It wasn’t until 1976 that homosexual “acts” were legal in the state of California. Before that you could be arrested or sent to a state mental hospital. Needless to say the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s were not exactly the best of times to “come out” and those of us that did were few in number. Hardly any elected official let alone a major civil rights leader would or did come out for “homosexual civil rights;” we were considered “deviants”.
The first major civil rights leader to speak out for our community was Latino icon, Cesar Chavez. You see Harvey Milk and Cesar Chavez established a friendship and relationship with the then early “Coors Beer” and “Grape” boycotts which they of course supported. Having worked and known both Milk and Chavez I know firsthand that they both were very supportive of each other. Chavez supported Milk’s supervisor campaign and came out against anti-gay state proposition “No. 8” and Milk strongly supported the farmworkers and Latino community.
In 1987 I was elected to the national executive committee of the National Gay and Lesbian March on Washington which drew over 800,000 people to our nation’s capitol. I asked Cesar Chavez if he would march with us and speak at the rally; he did not hesitate a moment; he said yes.
Chavez marched with us in 1987 and I had the honor to have introduced him to the huge crowd at the rally and he later said it was the biggest crowd he had ever spoken in front of! Years later I had the honor once again to present Cesar Chavez one of his only awards he ever personally received from the gay community. And some years later, I was humbled to receive a “Cesar Chavez Social Justice Award” from his widow, Helen Chavez. You see as a Latino gay man, I was an activist for both homosexual and Latino civil rights, visibility and empowerment, and my two heroes Chavez and Milk were also involved. Decades later as the state president of Equality California I got our LGBT organization to support the campaign for a state holiday in honor of Cesar Chavez.
This week we in California celebrated “Cesar Chavez Day” in our great state and this column is just a reminder to you all of how much the LGBT community and civil rights movement owes to Cesar Chavez and his legacy. Viva Chavez!
Children’s Easter Egg Hunt this Sunday
About 12 years ago grandmother Linda Childers (who had a gay son) and I put on an annual “Children’s Easter Egg Hunt” at Trolley Barn Park produced by the Imperial Court. The first year about 50 children showed up; last year over 500 children came! Now this annual children’s event is co-sponsored by The LGBT Center (Family Matters) and the Third City Council District Office (Todd Gloria) with the overwhelming support of the LGBT community, businesses, friends and allies.
The Leather Community and the Eagle donated dozens of children bicycles which are raffled and this has become a really huge fun event and I want to sincerely thank you all for your continuing support (a list of donors will be in my next column).
Also we still need children’s Easter egg baskets so just drop them off at The Center or phone 619-692-1967. Once again, thank you all for your amazing 12 years of support.
