October 4, 1947 – April 4, 2020
Detroit native Raymond Henry Warner Jr. graduated with the class of 1965 from Redford Union High School, attended Wayne State University, and worked for the State of Michigan from 1970 until his retirement. He was an early leader in the Detroit Gay Liberation Front, and wrote for the Gay Liberator and Gayzette newspapers. Warner became active in the Libertarian Party, running for Congress in 1996.
April 15, 1951 – February 3, 2021
Gregory Charles Piazza moved to Detroit from Wisconsin to attend Wayne State University, where he earned a Bachelor’s in speech. He soon became enmeshed in local gay culture and in 1974 moved into the Palmer Park apartment district. His research was instrumental in having the neighborhood added to the National Register of Historic Places. Piazza was also long active in the leather club Tribe.
May 12, 1936 – December 10, 2022
Native Detroiter Charles Robert Alexander came out into the gay world while a student at Cass Tech. He earned his B.A. at Wayne State University and had a long career with the Detroit schools. An acclaimed artist, he was active with Affirmations and MCC Detroit, and in 1997 received the local LGBTQ Lifetime Achievement Award. Alexander wrote more than 700 columns over 27 years for Between The Lines.
January 16, 1935 – June 2, 2006
Marilyn Kay Ramm of Auburn was a graduate with the class of 1953 of Bay City Central High School. She received her nursing degree from Harper Hospital in Detroit and earned her Master’s at Wayne State University. Ramm and her partner Suzanne Slaughter were together for 35 years.
September 8, 1950 – April 5, 2019
Ecorse resident and beloved Chippewa and Pottawatomi artisan James Aquash was born into the Walpole Island First Nation in Ontario, Canada. In the early 1970s, he became involved with the gay liberation movement on the Wayne State University campus. As a longtime member of the local Native community, Aquash was noted for presenting his beadwork and basket weaving at area pow wows.
March 2, 1925 – March 21, 1986
A 1944 graduate of Southeastern High School in Detroit, potter and sculptor Margaret Elizabeth “Peggy” Sauer earned her BFA at Cranbrook Academy and her Masters at Wayne State. As one of the pioneering “Damsels of Design,” she worked as a designer of automobile interiors for General Motors from 1955 to 1962. Sauer later taught and shared a home in Harper Woods with her partner Julie Sabit.
Detroit Free Press, March 24, 1986
April 22, 1948 – December 18, 1978
Muskegon native Gregory Don Williams graduated with the class of 1966 from Muskegon Catholic High School and subsequently attended Michigan State University and Wayne State University. In June 1972, he took part in Michigan’s first-ever pride celebration in Detroit. At the time of his death, he was employed with a Wall Street brokerage firm in New York.
Muskegon Chronicle, December 20, 1978
April 4, 1941 – December 29, 2020
Evelyn Joseph Fisher attended the University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe Woods and earned her M.D. from the Wayne State University Medical School. As senior specialist for infectious disease at Henry Ford Hospital, Fisher saw her first patient with AIDS in 1982. A year later Fisher was instrumental in helping to found Wellness Networks to serve the needs of people with HIV in southeast Michigan.
May 10, 1929 – December 15, 1986
Wilfred Zinow Thompson was born in Hamtramck, went to Pershing High School in Detroit, attended the University of Michigan in the early 1950s, and earned his B.A. in liberal arts from Wayne State University in 1958. For a time, Thompson was affiliated with writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten and was an antiques dealer by trade. He died from AIDS-related complications at age 58.
Detroit Free Press, May 10, 1987
November 23, 1930 – September 20, 2010
Dolores Louise Kukla of Walled Lake was born in Detroit and graduated from Western High School. She earned her B.S. in nursing from Wayne State University in 1960 and subsequently worked as an RN. In the mid-1970s, Kukla listed herself as a “contact dyke” in Lesbian Connection to serve as a resource for women in Metro Detroit. She was also involved in the Forum Foundation in the early 1990s.
Michigan LGBTQ Remember 