California Governor Gavin Newsom today announced that his office would be launching a new clemency initiative to pardon people who were prosecuted in California for being gay.

The move was inspired by a legislative call to pardon Bayard Rustin, a humanitarian and civil rights leader who was convicted of a misdemeanor vagrancy offense for consensual adult sexual activity. In launching the new clemency initiative, Governor Newsom issued Rustin a posthumous pardon.

The following quote can be attributed to Rebecca Isaacs executive director of Equality Federation:

“We applaud Gov. Newsom for announcing this long overdue pardon of civil rights hero Bayard Rustin along with the new clemency initiative to correct a historical wrong. To our knowledge, this is the first individual clemency effort of its kind. This highlights that dark period in our history where queer people were targeted by police and criminalized for existing through such charges as vagrancy, loitering, and sodomy. For simply having consensual sex with another adult, many lived their lives with the stigma of a criminal conviction and have been denied employment or housing based on having these on convictions on their records. California’s new initiative gives them a path to clear their names.

“This is a positive step towards correcting a historical wrong, but more action is needed to correct the inequality and injustices faced by LGBTQ people today. We need to pass the federal Equality Act, so that going forward no one is denied employment, housing or public accommodations for being who they are.”