Ben Dillgham: Gay rights activist, muny lear - The San Diego Unn-Tribune

Contents:

• SAN DIEGO HONORS LONGTIME GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST NILE MURRAY RAMIREZ WH HONORARY STREET SIGN
• US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY MILK
• BEFORE GAY MEANT GAY: MEET SAN DIEGO’S EARLY LGBTQ PNEERS
• BEN DILLGHAM: GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST, MUNY LEAR
• THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK
• SAN DIEGO GAY COMMUNY EMERG AS POWERFUL POLIL FORCE

SAN DIEGO HONORS LONGTIME GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST NILE MURRAY RAMIREZ WH HONORARY STREET SIGN

Murray Ramirez also prevly served on the regn’s Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force and the unty’s regnal task force on AIDS the public unveilg of the honorary marker was wnsed by about 100 people, cludg LGBTQ servicemembers, police officers, policians and members of fah groups. 1225124-sd-me-activist-honor_NL December 3, 2022 San Diego, CA (l to r) San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, Nile Murray Ramirez, CA State Senate Print Pro Tempore Toni Atks and Longtime LGBTQ, Lato, and Jackie Biskupski, former Salt Lake Cy Mayor (who was the first openly gay person elected to that office) share a lgh durg civil rights activist Nile Murray Ramirez honorary street namg ceremony by the Cy of San Diego on Saturday afternoon, wh a portn of Harvey Milk Street beg signated as “Honorary Nile Murray Ramirez Way.

US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY MILK

And we owe that to Nile, ” said Gloria, who ma history San Diego as the first openly gay mayor and the first mayor of gatherg was anized by San Diego Councilmember Stephen Whburn, whose District 3 clus Hillcrt. Honorary namg is rerved for people or anizatns “that have performed an exemplary act or achievement of lastg tert to their muny, which reflects posively on the Cy of San Diego as a whole, ” reads the signatn a after San Diego changed Blae Avenue to Harvey Milk Street to regnize Milk, a civil rights activist who was one of the first openly gay elected officials the natn. Protected by their soc-enomic stat om dishonor and prosecutn, upper class upl such as Lee and Teats or Shepard and Tonner did not suffer om stigma or the punishg laws wh which ls fortunate homosexuals of their day had to ntend.

Gay historian Allan Bébé has famoly suggted that Ameri’s war effort also served to brg together many gays and lbians who had hherto been isolated small towns and ci all across Ameri, and a signifint subculture was th on s way to beg formed. For stance, gay bars such as Bradley’s and Blue Jacket the Gaslamp District proliferated durg the war years; locker clubs such as the Seven Seas Locker Club and Jack’s Steam and Locker Club beme not only facili where ary men uld change to civvi before a night on the town but also cisg grounds where those who were gay found sexual opportuni. The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) was rmed too—and bee homosexuals were prumptive crimals unr state and lol laws, the SDPD went to great lengths to hunt gay men down, even stakg out the streets where gays were known to cise.

BEFORE GAY MEANT GAY: MEET SAN DIEGO’S EARLY LGBTQ PNEERS

Ed Hansen, a closeted mister at San Diego’s Chollas View Methodist Church, who had recently pleted an ternship at San Francis’s ultra-liberal Gli Memorial Methodist Church, started San Diego’s first anized gay group, “Dghters and Sons of Society. ” The group offered much-need emotnal support to the muny, but as s ntral name suggts, members sentially kept who they were a secret, which meant that they uld have ltle impact fightg discrimatory laws and homophobic prejudice.

But stead of gog quietly to the paddy wagon as gay people had almost always done when arrted police raids, the patrons, fluenced by the many dramatic protts of that , fought back and sparked four nights of rts. ” A week after the rts, a group of young radils New York found the Gay Liberatn Front, named to evoke the munist Natnal Liberatn Front of Vietnam, an anizatn admired by many young Amerin leftists.

BEN DILLGHAM: GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST, MUNY LEAR

) In the sprg of 1971, thanks to promotn by the GLF, the San Diego State Experimental College—tablished to perm stunts to explore non-nventnal studi–offered one of the first gay studi urs the untry, “The Homosexual and Society. Word of GLF reached Chancellor Glenn Dumke, the head of the California State College system, who rmed San Diego State’s print, Mallm Love, that no group lled “Gay” may be associated wh a California State College mp. On November 28, 1971, they staged San Diego’s first gay prott: about fifteen GLF members marched ont of the San Diego Police Headquarters rryg signs that mand an end to harassment and mockgly clared “10% of You Are US” (a reference to the Ksey statistic that revealed that one-tenth of Amerins were practicg homosexuals at any given time).

THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK

GLF activist Js Jsop announced to all the lol news media that would listen (KOGO TV, KFMB, and The San Diego Unn were there), “We are standg together to meet this problem [of police harassment] and will ntue to do so ever creasg numbers until all policemen learn that gay people are no longer easy targets for their sadism. Simply beg openly gay was radil and therefore reason for the FBI to keep an eye on GLF, but the FBI had a further exce too: their vtigatn of Gay Liberatn Front groups, cludg the one San Diego, was tensified bee the FBI feared that gay radils would dispt the 1972 Democratic Natnal Conventn Miami by vadg the nventn hall and mandg civil rights for homosexuals. Among the arrted were several who were married and did not intify as gay, cludg Gaylord Parkson, an El Cajon gynelogist and proment Republin strategist who had been Richard Nixon’s mpaign director.

The next month, on October 5, rryg signs that read “SDPD Watch While You Pee” and “I Prefer Gay Company to the May Company, ” the Gay Liberatn Front staged a march om the May Company to The San Diego Unn parkg lot, where members held a rally. Bt uld ntemplate makg a ser n for elected office as an openly gay man 1979 part bee gay anizatns big ci across the untry had been makg signifint roads towards changg stutns and public perceptns. In 1973, thanks to gay protts, bat, and appeals, members of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn voted to take “homosexualy” per se out of the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs, the psychiatrists’ bible that fed who was emotnally sick.

The Uned Stat Civil Service Commissn had kept gay people out of ernment employment sce 1950 wh the jtifitn that gays were so repellent to society that they uld be blackmailed to divulgg state secrets.

SAN DIEGO GAY COMMUNY EMERG AS POWERFUL POLIL FORCE

In 1973, members of GLF opened the Gay Center for Social Servic not only to support gay people crisis and to help them fd employment and hog, but also to be a place where the gay muny uld gather for social events. The granst statement of muny, San Diego’s annual Pri Para, began mostly 1974, when a small group of gays and lbians parad whout a perm—marchg on the siwalks and stoppg for red lights to avoid nontatn wh the SDPD. Nile Murray-Ramirez rells that when he and activists Js Jsop and Tom Homann had gone to SDPD headquarters to requt a perm the sergeant charge told them, “There will never be a homosexual pri march this cy, and you guys are viants and you’re queers and if you don’t get out of here we will arrt you.

In earlier s, when the muny was small and homophobia was rife, San Diego gays and lbians, like their unterparts elsewhere, often formed iendships based on shared terts, genue affectn, and a mon enemy. Wearg hazmat sus to make their hysteril pot that you uld tch AIDS if the fected so much as breathed on you, they posned themselv the way of heavy gay foot traffic and displayed plards clarg AIDS to be a sign of God’s displeasure wh homosexualy.

” Right-wg Senator Jse Helms (North Carola), who had troduced the amendment, admonished his fellow senators about homosexuals: “We’ve got to ll a spa a spa and a perverted human beg a perverted human beg.