San Diego’s newest weekly for the gay and lesbian community is launched in January, the San Diego Gay Times.

The City Council votes 8-1 to approve an AIDS anti-bias ordinance, which protects PWAs against discrimination. Bruce Henderson votes against the measure.

San Diegans organize against Proposition 69, which would require reporting to local health officers the names of persons with AIDS or those suspected of carrying the virus.

Lesbians and Gays of African Decent United (LAGADU) forms to offer support and fellowship and becomes the first African-American group to march in the Pride parade in July.

Robert Walsh is awarded $5,000 in an out-of-court settlement in an AIDS discrimination suit. He filed suit against Hillcrest chiropractor Joseph Cicmanec when the latter refused to treat Walsh in 1988 because he has AIDS.

City of San Diego gives $600,000 in Community Block Grant monies to the Lesbian and Gay Center for social services to be used for the acquisition of a building.

More than 1,000 cardboard tombstones commemorate those who have died of AIDS in San Diego County at a memorial service in Balboa Park.

Police officer John Graham comes out to the GLBT press at The Center in Hillcrest.

The first person prosecuted locally for committing a hate crime against a gay man was sentenced to 60 days in County Jail with a work, furlough program recommended. Bradley John Fowler, son of San Diego Sockers owner Ron Fowler, pleaded guilty to “interfering with the civil rights of a person because of their sexual orientation” and to grand theft.

San Diego County health officials confirm there have been 2,898 cases of AIDS in San Diego County since 1981.

Lesbian firefighter Patricia Stone and her lover police officer Natalie Stone come out to the public at the Coming Out luncheon. Patricia becomes the first openly gay or lesbian member of the San Diego Fire Department, and Natalie is the first openly lesbian in the police department.

Assemblymember Mike Gotch and Councilmember Bob Filner attend the official opening of the San Diego AIDS Adult Day Health Care Center. One of three such centers in the U.S., the facility offers medical and mental health services, physical and occupational therapy, hot meals and recreational activities for HIV-infected individuals.

The San Diego City Council honors the GLBT community with a proclamation that July is Lesbian and Gay Archives month. Councilmember George Stevens does not sign the proclamation saying he refuses to “support any legislation that would promote adultery or homosexuality.”

El Cajon police officer Chuck Merino is notified by the local council of the Boy Scouts that he is no longer welcome in its Explorer program because he no longer meets “the high standards for membership which the Boy Scouts of America seeks to provide for American youth.” Earlier in the year, Merino came out publicly.

The first public meeting of Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s Gay and Lesbian Advisory Board is attended by more than 100 persons.

A memorial service for Allen Schindler, a Navy sailor aboard the USS Belleau Wood who was allegedly beaten to death by two fellow crew members because he was gay, is held. More than 150 attend the service.

4th District City Councilmember George Stevens comes under fire for allegedly making homophobic remarks. Charges are made by Donald Peter Ray who says he visited Stevens’ office to hand-deliver a letter to staff member Luis Navidad, who is alleged to have said, “We don’t speak to faggots here.” Stevens is said to have followed the remark with, “All gays and lesbians should be put in a gas chamber.” Stevens claims the allegations are “lies.”

Christine Kehoe wins the District 3 City Council election and becomes the first openly gay elected official in San Diego.

ACT-Up’s underground needle exchange program, an outreach to at-risk drug addicts, is busted by city police and the program’s leader, Michael Stepler, is arrested for possession of a hypodermic needle and syringe without a prescription.

The San Diego Blood Bank refuses to publicize or promote an event encouraging lesbians to donate blood because its name, The San Diego Lesbian Community Blood Drive, includes the word lesbian.

The City of San Diego extends domestic partner benefits to all city employees.

Roger Hedgecock, local radio talk show host and former mayor, promotes a “normal people’s” contingent for the annual Pride parade and threatens legal action to force the issue.

Community members march to protest the reversal of the conviction in the murder trial for the stabbing death of high school student John Wear in 1991 by a man who assumed him to be gay. The sentence was reversed on a technicality. The murder was the catalyst for the creation of the Hillcrest and North Park Citizen Patrols. The second trial ends in a guilty verdict.

City Councilmember Kehoe is among the 45 openly gay and lesbian elected officials invited to meet with officials of the Clinton Administration, the first time openly gay and lesbian elected officials have been invited to the White House. Reactions after the meeting are mixed, but all attending are offended that some officials welcoming the group put on gloves before shaking hands from a misguided fear of AIDS.

Christine Kehoe wins a second term on the City Council with 79 percent of the vote in the District 3. In the U.S. congressional race, gay friendly Bob Filner wins in the 50th Congressional District, but anti-gay Randy “Duke” Cunningham wins in the 51st.

The Lesbian and Gay Center receives a $50,000 grant from United Way to fund a position of clinical director for GLBT counseling. This is the first time a gay counseling program has been fully funded by United Way.

The board of the AIDS Foundation San Diego meets in emergency session and votes to close the foundation and file bankruptcy.

The first-ever same-sex domestic violence case is held in San Diego Superior Court.

Marshall Applewhite leads 38 members of his cult to commit suicide in a rented house in Rancho Santa Fe. Applewhite is gay and spent years trying to hide “guilt and shame for being gay.” The autopsy shows he and some of his followers were castrated “in an apparent effort to deny sexuality.”

The police and the FBI begin looking for gay San Diegan Andrew Cunanan in connection with the murders of three men in Illinois and Minnesota. Several local gay men will “go in hiding” for fear of their lives, and the search will become a nationwide manhunt culminating in the murder of famous gay designer Gianni Versace, Cunanan’s suicide and a number of best-selling books focusing on Cunanan’s gay life in San Diego.

The California State Supreme Court rules that the Boy Scouts of America were within their rights to fire El Cajon police officer Chuck Merino because he is gay.

A District Attorney’s report clears AIDS Foundation San Diego and its staff of criminal activity related to the closing of the foundation in March. The report is critical of both the foundation and the County Office of AIDS Coordination for the financial mismanagement that led to the closure.

The San Diego Men’s Chorus makes history by being the first openly gay choral group to perform at the White House.

County Supervisor Diane Jacobs announces her opposition to domestic partner benefits. She says, “For us to establish benefits for domestic partners would undermine marriage.”

Councilmember Christine Kehoe announces she will run against incumbent Brian Bilbray to represent the 49th Congressional District. Kehoe is the first openly gay person to be nominated by a major party to run for federal office and the first from San Diego to run for Congress. In November, Christine Kehoe loses her bid to be the first openly lesbian member of Congress when she loses to Brian Bilbray by fewer than 4000 votes in the 49th Congressional District.

San Diego’s 1966 Crossdressing Law that made it illegal to dress in the clothing of the opposite sex is repealed. The council votes 7-1 for repeal. The one dissenter, George Stevens, says: “The issue to me is deception. It is a very dangerous thing to crossdress.”

Charles Merino loses his appeal in the Supreme Court. The Boy Scouts’ ban on gays has caused many challenges, but Merino’s case is the first to reach the Supreme Court.

Mama’s Kitchen, a local meal-delivery service for AIDS patients, serves its one-millionth meal. Mama’s Kitchen was founded by members of the gay community who volunteered at the old Food Bank, which later became part of the AIDS Foundation.

A homophobic observer at the Pride parade hurls a tear-gas canister at the Family Pride contingent in the parade and then escapes into the crowd. The tear gas causes severe reactions among many parade watchers who flee from the gas, but it only temporarily halts the parade.

The Greater San Diego Business Association is the first gay business association in the country to sign a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Small Business Association giving GSDBA members access to the business assistance that the SBA provides.

Stepping Stone, the San Diego-based rehabilitation program that focuses on alcohol and drug treatment for the GLBT community, opens a new $2-million, 29-bed residential facility near University Avenue and Interstate 15.

Hillcrest Youth Center, a branch of the Lesbian and Gay Community Center designed specifically for gay youth 24 and under, opens near Fourth and Robinson in Hillcrest.

Openly lesbian Christine Kehoe and Toni Atkins win in their respective elections. Kehoe moves to the state Assembly and Atkins replaces her as District 3 councilmember.

A federal judge rejects the Boy Scouts’ arguments to have the ACLU-backed lawsuit against them dismissed and allows the suit to continue. The ACLU is representing a lesbian couple who contend that the city’s lease of park land to the scouts violates the Constitution and the separation of church and state because the scouts will not permit gays or atheists to be members.

Bienestar Human Services, a Latino HIV community organization, opens in North Park.

Delores Jacobs becomes executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Center.

More than 100 community activists protest in front of Borders bookstore in Mission Valley because of the appearance and book signing by Dr. Laura Schlessinger, homophobic radio talk show host.

The Lesbian and Gay Center, officially The Center For Social Services, a name taken almost 30 years ago when very few newspapers or telephone directories would print the words gay and lesbian, changes its name to San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.

Bonnie Dumanis is elected district attorney for San Diego County and becomes the first openly gay or lesbian district attorney ever elected in the United States.

The Center reopens after eight months of renovation. The newly renovated building at 3090 Centre St. is soon to be the site of the Center’s 30th anniversary celebration.

A federal judge in San Diego rules that the Boy Scouts’ lease of land in Balboa Park violates the California State Constitution and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The California Supreme Court affirms second-parent adoption which permits both partners in a same-sex couple to have a legal relationship with the couple’s children. The court case was the result of earlier court battles fought by a San Diego lesbian couple.

The City Council of San Diego votes to settle the ACLU’s lawsuit against the city over the Boy Scouts’ use of public land in Balboa Park and to give notice to the scouts that their lease has been terminated.

Joan Kroc, widow of the late owner of McDonalds and the SD Padres, leaves in her estate a gift of $500,000 to Mama’s Kitchen, the local meal delivery service for persons living with HIV.

The California Supreme Court agrees to hear the case brought by a San Diego lesbian against Bernardo Heights Country Club for discrimination. The suit claims that the country club has refused to treat her and her partner as it does straight married couples.

The owner of Club Montage and Rebar, John McCusker, 31, dies suddenly of a cardiac arrest. His death makes national news when the Catholic bishop of San Diego refuses his family the right to a Catholic funeral mass in any Catholic church in the San Diego diocese.

Councilmember Toni Atkins is chosen by the San Diego City Council to fill the role of mayor until the results of the special November mayoral elections are known. (In addition to Mayor Dick Murphy’s resignation, two councilmembers resign as the result of being convicted of felonies.)

Mayor Steve Padilla of Chula Vista comes out publicly.

The Center opens $4.1-million Youth Housing Project, 1640 Broadway, providing 23 studios for LGBT youths between 18-24 years of age.

Six men are victims of a hate crime as they are attacked by three men as they leave the Pride grounds Saturday night. One victim is hospitalized with serious head and face injuries after being hit with a baseball bat.

Hillcrest and surrounding communities see a spike in muggings and robberies. They tend to happen at night as people are leaving gay bars in gay neighborhoods.

Marine James Alexander Hardy confesses to the 2006 murder of Raymond Catolico. Catolico was found in his Little Italy home days after his murder and after Hardy was recorded on video using Catolico’s credit card.

Gay & Lesbian Times celebrates its 1,000th issue.