The Briggs Initiative galvanized the California LGBTQ+ community, as well as state and national political figures. Harvey Milk, elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors the previous year, was arguably the most vocal and visible opponent of Proposition 6. More surprisingly, Ronald Reagan (then Governor of California) came out against it, as did both former US President Gerald Ford and current President Jimmy Carter. Anita Bryant made frequent appearances in support of Proposition 6 as part of the Save Our Children coalition.
The referendum failed by a vote of 58.4% to 41.6%. Readers will find the text of the initiative below, annotated with scholarship around the fights for (and against) LGBT rights, and the forces that continue to be active. As always, these articles are free to read and use.
Text of Proposition 6, California (on ballot November 7, 1978)
SECTION 1. Section 44837.5 is added to the Education Code, to read:
44837.5 One of the most fundamental interest of the State is the establishment and the preservation of the family unit. Consistent with this interest is the State’s duty to protect its impressionable youth from influences which are antithetical to this vital interest. This duty is particularly compelling when the state undertakes to educate its youth, and by law, requires them to be exposed to the state’s chosen educational environment throughout their formative years.
A schoolteacher, teacher’s aide, school administrator or counselor has a professional duty directed exclusively towards the moral as well as intellectual, social and civic development of young and impressionable students.
As a result of continued close and prolonged contact with schoolchildren, a teacher, teacher’s aide, school administrator or counselor becomes a role model whose words, behavior and actions are likely to be emulated by students coming under his or her care, instruction, supervision, administration, guidance and protection.
For these reasons the state finds a compelling interest in refusing to employ and in terminating the employment of a schoolteacher, teacher’s aide, school administrator or counselor, subject to reasonable restrictions and qualifications, who engages in public homosexual activity and/or public homosexual conduct directed at, or likely to come to the attention of, schoolchildren or other school employees.
This proscription is essential since such activity and conduct undermines the state’s interest in preserving and perpetuating the conjugal family unit.
The purposes of sections 44837.6 and 44933.5 is to proscribe employment of a person whose homosexual activities or conduct are determined to render him or her unfit for service.