#PrideFacts2026 Day 4

On April 2, 1974, Kathy Kozachenko — a 21 year old college student at the University of Michigan — became the first openly LGBTQ to be elected to public office in the United States. She was elected to the City Council of Ann Arbor, Michigan, three years before Harvey Milk’s successful run.

She was a member of the Human Rights Party. When she ran her campaign, the HRP had previously won two council seats. Both them — Nancy Wechsler and Jerry DeGrieck — came out during their first and only terms on the city council, thus becoming the first openly LGBT public-office holders in the United States. But neither had run for office as an openly lesbian/gay individual.

"My being a lesbian was not a huge campaign issue. The student body was very accepting at the time and to be an activist and an out-lesbian was seen as a positive. Not by everyone, of course. One evening I was canvassing in a dorm, and I went into the room of a young man, He told me he was a devout Christian and homosexuality was not accepted in his religion. Then he said, 'But God works in mysterious ways and I’m going to vote for you.'"

…

"The second year I was on council, I was the swing vote, and I negotiated a city budget that increased funding for social service programs. This was a rare occasion. For the most part, my vote was taken for granted and my opinion was not sought on anything.

"Ultimately, I chose not to run for reelection–I felt city council wasn’t the best place to use my voice for change. I also wanted to live in a more working-class city, rather than a college town. In 1978, I moved to Pittsburgh and have lived here for over 40 years."

She continued to be an activist in Pittsburgh, helping to organize the first march on Washington for lesbian and gay rights. She has continued to campaign for various candidates, be active in organizations, and stand for the rights of everyone.

You can read more about her, in her own words, here: https://www.nlc.org/article/2024/06/25/pride-month-spotlighting-the-first-openly-lgbtq-elected-official-in-u-s-history/

#Pride #Pride2026 #PrideMonth

#PrideFacts2026 Day 3

TIL about Episcopal priest and gay rights activist Clinton Robert Jones, Jr. He was born November 8, 1916 and died on this day in 2006.In the 1960s Jones was appointed to the Rehabilitation Committee for the Greater Hartford Council of Churches, where he became interested in the issues faced by homosexuals in his area. In 1963 he, along with two others, started Project H to focus on gay Christians in the area. He would provide counseling and other support to gay men and transgender persons from then until his retirement in 1986.

Through Project H, he convened meetings of social workers, psychologists, and clergy at the Hartford YMCA, laying the groundwork for the Kalos Society — the state's first LGBTQ political advocacy organization — founded in 1968. He also established a Hartford chapter of the George H. Henry Foundation and worked to ensure that those seeking his counsel could do so discreetly, with a private phone line and a separate office entrance. When he learned that Connecticut's Department of Corrections had segregated gay and transgender inmates into a separate "Block G" and was treating them worse than other prisoners, Jones negotiated directly with the warden in an attempt to dissolve it. Though unsuccessful, he secured the ability to provide counseling to Block G inmates — a practice he continued until his retirement in 1986.

Jones also built several lasting support structures for the community over the following decades. In the late 1960s he founded the Married Gay Men's Group of Hartford, and in 1971 co-founded the Twenty-One Club, which provided counseling and psychiatric services primarily to transgender individuals and met at his church for thirty years. Later in the 1970s he established the Gender Identity Clinic of New England, connecting transgender patients to affirming mental health care, hormone therapy, and gender-affirming surgery. He also educated Hartford's police on transgender issues and testified before an Episcopal commission examining gay rights within the church.

When Jones retired in 1986, Project H quietly disbanded — by then, the network of LGBTQ organizations it had helped inspire had largely made it obsolete.

#Pride #Pride2026 #PrideMonth