Protest Against Mayor (Press, 14 July 1981)
This is a Generative AI summary of this newspaper article. It may contain errors or omissions. Please note that the language in the summary is reflective of the original article and the societal attitudes of the time in which it was written.
Summary: Protest Against Mayor (Press, 14 July 1981)
On 14 July 1981, Sir Michael Fowler, the Mayor of Wellington, made claims regarding a gay-rights demonstration that occurred in San Francisco during a dinner held in his honour. Approximately 20 demonstrators, carrying signs such as “Go home Fowler,” greeted him upon his arrival at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. In a phone interview, Sir Michael indicated that he had been made aware of potential disruptions at the event, expressing that the protest appeared to be orchestrated by individuals in New Zealand in response to the Wellington City Council's decision to reject a lesbian bus advertisement the previous August. He suggested that the demonstration was aimed at influencing San Francisco city officials to reconsider establishing a sister-city partnership with Wellington. Sir Michael noted that the Mayor of San Francisco was inclined to delay any further discussions on the relationship, especially as there were openly gay members within the city's board of supervisors who were politically engaged. Further complicating the situation, a statement from Wellington’s Lesbian Centre indicated that San Francisco city supervisors had been actively lobbied to oppose the sister-city status due to the recent ban on lesbian and gay rights advertisements by the Wellington council. During a board meeting, Supervisor Harry Britt was expected to advocate for halting negotiations with Wellington until there were advancements in the recognition and rights of the LGBTQ+ community. The controversy surrounding the bus advertisement ban highlighted the tensions between the two cities and underscored the significant political influence of San Francisco's gay community.
Important Information
The text on this page is created, in the most part, using Generative AI and so may contain errors or omissions. It is supplied to you without guarantee or warranty of correctness. If you find an error or would like to make a content suggestion please get in contact
The text on this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 New Zealand