CAMPAIGN 90S (SAINT PAUL, MINN.):

In 1988, the St. Paul City Council proposed an amendment to the city charter that would prohibit the use of the referendum and initiative processes for city ordinances relating to human rights, including any ordinances the city might pass protecting individuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation. While at the time the city had no ordinance protecting gay rights, the amendment was viewed by opponents as a "back-door" gay rights measure, since it would prevent the voters from repealing by referendum any gay rights ordinance the council might subsequently pass. In September of 1988, the organization Yes for Human Rights was formed to campaign for the passage of the amendment. Many of the group's supporters hoped the amendment would prevent a repeat of the 1978 repeal of a gay rights provision that had been passed by the city council earlier that year.

The 1988 campaign to amend the city charter failed, but Yes For Human Rights did not give up. Now renamed Campaign 90, the group refocused its efforts on getting the St. Paul City Council to pass a human rights ordinance which would make it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation. The organization was also prepared to battle the inevitable repeal effort that opponents would subsequently launch.

In late June of 1990, the council passed the ordinance. After several months spent quietly gathering signatures on a petition, a campaign to repeal it by referendum was initiated by the opposition group Citizen Alert in February of 1991. Under the amended name Campaign 90s, activists mobilized to protect the ordinance. In November of 1991, St. Paul voters soundly defeated the repeal measure.

Return to top

Records include correspondence, memoranda, notes, agendas, lists, news clippings, press releases, campaign literature, and other materials documenting the efforts of Campaign 90s and its predecessor groups, Campaign 90 and Yes For Human Rights, to pass and protect from repeal a human rights ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in the city of St. Paul.

Return to top

These records are organized into the following sections:

Return to top

Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Campaign 90s Organizational Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,370

Processing Information:

Processed by: Lara D. Friedman~Shedlov, May 1999

Catalog ID number: 990017355070104294

Return to top

All materials in this section are dated 1988 unless otherwise indicated.

Return to top

All materials are dated 1990 unless otherwise indicated.

Return to top

All materials are dated 1991.

Return to top

Additional materials related to the campaign to amend the St. Paul human rights ordinance can be found in the Leo Treadway records related to the Minnesota gay movement, separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.

Return to top

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Discrimination -- Minnesota.

Civil rights -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Gay liberation movement -- Minnesota.

Gays -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Minnesota. -- Saint Paul.

Gay rights -- Minnesota. -- Saint Paul.

Homosexuality -- Law and legislation.

Places:

Saint Paul (Minn.) -- Politics and government.

Persons:

Schlick, Deborah.

Organizations:

Citizens Alert (Minn.).

Phoenix Alliance (Minn.).

Yes For Human Rights (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Campaign 90 (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Titles:

City of St. Paul Civil and Human Rights Ordinance.

Return to top