Gay rights activists held a “Rally Against Hate” at Westlake Plaza in Seattle on October 27, 1992. The event protested Oregon's Measure 9, an initiative by the conservative activist organization Oregon Citizen’s Alliance (OCA) to prevent “special rights” for LGBT people by amending the state constitution. The proposed new provision equated homosexuality with pedophilia, sadism and masochism, and as “abnormal, wrong, unnatural, and perverse." In addition to supporting the “No on Nine” campaign, the organizers of the “Rally Against Hate” also believed that the OCA and other anti-gay groups would target Washington next, and used the slogan “Hands Off Washington State” to express their unity. In 1993, the OCA did indeed attempt to influence Washington politics with initiatives to restrict the rights of Washington’s LGBT citizens. Local activists created Washington Citizens for Fairness/Hands Off Washington (HOW) to repel the OCA attempts that year, and defeat other anti-LGBT measures between 1993 and 1997.
Text on flier: Rally Against Hate / No on 9. A rally in support of the NO ON NINE campaign in Oregon as an expression of Washington State's rejection of the hate-mongering by the Oregon Citizen's Alliance (OCA). Our message to the OCA "Hands Off Washington State!" Speaking: Mayor Norm Rice Sponsored by: The Washington Campaign for Freedom of Expression (WCFE), Privacy Fund of Washington, Freedom of Expression Network, American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.
