Thursday 31 December 2015

Remembering Lives of 2015

Some members of the lgbt community who had died over the past twelve months. This list is not exhaustive but merely reflects the range of achievements that their passings represent. They include the good, the bad and the fabulous. As has been the case for many years the number of transgender victims of violence is large and I could not possible do them just today. Ages are given immediately after the names. If no actual date is known the individual appears at the top of the monthly list.

JANUARY
Freyda Faivus (62), 1986 Gay Games double swimming silver medallist.
10th      Taylor Negron (57), comedian, actor, writer.
18th      Lowell “John” Evans (80), ex-ex-gay advocate.
18th      Paul O’Grady (47), Australia’s first openly gay state MP.
22nd     Kamrun, gay porn actor, on his 22nd birthday.
24th      Toller Cranston (65), US Olympic bronze medal figure skater.

FEBRUARY
1st        Michael Mason (67), activist, editor of “Gay News”.
4th        Koos van den Akker (74), fashion designer.
5th        Niki Quasney (38), US same-sex marriage campaigner.
11th      Jerry Hoose (69), Stonewall veteran, founding member of Gay Liberation Front (US).
13th      Steve Strange (55), lead singer with 1980’s band Visage.
16th      Robin Duff (67), 1st openly gay parliamentary candidate in New Zealand.
27th      Rev. Malcolm Boyd (91), civil and gay rights activist.

MARCH
Ike Cowen (97), leading member of Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
5th        Dirk Shafer (52), Playgirl Magazine’s Man of the Year 1992.
10th      Richard Gatzer (63), film director and writer.
16th      Lesley Gore (68), 1960s popular singer.
16th      Andy Fraser (62), bass player with 1970’s band Free.
25th      Martyn Goff (91), founder of the Booker Prize for fiction.

APRIL
3rd        Ariana Victoria Jacobus (29), writer and poet.
4th        Jeane Dolan (52), Vice-President of Booz-Allen Hamilton security consultants.
8th        Marc Naimark (54), lgbt sport campaigner and Gay Games volunteer.
15th      Sydney Abbott (77), feminist writer and lesbian activist.
19th      Martin Fisher (50), Professor of HIV medicine.

MAY
4th        Debra Dunkle (60), psychologist, 1990 Gay Games double athletics champion.
10th      Sam Ciccone (71), co-founder of the Gay Officers Action League.
15th      John Jarvis-Smith, DSC (91), D-Day veteran.
17th      Bill Kelley (72), activist, founder of the US National Gay & Lesbian Law Association.
20th      Hon. Edward Adeane (75), ex-Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales.
22nd     Nicole LaViolette (52), Ottawa law professor, multi Gay Games cycling champion.
29th      Mario Cooper, leading AIDS educator and US Presidential adviser.
30th      Jim Bailey (77), female impersonator and cabaret performer.
30th      Adam Kizer (16), anti-bullying campaigner.

JUNE
6th        Ronnie Gilbert (88), folk singer, founding member of The Weavers.
9th        Pedro Zerolo (55), Spanish politician and lgbt activist.
27th      Harvey McGregor (89), lawyer and Oxford don.

JULY
3rd        Alan Green (75), drowned attempting to rescue fiancĂ© Martin Winfield (59).
4th        Daya Rani Kinnar (56), trans activist and India presidential candidate.
10th      Roger Rees (71), actor.
15th      Paul Shammin Cruikshank (50), an asteroid was named after him in November.
25th      Robin Phillips (75), theatre artistic director.

AUGUST
3rd        Chris Hyndman (49), Canadian designer and chat-show host.
6th        Charles van den Berg (33), Mr Gay World 2010.
8th        Alan Wakeman (79), founding member of Gay Liberation Front (UK), writer.
25th      Colin Fry (53), television psychic.
26th      Bryce Williams (41), journalist who shot ex-colleagues live on-air.
31st      Lord Montagu of Beaulieu (88), motor museum founder.

SEPTEMBER
3rd        Mahran Chestnut (25), gay porn actor aka King B, and reality tv show actor.
16th      David Cook (74), original presenter of popular UK kids series “Rainbow”.
20th      Jack Larson (87), actor, Jimmy Olsen in 1960’s tv “Superman”.
21st      Honey Lee Cottrell (69), pioneering lesbian erotica photographer.

OCTOBER
1st        Illtyd Harrington (84), ex-Deputy Leader of Greater London Council.
10th      Blue Blake (52), gay porn actor, director and producer.
10th      Wes Funk (46), novelist and broadcaster.
10th      Kurt Cunningham (46), mental health campaigner, co-ordinator of 1987 March on Washington.
22nd     John J. McNeill (90), leading figure in lgbt Christianity, writer.

NOVEMBER
1st        Dorien Grey (81), mystery novelist, real name Roger Margason.
8th        Robert Chetwyn (85), theatre director.
22nd     Dimitri Kane (20), gay porn actor.

DECEMBER
6th        Holly Woodlawn (69), trans actor and Warhol superstar.
7th        Kenneth Partridge (89), fashion show and interior designer (for the Beatles).
21st      Maj. Adrianna Vorderbruggen (36), 1st out serving USAF soldier killed in combat.

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