September 12, 1945 – May 24, 2008
A Detroit native and a 1964 graduate of Livonia Bentley High School, Nancy Fitzgerald earned her Associate’s degree from Lansing Community College and her B.S. from Spring Arbor College in 1998. She worked as an LPN and held a number of management positions in health care and insurance. An avid motorcyclist, Fitzgerald and her partner Lisa Whitehead shared a home in Eaton Rapids.
Lesbian Connection, September/October 2008
August 28, 1945 – October 17, 2014
Marvil Thomas Shaw III was born in Battle Creek, grew up in Coldwater, and attended Alma College. A celibate gay monk ordained into the priesthood in 1971, Shaw became Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in 1995. Throughout his tenure, he advocated for minority rights, for allowing women, gay men, and lesbians to be ordained, and for other causes of social justice.
November 13, 1945 – November 29, 2013
Longtime Hudson resident and devoted Detroit Tigers and University of Michigan fan Cheryle Hudson was owner and operator of the Heritage House Adult Foster Care and later the Uptown Kafé.
August 22, 1945 – November 17, 1993
Wyandotte resident Gay Whiteside formed a chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis in Detroit in 1971. She was also active with the Gay Radio Collective, was a longtime member of the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit, and volunteered on the Affirmations telephone hotline.
Detroit Free Press, November 19, 1993
December 4, 1945 – January 11, 2016
A founder in 1979 of the Lansing Association for Human Rights, William Beachler later helped establish the Pride Scholarship for LGBT students at his alma mater Michigan State University.
September 14, 1945 – November 4, 2012
A founder of the Motor City Business Forum and Southfield podiatrist, Burton Fogelman received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Detroit Area Pride Banquet in 2001.
July 23, 1945 – May 7, 1987
Before moving to Houston in the late 1970s, Patrick McGee taught school by day and at night performed in various Detroit gay nightclubs as the drag sensation Trisha Trash. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 41.
August 15, 1945 – September 24, 1996
At the time of her death at age 51, Linda Petersen served as director of client services for AIDS Partnership Michigan.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 