Gay civil rights leader pardoned 67 years later as part of LGBTQ clemency initiative
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that civil rights leader Bayard Rustin — an openly gay man who was arrested and imprisoned in Pasadena, Calif., in 1953 on a misdemeanor “lewd conduct” charge after having consensual sex with men — has been posthumously pardoned. He is the first in a series of pardons Newsom plans to issue as part of a new clemency initiative that will take a step toward undoing decades of wrongful prosecution targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in the state.
“In California and across the country, many laws have been used as legal tools of oppression, and to stigmatize and punish LGBTQ people and communities and warn others what harm could await them for living authentically,” Newsom said in a statement. “I thank those who advocated for Bayard Rustin’s pardon, and I want to encourage others in similar situations to seek a pardon to right this egregious wrong.”
The request for Rustin’s pardon came from lawmakers in the LGBTQ and Black caucuses who petitioned the governor on Jan. 21, the anniversary of his arrest. The 50 days he spent in jail after being arrested for engaging in consensual sex with a man in a car nearly derailed his activist career and added new obstacles to his advocacy efforts. Forced to register as a sex offender, he was pushed out of speaking engagements and the offense was used to criticize the civil rights movement he helped build.
Other leaders would distance themselves from Rustin in the years following his wrongful conviction, but he continued fighting for the future. A key strategist for nonviolent demonstrations, including the Montgomery bus boycott, he is now considered a humanitarian icon for his work. Describing Rustin as an “unyielding activist for civil rights, dignity, and equality for all” President Barack Obama posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest civilian honor — in 2013. He died in 1987.
In his pardon, Newsom described the “long and reprehensible history of criminal prohibitions” against LGBTQ people and the discrimination that took many forms, from shaming and surveillance to social isolation, and physical violence. With an Executive Order that accompanied the pardon, the governor called for others to apply for pardons, opening and expediting the process of seeking clemency who, like Rustin, were subjected to unjust arrest and discrimination.
“The Arc of Justice is long, but it took nearly 70 years for Bayard Rustin to have his legacy in the Civil Rights movement uncompromised by this incident,” Assemblymember Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus said in a statement. “Rustin was a great American who was both gay and black at a time when the sheer fact of being either or both could land you in jail.”
She and Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who chairs the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, called on the governor to issue this pardon and heralded his decision to expand his offer of clemency to included others impacted by the homophobic discrimination.
“Generations of LGBT people – including countless gay men – were branded criminals and sex offenders simply because they had consensual sex. This was often life-ruining, and many languished on the sex offender registry for decades,” Wiener said in a statement. “The governor’s actions today are a huge step forward in our community’s ongoing quest for full acceptance and justice.”
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gay civil rights leader Bayard Rustin pardoned by California governor
