“STOP the BRIGGS initiative” – “GAYS DEMAND THE RIGHT TO WORK!!,” activists, including Stonewall vet

“STOP the BRIGGS initiative” – “GAYS DEMAND THE RIGHT TO WORK!!,” activists, including Stonewall veteran John O’Brien (far right), protest the Briggs Initiative, Los Angeles, California, 1978. Photo by Pat Rocco, c/o @onearchives. After the successful campaign to repeal an ordinance in Miami that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation, archconservative Anita Bryant took her Save Our Children campaign nationwide. In California, State Senator John Briggs, who represented the conservative Orange County area, introduced Proposition 6, commonly known as the Briggs Initiative, as a statewide ballot measure to be voted upon in November 1978. The Briggs Initiative provided that a public school teacher, teacher’s aide, administrator, or counselor could lose his or her job if found to have engaged in either (1) “public homosexual activity,” defined as an act of homosexual sex which was “not discreet and not practiced in private, whether or not such act…constituted a crime,” or (2) “public homosexual conduct,” defined as “the advocating, soliciting, imposing, encouraging, or promoting of private or public homosexual activity directed at, or likely to come to the attention of, schoolchildren and/or other employees.” The initiative also prohibited the hiring of anyone who engaged in either “public homosexual activity or conduct.” The Briggs Initiative initially enjoyed overwhelming support in California and it seemed likely that voters would adopt it. In response, a core group of gay activists, including Sally Gearheart, Harvey Milk, Gwenn Craig (@gwenndolina), Bill Kraus, Tom Ammiano, and Hank Wilson encouraged others to “Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!” and go door-to-door for the “No On 6” campaign. Eventually, politicians as ideologically diverse as Jerry Brown, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter publicly denounced the initiative and public opinion turned sharply against it. On November 7, 1978, thirty-eight years ago today, voters in California rejected the Briggs Initiative by a resounding margin of 58.4% to 41.6%. #lgbthistory #lgbtherstory #lgbttheirstory #lgbtpride #QueerHistoryMatters #HavePrideInHistory (at Los Angeles, California) -- source link

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