The Henry Gerber House in Chicago, Illinois

December 12, 1922

On this date in 1922 or 1923 (the exact year is disputed), José Julio Sarria was born. Sarria, later known as the Widow Norton, Empress I of San Francisco, was the first openly gay man to run for public office in the U.S. A few years later, he founded the Imperial Court of San Francisco.

December 10, 1924

On this date in 1924, the Society for Human Rights was founded in Chicago by Henry Gerber, becoming the first gay rights organization in the United States. They published the first known gay publication in the U.S., Friendship and Freedom, though most members were afraid to receive it in the mail. The organization was forced to disband a few months later when the wife of one of the organization’s bisexual members, Al Weininger, complained to the police, resulting in the arrest of Gerber, Weininger, and Weininger’s male lover.