10/9 Weekly Email + LGBTQ History Month
Hi all,
This is a pretty dense email - I have a historical writeup and then some new information on upcoming events.
October is LGBTQ History Month so I wanted to highlight a few queer labor leaders from American history. This month is a separate celebration from Pride Month every June - while that holiday serves to promote the rights, dignity, and equality of the queer community, this holiday is meant to draw attention to the fact that queer individuals have been around for all of recorded history and have contributed significantly to the development of our society. I’ve already mentioned a few queer leaders in prior emails (click here to read about Bayard Rustin) but wanted to highlight a few more.
Dr Marie Equi (1872-1952): Marie Equi was born in a whaling town in Massachusetts, the daughter of Italian and Irish immigrants. As has been a constant theme in these writeups, her family suffered serious discrimination for being immigrants and she lacked educational opportunities. She worked for several years in a textile factory and became radicalized about working conditions - the high heat and lint particles in the air left her with lifelong respiratory issues. After working briefly in Italy, she and her highschool friend Betsey Holcomb moved to Oregon where they lived together and Betsy taught at a local school. Marie first gained prominence when she publicly whipped Betsy’s employer after he refused to pay Betsy her wages - the local community supported the whipping due to a dislike of the employer and gave Betsy the proceeds of a raffle for the whip to cover her losses. This was the first of many open relationships with women Marie would have during her life and she is widely considered to be the first open lesbian in the Southwestern United States. She adopted a child in 1915 and raised it with her second partner, Harriet Specket - Oregon history considers this to be the first adoption by a lesbian couple in the state’s history.
Marie became a doctor in 1903 at a time when only 6% of US physicians were women. She founded a clinic in Portland that provided general medical services with a focus on women’s healthcare, and gained further notoriety when she volunteered for a medical mission to San Francisco to assist survivors after the 1906 earthquake. She also became increasingly involved in labor activism during this period likely due to her prior experiences and the stories she heard from her working class patients. She supported various initiatives including the 8-hour workday, state funding for college degrees, and women’s suffrage (reminder, women did not get the right to vote in federal elections in the US until 1919). Her work helped Oregon in 1912 become one of the first states to allow women to vote in statewide elections.
Dr Equi became increasingly frustrated with the limitations of organized labor after seeing a violent response by police to a cannery strike in 1913. She gave fiery speeches about worker’s rights to the Oregon community (using her reputation to get into spaces that labor activists normally could not), joined the International Workers of the World (IWW), pushed for larger social reforms, and gained the attention of the federal government, which spied on her activities and eventually arrested her in 1918 for seditious activities during wartime. She argued at her trial that her protests about World War 1 were specifically about the war-profiteering and senseless deaths she had witnessed - despite this, the prosecution won by attacking her character, painting her as a bad tempered lesbian rabble-rouser. She was sentenced to 3 years in prison for sedition but only served 10 months - FDR later pardoned her in 1933. While she remained active in activism in the 1920s, many of her fellow activists had been arrested or imprisoned during this period and several of her movements fizzled out. She served as a doctor for many more years and maintained relationships with multiple labor leaders. While more prominently recognized now, she was influential enough at her time that her obituary was shared in newspapers nationwide.
Pauline Newman (1890-1986): Pauline was born in Lithuania and experienced discrimination in her early life for being both Jewish and a woman. In 1901 she and her family immigrated to New York City and she began working as a seamstress at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (If the name seems confusing, the company primarily made women’s blouses and these were known as “shirtwaists” at the time). Pauline was 11 at the time and worked in the children’s section, colloquially known as “the Kindergarten.” Pauline did not like the work conditions or her treatment and got into activism after being inspired by articles in a local Yiddish newspaper. She started an after-hours bookclub for her fellow workers as a teen and began organizing people for a rent strike over terrible living conditions, eventually inspiring over 10,000 families on the Lower East Side to strike in 1908. The next year she organized a strike of 40,000 garment workers and was dubbed the “East Joan of Arc” by the New York Times.
She was appointed the first woman general organizer of the International Ladies Garment Worker’s Union (ILGWU) and moved into politics after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 killed 146 people, including many people she personally knew. After some involvement with a commission investigating the Fire, she developed relationships with key political figures like Eleanor Roosevelt, something that may have helped her push reforms through at the federal level. Regarding her relationship to the queer community, Pauline met a woman named Frieda Miller in 1917 and moved in with her to raise her child. They proceeded to live together for 50 years as a couple. Pauline continued to work for the ILGWU’s Health Union, the first union-created medical services program in the US, and served on a variety of boards including the U.S. Women’s Bureau Labor Advisor Board, the United Nations Subcommittee on the Status of Women, and the International Labor Organization Subcommittee on the Status of Domestic Laborers. To her credit, Frieda Miller was also a heavily influential activist and policy maker - she served as the New York Industrial Commissioner in the 1930s, was the director of the US Women’s Bureau in the 1940s, and served as a UN delegate in the 1960s.
Harvey Milk (1930-1978): - Harvey Milk was a politician most commonly known for being one of the first openly gay men elected to public office in the United States. Harvey joined the Navy during the Korean War but chose to resign from his Lieutenant role in 1955 after he was told he would face a dishonorable discharge for being gay. He drifted around the country and worked in a variety of jobs before ending up in San Francisco in 1969. San Francisco during this period saw a rising gay population but still had many laws restricting the rights of queer individuals - between this and frustrations about how the government was run, Harvey decided to run for the Board of Supervisors (essentially the San Francisco City Council), in 1973. He lost twice despite significant support - a contributing factor was that up until 1976, San Francisco voters voted on a ballot for the whole City rather than only by each resident’s district. That said, his campaigning during this period helped rally the queer community and build support for his successful run in 1977.
For a little bit of context, this was a period where gay individuals comprised somewhere between 12 and 25% of San Francisco’s population but where it was perfectly legal to fire people for being gay or trans. Gay individuals suffered significant discrimination in both work and personal lives and Harvey saw an opportunity to help the community on both fronts. He helped found a business association in San Francisco’s Castro District to help gay individuals start businesses (being gay could disqualify people from obtaining business licenses at this time). He also helped the Teamsters strike against Coors Beer - at the time the company had a 178-question employment application that asked if applicants were gay or pro-union and affirmative answers to either would result in an immediate rejection. Harvey asked the Teamsters to help get more gay men hired as delivery drivers (or at least for the company to stop openly discriminating against them) - in return, he pushed local bars to stop carrying Coors, something which helped pressure the company into signing the Teamsters contract.
Harvey was eventually elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1977, a historic election that also saw the election of the first single parent, the first Chinese-American, and the first African-American candidates to the board. His most significant work included sponsoring and passing a bill to ban all discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, something which had a huge impact on employment opportunities for the gay community. He also helped defend employment rights by helping defeat Proposition 6, a proposal that would have mandated the firing of any gay teacher as well as any school employees who defended gay rights. His advocacy helped destigmatize the gay community both within California and at the national scale - the 1978 San Francisco Pride parade, for instance, had somewhere between 250,000 and 400,000 attendees in a City whose population was only 750,000.
Unfortunately Harvey’s career and life were cut tragically short after only 11 months in his Supervisor role. A disgruntled former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors entered San Francisco City Hall in November of 1978 and killed both Harvey (a long-time political opponent) and then-mayor George Moscone. This individual was caught and tried but ended up serving only 5 years for his crime - the resulting outcry at this sentence led to multiple changes in San Francisco and California law.
Indigenous People’s Day: This coming Monday, October 13th, is Indigenous People’s Day. Please don’t come to work if you’re not scheduled. Like Juneteenth, Tempe is one of the few Valley cities to celebrate this holiday and give employees a day off - to my knowledge, Phoenix is the only other Valley city that gives employees a day off. If you want to know a little more about the holiday and why Tempe gives employees a day off, you can read this State Press article from two years ago.
Holiday Party: Our Holiday Party is currently scheduled for Thursday, December 4th, from 4PM-7PM at Tempe’s Spokes on Southern ]. We will open up rsvps in late October/early November. Please note that this is the first year we will be allowing plus ones - you can bring a friend, partner, or family member as long as they are above 21 (Spokes has restricted entry for underage individuals). One personal request from me - please don’t bring a non-union fellow employee as a guest. The holiday party event is meant to be an exclusive perk for members to cap off each year - one way we can encourage new members to join is by having fun perks that only members can take advantage of.
Adopt a Path: UAEA will be cleaning up our Adopt-a-Path trail on Saturday, November 8th, We meet in the Tempe Parking Lot on the southeast Corner of Curry and Miller (approximate address is 1325 E Curry Road, Tempe AZ 85281, see attached photo), then walk north up our path to Mckellips Rd. Breakfast, drinks, safety gloves, trash pickers, and trash bags will be provided. Please bring a hat and/or sunglasses. This event normally takes 1.5 hours to complete, is eligible for community wellness points, and is a great opportunity to meet members of the board and your fellow union members. If you’d like to attend, please sign up here by Thursday, November 6th, at 5pm.
Retirement Expo: Tempe is hosting its annual retirement expo on Thursday, October 23rd at the Tempe library (10am-2pm). I would encourage all employees to try and attend, regardless of how close you are to retirement - there are many steps you can take now to set yourself up for success down the road.
CPR Training: The City is providing free CPR/AED/FA/Stop The Bleed training on October 15th and November 4th (8am-4pm). This is an incredibly comprehensive hands-on first aid course that may be useful in either your professional or personal life. I don’t know about the current number of openings but would still encourage people to check - if you’re interested in attending, reach out to Manuel Padilla.
October Member Meeting: Our next member meeting will be at 5:30am on Thursday, October 23rd, at the TMOC Building 1 Conference Room (ground floor of TMOC Building 1). Click here to rsvp.