Tom Brougham
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Tom Brougham (born March 20, 1943) is a
Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
gay rights activist who was the first to suggest a new legal category for recognizing couples other than marriage, and who coined the phrase
domestic partnership A domestic partnership is a legal relationship, usually between couples, who live together and share a common domestic life, but are not married (to each other or to anyone else). People in domestic partnerships receive benefits that guarantee r ...
. Brougham is a former member of the
Gay Liberation Front Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK and Canada. The GLF provided a ...
.


Domestic partnerships

While serving as an employee of the City of Berkeley in the late 1970s, Bougham and his partner, vocalist/lyricist Barry Warren, came across the availability of employee benefits for families of city employees. However, because they were only available to married couples, this ruled out the availability to Warren due to the lack of legal recognition of their relationship. In October 1978, the city council passed an anti-discrimination ordinance inclusive of gays and lesbians, one which, like many of the time, did not address the relationship status of many gays and lesbians. Taken aback, Brougham decided to propose a lower-tier type of legal partnership that would afford employees' benefits to same-sex couples, coining the term "domestic partnership" in an August 1979 letter to city administrators: "I am submitting my application to the City of Berkeley, as my employer, to enroll my domestic partner, Barry Warren, in the city's group health coverage". He and Warren took the proposal to the City of Berkeley and UC Berkeley, which was Warren's employer.
Harry Britt Harry Britt (June 8, 1938 – June 24, 2020) was an American political activist and politician in San Francisco. Britt was involved during the late-1960s in the civil rights movement when he was a Methodist minister in Chicago. He was first appoi ...
, a member of the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco. Government and politics The City and County of San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, being simultaneously a c ...
who had been appointed to succeed
Harvey Milk Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised in N ...
, was inspired by one of Brougham and Warren's presentations and took his version of the proposal to the Board in 1982. When vetoed by then-mayor
Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...
, activism for domestic partnership benefits increased. In 1983, the City of Berkeley took up Brougham and Warren's idea by creating the Domestic Partner Task Force through the city's Human Rights and Welfare Commission; Leland Traiman served as the DPTF's chairperson, and Brougham contributed to the draft policy. The policy was adopted by the City Council and School Board in 1984, but the Council voted against the bill while the Board voted for it. It played a role in the electoral defeat of many members who had voted against the bill, and the solidly-pro-domestic partnership majority voted in favor of the bill in December, and Brougham and Warren were the first couple to file for employee domestic partnership benefits under the city's policy. Berkeley's policy, however, did not include a registry for residents of the city; it only granted live-in partner health benefits regardless of whether they were straight or gay. Berkeley became the third city to enact a domestic partnership registry in the state in 1991. Brougham drafted the registry ordinance along with the Berkeley City Clerk Sherry Kelly and then president of the East Bay Lesbian/Gay Democratic Club Victoria Kolakowski.


After domestic partnerships

Later, Brougham became the first openly gay elected official in the
East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa countie ...
region of
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
on April 21, 1987, when he was elected as a director of the
Peralta Community College District The Peralta Community College District is the community college district serving northern Alameda County, California. The district operates four community colleges: Berkeley City College, Laney College and Merritt College in Oakland, and Coll ...
, and continued as a director until 2000. Brougham is a former president of the East Bay Lesbian/Gay Democratic Club.


See also

* Kevin and Don Norte


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brougham, Tom Living people Gay Liberation Front members LGBT rights activists from the United States 1943 births Place of birth missing (living people)