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Davis Jerry
SFH 52
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Title: Jerry (Jerome Joel) Davis papers,
Date (inclusive): 1983-1992
Identifier/Call Number: SFH 52
Creator:
Davis, Jerry (Jerome Joel)
Physical Description:
3 cartons
(3 cubic feet)
Contributing Institution:
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Abstract: Contains Davis' files, mainly as staff attorney for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC), on the Family Policy
Task Force and AIDS.
Physical Location: The collection is stored off site. A minimum of two working days' notice is required for use.
The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours.
[Identification of item], Jerrry (Jerome Joel) Papers, (SFH 52), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
Donated by Larry Bush on May 11, 2006.
Researchers are encouraged to see also the Art Agnos Papers (SFH 46).
Processed by Tami J. Suzuki in 2019.
Biographical/Historical Information
As staff attorney of the Human Rights Commission under Mayor Art Agnos, Jerry Davis authored the Family Policy Task Force
final report which led to successful domestic partners health benefits legislation.
A graduate of Temple University and Villanova University Law School, Davis became an attorney with the United States Department
of Labor in 1973, where he worked on contract compliance cases. He helped organize the first National AIDS Vigil in October
1983. From 1988 to 1990 he was a board member of the AIDS Foundation of the Whitman-Walker Health Center in Washington DC.
Davis moved to San Francisco in 1990 to work at the Human Rights Commission until his retirement in 1992. Besides being a
member of the Family Policy Task Force, he worked on the election campaigns of Roberta Achtenberg (for supervisor) and Art
Agnos (for reelection as mayor), and was assistant to the political communications director of Northern California for the
Clinton-Gore Presidential campaign. In 1991 he was appointed to the board of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel and was co-chair
of the ALRP board from 1992 until his death. Davis died Jan. 9, 1994, of AIDS. Preceded in death by his spouse, Jeffrey Clopper,
in 1987, Davis was survived by his sister, Michele.
Agnos signed domestic partner legislation in June, 1989, which was narrowly repealed by voters that fall. The same year, the
mayor established the Family Policy Task Force to study the inclusion of extended family members and partners of gays and
lesbians as dependents on the city health plan. As a result, the city adopted domestic partner benefits in 1991. (The city
of Berkeley, CA was the first in the country to offer these benefits to its employees, in 1984.)
Contains Davis' files, mainly as staff attorney for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, on his Family Policy Task Force
work and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Includes notes, reports, memoranda, data, and magazine, newspaper and
journal articles.
Organized alphabetically by subject.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Family policy -- California -- San Francisco.
AIDS (Disease) -- Government policy -- California -- San Francisco.
Davis, Jerry (Jerome Joel) -- Archives.