; Whereas in 1975, the Civil Service Commission eliminated the ban on the employment of homosexuals in most Federal jobs; Whereas, on January 8, 1978, Harvey Milk made national news when he was sworn in as an openly gay member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; Whereas in October of 1979, 75,000 people participated in the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights to demand equal civil rights; Whereas in 1980, Democrats took a stance in support of gay rights at the Democratic National Convention; Whereas in 1982, Wisconsin became the first State to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation; Whereas in 1983, after initial refusal from lead organizers to allow an openly LGBTQ person to speak, Audre Lorde was selected by Black LGBTQ groups to speak at the 20th anniversary commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington; Whereas in October of 1987, thousands of activists took part in the National March on Washington to demand that President Reagan address the AIDS crisis; Whereas in 1987, Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts became the first Representative to voluntarily come out as an openly gay Member of Congress; Whereas in 1988, Urvashi Vaid co-founded the Creating Change Conference, the largest annual LGBTQ convening in the United States organized by the National LGBTQ Task Force; Whereas, on May 20, 1996, the Supreme Court of the United States decided, in Romer v. Evans, that a Colorado constitutional amendment preventing the enactment of nondiscrimination protections for gay, lesbian, and bisexual people in that State was unconstitutional; Whereas at the turn of the century in 2000, Vermont became the first State in the country to legally recognize civil unions between same-sex couples; Whereas, on June 8, 2000, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, in Rosa v. Parks, that a transgender person had recourse under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act’s prohibition on sex discrimination after being denied a loan for dressing in traditionally feminine attire