VIDEO: Brandon Wolf, "First Gay Wedding in Minnesota - Jack Baker & Mike McConnell, 1971," youtube.com posted Aug 6, 2013 (1:25) Jack Baker and Mike McConnell first applied for a marriage license in Minneapolis on May 18, 1970. They were married by the Rev. Roger Lynn on September 3, 1971. This video of the wedding was made by Leonard D. Bart, now deceased, a contractor for WCCO TV channel 4 of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which at the time was a CBS television network affiliate. This copy of the tape was provided by Baker and McConnell to Tim Campbell, retired publisher of the GLC Voice Newspaper, which was published in Minneapolis from 1979 -1992. timcampbellxyz@yahoo.com.
VIDEO contains footage of the marriage of Jack Baker and Mike McConnell, on September 3, 1971 at (4:23) - A news special by Minneapolis, Minnesota WCCO-TV news anchor Dave Moore "On Sunday." from Brandon Wolf, video of Ken Kurtenbach, Gotebo High School, "University of Minnesota Student Video Project - Part 1," youtube.com posted Aug 7, 2013 (14:09). The TV news anchor Dave Moore started working as a TV news anchor in the 1950's when most TV stations were only a few years old. Dave Moore lived in the neighborhood I grew up in and had a son, Charlie Moore, who was the same age as me and attended the same grade school through high school classes with me, and so I got to know Dave Moore as both a TV star and as the father of a large Catholic family that was very traditional, but also very liberal on the civil rights issues of the era. This video project was produced by students at the University of Minnesota and first aired on WCCO TV Minneapolis, Minnesota September 30, 1973. It was updated July, 1974. The TV news anchor Dave Moore starts his report by stating "homosexuals" are an oppressed minority in America. A gay activist later responds in the update by saying he is offended by Moore's use of the term "homosexual" and says he wants to be called gay, adding that some women want to be called lesbians.
VIDEO: Brandon Wolf, "University of Minnesota Student Video Project - Part 2," youtube.com posted Aug 7, 2013 (11:37) WCCO TV news anchor Dave Moore notes that the large Minneapolis company Honeywell had told WCCO "a few years ago it would not hire a homosexual, but this time they said yes" and Moore added that only two Minneapolis employers still said outright they would not hire any homosexual, Northwestern Bell and the U.S. Selective Service military draft. However, other employers told WCCO that being a homosexual would be a factor or they had a fuzzy answer. At (7:32) Dave Moore goes over the feedback he received from viewers since this show aired the previous week. He he notes there were 200 phone calls running 10 to 1 against doing the show and many of the callers said they were sickened, shocked and disgusted by the show.
See previous post Magnus Hirschfeld, Jack Baker, University of Minnesota and Oregon State University gay connection (1/21/12), which includes the cover of a newsletter story by Jean-Nickolaus Tretter, "Tretter Collection Makes Purchase of Magnus Hirschfeld Li Family Estate," Tretter Letter, Jan. 2007, p. 1,3. Also see the following links and previous posts:
- "Michael McConnell Files, 1965-2014," University of Minnesota Libraries
- Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies `
- Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection at the University of Minnesota
- Jean-Nickolaus Tretter biography - The Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT studies is named for its founder. Tretter grew up in Little Falls in a family that first settled in Morrison County in 1848, before Minnesota was a territory. Born in 1946, Tretter had sensed since childhood that he was attracted to men but had to hide his attraction. The Stonewall Riots in June of 1969 signaled a new chapter in his life. By April 1972, he was out of the closet and out of the Navy where he had served during Vietnam as a decorated linguist. When Tretter returned to the Twin Cities, he and his friends organized the first Twin Cities commemoration of the Stonewall Riots in June 1972. Forty years later TC Pride has grown into one of the largest celebrations in the country. Around the same time, Tretter began to collect Gay and Lesbian materials in a piecemeal fashion. He didn't start out with the grand scheme of an archive; he just gathered the things that seemed to matter. Tretter studied social and cultural anthropology at the University of Minnesota from 1973-1976 and wanted to specialize in Gay and Lesbian anthropology but could not get the institutional support he needed.
- Jack Baker, "Self Pride spread world wide," box8661.blogspot.com posted Jun. 13, 2014 - Jack Baker's reference 9 goes to homas Kraemer [professor, Oregon State University, retired], "Gay marriage discussion in 1953 vs. 1963 and today", Tom's OSU, posted online 17 December 2013 `
- "Gay marriage discussion in 1953 vs. 1963 and today" (12/16/13) - Former OSU Professor W. Dorr Legg probably wrote these.
- glcvoice.blogspot.com blog of Tim Campbell, Retired editor and publisher, GLC Voice newspaper, Minneapolis St. Paul Minnesota
- Link from Tim Campbell reflections.mndigital.org `
- "FOUR EARTH QUAKE EVENTS FOR GAYS," timcampbellxyx.blogspot.com posted May 19, 2014
