Newsom Asked to Pardon Gay Civil Rights Leader Bayard Rustin

January 22, 2020

Newsom Asked to Pardon Gay Civil Rights Leader Bayard Rustin - (Bay Area Reporter - Jan 22)

The LGBTQ and Black caucuses of the state Legislature have asked Governor Gavin Newsom to posthumously pardon gay civil rights leader Bayard Rustin.

According to a draft of the January 21 letter sent to Newsom, gay state Senator Scott Wiener and African American Assemblywoman Shirley Weber wrote that Rustin's 1953 arrest in Pasadena, California on vagrancy charges led to Rustin spending 50 days in Los Angeles County Jail. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender....