MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin was the first in the nation to sign a landmark bill and this weekend marks the 42nd anniversary.
It’s an important piece of history that made Wisconsin an early leader in protecting LGBTQ rights. The legislation made it illegal for state or private businesses to discriminate based on sexual orientation when it came to employment or housing. And it took nearly a decade for other states to follow suit.
“Sometimes it’s subtle and sometimes it’s overt, it depends on the case.” Those were the words of one of Milwaukee’s most famous gay rights activists, when he spoke to TMJ4 in 1981. “There was a case at City Hall of someone being dismissed after a number of years of perfect service,” said Leon Rouse.
A year later he would stand alongside a young Madison lawmaker, David Clarenbach, watching as Gov. Lee Dreyfus signed AB70, the bill they’d championed, into law.
42 years later, that progressive legislation is still being celebrated.
The year the bill was signed Bill Wardlow the owner of Fluid, a bar in Walker’s Point, had just graduated high school. “I didn’t realize how important it was at the time but looking back — it’s amazing to see how that can influence your life if you don’t have those rights, if you don’t have those protections.”
At the time, Wisconsin’s new law was the reason Wardlow left Iowa. “I left where I grew up because I had to be myself. That was the most important thing to me. And so 24 hours a day I get to be myself and I don’t have to worry about it.”
On the anniversary of the bill signing, February 25th, Wardlow is hosting a party at Fluid. A donation will allow you to sign a large copy of the legislation that decorates the bar walls. There is also an option to donate online, whether or not you choose to attend. You can donate by clicking here.
Money raised will help preserve and document important milestones, like the 1982 law, through the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project.
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