Pre-1800s
Several Native American tribes within what would become Oregon recognize same-sex relationships and multiple gender identities. The Northern Paiute Tribe recognize men who live as women. The Modoc and Klamath tribes recognize a third gender. A member of a British expedition recorded the name of a two-spirit person, Qánqon-kámek-klaúlha of the Kootenai tribe (British Columbia, Idaho, Montana).
Read more about Qánqon-kámek-klaúlha and other two spirit people in this document by the US Parks Service, LGBTQ America.
Learn more about Shimkhin, a two-spirit Atfalati Kalapuya healer: My Father’s Father’s Sister: Our Ancestor Shimkhin
1800s
1806: The Lewis and Clark expedition encounters same sex couples.
1843: Oregon’s first system of (non Native American) laws are adopted. White settlers copy Iowa’s code of laws. Because Iowa did not outlaw sodomy, it was not outlawed in Oregon.
1853: Sodomy is criminalized in Oregon.
1892: Marie Equi moves to Oregon. She is considered Oregon’s first out lesbian. She becomes a doctor in 1903.
1889: Architect Lionel Deane move to Portland, designing the Washington Hotel (now Washington Apartments) in 1911. After being caught up in the Portland Vice Clique Scandal, Deane eventually moves to New York City, where he lived with another man. For a brief period, Deane owns a saloon that often served gay men; the same saloon is a gay bar in the 1970s.
Learn more about historical hotels at PDX History.
In 1999, GLAPN published a “Gay Walking Tour” of Portland.
1900s
2000s
1901: Portland has well established cruising areas for both men and women.
1904: Marie Equi opens a medical practice with her girlfriend, Dr. Mary Ellen Parker. They would soon move to Portland.
1906: Marie Equi is awarded a medal by the US Army for her help in the relief efforts of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
1907: Theodore Kruse purchases the Belvedere Hotel (Fourth and Alder), turning it into a “bohemian” spot known for serving gay men. Meanwhile Marie Equi and her girlfriend Harriet Speckart (who live together openly) win second place for their float in the first Rose Festival parade.
1912: Transman Harry Allen is arrested for transiency. Meanwhile, the Portland Vice Clique Scandal breaks; multiple men are charged with a variety of crimes, including homosexual activity.
1913: Vaudevillian actor Frank Gumm has been living as an openly gay man in Portland, but for unknown reasons, he returns to his homestate in this year. He marries a woman and has three daughters; his youngest is actress (and LGBTQI+ ally) Judy Garland.
1915: Marie Equi and Harriet Speckart adopt an infant girl, the first adoption by a lesbian couple in Oregon.
1917: Transman Alan L. Hart undergoes a hysterectomy and lives the rest of his life as a man; this is the first known case of any kind of gender reassignment surgery in the United States. His surgery is completed at the University of Oregon Medical School (now OHSU).
“At first Hart sought psychiatric help from Gilbert, attempting to convert herself into a conventional woman. Therapy failed. Hypnosis failed. Finally, Hart halted the process—if the conversion worked, she realized, she would no longer think, feel or act like a man. And that thought repulsed her.”
Also this year, the state legislature passes a law allowing for the sterilization of “sexual perverts” and “moral degenerates.” By 1960, over 2,000 people have been sterilized under this law.
1950: Drag dates to the 1870s; by the 1930s, drag balls, drag queens, and drag queens are common in spaces that cater to LGBT patrons. By 1950, Portland would reinstate liquor licenses only with the provision that drag shows stop; Portland police go undercover to bust drag shows,
1964: The Oregon Liquor Control Commission refuses to revoke the licenses of gay and lesbian bars, noting they are acting within the law.
1967: Walter W. Cole, also known by his stage name Darcelle XV, buys the Demas Tavern. He turns it into the Darcelle XV Showcase. Darcelle XV eventually becomes the oldest living drag performer on the West Coast, with a career lasting into the 2010s.
1970: Multiple social and support groups form: Second Foundation of Oregon (Portland), The Gay People’s Alliance (Eugene), Portland Gay Liberation Front, Portland State College Gay Men’s Union.
1971: Oregon’s first gay pride celebration.
Oregon becomes the fourth state to repeal its sodomy law.
1973: First Oregon gay rights bill is proposed but does not pass. Also this year is the first Oregon Gay Political Caucus, where groups from across the state meet.
1974: Portland City Council votes to end employment discrimination for city employees on the basis of sexual orientation. Also this year, lesbian collective and restreat WomanShare is established in Grants Pass, Oregon. Women in Wolf Creek, OR publish WomanSpirit, a periodical about feminism and spirituality.
1975: Portland’s first public, outdoor Pride celebration.
1977: Eugene prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, and accomodations; it is repealed by voters the following year.
1980: Portland Gay Men’s Chorus founded.
1982: Portland’s first AIDS-related death.
1983: Cascade AIDS Project founded.
1986: Portland Lesbian Choir founded.
1989: First gay and lesbian sponsored float in the Starlight Parade.
1991: OHSU employees scratch out “spouse” and write in “domestic partner” to sign up their partners for health insurance. This leads to the Tanner v. OHSU lawsuit; in 1998, Oregon Court of Appeals rules that domestic partners have to receive the same benefits as married heterosexual partners.
1994: Thomas Lauderdale founds musical act Pink Martini.
1999: Ashland becomes the first Oregon city to establish a domestic partnership registry; Portland and Eugene soon follow.
2004: Multnomah County grants 3000 same sex marriage licenses, but such marriages are banned later in the year.
2006: Q Center opens.
2007: The Oregon Legislature passes two state-wide statutes. The Oregon Equality Act bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Oregon Family Fairness Act creates a domestic partnership system that is similar to heterosexual marriage.
2008: Bisexual Kate Brown is elected to Secretary of State; Sam Adams, who is gay, is elected mayor of Portland; transman Stu Rasmussen is elected mayor of Silverton.
2013: Transgender Oregonians no longer required to undergo surgery in order to receive updated birth certificates.
2014: Lesbian activist Kathleen Saadat receives her fourth lifetime achievement award, this one from PFLAG Portland Black Chapter.
Gay marriage is legalized in Oregon.
2015: Gay marriage is legalized across the United States.
Conversion therapy is banned in Oregon.
2017: Oregonians can change their gender identity on their state issued-ID without a service or medical provider form.
2019: “Gender identity” is added to the 1987 anti-discrimination policies. Agencies are now required to add a third gender option (X).
2021: SB 704 passes, which bans the use of the “Gay Panic Defense”: Provides that discovery of victim's actual or perceived gender, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation does not constitute reasonable explanation for extreme emotional disturbance for purposes of affirmative defense to murder in the second degree.