being. Gender norms and discrimination heighten their risk of unwanted pregnancy, HIV and AIDS, and malnutrition. Especially in emergency settings and in places where menstruation remains taboo, girls are cut off from the information and supplies they need to stay healthy and safe.

In its most insidious form, gender inequality turns violent. Some 1 in 20 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 - around 13 million - have experienced forced sex. In times of both peace and conflict, adolescent girls face the highest risk of gender-based violence. Hundreds of millions of girls worldwide are still subjected to child marriage and female genital mutilation - even though both have been internationally recognized as human rights violations. And violence can occur at birth, like in places where female infanticide is known to persist.

Some 1 in 20 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 - around 13 million globally - have experienced forced sex in their lifetimes.

Harmful gender norms are perpetuated at the highest levels. In some countries, they become entrenched in laws and policies that fail to uphold - or that even violate - girls' rights, like laws that restrict women from inheriting property. Boys also suffer from gender norms: Social conceptions of masculinity can fuel child labour, gang violence, disengagement from school, and recruitment into armed groups.

Despite major hurdles that still deny them equal rights, girls refuse to limit their ambitions. Since the signing of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995 - the most comprehensive policy agenda for gender equality - the world has seen uneven progress.

More and more girls are attending and completing school, and fewer are getting married or becoming mothers while still children themselves. But discrimination and limiting stereotypes remain rife. Technological change and humanitarian emergencies are also confronting girls with new challenges, while old ones - violence, institutionalized biases, poor learning and life opportunities - persist.

That's why girls from all walks of life are boldly raising their voices against inequality. Girl-led movements are stopping child marriage and female genital mutilation, demanding action on climate change, and trail-blazing in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) - asserting their power as global change-makers.

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Equal rights and opportunities for girls and boys help all children fulfil their potential.

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Goal 5: Gender equality - The Global Goals

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Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

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Why gender equality is not just about women | Caroline Strachan | TEDxFolkestone

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Why Gender Equality Is Good for Everyone — Men Included | Michael Kimmel | TED Talks

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Gender equality – We must do better, and we can!

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The 19th amendment is a milestone, not an endpoint

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The 19th amendment is a milestone, not an endpoint

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The upcoming centennial of the 19th Amendment is a milestone in women's suffrage, marking a culmination of decades-long efforts by women who called for full citizenship. This history, Stanford historian Estelle Freedman says, can be traced back to the abolition movement in 19th-century America.

Go to the web site to view the video.

Here, Freedman discusses how the histories of the women's suffrage movement and abolitionism are closely intertwined: It was through their opposition to slavery that middle-class American women first became politically active, said Freedman. The anti-slavery movement pushed women out of the home and church and into politics, eventually leading some to advocate for their own rights as women.

For example, Freedman shares the stories of Angelina and Sarah Grimké, some of the early white female abolitionists, who noted in 1837 that advocating for the rights of enslaved people inspired them to examine their own role in American political society. Also advocating for women's rights - particularly the rights of Black women - was the formerly enslaved abolitionist Sojourner Truth.

Freedman also discusses how the women's suffrage movement split over race after the Civil War, what it did and did not achieve, and what can be learned from this history.

Freedman is the Edgar E. Robinson Professor in U.S. History in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Her research interests focus on the history of women and social reform, including prison reform, as well as the history of sexuality and sexual violence.
You have written about how anti-slavery activism inspired women's suffrage. Can you explain how these two movements are connected?
The history of suffrage cannot be separated from the history of race and class in America. The suffrage movement in part had its origins in the anti-slavery movement in the United States.

Anti-slavery activism drew both Black and white northern women into politics during the antebellum period, from the 1830s through the 1850s. While Black women sought freedom for their own race, some white women steeped in religious or moral training came to believe that slavery defied their ideals of womanhood and of justice. Think of Harriet Beecher Stowe's appeal in Uncle Tom's Cabin, which played to the sentiment northern middle-class women attached to the family by portraying enslaved families sold apart. Abolitionist literature alluded to the rape of enslaved women, which affronted ideals of female purity.

The 19th Amendment

As part of the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment that granted women the right to vote, Stanford scholars reflect on this milestone in a three-part series:

While they found different paths into the small but vocal anti-slavery movement, northern women who joined it moved beyond the limits of the home and church. They formed hundreds of female anti-slavery societies and in the process engaged in politics. Some women merely tried to influence their husbands, sons or brothers - who were voting citizens - but others increasingly took action themselves. For example, during the campaign to send petitions to Congress to abolish slavery, the women's anti-slavery societies gathered the bulk of the signatures.

When female abolitionists tried to speak in public, however, the public condemned their unladylike behavior. Maria Stewart, a northern Black anti-slavery activist, justified her right to speak out politically, whatever her race or her sex. Angelina and Sarah Grimké, who left a slave-holding family in the South, also chafed under restrictions on their right to speak publicly against the evil of slavery. As Angelina Grimké explained, "The investigation of the rights of slaves has led me to a better understanding of my own." Sarah Grimké's Letters on the Equality of the Sexes (1837) articulated an early critique of misogyny, marriage and economic inequality, one considered far too controversial for the time. Both Stewart and the Grimké sisters, however, withdrew from public speaking.

The World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840 provides another link between anti-slavery and suffrage. U.S. delegates Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott shared the humiliation of having to sit in the balcony as observers (where some male allies joined them). Eight years later, living near Seneca Falls, New York, the two women called together a convention on women's rights, which the leading abolitionist Frederick Douglass chaired. The subsequent convention movement called for married women's property rights, access to education and occupations, and woman suffrage.
What role did Black women play in the abolition movement and how did their efforts help shift perceptions of women's role in society?
I think a good example, and a link from the antebellum to the post-Civil War suffrage movement, is the formerly enslaved northern woman who chose the name Sojourner Truth when she became an itinerant preacher. Her speech at the Women's Rights Convention in Ohio in 1851 - erroneously remembered as "Ain't I a woman?" - responded to white male hecklers who claimed that women should stay on their protective pedestal rather than seek to vote. By invoking her own history, Truth exposed the appropriation of women's reproductive and productive labor under slavery. In effect, she insisted that racism contradicts the protected woman's sphere - you can't have both idealized womanhood and racism.

Less well known is Truth's 1867 speech in which she called for equal rights for both formerly enslaved men and all women. She argued that if the 15th Amendment expanded suffrage only to Black men, it would be "as bad as it was before" emancipation for Black women. In both instances, she articulated the inseparability of race and gender now known as intersectionality.
What led to the separation of these intertwined causes?
Let's start with the historical context of the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. In the aftermath of the Civil War, industrial capitalism spawned wealth, poverty and intellectual justifications for both, such as social Darwinism, scientific racism and nativism. It was not an era conducive to progressive change. The southern quest to re-establish white supremacy culminated in Jim Crow segregation, the disenfranchisement of Black men and the rule of terror by extralegal lynch mobs. The 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson made segregation legal.

Within this context, the small and unpopular suffrage movement faced formidable challenges, including a bitter split among former abolitionists over supporting the 15th Amendment without including women. In the next generation, historians have identified a shift in arguments for suffrage, from an earlier call for justice to a later politics of expediency. How can we get to this end, suffrage? In the context of a racist society, some but not all white suffragists adopted rhetoric asking, "Why are ignorant, illiterate immigrants and Black men voting when educated white women can't vote?" They also tried to appease southern suffragists by excluding Black women's groups from national meetings.

I think that many white suffragists did not appreciate the importance of the vote for Black women. Given the disenfranchisement of southern Black men - through mechanisms like literacy tests, grandfather clauses and poll taxes - they may have considered Black women unlikely voters and thus, expendable. Black women, however, understood that they needed the vote even more than most white women, in order to advance their goals of racial justice. While the suffrage movement may have had a wide racist streak, it was not entirely a white women's movement. Black women joined mixed race groups and formed their own suffrage associations, and leaders like Mary Church Terrell refused to march at the back of the parade when she and other Black suffragists joined white allies in the mainstream.
As we commemorate the milestone of women's right to vote, what do you want to see in the discussion of this celebration?
We can see it as a great victory, the culmination of decades and decades of effort by women who spoke, wrote and lobbied for the suffrage; who tried to vote, as Susan B. Anthony did in 1872. Whether they claimed that women's maternal qualities would vote in a better world or, as younger self-identified feminists insisted, that women were no different than men, they eventually won over male legislators. We can see the 19th Amendment as a benchmark in the long movement for full citizenship for women, a major political hurdle passed. We can also see it as a limited victory, given the continued disenfranchisement of southern Black and Native American women at the time. But I think we can't make it into the endpoint of a historical "wave."

"Suffrage had the potential to enable political change by creating a group of new women voters."

-Estelle Freedman

The Edgar E. Robinson Professor in U.S. History

Before and after 1920, women who supported suffrage also sought better working conditions and women's access to the professions. They created an international peace movement. Black women campaigned against lynching and some white women, even in the South, supported them. I have written about anti-rape efforts in the suffrage era, long before an organized anti-violence movement emerged. Once enfranchised, women aspired to jury service, office holding and military service. In 1923 the National Woman's Party introduced the Equal Rights Amendment and lobbied Congress for decades. In so many ways, suffrage alone did not achieve the larger agenda of the women's movement.

That said, the vote did make a difference. Suffrage had the potential to enable political change by creating a group of new women voters. Understand, though, that it took a full generation between the ratification of the suffrage amendment and the first time when women began to vote in the same proportion as men. It would take another full generation before a women's political agenda and a gender gap in voting emerged.

While it is important to create these historical benchmarks and to celebrate these anniversaries, we always have to think about what we have gained, at what costs, for whom, and what unfinished agenda remains. What strengths of the movement can we adopt? What flaws do we want to avoid?
What can be learned from this history?
I think that one of the things we've learned over the decades is the importance of alliance, of being wary of single-issue causes. We need to keep our vision broad. What do the rights we seek at any given moment mean for people who are different from us? How can we support the rights that others seek and find the overlapping links between them? In our own time, we witness women of color taking the lead in identifying the intersections of race and gender, whether in Black Lives Matter, reproductive justice or environmental movements. Gender runs through all of these, race runs through all of them, our humanity runs through all of them, and we can never separate entirely any one cause from another. Feminism has to expand to question all social hierarchies to truly achieve what it professes.

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19th Amendment is a milestone, not endpoint, for women

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As the centennial of the 19th Amendment approaches, the milestone in women's suffrage must also acknowledge the intersection of gender and racial justice in America, says Stanford scholar Estelle Freedman.

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Here is a look at LGBTQ milestones in the United States. LGBTQ is an acronym meaning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning. The term sometimes is extended to LGBTQIA, to include intersex and asexual groups. Queer is an umbrella term for non-straight people; intersex refers to those whose sex is not clearly defined because of genetic, hormonal, or biological differences; and asexual describes those who don't experience sexual attraction.

Timeline:

1924 - The Society for Human Rights is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. It is the first documented gay rights organization.

1950 - The Mattachine Society is formed by activist Harry Hay and is one of the first sustained gay rights groups in the United States. The Society focuses on social acceptance and other support for homosexuals.

April 1952 - The American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual lists homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance.

April 27, 1953 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order that bans homosexuals from working for the federal government, saying they are a security risk.

September 1955 - The first known lesbian rights organization in the United States forms in San Francisco. Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). They host private social functions, fearing police raids, threats of violence and discrimination in bars and clubs.

July 1961 - Illinois becomes the first state to decriminalize homosexuality by repealing their sodomy laws.

September 11, 1961 - The first US-televised documentary about homosexuality airs on a local station in California.

June 28, 1969 - Police raid the Stonewall Inn in New York City. Protests and demonstrations begin, and it later becomes known as the impetus for the gay civil rights movement in the United States.

June 28, 1970 - Community members in New York City march through the local streets to recognize the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. This event is named Christopher Street Liberation Day and is now considered the first gay pride parade.

1973 - Lambda Legal becomes the first legal organization established to fight for the equal rights of gays and lesbians. Lambda also becomes their own first client after being denied non-profit status; the New York Supreme Court eventually rules that Lambda Legal can exist as a non-profit.

January 1, 1973 - Maryland becomes the first state to statutorily ban same-sex marriage.

March 26, 1973 - First meeting of "Parents and Friends of Gays," which goes national as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) in 1982.

December 15, 1973 - By a vote of 5,854 to 3,810, the American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in the DSM-II Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

1974 - Kathy Kozachenko becomes the first openly LGBTQ American elected to any public office when she wins a seat on the Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council.

1974 - Elaine Noble is the first openly gay candidate elected to a state office when she is elected to the Massachusetts State legislature.

January 14, 1975 - The first federal gay rights bill is introduced to address discrimination based on sexual orientation. The bill later goes to the Judiciary Committee but is never brought for consideration.

March 1975 - Technical Sergeant Leonard P. Matlovich reveals his sexual orientation to his commanding officer and is forcibly discharged from the Air Force six months later. Matlovich is a Vietnam War veteran and was awarded both the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. In 1980, the Court of Appeals rules that the dismissal was improper. Matlovich is awarded his back pay and a retroactive promotion.

1976 - After undergoing gender reassignment surgery in 1975, ophthalmologist and professional tennis player Renee Richards is banned from competing in the women's US Open because of a "women-born-women" rule. Richards challenges the decision and in 1977 and the New York Supreme Court rules in her favor. Richards competes in the 1977 US Open but is defeated in the first round by Virginia Wade.

October 14, 1979 - The first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights takes place. It draws an estimated 75,000 to 125,000 individuals marching for LGBTQ rights.

March 2, 1982 - Wisconsin becomes the first state to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.

1983 - Lambda Legal wins People v. West 12 Tenants Corp., the first HIV/AIDS discrimination lawsuit. Neighbors attempted to evict Dr. Joseph Sonnabend from the building because he was treating HIV-positive patients.

October 11, 1988 - The first National Coming Out Day is observed.

November 1995 - The Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act goes into effect as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The law allows a judge to impose harsher sentences if there is evidence showing that a victim was selected because of the "actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person."

September 21, 1996 - President Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act, banning federal recognition of same-sex marriage and defining marriage as "a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife."

December 3, 1996 - Hawaii's Judge Chang rules that the state does not have a legal right to deprive same-sex couples of the right to marry, making Hawaii the first state to recognize that gay and lesbian couples are entitled to the same privileges as heterosexual married couples.

April 1997 - Comedian Ellen DeGeneres comes out as a lesbian on the cover of Time magazine, stating, "Yep, I'm Gay."

April 30, 1997 - DeGeneres' character, Ellen Morgan, on her self-titled TV series "Ellen," becomes the first leading character to come out on a prime-time network television show.

October 6-7, 1998 - Matthew Shepard is tied to a fence and beaten near Laramie, Wyoming. He is eventually found by a cyclist, who initially mistakes him for a scarecrow. He later dies due to his injuries sustained in the beating.

October 9, 1998 - Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney from Laramie, Wyoming, make their first court appearance after being arrested for the attempted murder of Shepard. Eventually, they each receive two life sentences for killing Shepard.

June 2003 - The US Supreme Court strikes down the "homosexual conduct" law, which decriminalizes same-sex sexual conduct, with their opinion in Lawrence v. Texas. The decision also reverses Bowers v. Hardwick, a 1986 US Supreme Court ruling that upheld Georgia's sodomy law.

May 17, 2004 - The first legal same-sex marriage in the United States takes place in Massachusetts.

September 6, 2005 - The California legislature becomes the first to pass a bill allowing marriage between same-sex couples. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes the bill.

October 25, 2006 - The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that state lawmakers must provide the rights and benefits of marriage to gay and lesbian couples.

May 15, 2008 - The California Supreme Court rules in re: Marriage Cases that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples is unconstitutional.

November 4, 2008 - Voters approve Proposition 8 in California, which makes same-sex marriage illegal. The proposition is later found to be unconstitutional by a federal judge.

August 12, 2009 - Milk is posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

October 28, 2009 - Obama signs the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law.

September 20, 2011 - "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is repealed, ending a ban on gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military.

May 9, 2012 - In an ABC interview,Obama becomes the first sitting US president to publicly support the freedom for LGBTQ couples to marry.

September 4, 2012 - The Democratic Party becomes the first major US political party in history to publicly support same-sex marriage on a national platform at the Democratic National Convention.

November 6, 2012 - Tammy Baldwin becomes the first openly gay politician and the first Wisconsin woman to be elected to the US Senate.

June 26, 2013 - In United States v. Windsor, the US Supreme Court strikes down section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, ruling that legally married same-sex couples are entitled to federal benefits. The high court also dismisses a case involving California's proposition 8.

October 6, 2014 - The United States Supreme Court denies review in five different marriage cases, allowing lower court rulings to stand, and therefore allowing same-sex couples to marry in Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Indiana and Wisconsin. The decision opens the door for the right to marry in Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming.

May 17, 2016 - The Senate confirms Eric Fanning to be secretary of the Army, making him the first openly gay secretary of a US military branch. Fanning previously served as Defense Secretary Carter's chief of staff, and also served as undersecretary of the Air Force and deputy undersecretary of the Navy.

June 30, 2016 - Secretary of Defense Carter announces that the Pentagon is lifting the ban on transgender people serving openly in the US military.

November 9, 2016 - Kate Brown is sworn in as governor of Oregon, a day after she was officially elected to the office. Brown becomes the highest-ranking LGBTQ person elected to office in the United States. Brown took over the governorship in February 2016 (without an election), after Democrat John Kitzhaber resigned amidst a criminal investigation.

April 4, 2017 - The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the Civil Rights Act prohibits workplace discrimination against LGBTQ employees, after Kimberly Hively sues Ivy Tech Community College for violating Title VII of the act by denying her employment.

June 27, 2017 - District of Columbia residents can now choose a gender-neutral option of their driver's license. DC residents become the first people in the United States to be able to choose X as their gender marker instead of male or female on driver's licenses and identification cards. Similar policies exist in Canada, India, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand and Nepal.

June 30, 2017 - The US Department of Defense announces a six-month delay in allowing transgendered individuals to enlist in the United States military. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis writes that they "will use this additional time to evaluate more carefully the impact of such accessions on readiness and lethality." Approximately a month later, President Donald Trump announces via Twitter that the "United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military..."

November 7, 2017 - Virginia voters elect the state's first openly transgender candidate to the Virginia House of Delegates. Danica Roem unseats incumbent delegate Bob Marshall, who had been elected 13 times over 26 years. Roem becomes the first openly transgender candidate elected to a state legislature in American history.

February 26, 2018 - The Pentagon confirms that the first transgender person has signed a contract to join the US military.

November 6, 2018 - Democratic US Representative Jared Polis wins the Colorado governor's race, becoming the nation's first openly gay man to be elected governor.

June 30, 2019 - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signs a law banning the use of the so-called gay and trans panic legal defense strategy. The tactic asks a jury to find that a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity is to blame for a defendant's violent reaction. New York follows California, Rhode Island, Illinois, Nevada and Connecticut as the sixth state to pass such a law.

February 10, 2020 - The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a ruling that the state of Idaho must provide gender confirmation surgery for Adree Edmo, an inmate in the custody of the Idaho Department of Correction. The ruling marks the first time a federal appeals court has ruled that a state must provide gender assignment surgery to an incarcerated person. According to the court opinion, "the gender confirmation surgery (GCS) was medically necessary for Edmo, and ordered the State to provide the surgery." In July 2020, Edmo receives her gender confirmation surgery and a May 2020 appeal by Attorney General of Idaho, Lawrence Wasden, is denied as moot by the US Supreme Court in October 2020.

August 26, 2020 - The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rules in favor of former student, Gavin Grimm in a more than four-year fight over restroom policies for transgender students. The ruling states that policies segregating transgender students from their peers is unconstitutional and violate federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. The decision relies in part on the Supreme Court's decision in June 2020, stating that discrimination against people based on their gender identity or sexual orientation violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 2021, the Supreme Court chooses not to review the opinion by the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

February 2, 2021 - Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg becomes the first openly gay Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate.

March 24, 2021 - Dr. Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services becomes the first out transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate.

June 21, 2021 - Carl Nassib, a defensive lineman with the Las Vegas Raiders, becomes the first active NFL player in league history to announce that he is gay.

June 30, 2021 - The State Department announces it will be updating its procedures to allow applicants to self-select their sex marker for passports and that it "will no longer require medical certification" if an applicant's self-selected sex marker doesn't match the sex listed on other official identity documents.

October 27, 2021 - The State Department announces that the US has issued the first US passport with an X gender marker. "As the Secretary announced in June, the Department is moving towards adding an X gender marker for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming persons applying for a U.S. passport or CRBA," State spokesperson Ned Price says in a statement.

October 19, 2022 - The Social Security Administration announces that people can now choose their sex marker in their Social Security records.

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LGBTQ Rights Milestones Fast Facts | CNN

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Here is a look at LGBTQ milestones in the United States. LGBTQ is an acronym meaning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning. The term sometimes is extended to LGBTQIA, to include intersex and asexual groups.