50 years in 50 weeks: 1972, Sex laws fall

  • by BAR staff
  • Wednesday April 14, 2021
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Photo: Courtesy B.A.R. Archive
Photo: Courtesy B.A.R. Archive

The Bay Area Reporter's 50 years in 50 weeks feature continues with this front page from September 20, 1972. Headlined "Sex laws fall," the article was about a court ruling in Southern California that said the state's oral copulation laws were unconstitutional. The article noted that the judge's decision could be appealed. In 1975, then-Assemblyman Willie Brown and then-state Senator George Moscone would go on to pass the Consenting Adults Bill, which was signed into law and went into effect in 1976. Moscone, who became mayor of San Francisco shortly afterward, was assassinated along with gay supervisor Harvey Milk in November 1978. Brown went on to become a powerful Assembly speaker and served two terms as San Francisco mayor from 1996-2004. To view this issue, go to https://archive.org/details/BAR_19720920

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