August 27, 1965 – June 4, 2015
A graduate of Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, Vielka Holness received her B.A. from New York University. She studied law at the University of Michigan Law School, clerked with the Michigan Court of Appeals, earned a Masters from Columbia, and received certification from Harvard’s Management Development Program in Higher Ed. She capped an esteemed career serving as director for Post-Graduate Opportunities and the Pre-Law Institute of John Jay College.
October 24, 1962 – July 22, 1994
Christopher Case attended Washtenaw Community College for his LPN and worked for many years in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan Hospital. Case was also active in the Ann Arbor theater scene. He died of complications from AIDS at age 31.
November 23, 1857 – January 11, 1915
Born in Newark, Ohio, Katharine Coman graduated from the University of Michigan in 1880 and went on to become a leading industrial historian and dean of Wellesley College. Prior to her death at age 58, she shared a 25-year relationship with poet and Wellesley professor Katherine Lee Bates in what was then known as a “Boston marriage.”
February 25, 1954 – May 4, 1985
Rick Rapaport worked as a janitor, gas station attendant, cab driver, waiter, cook, bus driver, and for two years as wrestling coach at the Michigan School for the Blind. After dropping out of the University of Michigan in 1974, he visited 45 states and crossed the U.S. fifteen times, returning to school to finish his B.A. at Michigan State University in 1982 with a degree in journalism. He died of complications from AIDS at age 31.
Lansing State Journal, May 6, 1985
November 19, 1955 – September 27, 2003
As board chair and educator with Gospel Against AIDS/Global Research, Education, and Training Network, physician Isabello Reyes Jr. pushed for AIDS education, care, and civil rights protections. In addition to his advocacy, Reyes taught at Wayne State University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Detroit.
November 2, 1942 – July 17, 2012
Lansing resident Judith Rogers Dill earned her doctorate in German language and literature from the University of Michigan in 1979 and at Lansing Community College and Michigan State University. She later pursued a career in information systems management and belonged to the Arts Chorale of Greater Lansing.
September 14, 1922 – April 11, 2006
A native of Rochester, New York, Edward Weber earned his library degree from the University of Michigan in the early 1950s and went on the serve as curator of the renowned Labadie Collection from 1960 to his retirement in 2000.
September 16, 1958 – July 17, 2015
A graduate of Roeper High School in Birmingham, Sharon Gittleman earned her B.A. from the University of Michigan and J.D. from the University of Detroit. She later left the field of law to pursue a career in journalism, serving as editor of the Royal Oak Mirror and a freelance writer for Between The Lines.
May 5, 1940 – October 31, 2010
Born in Ferndale, Kathryn Avis Kay earned a degree in music literature from the University of Michigan, pursued a career in marketing and advertising, and became an active part of the lesbian and feminist community in Cleveland, Ohio.
Lesbian Connection, March/April 2011
January 8, 1901 – January 10, 1996
A native of Otsego, Forman Brown attended the University of Michigan in the early 1920s and, with cousin Harry Burnett and companion Roddy Brandon, formed the famed Yale Puppeteers. In his eighties, Brown revealed that he was the author of the 1933 gay novel Better Angel written under the penname Richard Meeker.
Los Angeles Times, January 12, 1996
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 