In 1994, the American Medical Association declared its opposition to treatments intended to cure homosexuality.  Deborah Batts became the first openly gay or lesbian federal judge; she was appointed to the U.S. District Court in New York.  The US Coast Guard makes public a memo issued by Commandant Thomas Fisher barring anti-gay discrimination against the service's civilian employees. Uniformed personnel are still subject to discharge under “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”. The Washington State School Board adopted a policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in the state's public schools.

“The Lion King”, “Forrest Gump”, “Shawshank Redemption” and “Pulp Fiction were top movies of 1994.    Wesley Snipes, Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks were top actors. Whoopi Goldberg, Demi Moore and Sharon Stone were the highest grossing actresses.  Holly Hunter won the Oscar for best actress in the film, “The Piano”.   Tom Hanks won an Oscar for best actor for his role in the movie “Philadelphia”.  This mainstream drama brought to light the discrimination faced by a high-powered attorney living with AIDS. Boy bands, love ballads and pop singles rivaled peaking grunge bands.  Top billboard singles included “Hero” by Mariah Carey, “The Power of Love” by Celine Dion, “The Sign” by Ace of Base and “All for One” with Bryan Adams, Sting and Rod Stewart. 

President Bill Clinton was in office when the 1994 midterms were dubbed “The Republican Revolution” because the republicans won control of congress for the first time since 1952.  The majority republicans passed conservative legislation including the contentious “Defense of Marriage Act”.  This act specifically denied same-sex couples all benefits and recognition given to opposite-sex couples. It allowed states to deny recognition of same-sex marriage conducted by other states and was in place until 2013. 

The Dallas Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills to become the Superbowl Champions. Ireland's 41-year-old Eamonn Coghlan became the first man over the age of forty to run a sub-four minute mile when he clocks 3min.58.15sec. If you know anything about running, that’s blazing fast.  Major League Baseball players went on strike and there was no World Series during the ‘94 season.  Steffi Graff, Arantxa Sanchez Vicaro and Conchita Martinez dominated women’s tennis. On the men’s side, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Sergi Berguera won major tennis tournaments.