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.
March 17, 1924 – June 11, 2010
Retired school teacher Jean Ross in 1981 founded the Lansing chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. She was also active in the Lansing Association for Human Rights and the Lansing Area AIDS Network.
May 11, 1955 – September 14, 2016
Larry Zimmerman worked as a real estate agent and was a founding member in 1980 of the Motor City Business Forum. He later served as dean at Macomb Community College. Zimmerman was survived by his partner of 37 years, husband Stuart Itzkowitz.
April 7, 1931 – February 26, 2010
Ron Worsley taught theater at Wayne State University and Henry Ford Community College. He also produced salacious musicals for the annual “Do a Fool” weekend held by the leather group Tribe.
April 1, 1967 – March 18, 2016
Mary Beth Dietz earned a B.A. in English from Michigan State University and taught English in Wisconsin before returning to school to become a chiropractor. She and LeAnne Ray became the first same-sex couple married in Michigan City, Indiana.
Grosse Pointe News, March 24, 2016
October 4, 1957 – January 24, 1998
Ellen Bommarito, an English instructor at the University of Michigan-Flint, served as the founding director in 1989 of the campus Lesbian Gay Bisexual Center.
