1978 California Proposition 6

Failed Californian anti-gay ballot initiative January 2026 California Proposition 6 Restricts gays and lesbians from working in California's public schools. California 23px November 7, 1978 2,823,293 3,969,120 6,792,413 339,797 7,132,210 70.41 File:1978 California Proposition 6 results map by county.svg county County resultsYes: #B6C8D9 50–60% #7D9CBB 60–70%No: #DEDEBD 50–60% #BCBC83 60–70% #8B8B54 70–80% California Proposition 6, informally known as the Briggs Initiative,Rimmerman Craig From Identity to Politics: The Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States Temple University Press November 2001 9781566399050 https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0BexugIsxsC&pg=PA130 December 7, 2008 was an unsuccessful ballot initiative put to a referendum on the California state ballot in the November 7, 1978, election.Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library Ballot Propositions June 1978 – June 1998 Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library http://www.stockton.lib.ca.us/prophist.htm#NOV78 December 7, 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20120219052043/http://www.stockton.lib.ca.us/prophist.htm#NOV78 February 19, 2012 dead It was sponsored by John Briggs, a conservative state legislator from Orange County.https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-08-04/gearhart-briggs-initiative-ban-gay-teachers-proposition-6 How 2.8 million California voters nearly banned gay teachers from public schools Goldberg Nicholas August 4, 2021 Los Angeles Times August 14, 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20250202062812/https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-08-04/gearhart-briggs-initiative-ban-gay-teachers-proposition-6 February 2, 2025 live limited The failed initiative sought to ban gay men and lesbians from working in California's public schools.https://www.advocate.com/politics/2018/8/31/briggs-initiative-remembering-crucial-moment-gay-history#toggle-gdpr The Briggs Initiative: Remembering a crucial moment in gay history Ring Trudy August 31, 2018 The Advocate August 14, 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20250629074416/https://www.advocate.com/politics/2018/8/31/briggs-initiative-remembering-crucial-moment-gay-history#toggle-gdpr June 29, 2025 Openly gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk and Sally Miller Gearhart, as well as many other gay and lesbian activists of the time, were instrumental in fighting the measure. Opposition to the proposition from a variety of public figures, including then-former California Governor Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter, helped to swing public opinion against it. Background Singer and Florida Citrus Commission spokesperson Anita Bryant received national news coverage for her successful efforts to repeal a Dade County, Florida ordinance preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation. This success sparked additional efforts to repeal legislation that added sexual orientation or preference as a protected group to anti-discrimination statutes and codes. In a step beyond repeal of anti-discrimination measures, Oklahoma and Arkansas banned gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools.Lipkin Arthur Understanding Homosexuality, Changing Schools Westview Press December 2000 9780813325354 https://books.google.com/books?id=EHUPDs-ubdgC&pg=PA195 December 8, 2008Shilts Randy The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk St. Martin's Griffin 1988 9780312019006 https://books.google.com/books?id=kW4hkULCkxwC&pg=PA213 December 8, 2008 The idea for the Briggs Initiative was formed during the success of the repeal of the Dade County anti-discrimination language. The measure was the first attempt to restrict gay and lesbian rights through a statewide ballot measure. Text The initiative provided that a public school teacher, teacher's aide, administrator, or counselor could be fired if the employee was found to have engaged in either (1) "public homosexual activity", which the initiative defined as an act of homosexual sex which was "not discreet and not practiced in private, whether or not such act, at the time of its commission, constituted a crime", or (2) "public homosexual conduct", which the initiative defined as "the advocating, soliciting, imposing, encouraging or promoting of private or public homosexual activity directed at, or likely to come to the attention of, schoolchildren and/or other employees".For the full text of the initiative, see http://library.uchastings.edu/ballot_pdf/1978g.pdf California Voters' Pamphlet https://web.archive.org/web/20060818145437/http://library.uchastings.edu/ballot_pdf/1978g.pdf August 18, 2006 Secretary of State of California Secretary of State of California 1978 29, 41 April 14, 2012 The employee would be terminated if the school board, after a hearing, determined by a preponderance of the evidence that the employee had engaged in "public homosexual activity" or "public homosexual conduct" and "that said activity or conduct render[ed] the employee unfit for service". The factors that the board would consider in the determination of "unfitness for service" would "include, but not be limited to: (1) the likelihood that the activity or conduct may adversely affect students or other employees; (2) the proximity or remoteness in time or location of the conduct to the employee's responsibilities; (3) the extenuating or aggravating circumstances which, in the judgment of the board, must be examined in weighing the evidence; and (4) whether the conduct included acts, words or deeds, of a continuing or comprehensive nature which would tend to encourage, promote or dispose schoolchildren toward private or public homosexual activity or private or public homosexual conduct".Secretary of State of California 1978 41. The initiative further provided that a person could not be hired as a public school teacher, teacher's aide, administrator, or counselor if the person had "engaged in public homosexual activity or public homosexual conduct should the board determine that said activity or conduct render[ed] the person unfit for service".Secretary of State of California 1978 29. Campaign thumb|upright=1.5|right|November 1978: Gay Solidarity Group supporters march in Sydney, Australia to protest the Briggs Initiative. A coalition of activists including Sally Gearhart,Miller Rachael Rose, Rebecca Kaushall, Justin Neville LaBounty, Aimee Guide to the Sally Miller Gearhart Papers Finding Aid Northwest Digital Archive 2007 http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv81757 April 9, 2012 Gwenn Craig, Bill Kraus,http://www.castroonline.com/spectrum/1203/milkmarch.html Milk Memorial March Brings Out Hundreds February 24, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20100216154425/http://www.castroonline.com/spectrum/1203/milkmarch.html February 16, 2010 dead openly gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk,https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/weekinreview/02mckinley.html McKinley Jesse Back to the Ramparts in California The New York Times November 1, 2008 August 14, 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20231030091954/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/weekinreview/02mckinley.html October 30, 2023 live limited teacher (later president of San Francisco Board of Supervisors) Tom Ammiano, and Hank Wilson mobilized under the slogan "Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!" to defeat the initiative. In what became the No On 6 campaign, gay men and lesbians went door to door in their cities and towns across the state to talk about the harm the initiative would cause. Gay men and lesbians came out to their families, neighbors, and co-workers; spoke in their churches and community centers; sent letters to their local editors; and otherwise revealed to the general population that gay people really were "everywhere" and included people they already knew and cared about. In the beginning of September, the ballot measure was ahead in public opinion polls, with about 61% of voters supporting it while 31% opposed it. The movement against it initially succeeded little in shifting public opinion, even though major organizations and ecclesiastical groups opposed it. By the end of the month, however, the balance of the polls shifted to 45% in favor of the initiative, 43% opposed, and 12% undecided. A diverse group of politicians including Ronald Reagan, Jerry Brown, Gerald Ford, and then-president Jimmy Carter all opposed the bill.City of Friends: A Portrait of the Gay and Lesbian Community in America LeVay Simon Nonas Elizabeth Cambridge, MA MIT Press 1997 https://books.google.com/books?id=cl-4yFFql8gC&pg=PA65 65 9780262621137 December 8, 2008 Some gay Republicans also became organized against the initiative on a grassroots level. The most prominent of these, the Log Cabin Republicans, was founded in 1977 in California, as a rallying point for Republicans opposed to the Briggs Initiative. The Log Cabin Club then lobbied Republican officials to oppose the measure. The former State Governor (and later US President) Ronald Reagan moved to publicly oppose the measure. Reagan issued an informal letter of opposition to the initiative, answered reporters' questions about the initiative by saying he was against, and, a week before the election, wrote an editorial in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner opposing it.Reagan Ronald Editorial: Two Ill-advised California Trends A19 Los Angeles Herald-Examiner November 1, 1978Magliocca Gerard Ronald Reagan and Gay Rights: A reproduction of the op-ed "Editorial: Two Ill-advised California Trends" by Ronald Reagan in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner from Library of Congress https://concurringopinions.com/archives/2010/10/ronald-reagan-and-gay-rights.html concurringopinions.com August 14, 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20170814221057/https://concurringopinions.com/archives/2010/10/ronald-reagan-and-gay-rights.html August 14, 2017 October 18, 2010 The timing of Reagan's opposition is significant because he was then preparing to run for president in the 1980 Presidential Election, a race in which he would need the support of conservatives and those moderates who were very uncomfortable with homosexual teachers. At that very moment, he was actively courting leaders from the religious right, including Jerry Falwell, who would go on to form the Moral Majority to fight out such culture war issues the following year.White John Kenneth Kevin McCarthy should meet the Ronald Reagan of 1978 https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/556632-kevin-mccarthy-should-meet-the-ronald-reagan-of-1978 June 4, 2021 The Hill June 3, 2021 As Reagan biographer Lou Cannon puts it, Reagan was "well aware that there were those who wanted him to duck the issue" but nevertheless "chose to state his convictions".Carpenter Dale Reagan and Gays: A Reassessment https://igfculturewatch.com/2004/06/10/reagan-and-gays-a-reassessment/ IGF CultureWatch June 4, 2021 June 10, 2004 Cannon reports that Reagan was "repelled by the aggressive public crusades against homosexual life styles which became a staple of right wing politics in the late 1970s". However, prominent LGBTQ activist David Mixner later noted how he secretly met with Reagan during this time and persuaded him to oppose the measure.https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/us/politics/david-mixner-dead.html David Mixner, Fierce Fighter for Gay Rights, Is Dead at 77 Gabriel Trip March 12, 2024 March 12, 2024 The New York Times limitedhttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/longtime-lgbtq-activist-david-mixner-dies-77-rcna142940 Longtime LGBTQ activist David Mixner dies at 77 Matt Lavietes NBC News March 12, 2024 March 12, 2024 Extensive excerpts from his informal statement were reprinted in the San Francisco Chronicle of September 24, 1978.April 2009 Reagan's November 1 editorial stated, in part, "Whatever else it is, homosexuality is not a contagious disease like the measles. Prevailing scientific opinion is that an individual's sexuality is determined at a very early age and that a child's teachers do not really influence this." While polls initially had shown support for the initiative leading by a large margin, it was defeated heavily following opposition by the gay community and prominent conservatives, moderates, and liberals alike.http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc3=&id=82565 Back to Briggs: Latest No on 8 Ad With Sen. Diane (sic) Feinstein Brings Back Memories of Another Referendum Roger Brigham EDGE Media Network October 28, 2008 March 28, 2012 June 10, 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20120328113328/http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc3=&id=82565 dead https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/perfectenemies.htm Perfect Enemies: The Religious Right, the Gay Movement, and the Politics of the 1990s John Gallagher Chris Bull 1996 Washington Post Outcome The initiative was defeated with 58 percent of the electorate voting against it.Robinson Chelsea Bachhofer Aaron Pierceson Jason LGBTQ Americans in the U.S. Political System: An Encyclopedia of Activists, Voters, Candidates, and Officeholders, Volume 2 2019 ABC-Clio Santa Barbara, Calif. 978-1-4408-5277-0 96–97 Briggs Initiative https://books.google.com/books?id=zabOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 Google Books The measure failed to gain majority support even in Briggs's own Orange County, at the time a conservative stronghold.https://www.glbthistory.org/primary-source-set-briggs-initiative Primary Source Set: Briggs Initiative GLBT Historical Society April 19, 2021 Proposition 6 2823293 6792413 3969120 70.41 339797 See also California LGBTQ 1992 Oregon Ballot Measure 9 2000 California Proposition 22 2008 California Proposition 8 Far-right politics in the United States Florida Parental Rights in Education Act Milk (2008 American film) Milk (2008 American film) National Gay Task Force v. Board of Education National Gay Task Force v. Board of Education Ruth Shack Section 28 References 2 Bibliography Jones, Cleve, with Dawson, Jeff (2000). Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist. 0062516426 Milk, Harvey 2013 An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk's Speeches and Writings University of California Press 978-0-520-27548-5 (Includes three articles, two speeches, and a ballot argument written by Milk against the Briggs Initiative.) Milk, Harvey (2012). The Harvey Milk Interviews: In His Own Words, Vince Emery Productions. 978-0-9725898-8-8 (Includes transcripts from three debates between Harvey Milk and John Briggs, and an interview with Milk about the Briggs Initiative.) Shilts, Randy (1982). The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, St. Martin's Press. 0-312-52330-0 External links California Ballot Propositions Database from University of California Hastings College of the Law Library, a comprehensive, searchable source of information on California ballot propositions from 1911 to the present 6 Category:1978 in LGBTQ history Category:Discrimination against LGBTQ people in the United States Category:Discrimination in California Category:LGBTQ law in California Category:LGBTQ rights in California Category:LGBTQ history in California Category:History of LGBTQ civil rights in the United States Category:Initiatives in the United States Category:Censorship of LGBTQ issues in the United States Category:LGBTQ-related education controversies