July 25, 1967 – May 30, 2017
Timothy Richard Liupakka graduated in 1986 from Marquette Senior High School and attended Northern Michigan University before moving to Milwaukee to pursue a degree in interior design. Liupakka performed under the drag name Tabitha Stephens in Wisconsin and later in annual shows at NMU. In 2015, he moved to Florida where he worked in hotel housekeeping and married Peter Williamson.
October 15, 1971 – December 29, 2015
Andrea Elizabeth Still Gray grew up in Royal Oak and earned her B.A. in cultural anthropology from Wayne State University and later received her Masters in Library and Information Science from Simmons College in Boston. Her career included working for a communications firm and as an archivist at Harvard and a librarian for the Massachusetts State House. She and her spouse Julie Gray were married in 2009.
October 1, 1946 – July 15, 2007
Born in Lansing, Frederick Irving Eggan, later known as Ferd, grew up in Alpena and graduated from Alpena High School. In the mid-1960s, Eggan dropped out of college to register black voters in South Carolina, later took part in the Chicago Gay Liberation Front, and in the late 1990s served as the AIDS coordinator for the City of Los Angeles. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 60.
July 18, 1949 – August 9, 2006
Detroit native Colleen Annette Regan was valedictorian of the class of 1967 at McKenzie High School and went on to earn her B.A. and M.A. in education from the University of Maryland. She left teaching to pursue a 20-year career as a Certified Public Accountant, retiring in 2003. Regan and her partner Kathe Kirkbride resided in New Mexico.
Lesbian Connection, November/December 2006
January 24, 1941 – October 3, 1999
Kay Clare McIlnay grew up in Detroit and in the late 1970s moved to the Central Valley region of California, where s he and her loving companion Nancy Ruth Walker operated the Hummin Llama Ranch. McIlnay died at age 58 after a long battle with cancer.
Detroit Free Press, October 5, 1999
December 8, 1998 – February 16, 2019
Dani Som, also known as Dani Sommerville, was born in Southfield and was a 2017 graduate of Berkley High School. He received a Spirit of Detroit Award in 2015 for achievement and leadership, including his involvement in music and theater, as well as extensive volunteer work. As an out young trans man, Som was active with Affirmations and FtM Detroit. Months after moving to Oregon, he took his own life.
July 22, 1958 – July 1, 2015
Pamela Lee Chamberlain of Gaithersburg, Maryland earned her B.S. in animal husbandry from Michigan State University in 1982 and went on to graduate from the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine in 1987. After working in small veterinary practice in Sturgis in St. Joseph County, she began an esteemed career with the Food and Drug Administration. Chamberlain was survived by her spouse Teri Gilger.
February 13, 1940 – March 25, 2016
Donald Edward True grew up in Harbor Beach in Michigan’s Thumb and attended Our Lady of Lake Huron Catholic High School. Following graduation, he moved to New York City, where he operated Country City glassware in Manhattan from 1963 to 2012. True married his life partner of more than 50 years Angelo Tufarelli in September 2015. Tufarelli survived him by one month.
April 3, 1936 – September 10, 2010
Born in Detroit, poet, activist, and educator Judy Freespirit studied drama and speech at Michigan State University. After being heterosexually married, she came out in the feminist movement in California. In 1973, Freespirit coauthored the Fat Liberation Manifesto and in 1978 helped defeat the Briggs’ Initiative. Among her other publications was the 1982 chapbook Daddy’s Girl: An Incest Survivor’s Story.
October 15, 1916 – October 2, 2010
Chester James “Chet” Sampson of Los Angeles was born in Hubbell and attended Michigan Tech before transferring to the University of Michigan. During World War II he produced variety shows in the U.S. Navy. He later taught high school in Grosse Pointe before opening his own travel agency. In 1965, he founded ONE in Detroit, only the second formal homosexual organization in Michigan.
Grosse Pointe News, November 4, 2010
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 