Ann Arbor and LGBTQ+ History/Ann Arbor and Human Rights

In October 1973, the Ann Arbor City Council debated the city’s failure to prosecute lesbian and gay discrim-ination under its landmark 1972 Human Rights Ordinance. Council members Nancy Wechsler and Jerry DeGrieck came out as lesbian and gay, respectively, in order to emphasize the importance of active enforcement under the law. They were the first elected officials holding public office to come out as LGBTQ+ in the United States. Neither sought reelection, but Kathleen Kozachenko, a 21-year-old University of Michigan student, campaigned for Wechsler’s Ward 2 seat as an openly lesbian woman. She won the position on April 2, 1974, by fifty-two votes, becoming the first openly LGBTQ+ candidate elected to a public office in the United States. Ann Arbor and Human Rights University of Michigan student Jerry DeGrieck and recent graduate Nancy Wechsler, representing the Human Rights Party, won seats on the Ann Arbor City Council in 1972. While in office, they worked with LGBTQ+ rights pioneer Jim Toy to author and introduce the Lesbian-Gay Pride Week Resolution, the first of its kind passed by any governing body in the country. Wechsler and DeGrieck also initiated the Human Rights Ordinance, passed by the city council on July 10, 1972. With it, Ann Arbor joined East Lansing to become the first cities in the United States to protect LGBTQ+ community members from housing discrimination. The council extended the ordinance in December 1972 to include protections for employment and other public accommodations.