Cannabis + LGBTQ Pride Month
When we fly the rainbow flag and celebrate Pride month as we are this June—we can honestly say that if not for the queer community, we’d likely not have legal cannabis as we know it today.
The clearest connection between the LGBTQ community and cannabis began in California when these two movements—legal cannabis and gay rights—traveled a parallel path that still exists today.
Hippies and gay people were often on the fringes of society in the 1960s-70s, fighting for specific rights and causes. Hippies were against the war in Vietnam. The counterculture advocated for love and nonviolence and promoted open-mindedness regarding sex and relationships. They also were openly consuming cannabis. LGBTQ people fought to be accepted and respected and not discriminated against in employment and housing.
It just happens that both groups were active in California, where growing cannabis in the US was centered for decades and where the movement for medical marijuana began.
If there’s one person who is the connection between cannabis and the LGBTQ community, it would be Dennis Peron. He was born in 1946, served in the U.S. Air Force during Vietnam, and returned from his tour of duty with two pounds of marijuana in his suitcase, relocated from his home state of New York to the Castro District in San Francisco.
Always a fan of the plant and openly gay, Peron sold cannabis from storefronts in the neighborhood for years and advocated for medical marijuana.
In the 1990s, San Francisco became the epicenter for an unknown and vicious virus—human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which, if untreated, leads to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Early in the epidemic, Peron and others knew that cannabis was helpful to people who have HIV/AIDS. Cannabis helped with pain relief, increased patients’ appetites, and provided anxiety relief from the disease, which in its early days was almost always fatal.
Peron’s former lover Jonathan West contracted the virus, and while he was living the last few months of his life, Peron saw the health benefits of cannabis for him. Not only did it help with pain from the disease, it also tempered the side effects of the potent anti-viral medications he was taking.
Medical Cannabis, AIDS and the Queer Community
Peron took action inspired by the power of cannabis and the HIV/AIDS crisis. He and other activists worked on the 1990 Proposition P, a ballot initiative that asked people in the city of San Francisco to recommend that California add marijuana to a list of approved medicines to treat several conditions, including HIV/AIDS. Proposition P passed with an 80 percent majority, and the following year, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors virtually decriminalized medical cannabis with a resolution urging police and the DA to make arresting and prosecuting people possessing or growing medical marijuana a “lowest priority.”
Cannabis Legalization Takes Hold
Peron went big with his medical legalization in 1996. He and many other cannabis activists wrote Proposition 215. This bill proposed that medical cannabis be legalized throughout the state of California. With the Californians for Compassionate Use PAC—which included a significant number of people from the LGBTQ community—gathered more than 400,000 petition signatures to place Proposition 215 on the ballot.
The bill passed with a 55.6 percent approval vote, and the legalization of medical cannabis began—not just in California—but in the US. State by state, we saw medical and then recreational cannabis legalized.
As we celebrate Pride Month, we honor and thank the cannabis pioneer leaders in the LGBTQ community who helped create the American cannabis legalization movement.
All Good Pride for June and Beyond
This month The WellFlower is introducing the All Good Pride mango gummies—created by our sister cannabis processing company. They’re super tasty, feature excellent Pride packaging, and a portion of the sale benefits The Fair Michigan Foundation and its Fair Michigan Justice Project. You can find them here for Ypsi and here for Manistee.
"Fair Michigan is excited to partner with the folks at All Good Cannabis Co. to help combat hate crimes committed against the LGBTQ community. We thank the people at All Good Cannabis for featuring the Fair Michigan Justice Project, and we appreciate them donating a portion of their proceeds to support our Justice Project,” said Alanna McGuire, executive director of the Fair Michigan Foundation.