SheWired's Top 30 Lesbian Events of the Decade

Once everyone survived Y2K panic, the race for gay marriage heated up around the globe in the early 2000's, and nowhere more divisively than in the United States. While LGBT activists stood in the trenches waging the war for equitable civil rights, lesbians in politics and pop culture came out of their closets en masse and crashed through many a glass ceiling.

Same-Sex marriage, the Hate Crimes Bill, lesbian mayors and Prime Ministers, Ellen Degeneres becomes the queen of daytime, South of Nowhere, Grey's Anatomy and The L Word are just a few of the highlights of the first nine years of the decade in which lesbian visibility made unprecedented strides. And that all happened amidst national tragedy including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the Great Recession.

The staff at SheWired offer up this by-no-means definitive list of the Top 30 Lesbian Events of the Decade.

Vermont Becomes First State to Legalize Civil Unions for Same-Sex Couples in 2000

In December 1999 the Vermont Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Baker v. Vermont that the differing ways the laws in the state treated same-sex couples relative to opposite-sex couples was discrimination. Although it also ruled Vermont legislature intended for marriage to be union between a man and woman, the court compelled the State to create statutory remedy addressing the difference in how the two kinds of couples are treated. The Vermont Civil Unions bill attempted to give "civilly united" same-sex couples all rights and responsibilities of married opposite-sex couples had under Vermont law. Governor Howard Dean signed the bill on April 26, 2000 and it went into effect on July 1, 2000.

Hilary Swank Wins Oscar for Boys Don't Cry in 2000

Hilary Swank ushered in the decade of LGBT visibility in 2000 with a bang when she took home the best actress Academy Award for her riveting — and heartbreaking — portrayal of Brandon Teena in Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don’t Cry. Swank’s win on Hollywood’s biggest stage put the spotlight on our community’s struggles on one of the most-viewed programs of the year.

Lesbian Sheila Kuehl Elected to California Senate, Kehoe and Goldberg Elected to CA Assembly 2000

After becoming the first openly gay person elected to the California State Assembly in 1994, and serving 3 terms, Sheila James Kuehl then became the first openly gay person elected to the California State Senate in 2000. The same year, openly lesbian Christine Kehoe and Jackie Goldberg were elected to California Assembly.

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