Minnesota Committee for Gay and Lesbian Rights

When newly elected Senator Allan Spear saw protections for the LGBTQ+ community introduced, and later removed from updates to the Minnesota Human Rights Act in 1973, he knew he needed to be more involved.

Formed by activists Steve Endean and Jean-Nickolaus Tretter in 1974, the Minnesota Committee for Gay Rights (later updated to Minnesota Committee for Gay and Lesbian Rights, MCGLR) would partner with Spear to reintroduce non-discrimination language in 1975, and again in 1977. As the state's first official group lobbying for LGBTQ+ legislation, MCGLR continued to work closely to advance legislative protections for the LGBTQ+ community—working in particular to update the state's anti-sodomy statue.

Along with their work at the capitol, MCGLR took an active role to hold businesses and municipal governments accountable to gay rights, actively promoting non-discrimination ordinances in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Endean's work at the Minnesota State Capitol led him to the National Gay Rights Lobby in Washington, D.C. in 1978 and later became the founder of the Human Rights Campaign Fund in 1980, which has become the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying organization in the U.S.

Though diagnosed with AIDS and in ill health, Endean was able to travel from Washington, D.C. to Minnesota to be present, along with Senator Allan Spear, for the passage of the LGBTQ+ non-discrimination amendment to the Minnesota Human Rights Act in 1993.

Minnesota's anti-sodomy statute was ruled unconstitutional in 2001, however it was not until 2023 that the statute was formally repealed.