Gay rights history question.

[LoveIsNow]

I'm not sure what the appropriate forum for this is, but I feel like it will disappear onto page 2 if I put it in HT, and I figured I would have a better chance of finding an answer here.

I know that Quebec was the first jurisdiction larger than a county to prohibit public and private sector discrimination based on sexual orientation, and that Norway was the first country to do so. My question, and I would have thought it would be one with a readily available answer (although I haven't found one) since history tends to remember firsts, is what was the first city in the world to do so?

Someone has to know.

 

[LoveIsNow]

1972, the first law protecting gays and lesbians against discrimination was passed in East Lansing, Michigan.

That is as far as I could quickly find, at least in the United States.

It's still possible that a European city had passed one before 1972.

Cool, thanks. I had it in the back of my mind that it was Ann Arbor, but I knew somewhere in Michigan did it in 1972. I had a sneaking suspicion that somewhere in Europe must have passed such a law first, but come to think of it, I haven't heard of any openly gay official anywhere before Kathy Kozachenko in Ann Arbor, so it may have been that Michigan was ahead of Europe for a time. I'll just have to keep my eye out for earlier dates when I'm doing random research.

 

[SoulSearcher]

Apparently, the various groups fighting for equality became more organised about the time of the election of Reagan, when the Right who were obsessed with pornography, homosexuality and birth control, fully supported him, while the Democrats pushed for protection of all by including anti-discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, colour, language, religion, etc., in its platform in 1980 (at the DNC Convention).

Berkeley, CA: 1984: City of Berkeley Adopts First Same-Sex Domestic Partnerships Ordinance, no wonder it is one of the most hated cities in America to some...

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/gendersexuality/tp/History-Gay-Rights-Movement.htm

For Thomas Jefferson fans: In 1779, Thomas Jefferson proposed a law that would mandate castration for gay men and mutilation of nose cartilage for gay women.

 

[Seasoned]

Illinois decriminalized homosexual sex acts in private in 1962.
Wisconsin became the first gay rights state in 1982.

 

[SoulSearcher]

Illinois decriminalized homosexual sex acts in private in 1962.
Wisconsin became the first gay rights state in 1982.

I think Wisconsin is very significant in that regard, it's the first state in the union to enact statutes to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. Another point to note is that the legislation was almost single handedly carried by the Democratic Wisconsin Assembly Member David Clarenbach, who is openly gay now, but wasn't at the time he made this legislation possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Clarenbach

 

[bankside]

CBC has a huge archive of Canadian news and documentary on the subject.

http://archives.cbc.ca/search?q=gay&RTy=0&RC=1&RP=1&RD=1&RA=0&th=1&x=0&y=0

Canada decriminalised in 1969.
Openly gay soldiers in 1992.
Gay refugees in 1994.
1995 - the landmark year - Supreme Court rules that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, even though it doesn't specifically mention homosexuality. Writing is on the wall, everything else comes down like dominoes.
1996 - Canadian Human Rights Act updated to conform to constitutional ruling.
1998 - Non-discrimination in employment wins in court.
1999 - Common-law spousal rights secured in court
2000 - 68 federal laws amended to comply with court ruling on equal common-law status
2003 - Ontario couple and a church uses ancient common-law "Publication of Banns" to delcare themselves married. Provincial government opposes them and fails spectacularly in court, thus in Ontario marriage is equal. The rest of the country starts falling in line, province by province.
2004 - Federal government chickens out and asks Supreme Court to decide whether they have to legislate equal marriage. Supreme Court says, nice try losers, it certainly isn't illegal and Parliament should do its job and debate it instead of annoying us with this.
2005 - Parliament legislates equal marriage for everyone in every province. Alberta whines and sulks and pouts like the whiny bitch province it is, and there's nothing they can do about it.


But cities? I don't know how much control cities have over these kinds of questions, at least in Canada.

 

[Kulindahr]

I believe that San Francisco was the first city to establish the location of a gay establishment with a historical marker.

 

[bankside]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_LGBT_history

Looks like Europe was decriminalising things back in the 20's 30's. Of course Hitler and the Cold War weren't exactly brilliant for gay equality.

 

[wastingmymind]

I imagine cities would have limited jurisdiction in discrimination though. They can pass an order to tell landlords not to discriminate against their tenants, business versus customers. But something big like hiring practices?

 

[LoveIsNow]

I imagine cities would have limited jurisdiction in discrimination though. They can pass an order to tell landlords not to discriminate against their tenants, business versus customers. But something big like hiring practices?

We have employment/hiring protections in Tampa. Well, I would if I lived seven blocks South of my house. Here in the unincorporated county it's open season, because of our homophobic county commission which even went so far as to ban gay pride (by a 6 to 1 vote) on county property (libraries, schools, etc.). Fortunately it's changing and last year we elected an openly gay commissioner. This year I'm volunteering for Linda Saul-Sena District 5 at large.

Anyhow, to answer your thought. Yeah. They can do that!