The First Bill to Ban Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation in Jobs and Housing

Governor Lee Dreyfus shows Ronald Reagan around Milwaukee. The befuddled President asks where Pat O’Brien and Spencer Tracy live.

Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus, pictured above in Milwaukee with then President Ronald Reagan, signed legislation in 1982 making Wisconsin the first state to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodations. Dreyfus passed away in 2008. He is well remembered as an independent thinking member of the Republican party who ran a populist campaign to become the 49th governor of Wisconsin. Both the Republican party and Lee Dreyfus are Wisconsin natives. Dreyfus was born and raised in Milwaukee, and the Republican party was born in Ripon as the anti-slavery party before the Civil War. Thanks to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel for the picture.