In 1993, the conservative activist organization Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) attempted to influence Washington state politics by gathering signatures for ballot initiatives that would have restricted the civil rights of LGLBTQ citizens in Washington. The Washington Citizens for Fairness/Hands Off Washington (HOW) campaign was a grassroots gay rights effort organized in 1993 to defeat this attempt, casting the OCA as an Oregonian organization trying to manipulate Washington State politics. HOW repelled the OCA attempts that year and defeated other anti-LGBTQ measures between 1993 and 1997.

A number of protests and fundraising events were held in 1993 to support the opposition to the proposed anti-gay rights Initiatives. Here, a group of protesting University of Washington students joins the HOW effort to defeat the OCA’s anti-gay rights agenda in Washington.