Oral history interview with Charles F. Hinkle, 2009 February 10

This oral history interview with Charles F. Hinkle was conducted by Michael Lamore and Michelle Brown on February 10, 2009, for the Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest. The interview was conducted as part of a senior capstone class on LGBTQ history at Portland State University with instructor Pat Young. A transcript of the interview is available.

In this interview, Hinkle speaks at length about his work as a lawyer representing Peggy Burton, a teacher in Salem, Oregon, who was fired for being a lesbian. He also talks about his experience working with the Black community in Atlanta, Georgia, during the 1960s, as part of his education at Union Theological Seminary, and discusses how that experience led him to pursue a career as a civil rights lawyer. He discusses the change to the anti-discrimination policy of Portland Public Schools to include sexual orientation, and talks about attempts to lobby the Oregon State Legislature to make a similar change in the 1970s. He speaks about his involvement with the Portland Town Council, a gay rights organization; talks about appearing on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" in 2005; and discusses the failures of Democratic legislators to pass anti-discrimination legislation that includes sexual orientation. He talks about his service on Oregon Governor Bob Straub's task force on sexual preference, discusses his attempts to get law firms to adopt anti-discrimination policies, and describes the types of cases he prefers to work on. He speaks about how societal acceptance of LGBT people changed over the second half of the 20th century, and also about the rise of anti-gay groups such as the Oregon Citizens Alliance. He closes the interview by discussing the importance of continuing the fight for civil rights.