1993-10-15 Gay and Lesbian Community Center Opens in Las Vegas, Nevada

The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Las Vegas, Nevada celebrates its grand opening. While the reception was going on inside the Center, members of a conservative Christian group put homophobic flyers on the windshields of cars in the parking lot.

1993-10-27 U.S. Navy Petty Officer Allen Schindler, Jr. is brutally murdered by a fellow sailor in an anti-gay hate crime.

U.S. Navy Petty Officer Allen Schindler, Jr. is brutally murdered by a fellow sailor in an anti-gay hate crime. Schindler had complained to his superiors of harassment and had come out to them, but they were slow to process his discharge. In the wake of the “gays-in-the-military” debate and the adoption of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy earlier in the year, the murder of Schindler highlighted the extreme vulnerability of gay, lesbian, and bisexual members of the U.S. armed forces.

1993-12-23 The film Philadelphia is released.

The film Philadelphia is released. It tells the story of a gay lawyer (Tom Hanks) who is fired by his firm because he has AIDS, and the lawyer (Denzel Washington) who defends him and, in the process, has to face and acknowledge his own homophobia. The film received strongly positive reviews and won Hanks an Oscar for best actor. It was an important moment in the film industry’s acknowledgment of the AIDS epidemic and presenting it to a mass audience in an empathic way.