June 30, 1949 -January 18, 1989
His 1975 arrest in an undercover police crackdown on homosexual activity in Hines Park prompted David Krumroy to help form the Association of Suburban People. Krumroy went on to edit Metro Gay News and co-found the Motor City Business Forum. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 39.
October 3, 1928 – December 22, 2011
Born in Allegan, Henry Lewis Van Dyke Jr. served in the U.S. Army and earned a B.A. and M.A. at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he developed lifelong gay friendships. He later authored several novels and taught as a writer-in-residence at Kent State.
September 11, 1951 – November 4, 1993
Detroiter Armando Lomibao worked as a microbiology specialist for area hospitals and was active in the BTI Bowling League and the Metro Detroit Softball League. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 42.
January 13, 1949 – November 24, 2015
A graduate of Oakland University, Rev. Rod Reinhart left teaching to attend divinity school and became one of the nation’s first openly gay priests ordained in the Episcopal Church. He helped found the annual ecumenical worship service People Who Care About People with AIDS.
September 2, 1938 – May 18, 2009
A graduate of Harvard, Carrie Robertson was a community producer on the radio program Face the Music and a beloved member of Flint’s LGBT community. Her friends took her to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival despite its womyn-born-womyn policy.
Lesbian Connection, September/October 2009
July 5, 1952 – May 5, 1992
Mothers and co-founders of Affirmations Community Center in Ferndale, Christine Puckett and her life partner Susan Pittmann were brutally murdered by their neighbor in the driveway of their Huron Township home.
October 31, 1936 – May 5, 1992
Mothers and co-founders of Affirmations Community Center in Ferndale, Susan Pittman and her life partner Christine Puckett were brutally murdered by their neighbor in the driveway of their Huron Township home.
December 18, 1948 – February 6, 2009
A former Catholic nun, attorney Helen Gallagher earned her law degree from the University of Michigan. She went on serve as president of the Michigan Organization for Human Rights in the mid-1980s and as a member of the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission.
Lesbian Connection, May/June 2009
July 4, 1950 – March 20, 1997
Thomas Gamble earned his B.A. from Oakland University and his M.S. from Michigan State University before moving to San Francisco here he worked in health care. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 46.
June 21, 1908 – March 13, 1960
Detroit resident James P. Wiles, a heterosexually married personnel manager for IBM who was arrested in a crackdown on homosexual activity on campus at the University of Michigan in late 1959 and early 1960, took his own life days before he was to be sentenced.
