Seattle Committee Against Thirteen (SCAT) records, 1978

The Seattle Committee Against Thirteen (SCAT) formed in 1978 to fight Initiative 13, an effort to repeal Seattle’s nondiscrimination ordinances protecting housing and employment rights for sexual minorities. It also would have dissolved the City of Seattle’s Office of Women’s Rights.

Seattle affirmed employment rights of sexual minorities in 1973 and broadened its housing laws in 1975. At the time, there was little controversy. Criticism increased, starting in 1977, from local conservative and fundamentalist leaders who were influenced by Anita Bryant, a former pop singer and orange juice spokesperson, who lead the repeal of similar protections in Dade County, Florida; St. Paul, Minnesota, and Eugene, Oregon. In January 1978, two Seattle police officers, Dennis Falk and David Estes, filed Initiative 13 and formed the organization “Save Our Moral Ethics” (SOME). Those who supported Initiative 13 included avowed Christian fundamentalists and leaders of the right-wing John Birch Society.

SCAT’s campaign focused on the discrimination against sexual minorities and characterized Initiative 13 as an attack on gay and lesbian people. They also built a connection between Initiative 13 and Initiative 15 which would grant police officers greater discretion to use firearms. SCAT stressed that everybody knew somebody who was gay and that taking away the rights of sexual minorities could lead to taking rights from other minority groups; this was a way to link discrimination against sexual minorities to other civil rights causes and issues.

SCAT was considered more leftist and radical than another main organization against Initiative 13: Citizens to Retain Fair Employment (CRFE). CRFE’s main focus, different than SCAT’s, was on privacy, arguing that Initiative 13 exposed all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation, to intrusive background checks by landlords and employers. Some of the materials in this collection are from CRFE including advertisement transcripts from their radio campaign. CRFE was made up mostly of businessmen who worked within or had connections to established channels of Seattle’s political powers.

On November 7, 1978, Seattle voters rejected Initiative 13 by 63% to 37%. On the same day, California voters rejected the Briggs Initiative which also attempted to curtail the civil rights of sexual minorities in California.

Sources: HistoryLink, OutHistory, University of Washington: Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project