California pardoned a gay civil rights leader. Activists want clemency for more LGBTQ+ prisoners

Bayard Rustin, who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr and died in 1987, was arrested in 1953 under a law used to prosecute LGBTQ+ people... thumbnail 1 summary

Bayard Rustin, who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr and died in 1987, was arrested in 1953 under a law used to prosecute LGBTQ+ people

The California governor has launched an initiative to grant clemency to people historically prosecuted for being gay, starting with a posthumous pardon for Bayard Rustin, a celebrated gay civil rights leader.

Rustin, who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr and helped organize the March on Washington, was arrested in 1953 for having consensual sex, convicted under a “vagrancy” law long used to prosecute LGBTQ+ people.

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from US news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3bdc8HK

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