An Expansion of the Timeline in Trust Fall: A Not-Very-Magical Fairy Tale About the "F-Word" by Tamara Kaye Sellman
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1923
ERA first written
1945
Death of John Birch; the Cold War begins
1955
William F. Buckley founds the National Review
1958
The John Birch Society (JBS) forms; its paper, American Opinion, debuts
1959
The JBS first mentions the “assault on Christmas”
1961
“Bircherism” comes to be associated with the JBS’s fringe conspiracy theory
1962
Broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite joins CBS
1963
The JBS spreads conspiracy theory that president Dwight D. Eisenhower is a Communist; second-wave feminism emerges via Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique; the Equal Pay Act is introduced
1964
Sexual harassment is first recognized as sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act; Civil Rights Act becomes law; Barry Goldwater runs as a Republican nominee for US president, clinches the nomination, but loses to Lyndon B. Johnson by a landslide
1965
GenX is born; US enters into combat with Vietnam; Buckley rejects the JBS as radical/conspiratorial
1969
The Stonewall Riots take place
1972
Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly joins the JBS; ERA is submitted to states for ratification; Schlafly announces her opposition to the recently passed ERA; TV show and song, Free to Be…You and Me, debuts; “I Am Woman” tops the Billboard charts for 6 months, hitting #1 in December
1973
Billie Jean King beats Bobbie Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes; OPEC oil embargo leads to the US oil crisis; the global recession begins, leading to “Stagflation”; US withdraws from Vietnam
1974
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 allows women to secure credit cards, bank accounts, and mortgages for the first time without requiring a male cosigner
1975
OR survivalist movement organizes in response to the 1973 oil crisis; divorce rate in the US nearly doubles
1976
Jimmy Carter is elected President of the US
1977
The Avon “Male Chauvinist Pig” soap line is released
1979
The ERA ratification deadline is extended to 1982
1980
Reagan is elected to his first term; the Satanic Panic born following the release of the book, Michelle Remembers, which stokes paranoia about Satanic ritual abuse, especially among children
1981
AIDs cases first reported in the US mark the start of the AIDS epidemic; “Reagan’s Recession” begins; MTV debuts; ARPANET is established, predating the internet; homelessness increases in the US
1982
USA Today debuts; ERA fails ratification (35 of 38 states ratify it)
1983
White Train carries nuclear warheads through Vancouver WA
1984
Reagan is re-elected; FCC breaks the AT&T telecom monopoly into “Baby Bells”
1986
Both the Great Peace March and Hands Across America social movements take place; NSFNET telecom architecture marks the start of the internet
1989
World Wide Web is born
1991
The Cold War ends; Douglas Coupland’s novel Generation X popularizes the slur ‘slacker’
1992
Men Are From Mars, Women Are from Venus is published
2009
First major legislative conflicts begin over transgender bathroom access in the US
2010
President Barack Obama bans gender identity- based discrimination
2012
The JBS reemerges; California becomes the first state to ban conversion therapy for minors
2015
Gay marriage is legalized in the US
2016
Same-sex adoption is legalized in the US
2017
QAnon emerges; transgender military personnel sue the Trump administration and the Pentagon over a proposed ban against transgender people serving in the military
2018
Vice President Pence speaks at a Values Voter Summit advocating for conversion therapy for Children—the event co-sponsored by the JBS
2021
First state-level ban of gender-affirming care for minors takes place in Arkansas
2022
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturns both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), remanding abortion law to the purview of the states
2024
SAVE Act is first introduced, aiming to require proof of citizenship for federal voter registration; proposal language suggests voting rights may be rescinded for millions of women voters who changed their names when they married and no longer have legal documents reflecting the change
2025
President Trump signs an executive order removing all federal protections for transgender citizens, limiting federal recognition of transgender identity, and withholding funding for gender-affirming care or people under age 19
2026
On Trans Visibility Day, the Supreme Court of the United States rules against a Colorado state law banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth
The Future
You can write the future timeline. What legacy do you want to leave your daughters and granddaughters? Do you want them to keep fighting the same fight your mother and grandmother fought? If your vote did not matter, why are they working so hard to take it away from you? Get involved. Speak up. Show up. Vote. Before you can't.
