1981
The Bay Area Rights Council is formed in the spring of 1981 to challenge discrimination against the LGBT community and other disadvantaged groups. Sparked by the dismissal of Staff-Sergeant Harold Bryant from his position at McDill Airforce Base for “associating with and living with known homosexuals,” BARC expands its role to include defending patrons of the recently raided Club Tampa bathhouse. By June of that year BARC sponsored Tampa’s first Pride Week celebration.
The Florida legislature passes the Trask-Bush Amendment to the state budget, cutting off state funding for Florida colleges and universities that recognize campus groups that advocate sex between unmarried people. Sponsors Alan Trask and Tom Bush publicly assert that the Amendment was targeted at schools with Gay/Lesbian organizations. Trask was an ambitious politician planning to run for state-wide office. At the urging of the Board of Regents, The Florida Education Commissioner filed suit against the Amendment as a restriction of free speech. It was later found to be unconstitutional by both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court.
31 Our Own Community Press (Norfolk), March 1982; “Take the Bus to Tampa!” Gaze (Memphis), January-February 1982, 7.
32 Boczar, Amanda, and Sydney Jordan. 2022. “Womyn’s Words and the Women’s Energy Bank Collections.” USF Libraries. https://lib.usf.edu/digital-dialogs/2022/03/01/womyns-words/.
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