The collection focuses on Baldwin's state political career, principally her tenure in the Wisconsin State Assembly, documenting her work on legislation regarding domestic partnership, same-sex marriage, and civil rights. The collection consists of correspondence, legislation, federal, state, and local government documents, legal cases, pamphlets, magazine and newspaper articles, policy papers, meeting minutes, notes, and press releases and is organized into four series: Correspondence, Legislative, Legal Cases, and Subject Files.
The CORRESPONDENCE series contains correspondence with legislators and staff related to upcoming legislation and work groups that Ms. Baldwin formed for discussion as well as constituent correspondence (1994-1996) principally regarding the State Assembly Bill on same-sex marriage. Other correspondence includes letters to and from various GLB groups and religious organizations as well as correspondence regarding the 1988 presidential campaign.
The LEGISLATIVE series consists principally of Assembly and Senate Bills (1981-1988) relating to domestic partners and their civil rights. Also included are domestic partnership work group meeting notes and policy papers from 1993 as well as information regarding a domestic partnership ordinance for Madison originally passed in 1987 and a revised Wisconsin birth certificate form Baldwin lobbied for in 1995.
The LEGAL CASES series contains litigation from the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Wisconsin, and the United States Supreme Court. The cases all deal with civil rights issues facing the gay community in the late twentieth century, and are largely from the early to mid-1990s.
The SUBJECT FILES series consists of background material for the issues with which Baldwin was involved including GLB immigration, same-sex marriage, gays in the military, opposition by conservative religious organizations, and federal government information pertaining to civil rights. Several folders focus on the University of Wisconsin and how they dealt with GLB violence on one of their campuses, a proposed GLB Studies Certificate at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and general GLB issues affecting students and faculty throughout the University of Wisconsin system. The series includes correspondence, pamphlets, newspaper and magazine articles, notes, policy papers, and government documents.
