Kathy Kozachenko
40 Years Ago
Explanation
This month I chose the successful Ann Arbor city council bid
of Human Rights Party member Kathy Kozachenko for my historical event. I chose her because of her hard work, what
she stood for, and the significance of her political campaign and win in Ann
Arbor Michigan’s city council elections.
She is significant because she was the first openly gay/lesbian
candidate who ran and then won political office. Granted there were other politicians who were
openly gay/lesbian, but they came out only during their term in office.
Details
Kozachenko was a part of the Human Rights Party; however, what
is the Human Rights Party? I must admit,
even though I have my minor in Political Science I am new to this party. I suppose the fact that it is no longer a
party on the American political stage when it declined in influence prior to
the 1980’s. Prior to its disappearance
members either merged with socialist parties or some left to go to the
Democratic Party.
The Human Rights Party was organized by party founder Zolton
Ferency. The ratification of the 26th
Amendment most likely was the cause of its tremendous growth as a result of 18
year olds getting the right to vote. The
HRP attracted the youthful. The HRP advocated
for the immediate withdrawal of all US forces away from foreign soil and the
end to ROTC and military draft programs and policies. They were ardent defenders of LGBT members
and affiliates and actively opposed laws that went against prostitution. They opposed state ran prisons and advocated
for day and health care reform.
As was described above, because of the passage of the 26th
Amendment their popularity increased and their primary support came from
college students and low-income earners and laborers. The HRP held heavy influence in the state of
Michigan, primarily in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.
In Ann Arbor one of their major pushes was to defeat the city’s “five
dollar pot law,” which was a city fine given to people who were caught with
possession of two ounces or less of marijuana.
Rather than return the pot law back to what the state was willing to do
to violators, the HRP pushed for greater leniency with permanent decriminalization
of pot. Ypsilanti would soon follow Ann
Arbor in terms of marijuana leniency laws.
When the late 1970s came about the HRP began to wane in power. In Ypsilanti it changed its name to the Democratic Socialist Caucus, but this party declined and ceased to exist the following decade during the late 1980s as the Cold War drew to a close. In Ann Arbor with the rise of power and tug of war over control the Democrats and Republicans pushed the HRP out of control of the city council. As student activism declined throughout the entire nation, the HRP suffered loses of political office, power, and influence.
City Council
Candidate Statements
The following points and arguments I felt were the strongest
from one of Kathy Kozachenko’s candidate statements during the city’s
election.
Kozachenko sets a heavy emphasis on city wide rent control
by providing incentives to property owners that rent out their properties to
tenants. She explained she would
advocate lower rents, a ceiling to be placed on the profits landlords could
make from a building, and the incentive would be to use rent on maintenance and
improvements. She was concerned with
landlord-city corruption in terms of rent prices. Kozachenko wished to subvert any potential
corruption that may make the lives of the people with rent process that are too
high.
She also addressed the possible fate of the $5 marijuana law
in Ann Arbor. Her concern with
criminalization of marijuana possession is similar to the concerns of people today;
the laws are set to single young people and African Americans out, and set
harsher punishments against them for breaking the law. On this note, she expresses dissatisfaction
with the police in general by exclaiming, “More police do not mean less crime,
it means more harassment.”
Candidate Statements come from the following:
