September 8, 1966 – January 3, 2004
Detroit resident Robert Allen Stubbs worked as a bartender at the Back Pocket and Rattlebox and was also employed for ten years by Ford Motor Company.
Tag: BIPOC
Amber MonRoe
May 23, 1995 – August 8, 2015
According to Detroit police, 20-year-old Amber Monroe was engaged in sex work In August 2015 when she was shot and killed near Six Mile and Woodward. She was the twelfth trans woman of color murdered in the U.S. that year. Monroe attended Oak Park High School, studied at Wayne State, and was a familiar face at the Ruth Ellis Center.
LeRoy Foster
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
Robert Quann Jr.
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.
Louise Griffin
July 29, 1937 – September 21, 2011
Miami native Frimmitte “Louise” Griffin attended the University of Michigan in the 1950s and went on to become a pioneering female voice on Black radio in South Florida. She later served with a medical unit in the Women’s Army Corps during the Vietnam War. Griffin and her life partner Maryanne Powers met in 1963.
Lesbian Connection, January/February 2012
Saje Nieto
February 14, 1996 – February 12, 2016
Born in Tecumseh, Saja Mykel Nieto graduated in 2014 from Adrian High School, where he was active in the LGBT Club and the Color Guard. In addition to studying zoology at Northern Michigan University, Nieto worked at Pet Supplies Plus, as a supervisor at Adrian Image Center, and as a manager at B Fit.
Leon Smith
August 7, 1952 – January 12, 2012
Detroiter Leon Smith attended Murray-Smith High School and became active in the local LGBT community in the 1980s. He helped launch the Men of Color Motivational Group, was one of the original organizers of the Hotter Than July pride celebration, and took part in a support group for HIV+ men sponsored by what was then known as Kick!.
Sally Mae McCoy
January 16, 1927 – March 31, 2002
Born in Royston, Georgia, Sally Mae McCoy moved to Detroit following World War II and attended Fleming Beauty School in the 1950s. In addition to teaching cosmetology and operating a hair care business, she worked for 20 years as a custodian with the Detroit Public Schools. Rev. Renee McCoy was among her five children.
Jean Feimster
January 28, 1962 – December 6, 2017
Jean Feimster of Whitehall and formerly of Lansing graduated high school in 1979 from Flint School of Choice and earned her Bachelor of Science in Social Work in 1989 from the University of Michigan-Flint. She was later employed as Director of Social Services at Hazel Findlay Country Manor in St. Johns. Feimster was an avid Harley rider.
Leon DeMeunier
August 15, 1914 – December 23, 1985
A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Leon Alfred DeMeunier grew up in Detroit and earned a degree in business administration from the University of Detroit, after which he operated his own tax and accounting service. He chaired the Detroit Congress of Racial Equality in the early 1960s and was active in the early gay organization ONE in Detroit.
No known obituary
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 