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Tuesday, Jun 9, 2026

Did a Wisconsin Republican governor sign the nation’s first LGBTQ rights law?

Hope Karnopp / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin Watch
yes

Wisconsin Republican Gov. Lee Dreyfus signed a law that banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the first of its kind in the country.

David Clarenbach, an LGBTQ activist and Democrat in the state Assembly, spearheaded the bill. Despite conservatives’ last-minute efforts pushing Dreyfus to veto the bill, he approved it in February 1982.

Dreyfus, described as a fiscal conservative and social moderate in a 2008 obituary, cited a right to privacy and support from “a wide-ranging group of religious leaders” when signing the bill.

The law made it illegal for the state or private businesses to discriminate based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodations.

No other states adopted a similar law until nine years later, according to a Milwaukee Public Library post.

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