Stevie Remington

Straight ally Stevie Remington was Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon from 1971 to 1992.

In 1971, the organization successfully lobbied the Oregon Legislature to abolish the law that effectively made almost any homosexual conduct a crime. Oregon was only the third state to do that permanently.

That same year, the organization took the case of Peggy Burton, a small town Oregon teacher who was fired when the district learned she was lesbian. ACLU volunteer attorney Charles Hinkle represented Peggy, and won a landmark federal case in sexual
orientation civil rights. Stevie worked tirelessly with Oregon’s first statewide gay and lesbian rights organization, the Portland Town Council, training and coaching countless volunteers in the art of the citizen lobby.

Stevie made herself available by phone day or night to early activists, to share her wealth of experience and to be a warm and supporting shoulder to lean on. Oregon would not have been in the forefront of the national LGBTQ movement today without Stevie’s drive, savvy, and wisdom.

Every legislative session from 1973 until its passage in 2007, Stevie and the Oregon ACLU actively lobbied for an Oregon sexual orientation nondiscrimination bill. Stevie also led the ACLU in giving invaluable support to fight dozens of statewide anti-gay
ballot measures.

When Stevie retired in 1993, the Oregonian newspaper called her “Oregon’s First Lady of Liberty”. Stevie’s associate Mike Katz noted, “there was no one in Oregon, man or woman, who could equal Stevie Remington’s stand at the forefront of the fight to ensure the preservation of civil liberties and the advancement of human rights.”

Stevie Remington died in 2004.

In 2004, Charlie Hinkle announced the creation of the new Stevie Remington Award, which “will be given to an individual or group who, by significant personal sacrifice, contributed to the advancement and defense of civil liberties and civil rights for everyone.”