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The Sandy Nelson Defense Committee was formed to support Tacoma News Tribune reporter Sandy Nelson, who sued the newspaper for demoting her after she participated in a gay rights initiative campaign. Nelson began working at the News Tribune in 1983 and was the newspaper's education reporter in 1990, when she began participating in off-hours work on a gay rights initiative that sought to prevent anti-gay discrimination in housing and employment in Tacoma. Because of her work on the initiative, Nelson was reassigned to a non-reporting job as a copy editor in 1991. The News Tribune reassigned Nelson in order to maintain its neutrality as a reporter of the news, arguing that a reporter's outside political activity compromised the newspaper's ability to independently and credibly gather and report the news.

Nelson's case against the News Tribune went before the Washington State Supreme Court in 1997. Nelson lost her case when the Court ruled that journalists are exempt from the Fair Campaign Practices Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees who engage in off-duty political activities.