Wow!!! 32 Years Before Marriage Equality, Bernie Sanders Fought For Gay Rights

[Zorra]

22. Unrec

The parade was a success, but not long after, Burlington resident Maikel Carder was beaten up on Church St. on the suspicion that he was gay. It didn’t matter that he was actually straight — the two events became linked.

“As morals keep slipping, will we eventually celebrate Murderer’s Day, Rapist’s Day, Alcoholic’s Day, Dope Day, Arsonist’s Day and Child Molester’s Day, or will a greater power give us The Day of Reckoning? Stand up, you weirdos, and give your brains an airing,” read one of the more colorful responses.

But Sanders was unfazed. The following year he signed a resolution recommending that all levels of government support gay rights, and the year after that in 1985 (the same year then-president Reagan finally said the word ‘AIDS’ in public), he wrote:

“It is my very strong view that a society which proclaims human freedom as its goal, as the United States does, must work unceasingly to end discrimination against all people. I am happy to say that this past year, in Burlington, we have made some important progress by adopting an ordinance which prohibits discrimination in housing. This law will give legal protection not only to welfare recipients, and families with children, the elderly and the handicapped — but to the gay community as well.”

http://www.queerty.com/32-years-before-marriage-equality-bernie-sanders-fought-for-gay-rights-20150719