Founded in 1971, the Pacific Center for Human Growth offers free counseling and support groups to people within the LGBTQIA community. Originally, the space resided on San Pablo Avenue until it moved to 2712 Telegraph Avenue. According to the full newsletter, which is downloadable as a PDF, Pacific Center was gearing up for the move around this time of publication. While there is significant documentation that the Pacific Center offered trans support groups led by psychologist Lin Fraser during the 1970s, this newsletter contains absolutely no mention of trans people. Lou Sullivan, a San Francisco based trans man, refers to going to a “bisexual rap group” that was likely a group from the Pacific Center given the name, and additionally details visits to the Pacific Center for trans groups later on in his journals.
The newsletter refers to the defeat of Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, which was a 1978 ballot measure that would outlaw gay and lesbian people from working in any California public schools. That same year, Steve Dain lost his two year long battle against Emeryville School District to be reinstated in his tenured position. The contested space of whether queer people should be allowed to teach certainly impacted the court decision, and it is odd that even he isn’t mentioned in the newsletter despite being iconic in the fight at this time. The schism between gay and transgender people comes into view here because, while Dain and Harvey Milk both were fighting against Prop 6, the two don’t seem to have interacted. The newsletter makes the public mission of the Pacific Center clear with its description of anti-homophobic education in schools, and keeps the trans community private.
