Logo’s Trailblazers: 5 All Time Gay Elders
In the lead up to Logo’s Trailblazers special on June 26, we’re showcasing pioneers of LGBT rights. Today we look at trailblazing seniors who fought—and in some cases are still fighting—for equality.
Watch Logo’s Trailblazers on Thursday, June 26, at 9pm.
Larry Kramer, 78The best-selling author and playwright never set out to be an activist, but wound up co-founding two of the world’s most influential AIDS organizations.
Though he hadn’t been active in LGBT politics before, Kramer gathered some of New York City’s “A-list” gays in his apartment in 1981 to address the growing health epidemic facing the community.
He was 46 at the time, but had the passion and drive of a much younger man.
Out of that meeting grew Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the first organization to raise funds and provide services for people with HIV and AIDS. As recounted in The Normal Heart,though, Kramer’s confrontational style clashed with other board members and he was removed from GMHC in 1983. Undeterred, he continued the fight and, in 1987, co-founded AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP), a direct-action group using guerrilla tactics to garner media attention.
Though his health has deteriorated, Kramer continues to speak out about AIDS and the LGBT community in general. On July 24, 2013, he married his lifelong partner, architectural designer David Webster, who had actually jilted him back in the 1970s.
Most recently Kramer penned the screenplay for HBO’s adaptation of The Normal Heart. But his most ambitious project is yet to come: For almost 35 years he has been writing The American People: A History, which documents gay American history dating back to the Stone Age. At over 4,000 pages, it’s slated for publication in two volumes beginning in 2015.
Tom Ammiano, 72
Tom Ammiano was the first openly gay teacher in the state of California, coming out in 1975 when he co-founded the Gay Teachers Association.
Three years later, he campaigned against Proposition 6, which would have banned out educators in public schools. Along with Harvey Milk and Hank Wilson, Ammiano founded No on 6, which worked to defeat the initiative.
He remained involved in politics after that victory, and was eventually elected to the San Francisco Board of Education in 1990, and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1994. (Ammiano was a key player in the passage of the city’s comprehensive domestic-partnership ordinance.)
In 2008, he was elected to the California State Assembly where he remains today. Last year, he succeeded in passing legislation protecting students against discrimination based on gender identity and expression.
Vernita Gray, 65
Vernita Gray was at Woodstock when news of the Stonewall Riots hit in the summer of 1969. Within months she went home to Chicago, came out as a lesbian and established the city’s first gay helpline out of her apartment, which also served as an overnight shelter for homeless LGBT youth.
Gray was also integral in the Chicago chapter of the Gay Liberation Front and editedLavender Woman, an early lesbian newspaper.
She worked for many years in the office of the Cook County State’s Attorney, where she served as a liaison to the LGBT community. Gray remained a presence at LGBT marches and events for decades, and was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1992.
President Obama invited her to the White House four times during his first six years in office.
A breast-cancer diagnosis in the 1990s did not deter Gray, who doggedly pursued marriage equality in her home state. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed marriage equality into law on November 20, 2013, but it would not take effect until June 1, 2014. Her health failing, Gray petitioned to be allowed to marry early and wed her partner, Pat Ewert, on November 22, 2013.
Gray lost her battle with cancer on March 18, 2014, at age 65.
Jim Darby, 81, and Patrick Bova, 76
Another Chicago couple, Jim Darby and Patrick Bova, also took advantage of Illinois new marriage-equality law—51 years after they met.
The lead plaintiffs in Lambda Legal’s challenge to the state’s marriage equality ban, the two were among a dozen couples who wed at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Monday, June 2, 2014.
Darby, a veteran of the Korean War, didn’t expect to live to see his wedding day: ”I did not think this would ever come,” he told The Huffington Post. “I was involved with the gay veterans for 20 years and it seemed like Don’t Ask Don’t Tell would never come to an end. And when it did, it came so fast we were almost caught by surprise.”
Darby and Bova met at a cruising ground in Hyde Park July 17, 1963.
“I was walking to the beach and I saw this tall handsome guy walking down the street reading a book,” recalls Darby. “While he was walking. And I whistled at him! My friend panicked and said, ‘We don’t whistle at guys on the South Side!’ But I didn’t give a shit.”
By September the two had moved in together.
In addition to building a life together, they remained dedicated activists, especially in the fight for gays in the military. (Darby was arrested at a White House protest against Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 1993.)
In recent years, the two traveled repeatedly to Springfield to lobby for marriage equality, speaking with lawmakers and press outlets about their unique story.
“What I often say is that when Jim enters the room, it doesn’t matter if it’s with a group of people or even in the morning when he comes down for coffee, he brightens the room,” said Bova. “He lightens it and brightens it and brings the atmosphere alive… He’s a catalyst for happiness.”
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