November 10, 1924

On this date in 1924, Phyllis Ann Lyon was born in Oklahoma. She became a lesbian pioneer and, with her future wife Del Martin, founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the nation’s first lesbian rights organization, and later helped co-found the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club.

November 11, 1950

On this date in 1950, Harry Hay founded the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles, the country’s first national gay rights organization. Originally named the Society of Fools, it quickly changed its name to the Mattachine Society, a name inspired by a French medieval and renaissance masque group called the Société Mattachine. The organization moved to San Francisco in 1956.