While LGBTQ+ folks have always been in Maine, their history has long been hidden behind smoke screens of oppression, denial and implicit threats of violence.
That’s now starting to change thanks to the work of historians, activists and librarians at the University of Southern Maine’s Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity and its LGBTQ+ archives.
Founded in the 1990s, and housed in the Albert Brenner Glickman Family Library on USM’s Portland campus, the Center for Diversity contains not only the LGBTQ+ collection, but also a judaica collection, an African American collection and a general collection dedicated to those who have campaigned for social justice in Maine.
Contained within the LGBTQ+ archives are many oral histories, gay and lesbian newspapers, personal papers and the Charlie O. Howard Memorial Foundation Archives, among other valuable annals.
Drawing on this treasure trove of information, USM Instruction and Outreach Librarian Megan MacGregor put together an exhaustive timeline of the LGBTQ+ community’s struggle for rights and recognition.
Here’s a simplified version of MacGregor’s work.
1820 – Upon admission to the union, Maine adopts a Massachusetts law prescribing 10 years hard labor for sodomy.
1849 – Writer Sarah Orne Jewett born in South Berwick, where she lived until her death in 1909. Jewett has a long-lasting relationship with lover Annie Fields. Their partnership is recognized under the euphemism of a “Boston marriage.”
1859 – Portland poet and novelist Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat publishes her controversial, lesbian-themed novel “Ethel’s Love Life.”
1968 – Roland Labbe opens Maine’s first openly gay bar, Roland’s Tavern, on Cumberland Avenue in Portland.
1970-71 – Sturgis Haskins, David Cadigan, Dicky Brown and Ron King form the group Hancock County Gays in Ellsworth.
1972 – Carol A. Savoie and other women start a lesbian-themed group while attending a class centered around homosexuality at the Abenaki Experimental College. They later adopt the name Gay Support and Action Group.
1973 – The Stage Door gay bar opens in August in Wells.
1973 – In October, the Wilde Stein Club forms at the University of Maine.
1973 – Wilde Stein holds a gay dance on campus in December.
1974 – In January, Wilde Stein gets official recognition from the University of Maine Board of Trustees.
1974 – Haskins resigns and Steve Bull becomes president of Wilde Stein in March.
1974 – In April, Wilde Stein holds the first Maine Gay Symposium.
1974 – The Gay Rights Organization is incorporated in Portland in May.
1974 – The Maine Democratic Party adopts a gay rights plank in its platform in May.
1974 – In August, the Maine Gay Task Force Newsletter begins publishing.
1974 – The Wilde Stein Clubs, along with 25 members of Hancock County Gays, pickets a TV station in Bangor in October protesting an anti-gay television show. It’s the first time Maine’s LGBTQ+ community takes to the streets.
1974 – Also in October, LGBTQ+ organizations in Bangor and Brunswick begin holding regular dances.
1975 – In January, the Stage Door gay bar in Wells is denied a liquor license. An arsonist then burns it down in March.
1975 – Maine becomes the third New England state to do away with its anti-sodomy law.
1976 – The Maine Coalition for Human Rights begins pushing for a gay rights act in the Legislature.
1976 – The Maine Lesbian Feminist Newsletter begins publishing.
1977 – Mainely Gay newspaper first published.
1979 – A gay rights bill fails to pass either the Maine House or Senate.
1980 – Rural LGBTQ+ rights organization Northern Lambda Nord holds its first meeting in Van Buren, drawing 13 people from northern Maine and New Brunswick.
1980 – A gay rights bill again fails to pass the Maine House or Senate.
1981 – ROTC Cadet Diane Mathews is dismissed from the program at the University of Maine after revealing she is a lesbian.
1982 – Leather gay bar Cycles opens on Center Street in Portland.
1982 – Rumors gay bar opens in Portland. It later becomes the Underground, the Limelight and Styxx, staying open until 2017.
1983 – A gay rights bill fails in the Maine Legislature.
1983 – LGBTQ+ publication Our paper begins publishing. Maine sees its first case of AIDS.
1984 – In July, Charlie Howard is murdered in Bangor. The state’s first large-scale LGBTQ+ protests then take place in Bangor, Lewiston and Portland.
1984 – The Maine Lesbian Gay Political Alliance forms with Dale McCormick elected as its first president.
1984 – Late in the year, Mainer Frannie Peabody’s grandson Peter Vom Lehn dies of AIDS. Peabody then goes on to help establish The AIDS Project, Maine’s largest AIDS service organization. Peabody also founds the groundbreaking Peabody House, an assisted living facility for AIDS patients with nowhere else to go.
1985 – An LGBTQ+ rights bill again fails in Augusta.
1986 – The Maine Bisexual People’s Network is formed in Belfast.
1987 – An LGBTQ+ rights bill fails between houses in Augusta.
1987 – In June, the state’s first pride parade takes place in Portland.
1987 – Also in June, Barb Wood is elected to the Portland City Council, becoming Maine’s first “out” politician elected to office.
1987 – During the summer, gay bar Blackstones opens in Portland. It’s now — in 2023 — Maine’s only remaining gay bar.
1989 – An LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination bill dies in the Maine Legislature.
1990 – Act Up Maine formed. It later protests in front of Maine Medical Center and in front of President George H. W. Bush’s summer home at Walker’s Point in Kennebunkport.
1991 – Another LGBTQ+ rights bill fails to pass in Augusta.
1992 – Portland’s City Council enacts a human rights act covering LGBTQ+ discrimination.
1992 – Bangor sees its first pride celebration.
1993 – An LGBTQ+ rights bill passes the Legislature but is vetoed by Gov. John McKernanan.
1994 – Sisters, a lesbian bar, opens in Portland.
1995 – An LGBTQ+ rights bill fails to pass in Augusta.
1997 – An LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination bill passes in Augusta and is signed into law by Gov. Angus King. It’s repealed at referendum a year later. Also in 1997, a law banning gay marriage also becomes law in Maine.
1999 – An LGBTQ+ rights bill goes to referendum and fails by fewer than 5,000 votes.
2001 – A bill requiring insurance companies to extend benefits to domestic partnerships, for employers who request it, passes in Augusta.
2004 – The Maine Lesbian-Gay Political Alliance changes its name to EqualityME.
2005 – Lawmakers in Augusta extend Maine Human Rights Acts protections to the LGBTQ+ community. Gov. John Baldacci signs the bill into law.
2009 – Maine becomes the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, but the law is overturned by referendum the same year.
2010 – A bill which would formally allow discrimination against transgender Mainers is defeated in Augusta.
2012 – Maine becomes the first state to legalize same-sex marriage via state referendum.
2013 – The Wilde Stein Club celebrates its 40th anniversary.
2014 – Maine Supreme Judicial Court rules in favor of Nicole Maines, granting transgender children the right to use the bathroom of their choice.
2018 – The Maine Legislature passes a bipartisan bill protecting LGBTQ+ youth from conversion therapy. Gov. Paul LePage vetoes it.
2019 – Maine’s Legislature again passes a bill banning conversion therapy. Gov. Janet Mills signs it into law.
