Tepid response from new City Council on gay-rights bill
Adapted from reporting by Harry Langhorne
Philadelphia’s new City Council appeared equally divided on a gay-rights bill, according to a telephone poll conducted by PGN.
It was thought a gay-rights bill could pass by a slim margin, but Council President George Schwartz stymied progress on such a measure in the past. In 1975, Schwartz bottled up Bill 1275 in the Law and Government Committee.
Schwartz was influential with most of the council, especially Councilman Melvin Greenberg. Schwartz’s opposition to 1275 was largely responsible for the bill not being scheduled for a vote, despite the fact that Greenberg previously said it should be read for a vote by the whole council.
No gay-rights bill was pending in early 1976.
Some councilmembers said they wanted to see proposed legislation before deciding if they would support it. The only member to come out in strong support of a gay-rights bill was Lucien Blackwell, who supported gay rights during his time in the state House of Representatives in the early 1970s.
U.S. Supreme Court rules private gay sex illegal
Adapted from reporting by PGN staff
In a setback to the gay-rights movement, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled March 29, 1976, that a state can prohibit private consensual sex acts between two adults of the same sex.
The ruling was the first made by the Supreme Court about issues affecting gay people. Previously, the court refused to hear gay-related cases that had been brought before it.
The case concerned a North Carolina man who had been convicted of committing a sex act with another consenting male in his private home.
— compiled by Paige Cooperstein