Austin’s queer history goes back further than most people guess. The Manhattan Club at 911 Congress Avenue, possibly the city’s first gay bar, opened in 1958. In 1975 Austin became the first city in Texas to ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the next year the mayor declared the city’s first Gay Pride Celebration Week.
The timeline below comes mostly from the City of Austin’s own LGBTQIA2S history timeline, with founding dates from each organization’s own site. We checked everything on October 13, 2026.
The Timeline
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1958 | The Manhattan Club, possibly Austin’s first gay bar, opens at 911 Congress |
| 1970 | A local Gay Liberation Front chapter forms, with the first public gay and lesbian meeting in Austin |
| 1971 | The first national Gay Liberation Front conference is held in Austin |
| 1974 | After a three-year court fight, UT Austin recognizes its first gay student group |
| 1975 | The Austin Lesbian Organization forms, which later led to BookWoman. City Council passes Texas’s first employment protection for sexual orientation |
| 1976 | Council adds sexual orientation to the public accommodations ordinance. Mayor Jeff Friedman declares June 20 to 26 Gay Pride Celebration Week |
| 1982 | Voters defeat a referendum that would have made housing discrimination based on sexual orientation legal |
| 1983 | Paul Clover founds Waterloo Counseling Center to provide mental health care to people dying from AIDS |
| 1985 | ALLGO forms to provide space, HIV/AIDS care, and outreach to LGBTQ communities of color |
| 1987 | The Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival, now aGLIFF, is founded |
| 1989 | The March on Austin for Lesbian/Gay Rights, then the largest demonstration in the city’s history |
| 1990 | The first modern Austin Pride Festival. OutYouth is founded |
| 1991 | Glen Maxey becomes the first openly gay man elected to the Texas Legislature |
| 1997 | The Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce is founded |
| 2002 | The first Austin Pride Parade |
| 2004 | City Council unanimously passes nondiscrimination protections for transgender people |
| 2005 | The Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas becomes Equality Texas |
| 2009 | QueerBomb starts as an alternative to Austin Pride |
| 2010 | The volunteer-run Austin Pride Foundation forms to organize Pride |
| 2021 | Austin Trans Pride is founded |
Austin Was First in Texas on Sexual Orientation
The 1975 employment ordinance was “a first for Texas,” according to the City’s timeline. The 1976 public accommodations ordinance added sexual orientation for restaurants, stores, and other places open to the public. In 1982, a 27,000-signature petition from a group called Austin Citizens for Decency put a question on the ballot that would have let property owners turn away gay tenants. Voters rejected it. KUT reported in 2015 that the vote was 67% against, and the City’s timeline says 63%. Austin’s protections today are on our page about whether Austin is gay friendly.
Why Austin Pride Is in August
Pride in Austin started as a week in June. Mayor Friedman’s 1976 proclamation set it for June 20 to 26. The first modern Pride festival was in 1990, and the first parade in 2002. Today Austin Pride is in August. The 2026 festival was August 22. QueerBomb, founded in 2009, has its own celebration in June.
Groups From That History You Can Still Find
- BookWoman grew out of the Austin Lesbian Organization and is still open, now celebrating 50 years. BookWoman
- Waterloo Counseling Center began in 1983 during the AIDS crisis and has been part of Texas Health Action since 2015. Waterloo Counseling Center
- ALLGO has worked with LGBTQ communities of color since 1985. ALLGO
- aGLIFF calls itself Austin’s oldest film festival. aGLIFF
The city’s long push for an LGBTQ+ community center is its own story, now with a proposed site. See our page on an LGBTQ+ center for Austin.
The word itself has a history too. Our essay on how “queer” was reclaimed follows it from a slur to the word about half of LGBTQ adults in the U.S. now use for themselves.
Where to Dig Deeper
The Austin History Center keeps collections on LGBTQ+ Austin. Its LGBTQ+ subject guide lists them and is the place to start for original records.
What We Changed
The older version of this page had details we couldn’t source, including a Pride gathering of “25 people in 1970,” a claim that Lawrence v. Texas began in Austin, and a 2010 start date for QueerBomb. We cut the first two and corrected the third to 2009, the City’s date. Where the City’s timeline and other sources disagree, as they do on the 1982 vote share, we give both.
Last checked: October 2026. Timeline from the City of Austin’s LGBTQIA2S history document, founding dates from Waterloo Counseling Center, aGLIFF, OutYouth, the Austin LGBT Chamber, and the Austin Pride Foundation, all read October 13, 2026. See a mistake? Use our contact page.
How We Check
We check every business and group we name against what it publishes about itself: its own site, its booking page, or its state license. No business pays to be in a guide, and we don’t earn a commission when you book.
The full method is on How We Choose. If something here is wrong or out of date, send a correction.