Chapel Hill News, Sept. 13, 2000 - Letter to the Editor
Twenty-five years ago, on Sept. 13, 1975, the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen, as the Town Council was then called, passed the first gay rights law in the southern states. (In 1975 fewer than a dozen towns and cities in the United States had such laws.)
The aldermen at the time were considering a new personnel ordinance for the town employees. In response to a request from the recently formed Carolina Gay Association, a UNC student organization, the aldermen included gay people among the list of groups against whom the town should not discriminate in matters of hiring and compensation, training and promotion. The vote was unanimous.
After all these years, it may be appropriate to thank once again those who took a stand in 1975: Mayor Howard Lee and Alderman Gerry Cohen, Tommy Gardner, Shirley Marshall, Sid Rancer, R.D. Smith and Alice Welsh.
Joe Herzenberg
Chapel Hill
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