queer heritage a timeline. some interesting things i learned from this:

• A.D. 1
  
  China: Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty attempts on his deathbed to name his lover Dong Xian as his successor. Other forces prevail, and Dong Xian is forced to commit suicide. As with Mizi Xia, however, their relationship achieves a kind of immortality: the tale of the Emperor's cutting his sleeve off so as not to disturb Dong Xian, who had fallen asleep on it, inspires subsequent generations to call eroticism between men duanxiu ("cut sleeve") love.
  
  
• 720
  
  One of the first books written in Japan, the Nihon Shoki ("Japanese Chronicles"), includes an account of two male lovers who enraged the gods by sacrilegiously being buried in the same tomb. This is probably the earliest surviving mention of same-sex love in Japan.
  
  
• 1812
  
  Responding to the previous year's controversial trial-and subsequent libel suit-of two Scottish schoolmistresses, Miss Pirie and Miss Woods, for "improper and criminal conduct" with each other and one of their pupils, British legal authorities engage in a debate over whether sex between two women is possible. The consensus: it is not.
  
  
• c. 1930
  
  China: American writer Agnes Smedley visits two women silk spinners who live and work together as lovers. "marriage" between women, she is told, is common in silk-producing areas of the country.
  
  
• 1930
  
  Denmark decriminalizes consensual sex acts between men. (Sex between women has never been illegal under Danish law.) The Danish reform is one of the few successes of the early Homophile movement.
  

in related news, jamiel terry, stepson of the homophobic and anti-abortion zealot randall terry comes out. his stepfather seems more concerned with his own reputation, than the well-being of his stepson. metafilter(where i learned about this) has an interesting thread about it as well.