A2: Coming Out

The Queerty blog posts a Q&A with Jerry DeGrieck – both he and Nancy Wechsler came out while serving on Ann Arbor City Council in 1973 as members of the Human Rights Party. When asked how other councilmembers responded, DeGrieck says: “I honestly think some people thought we were doing it for political reasons… I think at least one or two of them were certainly less friendly with us. Even though we had opposing political views, I actually worked very hard when I was on the city council to work on many different issues because I had the belief that if I wanted people to pay attention to me when we were talking about the war in Vietnam or the great social issues of the day, I would have to take care of the potholes and the planning commission issues and so on.” [Source]