January 19, 1932 – December 14, 2017
Grayling resident Phyllis Ann Erb worked for 24 years as a wound specialist with the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. She met her life partner Patricia Teal in the mid-1960s when both were heterosexually-married housewives and mothers. Erb and Teal operated the Heritage House Bed and Breakfast in Gaylord from 1991 to 1996.
March 17, 1960 – November 18, 1993
Redford resident John Frush was one of nine children and was a familiar presence in Detroit’s gay bar scene. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 33.
March 19, 1958 – October 17, 2017
Lifelong Muskegon resident Barbara Ann Thomas graduated from Orchard View High School in 1976. She shared a home with her wife and partner of 29 years Julienne Little.
May 8, 1925 – March 23, 1993
One of the most esteemed African American artists in Detroit history, LeRoy Foster was renowned for painting public murals in numerous buildings, including Cass Tech High School and the Frederick Douglass branch of the Detroit Public Library. As with many gay men of his generation, Foster was arrested on charges of accosting undercover vice in the 1950s.
Detroit Free Press, March 26, 1993
September 16. 1979 – July 23, 2014
Farmington resident Robert Edwin Quann Jr. attended Wayne Memorial High School, studied at Miss Katie’s College of Beauty in Canton, and worked as a hairstylist. In 2012, he became a member of the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit.
September 1, 1944 – May 2, 2018
Born in Pontiac, Peresephone Reynolds grew up in Lake Orion and, in 1971, moved to Harrisville where she lived with her life partner Gloria Laurette. She taught with the Oscoda Area Schools and Alpena Community College, earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1993, and retired in 2007. Reynolds and Laurette moved downstate to Clinton Township in 2016.
February 17, 1965 – May 17, 2010
Janine Denommé was born in Detroit and majored in religious studies at the University of Detroit Mercy. She later earned her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania and served as director of youth programs at the Center on Halsted in Chicago. In April 2010, Denommé fulfilled a lifelong dream and was ordained by the Roman Catholic Womenpriests contrary to the Church’s ban on women priests.
August 5, 1940 – May 2, 2017
Artist, athlete, and San Diego native Dale Muir earned degrees from Graceland University and the University of Michigan. She settled in Ann Arbor, working in recreation and early education. In 2006, she retired to Oregon with her partner Vicki Gardner.
October 7, 1957 – September 13, 1992
James Klinesteker was a zookeeper at John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids and a prominent leader in the city’s gay and lesbian community. After attending the 1987 March on Washington, he became one of the founders of The Network and as its president helped open its community center in 1991. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 35.
December 18, 1999 – April 9, 2015
Sam Taub was a ninth grader at West Bloomfield High School who identified as trans and skated with the Darlings of Destruction Junior Roller Derby League in Roseville. Taub struggled with anorexia and anxiety and took his own life at age fifteen.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 