May 29, 1963 – February 2, 1995
Hamtramck resident George Benjey was born in Detroit, grew up Downriver, and graduated from Woodhaven High School in 1981. A longtime member of Metro Detroit’s LGBTQ community, Benjey worked at the Gold Coast Saloon, Backstage, and Tiffany’s.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 
George was my uncle. I never met him as I was born and raised in Indiana and he passed when I was three. He was rejected by our biological relatives for not being straight.
My mother would later do the same to me for being transgender and bisexual.
I guess this was the tradition of our relatives.
I never met George but I can feel him in my soul. I haven’t spoken to them in three years and haven’t had regular contact with them in five. I know what he went through to an extent. I’m glad he had such great friends to gather as a community to pay for his services. He deserved far better than what our “family” dealt us both. We both deserved better. I am active in my local community as an organizer and I genuinely hope I am as well loved by my community as he clearly was by his community.
If anyone has any further information on George, I’d absolutely live to hear his stories. I’ve only heard the ones filtered through the homophobic and transphobic relatives we shared but I want to know the real George.
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