Preceded by Robert E. Weaver (R) Role Writer | Name Nancy Wechsler | |
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Profession Activist, politician, writer | ||
Alma mater University of Michigan | ||
Nancy Wechsler is an activist, writer, and former member of the Ann Arbor City Council. During her term on the city council, she came out as a lesbian. She and Jerry DeGrieck, a fellow member of the Ann Arbor City Council and Human Rights Party elected alongside Wechsler who also came out as gay while serving, are typically cited as the first openly LGBT elected officials in the United States.
Ann Arbor City Council
Wechsler and Jerry DeGrieck were elected to the Ann Arbor City Council as members of the Human Rights Party on April 3, 1972. Political observers did not believe the third party had much chance of winning any seats, but the party's liberal platform appealed to young voters and beat university professors running as Democrats in the 1st and 2nd wards. At the time of the election, Wechsler was 22, a recent University of Michigan graduate and an employee of a local college bookstore. In 1973, while serving on the council, Wechsler came out as a lesbian and DeGrieck as a gay man in response to an anti-LGBT incident at a local restaurant. In 1974, rather than seek re-election, Wechsler moved to Boston, Massachusetts where she went on to become a writer for the Gay Community News. Kathy Kozachenko, an out lesbian, was elected to fill Wechsler's seat on the Council, becoming the first openly LGBT politician to win an election in the United States.