April 22, 1948 – December 18, 1978
Muskegon native Gregory Don Williams graduated with the class of 1966 from Muskegon Catholic High School and subsequently attended Michigan State University and Wayne State University. In June 1972, he took part in Michigan’s first-ever pride celebration in Detroit. At the time of his death, he was employed with a Wall Street brokerage firm in New York.
Muskegon Chronicle, December 20, 1978
February 6, 1948 – October 5, 1986
Eugene Carlpeter Forrest was born in Sault Ste. Marie, graduated from Sault Ste. Marie High School in 1966, and went on to graduate from Western Michigan University. Forrest moved to San Francisco in his mid-20s where he was later president of the Barbary Coasters motorcycle club. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 38.
September 15, 1948 – May 20, 1977
Billie Jean Truitt was born in Detroit worked as a hotel clerk. Truitt was, in the terminology of the 1970s, a “post-op transsexual” when she took her own life in her Detroit apartment at age 28. She was survived by her fiancé Art Walker.
Detroit Free Press, May 25, 1977
August 8, 1948 – January 13, 2008
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, James Hendricks “Jim” Posante Jr. moved to Michigan at age 12 and attended Milford High School in Highland before moving to Ann Arbor in 1966. He taught at Greenhills School for 32 years and for four decades was driving force in local theater in the community and at the University of Michigan. Posante was survived by a daughter and by Charles Sutherland, his partner of 36 years.
March 29, 1948 – September 20, 2018
Betty Jane Martin, a lifelong Caledonia resident, graduated from Caledonia High School and earned her MSW from Grand Valley State University. Her career encompassed worked with the YWCA, Pine Rest Christian Hospital, and her brother’s dairy farm. Martin served as board president for Reconciliation Metropolitan Community Church in Grand Rapids where she also played drums in the church band.
May 3, 1948 – November 5, 2019
Grosse Pointe Park resident Stuart George Itzkowitz moved Detroit in 1974 after earning his Masters at the University of Michigan. He became active with the Wayne State University GLF, was a founder of MOHR, and served on the board of Wellness Networks. He went on to get his Ph.D. from Wayne State, where he later taught. Itzkowitz was preceded in death by his husband and partner of 38 years Larry Zimmerman.
February 11, 1948 – May 7, 1990
Known to viewers as Tom Stephens, Detroit native Thomas Stephen Jarzynski worked as weather forecaster for WJRT-TV 12 in Flint from 1984 to 1988. Stephens disclosed his AIDS diagnosis with his former station colleagues in an interview that was broadcast after his death. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 42.
Flint Journal, May 8, 1990
September 23, 1948 – August 7, 2012
Kalamazoo nutritionist Diana Zhenhua Artz-Iffland earned her B.S. from Western Michigan University and her M.S. from Michigan State University. She was a longtime member of the People’s Church and, with her life partner River Artz-Iffland, was active in the pioneering local lesbian organization Lavender Morning. For 18 years the couple operated Pandora’s Books for Open Minds.
February 3, 1948 – October 12, 2012
Lincoln Park resident Joyce Woody worked as an insurance agent for New York Life before graduating from Irene’s Myomassology Institute in 1983 and becoming a massage therapist. In 1993, she earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Woody was involved in Lesbian Sisters Building a Network, the Motor City Business Forum, and the Forum Foundation.
August 17, 1948 – October 12, 2008
Detroit and Redford resident Dennis Andrew Lamparski was bartender and manager at a number of Detroit gay establishments back to the early 1970s, including the Town Pump, the Voyager Room, the Unicorn, and the Gas Station. He also worked for many years at the annual Metra Picnic.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 