October 24, 1944 – August 24, 1993
Detroit resident and Highland Park native Edward Walker grew up in Dearborn Township. He joined the U.S. Army following high school and was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds he received while serving in Vietnam. During the 1970s, he worked as an assembler at Ford Motor Company. From 1980 until his death, Walker operated the Hayloft Saloon with his lover Len Lippert.
February 15, 1944 – November 3, 2014
A native of Ecuador with a Bachelor’s from Columbia University and a Master’s from American University, Ernest “Tito” Gutierrez Jr. enjoyed a 20-year career at the Kresge Foundation in Troy. While a resident of Royal Oak, Gutierrez served on the board for Affirmations and played a significant role in capital fundraising for construction of the community center’s own building in downtown Ferndale.
July 20, 1944 – February 26, 1987
Detroit native Paul Charles Ganter served in the U.S. Navy from 1961 to 1963. Ganter moved to Houston in 1971 and lived for a time in Austin and New Orleans. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 42.
December 19, 1944 – March 1, 2017
Cynthia “Diane” Miller was born in Flint attended Mott Community College and Eastern Michigan University, and worked for the Flint Community Schools. She and her partner Mary Hill shared 39 years together.
August 1, 1944 – September 13, 2011
Born in Battle Creek, Sharon Kay Beck resided in Mount Morris and retired after 30 years from Saginaw Steering Gear-Delphi in 2002. She enjoyed running, her poodles, and traveling in northern Michigan with Hope, her partner of 27 years.
September 14, 1944 – June 24, 2005
Born in Los Angeles, Connie McConnohie moved to Detroit in the early 1970s where she worked for the city’s department of social services and became involved in gay lib politics. After a split with the Detroit Gay Activists, McConnohie formed the Motor City Alliance of Gays and published Gayzette, a short-lived local gay newspaper. In 1973, she ran as an open lesbian for a city council seat, losing in the primary.
Detroit Free Press, April 18, 2006
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.
November 9, 1944 – November 7, 1994
A founder of the Lesbian and Gay Community Network of West Michigan, Dennis Komac served in Army from 1968 to 1970 and moved to Grand Rapids in 1984 to serve as executive director of the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Komac and his life partner Jeff Swanson later operated Sons and Daughters bookstore. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 49.
April 12, 1944 – August 27, 1986
Charles Tyson served as vice president of the Michigan Organization for Human Rights in the mid-1980s. He and his business partner Kathie Dannemiller formed the consulting firm Dannemiller Tyson Associates in Ann Arbor. He was also active in the Human Rights Campaign Fund and the Republican Party.
May 28, 1944 – March 31, 2014
West Bloomfield resident Linda Lee became active in the Michigan Jewish AIDS Coalition in the early 1990s after learning of discrimination gay men were experiencing at the height of the epidemic. In her commitment to social justice she later founded Jewish Gay Network and was a tireless advocate for LGBTQ people in Southeast Michigan.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 