User talk:DonG90806

East Lansing Michigan is home to the First Gay Rights Ordinance In the US
East Lansing Michigan is home to the First Gay Rights Ordinance In the US

This is the first time I have done this, so bear with me because I have no idea what I'm doing. I have considerable information about the article entitled "1970s in LGBT rights". First of all, allow me to establish my bona fides. In 1972, I wrote the first gay rights ordinance to pass in the United States. It was on March 7, 1972 and it was passed by the East Lansing, Michigan, City Council. The city of Ann Arbor was a number of months later.

The City of East Lansing just celebrated the 40th anniversary of the passage of the ordinance. The City is thinking about erecting some type of monument or plaque designating East Lansing as "the birthplace of gay rights in America."

A history major at Michigan State University, Michael Carman, wrote his senior Honors Thesis on the history of the passage of the ordinance.

His dissertation, along with a copy of the Advocate article from May 10, 1972, can be found at these links

mediafire.com/?a8ybzixhs7zhwb8         Michael Carman’s thesis

mediafire.com/?f3r999c6zlc8zbo         Advocate article

I subsequently moved to Los Angeles and taught at Peoples College of Law where some of my students were Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, and Superior Court Judge Teresa Sanchez-Gordon.

In 1977, I was one of 14 openly gay people to be invited to the White House to meet with members of President Carter's Cabinet. You already have parts of this mentioned in your article about President Carter. A Google search of this will lead you to an article with the actual photo of us at the White House.

There are still some of us around who lived through that time. It's too bad there is no way for us to pass on our history. This is particularly egregious since so many of us died of AIDS.

Professor of Law Emeritus Don GaudardDonG90806 (talk) 06:37, 22 July 2012 (UTC)