<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/minneapolis-trans-peoples-rights-1975/>
"It was likely one of the last pieces of city policy passed that winter, just
before the New Year, a parting gift from a progressive city council.
On December 30, 1975, Minneapolis became the first city to adopt a
trans-inclusive LGBTQ+ non-discrimination ordinance. Fifty years later, the
United States still lacks similar protections on a federal level.
Minneapolis was special in that the right people were there at the right time,
said Seth Goodspeed, director of development and communications at OutFront
Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ rights organization.
“Minneapolis, since the early ’70s, has really been a leader in the gay rights
movement,” he said. “That comes out of a lot of the student organizing at the
University of Minnesota in the late ’60s.”
It was home to Jack Baker and Michael McConnell, two men who, in 1971, figured
out how to legally marry, the first recorded same-sex marriage in history. It
was also the stomping ground of Steve Endean, who founded the nation’s largest
LGBTQ+ rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign.
Endean started lobbying a city alderman, Earl Netwal, in 1973 to pass a gay
rights ordinance. His timing was just right. In 1974 progressives won the
mayoral race and the city council. That year they voted 10-0 to ban
discrimination on the basis of “sexual preference.”
The next year, Tim Campbell, a local activist and publisher of the GLC Voice in
Minneapolis, penned a trans-inclusive policy.
The council passed the ordinance on December 30, right before their term ended
and a more conservative council was sworn in — one that would unsuccessfully
threaten the ordinance later."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
