Partner Peter J. Bateman
Donald C. Knutson (July 12, 1930 - April 19, 1990) was a San Francisco lawyer who taught and wrote on the subject of homosexuality and the law and was a co-founder of the National Gay Rights Advocates. Don Knutson's longtime companion
was Peter J. Bateman. Bateman lived in San Francisco from 1977-1983, when he moved back to England.
Knutson, born July 12, 1930, in St. Paul, Minnesota, graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School, where he was first in his class and editor the the Law Journal. He served as a first lieutenant in the Air Force, and then clerked for Roger Traynor, chief justice of the California State Supreme Court.
He was an associate attorney with the San Francisco law firm Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro before accepting appointment as professor of law at the University of Southern California.
Knutson taught the first law school course in the nation on Homosexuality and the Law at the University of Southern California Law School where he was professor of Law. He served as the first faculty ad-viser to the Gay Student Union at USC.
In 1977 Knutson co-founded National Gay Rights Advocates in San Francisco with Richard Rouilard, and served as its first legal director.
Among the key cases he argued was the precedent-setting Pacific Bell case, which resulted in a California State Supreme court ruling that protects job rights for lesbians and gay men. He also was the lead attorney on challenges to a 1917 U.S. immigration law, which bars homosexuals from entering the country, and a case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on an Oklahoma law banning gay teachers modeled on California's defeated Proposition Six of 1978.
"San Francisco is a better city because Don Knutson made his home here," Mayor Art Agnos said. "His work left people safer and freer of discrimination, and I am proud that I knew him as a friend and an ally. He was a leader who inspired other leaders here and across the nation."
In 1989, Agnos named Oct. 16 as Don Knutson Day in San Francisco. Knutson was also honored with a tribute from Robert Raven, president of the American Bar Association.
Knutson was the author of Homosexuality and the Law, Haworth Press (1980), and editor of the Journal of Homosexuality Special Issue on Homosexuality and the Law. He also authored the first text book on case law involving sexual orientation.
Knutson died of complications from AIDS on April 19, 1990, at his home in San Francisco. He was 59 years old.
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