1984-10-26Documentary Film about Harvey Milk

The Times of Harvey Milk, a documentary film directed by Rob Epstein and produced by Richard Schmiechen, is released. It tells the story of Harvey Milk’s career as an activist and openly gay politician in San Francisco in the 1970s, as well as of his assassination by Dan White and the political protests that followed. The film went on to win an Oscar for Best documentary.

1984-10-30Aides Founded in Paris

Daniel Defert hosts a meeting at his Paris apartment that leads to the founding of Aides. It becomes one of the most important organizations fighting the AIDS epidemic in France, with branches in a number of other cities. Defert was the surviving partner of the world-famous intellectual Michel Foucault, who wrote widely about the history of sexuality and had died of AIDS earlier in 1984.

1984-12-05The first domestic partnership law in the U.S. is adopted in Berkeley California.

The city of Berkeley California extends spousal benefits to the same-sex partners of city employees. It is the first city or county in the U.S. to establish “domestic partnership” benefits, as they came to be called. Two years earlier, Mayor Diane Feinstein of San Francisco had caved in to religious opposition and vetoed a similar measure passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.