Celebrate Pride Today and Every Day
Mary Rathbun and Dennis Peron in 1993. Photo by Peter Brooker.
We wouldn’t have modern day cannabis legalization if it weren’t for the sustained work of LGBTQIA+ activists. We want to honor and thank the trailblazers before us, who fought tooth and nail for medical cannabis rights. These folks sacrificed so much for their community and for us all.
Though Oregon passed the nation’s first decriminalization measure in 1973, pressure from the Nixon administration strongly discouraged other states from following suit. It was activism in the Bay Area’s gay community that ignited the momentum leading to broader rights in the cannabis movement.
Revolutionary queer activist Harvey Milk was first openly-gay elected official in United States history. As City Supervisor, Milk pushed for the cannabis decriminalization measure Proposition W, which passed in San Francisco in 1978. However, later that year Milk was assassinated, along with Mayor George Moscone, in a horrifying act of violence subsequently defended by homophobia.
Milk’s friend Dennis Peron was a major force behind his campaign and activism, and he carried on Milk’s legacy as a pillar of the cannabis movement. Peron’s work was instrumental in getting Milk elected, though police targeted him for arrest during that campaign. He was a crucial force in passing the Prop W ballot initiative but endured targeted arrests more than a dozen times throughout the course of his activism.
Peron was also the co-author of CA Proposition 215, which passed in 1996 through the intense work of activists about the AIDS epidemic. Called “The Compassionate Care Act”, its driving force was to offer relief to the hundreds of thousands of people who were dying of AIDS.
The epidemic had been decimating the gay community for more than a decade with no help and active disinterest from governments and healthcare systems. The community had been forced to care for its own with whatever resources it could.
This included Peron’s partner, Jonathan West, who was dying of AIDS. While West was extremely ill, weighing 90 pounds, police raided their home and seized four ounces of medical cannabis – the medicine that was keeping him alive. Peron fought the charges, but West died two weeks later.
Peron went on to co-found, with Mary Jane Rathbun, the first dispensary in America: the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club.
Known as “Brownie Mary,” Rathbun was a hospital volunteer at San Francisco General Hospital, and she baked and distributed cannabis brownies to AIDS patients. She worked alongside Dennis Peron lobbying for Prop 215 and contributing to the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club.
Rathbun was arrested 3 times before the City of San Francisco eventually gave her permission to distribute cannabis brownies to people with AIDS. Her arrests brought national attention and helped motivate researchers to propose one of the first clinical trials to study the effects of cannabinoids in HIV-infected adults.
Prop 215 made California the first state to specifically legalize medical cannabis, and Oregon, Washington, and Alaska followed in passing medical cannabis ballot measures two years later, in 1998. These groundbreaking laws gave state residents access to medical cannabis for more than 20 years, and currently, medical cannabis is available (in some form) in more than 35 US states.
Cannabis consumers and advocates today have a direct connection to dedicated gay rights activists such as Dennis Peron, Mary Jane Rathbun, and Harvey Milk. They played critical roles in winning back the right to cannabis as medicine, and were instrumental leaders in LGBTQIA+ rights and HIV/AIDS healthcare.
Celebrate Pride with us today (and every day!) with our fancy rainbow llama pin that gives back to the community: all proceeds of the Pride Llama Pin go directly to Portland's Q Center.
