January: Temperatures plummet, snow envelops the nation and an absence of news in the post-festive slump means that an innocuous aside in a company’s Christmas newsletter is splashed across every paper in the country: newsreader Jane Hill lives with a woman! In Islington! And has a dog called Mavis!
Still at Broadcasting House, the BBC announces it will conduct its biggest study into how LGBT people are represented on television – and that it intends to ask homophobes what they think, too.

February: It’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender History Month, and the occasion is marked by a glittering reception – the first of its kind – at 10 Downing Street by soon-to-be-history Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
At the other end of the rainbow spectrum, the Press Complaints Commission rejects Andrew Cowles’ complaint that Jan Moir’s October column in the Daily Mail about the death of his civil partner Stephen Gately was “intrusive, inaccurate and discriminatory”. A record 25,000 people complained to the PCC, which concedes that the piece was “extremely distasteful” in parts.
The Kids Are All Rightpremieres in Berlin, and wins plaudits by the truckload.

March: Itawamba County Agricultural High School is flung into the spotlight when it forbids 18-year-old Constance McMillen from taking her girlfriend to its prom (and from wearing a tux to do so).
While the American Civil Liberties Union brings a court case on McMillen’s behalf, parents at the school organise a fake prom (to which McMillen is invited) while holding a real one nearby (to which she isn’t).
McMillen gets the last laugh, however, when she is invited on the Ellen Degeneres Show (receiving a $30,000 scholarship), the Wanda Sykes Show (receiving a GLAAD nomination), and is Perez Hilton’s birthday guest of honour.
Back in Blighty, a new law comes into force, making it a crime to incite hatred on the grounds of sexuality.

April: A-list pin-up Anna Paquin, of X-Men (Rogue) and True Blood (Sookie) fame, announces that she is bisexual.
Also onscreen, and for the first time in its 60-year history, lesbians lock lips on the cobbles of Coronation Street, when Sophie Webster and Sian Powers become itemised. Come December, they will still be a couple: an unimaginably long stretch for soapland Sapphics.

May: Election fever culminates with the first coalition government since World War II, as Clegg climbs into bed with Cameron.
Eyebrows are arched when Theresa May is appointed Minister for Equality: she voted against lesbian and gay adoption rights, against equalising the age of consent, against the repeal of Section 28 and was absent for several civil partnership votes. After appointment, she said she had “changed my mind” about same-sex couples adopting.
This election also saw the UK’s second-ever out lesbian MP, the Conservative’s Margot James, voted in for Stourbridge.

June: As temperatures rise, the Sun gets hot under the collar about gays in government, with a poll that asks: “Should gay people be cabinet ministers?” And should they? According to its readers, 76% don’t care, 5% have no opinions and 5% think it is a Bad Thing.
Over in Elstree, Big Brother bows out with its eleventh and final series. Lesbigay contestants show a particularly strong fist, with tanfastic Corin and Caoimhe, who looked like one but wasn’t but could have been given the right circumstances (or something like that). But the star of the show is our very own lesbian Artful Dodger, Shabby, who pickpockets a few viewers’ hearts, loses her own along the way, and then walks on the 27th day.

July: Clare Balding complains to Press Complaints Commission about being called a “dyke on a bike” by the Sunday Times’ diminutive TV pundit AA Gill. Balding explains to the Guardian: “I just think there is a time when you say enough is enough.” We hear you, sister! Come September, her complaint will be upheld.
Back in Itawamba County, Constance McMillen, of March’s prom debacle fame, receives $35,000 compensation from the school district.

August: In LA, at the Primetime Emmys, Jane Lynch wins Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of gym teacher Sue Sylvester in Glee.
In Ludlow, the will of Anne Lister – the ‘first modern lesbian’, whose diaries were televised in May – is auctioned in Ludlow. It only fetches £380.

September: 9,500 responses, 2000 interviews, 10 weeks’ work and a 9-month wait. The BBC reveals the results of its survey, which says, in a nutshell: LGBT people want to see more LGBT people on TV, while homophobes don’t feel very comfortable with the all those gays. Especially when they kiss. Bleurgh.
More numbers are crunched, chewed up and spat out by the Office for National Statistics, which releases findings that say 1.5% of the UK population is lesbian, gay or bisexual.

October: After prevaricating like a nervous bride at the altar, Stonewall comes out in favour of same-sex marriage. “We seek to secure marriage for gay people as a civil vehicle on the same basis as heterosexual marriage,” is its snappy press statement.
The most important event of the month – the year, possibly of all time – is transmission of the first episode of Lip Service on BBC3 on 12 October 2010. It attracts more than half a million viewers and subsequently splits lesbians neatly down the middle: rated or hated? (And more importantly, Frankie or Cat?)

November: The Equal Love campaign takes the equality battle right up the aisle, as same-sex couples apply for marriage licences and straight ones go for civil partnerships.
Sharon Ferguson and partner Franka Strietzel are denied a marriage licence in Greenwich, Colette French and Katie Green are refused in Petersfield, while Ian Goggin and Kristin Skarsholt are refused a civil partnership in Bristol. Legal action is in the pipeline.

December: The US Army ends its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy – brought in by Clinton in 1993 – after months of legal wrangling. It means that gay and lesbian soldiers can finally serve openly in the military.
Gay football fans were left rolling in the aisles when FIFA chief Sepp Blatter quipped “I would say they should refrain from any sexual activities” at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is punishable by imprisonment and flogging. LOL!
Temperatures plummet, snow envelops the country, and all eyes turn to the BBC, as it unveils the greatest Christmas gift a lesbian could wish for: a second series of Lip Service is announced.