Douglas Haller was elected (1980-1981) as one of five officers who formed the Executive Board of the Association of Suburban People (ASP), at that time the largest Gay/Lesbian social and political organization in the State of Michigan. Over 200 members were drawn from metropolitan Detroit, including neighboring Canada. As Information Officer, he delivered oral reports to the membership at the (twice monthly) general meetings concerning important occurrences in the local, national, and international Gay communities by condensing information from Gay Community News (Boston), the Advocate (San Francisco), The Washington Blade , and The New York Times . For the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, as well as other Gay and non-Gay periodicals, he appointed monitors to submit news items for analysis, comment, and occasional written response. Haller was also responsible for the organization's official correspondence, such as a letter to Time magazine rebutting its anti-Gay article (Mar 24, 1980) concerning William Friedkin's film Cruising . As an outgoing officer, Haller prepared an annual report recommending improvements for the organization's effectiveness, including a name change that would reflect commitment to Gay rights and capitalize upon its location in the sixth largest urban center in the United States. The organization later became the Southeast Michigan Gay and Lesbian Association. Many of its goals and functions were later subsumed into the Michigan Organization for Human Rights and eventually into the Triangle Foundation.
As a member of ASP Political Action Committee (ASP--PAC), Haller aided the National Convention Project (Washington, DC) in its goal of electing pro-Gay delegates to the Democratic National Convention and securing a Gay civil rights plank in the party platform. During the Nov., 1980 Presidential election, Haller joined the Michigan Democratic Party, serving as an Edward M. Kennedy delegate at the 17th District Presidential Sub-caucus which elected delegates for the national convention. Here helped secure the 17th District's endorsement of the historic plank eventually adopted by the Democratic Platform Committee.
From the guide to the Douglas M. Haller papers, 1978-2011, 1979-1982, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
