February 2, 1968 – January 1, 2022
Damon Michael Williams was born in Flint and graduated with the class of 1986 from Grand Blanc High School. He relocated to Columbus where he attended Ohio State University. At the time of his death, Williams worked as Educational Coordinator for OhioHealth. He was preceded in death by his mother. Survivors included his father, his siblings, and his boyfriend Ricky.
October 10, 1951 – February 10, 2010
Born in Lansing, Darnell Austin Clark graduated from Everett Hight School in 1970 and as a youth performed with the Suitcase Theater on two tours in Europe. He was later employed with Oldsmobile as a purchasing technician for more than 30 years. Clark died at age 58 of complications from diabetes and was survived by his life partner John McGarey.
Lansing State Journal, February 18, 2010
March 27, 1950 – March 17, 2006
James Stewart James was born in Detroit and graduated with the class of 1969 from Mumford High School. He later earned his Associates degree from Oakland Community College and was employed at General Motors for 25 years. James was active in Men of Color, Project Survivor, and Detroit Black Gay Pride, for many years helping to plan the annual Hotter Than July! picnic in Palmer Park.
November 4, 1933 – November 10, 2011
Born in Ohio, pioneering publisher Barbara Glycine Grier spent much of her childhood in Detroit and attended ninth grade at Highland Park Community High School. She came to understand herself as lesbian as a teenager after requesting books on homosexuality at the Detroit Public Library. Grier went on to edit the magazine The Ladder and to co-found the Naiad Press with her partner Donna McBride.
New York Times, November 13, 2011
Lesbian Herstory Archives oral history of Barbara Grier
Barbara Grier-Naiad Press Collection at the San Francisco Public Library
January 21, 1929 – March 14, 2020
A native of Toledo, Ohio and graduate of Bowling Green State, Carmah Ann Lawler earned her MSW from the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan in 1954. She enjoyed a rich career, retiring from Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado, and was also a longtime supporter of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. Lawler was preceded in death by her life partner of 36 years Kathryn Glass.
April 29, 1930 – January 1, 2022
Denison University graduate James Willis Toy moved to Detroit in the late 1950s to become a church organist. In 1970, he helped co-found the Detroit Gay Liberation Front and the Ann Arbor GLF. A year and a half later co-founded the Human Sexuality Office at the University of Michigan, where he earned his MSW in 1981. Toy’s activism and achievements for Michigan’s LGBTQ community are unparalleled.
November 30, 1955 – January 19, 2005
William Arthur Popps was born in the small Upper Peninsula town of Ewen, graduated with the class of 1973 from Marquette Senior High School, and earned a degree in theater from Northern Michigan University. Popps was co-owner with Brian Thorsen of Club Xpress in Escanaba, the only gay bar in the UP, from 1992 to 2002.
April 6, 1949 – September 28, 2021
Lansing resident Ilona Rae Sabo-Shuler was born in Grand Rapids, graduated from South High School, attended Calvin College, and later studied at Garrett Theological Seminary in Illinois. After serving as pastor of Williamston United Methodist Church from 1982 to 1994, she became a real estate agent in East Lansing. Sabo-Schuler was preceded in death in 2020 by her partner of 42 years Jean Fillingham.
November 19, 1936 – April 29, 2021
Klaus Reich, better known to gay Metro Detroiters by Tony Rome, was born in Berlin, Germany and immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1950s. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he began an aircraft servicing business in Ypsilanti. He later operated Foof’s Down Under downstairs at Gigi’s nightclub in Detroit. From 1979 to 1999, Rome published Cruise magazine before retiring to warmer climates.
July 31, 1955 – November 8, 2021
Bloomfield Hills resident and Detroit native Treva Bell Bass graduated from Cass Tech High School and pursued acting in Los Angeles. On returning to Detroit, Bass attended Specs Howard University and became a chief engineer with her family’s radio stations. Bass and June Washington, her partner of 33 years, gave generously to Affirmations, the Ruth Ellis Center, Hotter Than July, and other causes.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 