History Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collection

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

Open Access
Brothers and Sisters (And Everyone in Between): Sexuality and Class in the Pacific Northwest, 1970—1995
(University of Oregon, 2002-06) Orth, Christa
In the past decade, national attention has focused on political battles in the Pacific Northwest, such as the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999, and Measure 9 in Oregon in both 1992 and 2000. Although these events are usually considered in isolation, they reflect a rich history of growing alliances between labor and gay activism. My close study oflesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) organizations and political activity reveals gay rights activism took on another venue beginning in the seventies: the workplace. My study explores the history of the LGBT workers' rights movement through: ways they negotiated working-class issues within the gay rights movement through vocational groups and labor unions; how response to the HIV/ AIDS epidemic facilitated this workers' rights activism; and how the case study of the Northwest AIDS Foundation in Seattle resulted in class and identity conflicts when gay workers organized a gay workplace in 1989.