The following is the timeline of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people's history.

Before the Common Era

9th millennium BC – 3rd millennium BC

101st century BC – 50th century BC 9,600 BC – c, 5,000 BC – Mesolithic rock art in the Grotta dell'Addaura in Sicily depicts male figures in hives that have been interpreted variously, including as hunters, acrobats, religious initiates, and gay sex.

70th century BC – 17th century BC c. 1980 – Among the sexual depictions in Neolithic and Bronze Age drawings and figurines from the Mediterranean area, as one author describes it, a "third sex" human figure having female breasts and male genitals or without distinguishing sex characteristics. In Neolithic Italy, female images are found in a domestic context, while images that combine sexual characteristics appear in burials or religious settings. In Neolithic Greece and Cyprus, figures are often dual-sexed or without identifying sexual characteristics.

3rd millennium BC

29th century BC – 25th century BC c. 2900 BC – c. 2500 BC – A burial of a suburb of Prague, Czech Republic, a male is buried in the outfit usually reserved for women. Archaeologists speculate that the burial corresponds to a transgender person or someone of the third sex.

24th century BC c. 2400 BC – Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum are believed by some observers to be the first same-sex couple in recorded history.

23rd century BC or 23rd century BC – 22nd century BC 2284 BC – 2246 BC or 2184 BC – Pepi II Neferkare, who ruled the Kingdom of Egypt as an absolute monarch under the title of Pharaoh of Egypt, is believed to have had a homosexual interpretation around nocturnal visits to his General Sasenet, though others argue that it was more likely that the story was intended to tarnish the reputation of the Pharaoh by associating him with homosexuality.When writing about homosexuality, Meskell calls it "Another well documented example"

2nd millennium BC

15th century BC – 12th century BC c. 1500 BC – c. 1101 BC – The Code of the Assura during the Middle Assyrian Empire prescribes on various topics, including male rape: "If a man has secretly started a rumour about his neighbor saying, "He has allowed men to have sex with him," or in a quarrel has told him in the presence of others, "Men have sex with you," and then, "I will bring charges against you myself," but is then unable to substantiate the charge, and cannot prove it, that man is to be caned, be sentenced to a month's hard labour for the king, be cut off, and pay one talent of lead." (§19) "If a man has had sex with his neighbor he has been charged and convicted, he is to be considered defiled and made into a eunuch." (§20) "If a man violates his own mother, it is a capital crime. If a man violates his daughter, it is a capital crime. If a man violates his son, it is capital crime." (§189)

1st millennium BC

10th century BC – 6th century BC c. 1000 BC – c. 500 BC – The Vendidad dates from this period and within the text it states the following:

The guilty may be killed by any one, without an order from the Dastur, and by this execution an ordinary capital crime may be redeemed.

7th century BC c. 700 BC – The custom of castrating homosexual (and straight) slaves and house servants is introduced into Anshan from conquered territories of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Median Empire. c. 630 BC – Dorian aristocrats in Crete adopt formal relations between adult aristocrats and adolescent boys; an inscription from Crete is the oldest record of the social institution of paiderastia among the GreeksKenneth Dover, Greek Homosexuality (Harvard University Press, 1978, 1898), pp. 205–7. (see Cretan pederasty). Marriage between men in Greece was not legally recognized, but men might form lifelong relationships originating in paiderastia ("pederasty," without the pejorative connotations of the English word). These partnerships were not dissimilar to heterosexual marriages except that the older person served as educator or mentor.Boswell, John (1994). Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe. New York: Vintage Books Sappho, a Greek lyric poet born on the island of Lesbos, was born between 630 and 612 BC, and died around 570 BC. The Alexandrians included her in the list of nine lyric poets. She was famous for her lesbian themes, giving her name and that of her homeland to the very definition of lesbianism (and the lesser used term of "sapphism"). She was exiled c. 600 BC unrelated to lesbianism. She was later permitted to return.

6th century BC 534 – 492 BC – Duke Ling of Wey and Mizi Xia had a loving same-sex relationship, where various plays and stories have commemorated their love story in the phrase, "the bitten peach".Hinsch, Bret. (1990). Passions of the Cut Sleeve. Published by the University of California Press. Pages 20-21. c. 540 – 530 BC – Wall paintings from the Etruscan Tomb of the Bulls (Italian: Tomba dei Tori), found in 1892 in the Monterozzi necropolis, Tarquinia, depict homosexual intercourse. The tomb is named for the pair of bulls who watch human sex scenes, one between a man and a woman, and the other between two men; these may be apotropaic, or embody aspects of the cycle of regeneration and the afterlife. The three-chamber tomb was inscribed with the name of the deceased for whom it was originally built, Aranth Spurianas or Arath Spuriana, and also depicts Achilles killing the Trojan prince Troilus, along with indications of Apollo cult.Stephan Steingräber, Abundance of Life: Etruscan Wall Painting (Getty Publications, 2006), pp. 67, 70, 91–92; Otto Brendel, Etruscan Art, translated by R. Serra Ridgway (Yale University Press, 1978, 1995), pp. 165–170; Fred S. Kleiner, A History of Roman Art (Wadsworth, 2007, 2010), p. xxxii. 521 BC – The Achaemenid Empire crucifies Polycrates and suppresses pederasty in Samos, which causes pederastic poets Ibycus and Anacreon to flee Samos.

5th century BC c. 486 BC – King Darius I adopts the Holiness Code of Leviticus for Persian Jews of the Achaemenid Empire, enacting the first ever state sanctioned death penalty for male same-sex relationships. c. 440 BC – Herodotus publishes Histories, stating in the book that Persians welcomed foreign customs, including adopting pederasty from the Greeks.

4th century BC 385 BC – Plato publishes Symposium in which Phaedrus, Eryximachus, Aristophanes and other Greek intellectuals argue that love between males is the highest form, while sex with women is lustful and utilitarian. Socrates, however, differs. He demonstrates extreme self-control when seduced by the beautiful Alcibiades. 350 BC – Plato publishes Laws in which the Athenian stranger and his companions criticize homosexuality as being lustful and wrong for society because it does not further the species and may lead to irresponsible citizenry. 346 BC - Aeschines' speech Against Timarchus, who was on trial for male prostitution, reveals Athenian attitudes to homosexuality.Joseph Roisman, Ancient Greece from Homer to Alexandria, Blackwell, 2011. 338 BC – The Sacred Band of Thebes, a previously undefeated elite battalion made up of one hundred and fifty pederastic couples, is destroyed by the forces of Philip II of Macedon who bemoans their loss and praises their honour.

3rd or 2nd century BC 227 BC, 226 BC, 216 BC, or 149 BC – During the Roman Republic, the Lex Scantinia imposed penalties on those who committed a sex crime (stuprum) against a freeborn youth; infrequently mentioned or enforced, it may also have been used to prosecute male citizens who willingly took the passive role in homosexual relations.Thomas A. J. McGinn, Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law in Ancient Rome (Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 140–141.Amy Richlin, The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor (Oxford University Press, 1983, 1992), pp. 86, 224.John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century (University of Chicago Press, 1980), pp. 63, 67–68.Craig Williams, Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity (Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 116. It is unclear whether the penalty was death or a fine. For an adult male citizen to desire and engage in same-sex relations was considered natural and socially acceptable, as long as his partner was a male prostitute (amasius), slave (concubinus) or infamis, a person excluded from the legal protections accorded a citizen. In the Imperial period, the Lex Scantinia was revived by Domitian as part of his program of judicial and moral reform.Ben Nusbaum, "Some Myths and Anomalies in the Study of Roman Sexuality," in Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition (Haworth Press, 2005), p. 231.

1st century BC c. 90s – 80s BC – Quintus Lutatius Catulus was among a circle of poets who made short, light Hellenistic poems fashionable in the late Republic. Both his surviving epigrams address a male as an object of desire, signaling a new homoerotic aesthetic in Roman culture. 57 – 54 BC – Catullus writes the Carmina, including love poems to Juventius, boasting of sexual prowess with youth and violent invectives against "passive" homosexuals. c. 50 BC – The Lex Julia de vi publica, a Roman Republic law, was passed to define rape as forced sex against "boy, woman, or anyone" and the rapist was subject to execution. Men who had been raped were exempt from the loss of legal or social standing suffered by those who submitted their bodies to use for the pleasure of others; a male prostitute or entertainer was infamis and excluded from the legal protections extended to citizens in good standing. As a matter of law, a slave could not be raped; he was considered property and not legally a person. The slave's owner, however, could prosecute the rapist for property damage.Digest 48.6.3.4 and 48.6.5.2.See also Digest 48.5.35 on legal definitions of rape that included boys.</ref> 46 BC – Lucius Antonius, the brother of Mark Antony, accuses Gaius Octavius for having "given himself to Aulus Hirtius in Spain for three hundred thousand sesterces." 44 BC – After the assassination of Dictator and Consul Gaius Julius Caesar, Gaius Octavius is publicly named in Caesar's will as his adopted son and heir. According to Mark Antony, he charged that Octavius had earned his adoption by Caesar through sexual favors.Suetonius, Augustus 68 , 71 42 – 39 BC – Virgil writes the Eclogues, with Eclogue 2 a notable example of homoerotic Latin literature. 27 BC – The Roman Empire is established under the rule of Augustus. The first recorded same-sex marriage occurs during his reign, homosexual prostitution is taxed, and if someone is caught being sexually passive with another male, a Roman citizen could lose his citizenship. 26, 25 and 18 BC – Tibullus writes his elegies, with references to homosexuality. 7 – 1 BC – Emperor Ai of Han had a loving same-sex relationship with Dong Xian. In one historical record, Emperor Ai cut his own sleeves to not wake up his beloved Dong Xian.Hinsch, Bret. (1990). Passions of the Cut Sleeve. University of California Press.

Common Era

1st millennium

1st century Philo of Alexandria and Marcus Manilius provided descriptions of transgender people during the early Roman Empire. Philo stated: "Expending every possible care on their outward adornment, they are not ashamed even to employ every device to change artificially their nature as men into women". He also attested that some members of this group, to that end, had their penises removed. 5 –15 CE – The Warren Cup is made – a Roman silver drinking cup decorated in relief with two images of male same-sex acts.