William Edwin Dannemeyer (September 22, 1929 – July 9, 2019) was a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

American politician The politics of the United States function within a framework of a constitutional federal republic and presidential system, with three distinct branches that share powers. These are: the U.S. Congress which forms the legislative branch, a bi ...

, activist, and author, known for his opposition to LGBT rights. He served as

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from the 39th Congressional District of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

from 1979 to 1993, during which time he, along with friend and fellow

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

U.S. Rep. Robert K. Dornan, came to personify

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

conservatism Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

. After leaving office, Dannemeyer expressed extreme antisemitic views, including a claim that Jews were guilty of a plot to legalize the murder of American Christians, as part of a larger conspiracy to establish a New World Order.

Early life

Dannemeyer was born in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, to German immigrants, Charlotte Ernestine (Knapp) and Henry William Dannemeyer. He attended Trinity Lutheran School in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and

Long Beach Poly High School Long Beach Polytechnic High School, founded in 1895 as Long Beach High School, is a four-year public high school located at 1600 Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach, California, United States. The school serves portions of Long Beach, including Bixby ...

. Dannemeyer was an

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle S ...

and recipient of the

Distinguished Eagle Scout Award The Distinguished Eagle Scout Award (DESA) is a distinguished service award of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). It is awarded to an Eagle Scout for distinguished service in his profession and to his community for a period of at least 25 years aft ...

from the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded ...

. He entered

Santa Maria Junior College Allan Hancock College is a public community college in Santa Maria, California. History In 1920 Allan Hancock College was started by the Santa Maria High School District. Originally called Santa Maria Junior College, classes were held until ...

in 1947 before transferring to

Valparaiso University Valparaiso University (Valpo) is a private university in Valparaiso, Indiana. It is a Lutheran university with about 3,000 students from over 50 countries on a campus of . Originally named Valparaiso Male and Female College, Valparaiso Universit ...

Valparaiso, Indiana Valparaiso ( ), colloquially Valpo, is a city and the county seat of Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 34,151 at the 2020 census. History The site of present-day Valparaiso was included in the purchase of land from the ...

. He graduated from "Valpo" in 1950 and earned a J.D. at

Hastings College of the Law The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings) is a public law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the first law school of the University of California ...

of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

in 1952. From 1952 to 1954 he served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

in the

Counter Intelligence Corps The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...

during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

Early career

Dannemeyer began practicing law in Santa Barbara in 1955, serving concurrently as a

Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara County, California, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is located in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria. Santa Barba ...

deputy district attorney. He moved to Fullerton in 1959 to become the assistant city attorney. He was elected originally as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

to the California State Assembly in 1962 and was re-elected in 1964 when he was also a member of the Electoral College, casting his vote for Lyndon Johnson in the

1964 United States presidential election The 1964 United States presidential election was the 45th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. Incumbent Democratic United States President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater, the Republican nomi ...

. Instead of seeking re-election to the Assembly in 1966, he made a failed bid for a seat in the California State Senate. He then became a judge pro tempore of the municipal and superior courts from 1966–1976. In 1968, he appeared on a television show hosted by fellow future Congressman

Bob Dornan Robert Kenneth Dornan (born April 3, 1933) is an American politician and actor from California. A Republican, Dornan served in the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1983 and from 1985 to 1997. He has become well known for public ...

to announce that he was leaving the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

to become a

. He would win election to the Assembly for a final term in 1976 as a Republican.

Congress

In November 1978, Dannemeyer was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives, and returned for six additional terms. He accumulated a strongly conservative record on the Budget,

Judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

, and Energy and Commerce Committees, supporting legislation to suppress illegal immigration, restrict telephone sex lines, and criminalize

flag desecration Flag desecration is the desecration of a flag, violation of flag protocol, or various acts that intentionally destroy, damage, or mutilate a flag in public. In the case of a national flag, such action is often intended to make a political poin ...

. He attempted to block federal funding of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

-related exhibits at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

in 1982, and pushed for easing the

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

. On fiscal issues, he advocated budget cuts for social programs, renegotiation of the national debt, tax reduction, and deregulation. He was the lead Republican sponsor of the 1985 deregulation of

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

prices. In 1989, he was one of the successful

House manager An impeachment manager is a legislator appointed to serve as a prosecutor in an impeachment trial. They are also often called "House managers" or "House impeachment manager" when appointed from a legislative chamber that is called a "House of Repr ...

s in the

impeachment trial An impeachment trial is a trial that functions as a component of an impeachment. Several governments utilize impeachment trials as a part of their processes for impeachment, but differ as to when in the impeachment process trials take place and how ...

of then-Judge

Walter Nixon Walter Louis Nixon Jr. (born December 16, 1928) is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi who in 1989 was impeached by the House of Representatives and removed from offi ...

for committing

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

in front of a grand jury. In 1990 he was one of twenty representatives to vote against the Americans with Disabilities Act. Dannemeyer was an outspoken critic of

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, ...

, and on June 29, 1989 read a graphic description of

gay sex Gay sexual practices are sexual activities involving men who have sex with men (MSM), regardless of their sexual orientation or sexual identity. These practices can include anal sex, non-penetrative sex, and oral sex. Evidence shows that sex b ...

into the '' Congressional Record'' titled "What Homosexuals Do". In this statement, Dannemeyer said:

... activities peculiar to homosexuality include: Rimming, or one man using his tongue to lick the rectum of another man; golden showers, having one man or men urinate on another man or men; fisting or handballing, which has one man insert his hand and/or part of his arm into another man's rectum; and using what are euphemistically termed "toys" such as one man inserting dildoes, certain vegetables, or lightbulbs up another man's rectum.

He gained national notoriety with his proposals to stop the emerging AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s, such as banning

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

-positive immigrants. He was the only prominent politician to support the

LaRouche movement The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information and publish books and periodicals ...

's Proposition 64 in 1986. Another California ballot initiative he backed, Proposition 102, would have mandated widespread testing, tracing of sexual partners by state authorities, and a mandatory

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...

of persons with AIDS. It failed by a considerable margin. He did succeed in pushing hospitals to notify post-1977 recipients of

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...

s that they were at risk. In 1989 he published ''Shadow in the Land: Homosexuality in America'', attacking the gay rights movement. In 1985, Dannemeyer advocated barring persons with AIDS from working in the healthcare industry, stating that there was already "a requirement that nurses who are AIDS victims not work in maternity

ards Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a type of respiratory failure characterized by rapid onset of widespread inflammation in the lungs. Symptoms include shortness of breath (dyspnea), rapid breathing (tachypnea), and bluish skin color ...

because a person with AIDS emits a spore that has been known to cause birth defects." That stated, by 1994, he was open to the AIDS dissent movement and the views of UC Berkeley Professor

Peter Duesberg Peter H. Duesberg (born December 2, 1936) is a German-American molecular biologist and a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his early research into the genetic aspects of cancer. He ...

and called for a full-scale Congressional investigation into the HIV = AIDS hypothesis. In 1992, Dannemeyer did not run for reelection to the United States House of Representatives. Instead, he ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator, but lost to fellow

Republican John F. Seymour.

Post-Congressional activities

In 1994, Dannemeyer ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator, but lost to

Michael Huffington Michael Huffington (born September 3, 1947), is an American politician, LGBT activist, and film producer. He was a member of the Republican Party, and a congressman for one term, 1993–1995, from California. Huffington was married to Arianna H ...

. After leaving public office, he remained a harsh critic of the Clinton administration. In September 2006, Dannemeyer sent a letter to the California Attorney General and other officials arguing that

Laci Peterson The ''lac'' repressor (LacI) is a DNA-binding protein that inhibits the expression of genes coding for proteins involved in the metabolism of lactose in bacteria. These genes are repressed when lactose is not available to the cell, ensuring that ...

had been killed by members of a

Satanic cult Satanism is a group of Ideology, ideological and Philosophy, philosophical beliefs based on Satan. Contemporary religious practice of Satanism began with the founding of the atheistic Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in the United States in 19 ...

, not by

Scott Peterson Scott Lee Peterson (born October 24, 1972) is an American convicted murderer. In 2004, he was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Laci, who was pregnant at the time, and the second-degree murder of their unborn son, Conner, in Mod ...

. Dannemeyer has expressed strongly antisemitic views. On his website, Dannemeyer claimed that it was legal to kill Christians in the United States as part of a Jewish plot to control the world. He wrote, "The main goal of the

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

Jews and their New World Order is exactly the same as it was when Jesus was on earth – to exterminate Christ – and His followers!" He claimed that Congress passed such a law under the guise of honoring a prominent Hasidic rabbi while he was in office. Dannemeyer's son attributed these views to his father's second wife, Lorraine Day, a known

Holocaust denier Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: * ...

. Dannemeyer was honorary national chairman of ''Citizens For a Better America''.

Personal life

William and Evelyn married in August 1955 and had three children. Evelyn died of cancer on July 31, 1999. Dannemeyer married Lorraine Day in 2004. Dannemeyer died on July 9, 2019, at the age of 89 in

Thousand Palms, California Thousand Palms is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Coachella Valley of Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 7,715 at the 2010 census, up from 5,120 at the 2000 census. Geography Thousand Palms is located at . It ...

. He had suffered from

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

in his later years.

References

External links

*
TakeBackOurRights.org
Dannemeyer's website

*
Join California William E. Dannemeyer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dannemeyer, William E. 1929 births 2019 deaths Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from California Members of the California State Assembly Candidates in the 1992 United States elections 1964 United States presidential electors California state court judges Municipal judges in the United States California Democrats Journalists from California American conspiracy theorists American Lutherans University of California, Hastings College of the Law alumni Valparaiso University alumni United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of the Korean War Military personnel from California Discrimination against LGBT people in the United States People from Fullerton, California People from Santa Barbara, California People from Long Beach, California American people of German descent Deaths from dementia in California 20th-century American judges 20th-century Lutherans House impeachment managers