This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of Asian and Pacific Islander ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, third gender, gender nonconforming), men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities. This timeline includes events both in Asia and the Pacific Islands and in the global Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora, as the histories are very deeply linked. Please note: this is a very incomplete timeline, notably lacking LGBTQ-specific items from the 1800s to 1970s, and should not be used as a research resource until additional material is added.

200s BCE

Nearly every emperor in the Han dynasty had one or more male sex partners.Ed. Wayne Dynes, Encyclopaedia of Homosexuality, New York, 1990, pp216

200s

Writings from the Liu Song dynasty claimed that homosexuality was as common as heterosexuality.

1800s

Opposition to homosexuality did not become firmly established in China until the 19th and 20th centuries, through the Westernization efforts of the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China.Kang, Wenqing. Obsession: male same-sex relations in China, 1900-1950, Hong Kong University Press. Page 3

1871 Anti-Chinese riots break out in Los Angeles and other cities. A mob of whites shoot and hang 20 Chinese one night

1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibits entrance of Chinese laborers to the United States, and prohibits courts from issuing citizenship. The Exclusion Act was intended to last for only 10 years, but was later extended to 1902 and became permanent until it was repealed in 1943. The Chinese become the first ethnic group to be barred from immigration to the United States.

1891 In Hawaii, Japanese immigrant worker Mioshi takes his case to the state's Supreme Court, arguing that the contract labor system is a form of slavery.

1900s

1901 California's anti-miscegenation law is amended to bar marriages between whites and “Mongolians,” which means people of Asian heritage. This law remains in effect until 1948.

1904 Congress amends the 1882 anti-Chinese immigration law to exclude immigrants from the Philippines, Guam, Samoa, and even Hawai’i.

1906 In San Francisco, the Board of Education passes a resolution to segregate Chinese, Japanese, and Korean children from the rest. Their decision escalates into an international crisis.

1907 Executive Order 589, commonly referred to as the “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” becomes law. The Japanese government agrees to stop issuing passports for laborers emigrating to the American mainland, but through this agreement, allows departure for Hawai’i.

1910s

1914 In Los Angeles, Little Tokyo community leaders establish the society to provide counseling and referral services to young girls fleeing unsuccessful picture bride marriages or seeking refuge from houses of prostitution.

1917 President Woodrow Wilson vetoes a bill passed by Congress on December 14, 1916, but Congress overrides his veto.The Asiatic Barred Zone Act establishes a zone of countries that excluded immigrants from most of Asia, the Pacific Islands, as well as parts of Russia, the Middle East, and Afghanistan.

1920s

1922 Congress passes the Cable Act, which revokes the U.S. citizenship of any woman citizen marrying an alien ineligible for U.S. citizenship. The law is predominantly aimed at American-born Asian women marrying immigrant Asian men.

1923 Citing anthropologists who declare Indians “biologically Caucasian,” Bhagat Singh Thind applies for naturalization, but the U.S. vs. Bhagat Singh Thind decision officially bars Asian Indians as well as other Asians from citizenship.

1924 President Calvin Coolidge signs into law the Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Quota Immigration or National Origins Act. It excludes the immigration of all Asian laborers, except from the Philippines, which was by then a U.S. territory.

1930s

1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which prohibits Filipino immigration. The Act declares the Philippines a commonwealth, and all foreign-born Filipinos are now aliens, not nationals.Their immigration is restricted to 50 a year, and this results in the long-term separation of many families.

1940s

1942 President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War to establish military areas and to exclude civilians from these areas. This action is responsible for removing and imprisoning 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast into 10 internment camps. Ironically, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, predominantly made up of second-generation Japanese Americans and led by a Korean American, Colonel Young Oak Kim, becomes the most decorated military unit for its size and length of service in U.S. history.

1946 The last of the Japanese American internment camps, Tule Lake, closes.

1950s

1952 The McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act goes into effect, repealing the National Origins Act of 1924 and allowing immigration quotas to Japan and other Asian countries. This Act gives the rights of naturalization and eventual citizenship for Asians not born in the United States and sets a quota of 105 immigrants per year for each Asian country.

1956 South Asian American Dalip Singh Saund becomes the first Asian American to be elected to the U.S. Congress; during his term, he forged a measure through Congress that allowed Indians to become U.S. citizens.

1958 In the landmark case One, Inc. v. Olesen, the United States Supreme Court rules in favor of the First Amendment rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) magazine "One: The Homosexual Magazine." The suit was filed after the U.S. Postal Service and FBI declared the magazine obscene material, and it marks the first time the United States Supreme Court rules in favor of homosexuals.

1959 Chinese American Hiram Fong becomes the first American of Asian descent to be elected to the U.S. Senate when he becomes Hawaii's first senator. Daniel Inouye becomes the first Japanese American elected to the U.S. Congress as Hawaii's first congressional representative.

1960s

1964 Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

1965 President Johnson signs a new immigration law that not only repeals the National Origins Act of 1924, but also establishes a new immigration policy to enable Asian immigrants to come to the United States. The National Origins Act of 1965 raises Asian immigration to 20,000 per year for Asian countries, same as European countries.

1966 After transgender customers become raucous in a 24-hour San Francisco cafeteria, management calls police. When a police officer manhandles one of the patrons, she throws coffee in his face and a riot ensues, eventually spilling out onto the street, destroying police and public property. Following the riot, activists established the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, the first peer-run support and advocacy organization in the world.

1968 Yuji Ichioka, an activist and founder of Asian American Studies, emphasizes the term “Asian American” as a political concept to replace the prevailing term “Oriental American.”

1969 Patrons of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village riot for three days when police officers attempt to raid the popular gay bar. Since its 1967 establishment, police officers had frequently raided the bar to "clean up" the neighborhood of "sexual deviants." Thousands of protesters received only minimal news coverage, but this event reignites the fire behind America's modern LGBT rights movement.

1970s

1970 Christopher St. Liberation Day commemorates the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Following the event, thousands of members of the LGBT community march through New York into Central Park, in what will be considered America's first gay pride parade.

1973 The board of the American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

1976 Executive Order 9066, responsible for the evacuation, removal, and detention of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II, is officially rescinded.

1977 Lesbians start Asian American Feminists Support group; Monthly potluck/CR meetings

1978 President Jimmy Carter signed a joint resolution to create Asian Pacific Heritage Week. In June 1977, Representatives Frank Horton of New York and Norman Mineta of California introduced a resolution to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. In California, Asian American student activists from several college campuses form APSU (Asian Pacific Islander Student Union) to fight for educational rights. Among early issues taken up are defense of affirmative action and support for student campaigns to gain Asian American Studies at their campuses.

1979 The Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (QAPA) of New England holds a firm seat in LGBTQ history in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1979 as Boston Asian Gay Men and Lesbians (BAGMAL), the organization was renamed the Alliance of Massachusetts Lesbians and Gay Men (AMALGM) in 1988. Today QAPA is the oldest LGBTQ Asian community organization in the United States. According to a newsletter (and cover photo) dated November 1987, members participated in the March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights. The newsletter is part of the Asian American Resource Workshop records housed at Northeastern University's Archives & Special Collections in Boston. Unbound Feet (UF) formed as the first feminist Chinese American women's performance group with six Chinese American feminists including lesbian feminists Kitty Tsui, Canyon Sam, and Merle Woo

1980s

1981 Controversy splits Unbound Feet and divides community of API lesbian feminists. The first official documentation of AIDS was published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on June 5, 1981.

1982 Asian, Black, Latino gay men picket Castro St. Station Bar for discrimination over double ID card requirement Vincent Chin, a 27-year-old Chinese American in Detroit, is bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat by two unemployed autoworkers who blame layoffs in the auto industry on the Japanese. The two assailants mistake Chin for being Japanese. Although arrested, the two white men do not serve any jail time and are, in effect, given a mere slap on the wrist; they eventually violate probation and “disappear.” The case receives nationwide attention and mobilizes the Asian American community as a whole. Wisconsin becomes the first U.S. state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

1983 Asian Lesbians of the East Coast (ALOEC) was founded in New York City. “Asian Women’s Potluck Gathering for Asian Lesbians,” first such publicly advertised event Asian lesbians protest Ollie's “Oriental Night,” an evening where the Oakland lesbian bar's employees wore "oriental" costumes and makeup. Kitty Tsui became the first known Chinese American lesbian to publish a book (Words of a Woman who Breathes Fire, published in 1983). Lani Kaʻahumanu and several other activists found BiPOL, the first and oldest bisexual political organization

1984 Asian Lesbian basketball teams form and hold LA vs. SF game

1985 Asian Pacific Sisters (APS) put out their first newsletter, Phoenix Rising

1986 Trikone was founded in San Francisco, CA The fourth international lesbian and gay people of color (Int’l GLPOC) conference happens in LA; Asian Caucus creates resolution to organize in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The lesbian of color support group started at the Women's Building Trikone Newsletter was created for South Asian gays and lesbians