March 23, 1924 – August 19, 2014
Betty Leonard worked as manager of the State Bar in Flint from the late 1950s to the early 1980s.
Tag: LGBTQ history
Dennis Ashby
April 15, 1948 – September 18, 2010
Longtime Utica resident Dennis Ashby worked as a waiter and bartender at various Detroit bars from 1968 until his death in 2010, including Eddy’s, Morey’s, the Adobe, Todd’s, and the Gold Coast.
Michael Uso Guevara
September 29, 1925 – April 9, 1977
Michael Uso Guevara, a 52-year-old personnel director for Standard Products in Dearborn and Detroit resident, was murdered after leaving the Mt. Chalet Lounge.
Ruth Ellis
July 23, 1899 – October 12, 2000
Elder and matriarch Ruth Ellis hosted house parties with her partner Babe Franklin in their Oakland Street home during the 1940s and ’50s, giving sanctuary to LGBTQ African American Detroiters who were often excluded from the city’s gay bars.
Between The Lines, October 12, 2000
Sue Brown
October 1, 1959 – April 14, 2014
Massage therapist, self-taught drummer, and former criminal justice worker Sue Brown in 1996 helped to found the Grand Rapids Women’s Chorus.
Lesbian Connection, July/August 2014
W. Dorr Legg
December 15, 1904 – July 26, 1994
Ann Arbor native W. Dorr Legg moved to Los Angeles in 1949 with his boyfriend following their arrest in Detroit on a charge of gross indecency between men. In Los Angeles in 1953, he helped found ONE magazine, the first homosexual publication to reach wide circulation in the U.S.
Joyce Kershner
May 22, 1941 – February 24, 2011
Joyce Kershner was a board member of the Performers Awards of Detroit, manager of the Palmwood, resident of the Palmer Park apartment district, and longtime staff poet for Metra magazine.
James Pascoe
September 16, 1936 – May 31, 2014
A native of Sault Ste. Marie, James Pascoe rose to fame performing as Jerri Daye as a female impersonator at the Diplomat and Gold Dollar in Detroit and nationally from the late 1950s into the 1990s.
John Fowler
May, 1946 – May 29, 2009
John Fowler held jobs at Quick Copy Center near Wayne State and at several Detroit area cinemas, but it was through his love of theater that he made is mark, particularly in a Stagecrafter production in Royal Oak of the Laramie Project.
Ralph Wilson
December 25, 1964 – May 9, 1993
A graduate of the University of Michigan-Flint, Ralph Wilson worked as an educator for the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 