William Edwin Dannemeyer was a former California U.S. representative and conservative Republican politician. He was known for his views on LGBT legislation and opposition to liberal causes. His adherence against gay rights and attempted regression of such pursuits seated him as the epiphany of Orange County conservatism. especially during a time of LGBT crisis in context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
A photo of Republican politician, William Dannemeyer.
Congressman William Dannemeyer presented himself as the premier villain for the LGBT community. Among a laundry list of offenses, Dannemeyer sought to pass many laws that could cripple the AIDS response and attempted to overturn the Irvine Human Rights Ordinance that protects Lesbian and Gay people. To respond to this, the Orange County Visibility League set up a protest at the town hall meetings coordinated by the congressman. On Tuesday and Wednesday, February 14 and 15, 1989, a group of young to middle-aged men and women would show up in black or red to disrupt the meeting. Pointing out the mortality rate caused by the AIDS epidemic, the OCVL decided to rally the community and speak out against Dannemeyer for wasting the time and lives of the LGBT community. Showing up to Yorba Linda City Hall and Cerra Villa Junior High School, the protestors bombarded Dannemeyer with questions about the AIDS crisis, shaming him for his efforts to extinguish programs that provide care for the disease. He tried to avoid those participating in the protests and gave long-winded answers about other topics for his supporters. The two factions were constantly at each other's throats, and when their tempers got too hot, Dannemeyer was quick to flee, escorted by police.
Advertisements for the Dannemeyer protest released by the OCLV.
The OCVL often used the statistics of the AIDS crisis as rallying calls for their advertisements. In the case of Dannemeyer, they posed the meetings as a waste time for the people dying from AIDS, specifying that 4 Americans would die from the disease during each meeting. Protestors sought to demonstrate that each half hour lost to destructive pursuits like these anti-AIDS response laws was another American lost to the crisis.