| 1940 |
Edmund White is born |
| 1941 |
Robert Ferro is born |
| 1942 |
Michael Grumley is born |
| 1943 |
Andrew Holleran is born |
| 1944 |
Felice Picano is born |
| 1946 |
George Whitmore is born |
| 1949 |
Christopher Cox is born |
| 1951 |
Mattachine Society is founded in Los Angeles |
| 1953 |
One magazine founded in Los Angeles |
| 1956 |
Allen Ginsberg publishes Howl |
| 1962 |
White graduates from University of Michigan and moves to New York |
| 1962–1970 |
White works at Time/Life Books |
| 1963 |
Ferro graduates from Rutgers University |
| 1964 |
Picano graduates from Queens College |
| 1964 |
Grumley graduates from the University of Wisconsin |
| 1964 |
White’s play Blue Boy in Black produced Off-Broadway |
| 1964 |
Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man published |
| 1964–1966 |
Picano is a social worker in New York |
| 1965 |
Holleran graduates from Harvard |
| 1965 |
Cox comes to Washington to act as a page for Sen. John Sparkman (D—Ala.) and falls in love with politics |
| 1965–1967 |
Holleran, Ferro, and Grumley at University of Iowa (Iowa Writers’ Workshop) |
| 1966–1968 |
Picano is assistant editor at Art Direction magazine |
| 1967 |
The Advocate begins publication |
| 1967–1968 |
Holleran at University of Pennsylvania Law School |
| 1968–1970 |
Holleran in the U.S. Army (and has gay sex) |
| 1969 |
Chris Cox comes to New York to become an actor |
| 1969 |
Stonewall Riots (Ginsberg declares that gays have “lost that wounded look”) |
| 1969 |
Gay Liberation Front established |
| 1969 |
American Sociological Association adopts nondiscrimination resolution |
| 1970 |
Ferro and Grumley publish their first book, Atlantis: The Autobiography of a Search |
| 1970 |
Holleran returns to law school for one semester |
| 1970 |
University of Nebraska establishes proseminar in Homophile Studies |
| 1970 |
Edmund White leaves for Rome (and works on unpublished novel) |
| 1970 |
American Library Association creates Task Force on Gay Liberation |
| 1970 |
Gordon Merrick publishes The Lord Won’t Mind |
| 1970–71 |
Holleran moves to New York (121 Saint Mark’s Place) |
| 1971 |
E. M. Forster’s Maurice (1914) is posthumously published |
| 1971 |
Mary Renault’s The Persian Boy makes the New York Times’s fiction bestseller list |
| 1972–73 |
White becomes senior editor of Saturday Review |
| 1973 |
White publishes his first novel, Forgetting Elena |
| 1974 |
Patricia Nell Warren publishes The Front Runner |
| 1975 |
Picano publishes his first novel, Smart as the Devil |
| 1975 |
Drummer, Blueboy, and Mandate start publication |
| 1975–1978 |
Chris Cox works as assistant to Virgil Thomson (assembles and catalogs correspondence) |
| 1976 |
Picano publishes his second novel, Eyes |
| 1976 |
Whitmore’s play, The Caseworker, is produced at Playwrights Horizon |
| 1976 |
Christopher Street begins publication |
| 1977 |
Ferro publishes The Others |
| 1977 |
White and coauthor Charles Silverstein publish The Joy of Gay Sex |
| 1977 |
Picano founds and edits Sea Horse Press |
| 1977 |
Anita Bryant founds Save Our Children to rescind Miami’s gay rights ordinance |
| 1978 |
White publishes Nocturnes for the King of Naples |
| 1978 |
Holleran publishes Dancer from the Dance |
| 1978 |
Larry Kramer publishes Faggots |
| 1978 |
Dan White murders San Francisco mayor George Mascone and gay city supervisor Harvey Milk |
| 1979 |
Picano publishes The Lure, his first overtly gay novel |
| 1979 |
Chris Cox becomes an assistant to John Ashbery and a reader for Dell Publishing |
| 1979 |
The trial of Dan White sparks rioting in San Francisco |
| 1980 |
Picano becomes cofounder of Gay Presses of New York |
| 1980 |
Whitmore’s play The Rights is produced at The Glines |
| 1980 |
Alyson Publications issues its first book |
| 1980 |
First formal meeting of the Violet Quill Club on March 31 |
| 1981 |
Picano publishes Late in the Season |
| 1981 |
The last formal meeting of the Violet Quill Club on March 2 |
| 1981 |
The New York Times reports on outbreak of Kaposi’s sarcoma and severe immunological defects among gay men |
| 1982 |
White publishes A Boy’s Own Story |
| 1982 |
White, Larry Kramer, and four others found the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) to fight AIDS; White briefly serves as president |
| 1983 |
Picano publishes Slashed to Ribbons in Defense of Love |
| 1983 |
Ferro publishes The Family of Max Desir |
| 1983 |
Holleran publishes Nights in Aruba and returns to live in Florida |
| 1983 |
Cox publishes A Key West Companion |
| 1983 |
White moves to Paris on a Guggenheim Fellowship |
| 1985 |
Picano publishes Ambidextrous |
| 1985 |
Ferro publishes The Blue Star |
| 1986 |
The Supreme Court rules that sodomy laws are constitutional (Bowers v. Hardwick) |
| 1987 |
ACT UP is founded |
| 1988 |
Michael Grumley dies of AIDS complications |
| 1988 |
Robert Ferro publishes Second Son and dies of AIDS complications |
| 1988 |
Whitmore publishes Someone Was Here |
| 1989 |
George Whitmore dies of AIDS complications |
| 1990 |
Chris Cox dies, of AIDS complications |
| 1990 |
White begins teaching at Brown University |
| 1991 |
Grumley’s novel Life Drawing is posthumously published |
| 1991 |
Picano’s partner, Bob Lowe, dies of AIDS complications |
| 1992 |
Picano and Charles Silverstein publish The New Joy of Gay Sex |
| 1993 |
White publishes Genet: A Biography and wins National Book Critics Award |
| 1994 |
White’s lover, Hubert Sorin, dies of AIDS complications |
| 1995 |
Picano publishes Like People in History (and moves to Los Angeles) |
| 1996 |
Holleran publishes The Beauty of Men |
| 1997 |
White publishes The Farewell Symphony |
| 1998 |
Picano publishes The Book of Lies (about the “Purple Circle”) |
| 1998 |
White returns to the United States to teach at Princeton |
| 1999 |
Holleran publishes In September, the Light Changes |
| 2000 |
White publishes The Married Man |
| 2000 |
Holleran begins teaching at American University |