LGBTQ civil rights icon Phyllis Lyon died yesterday from natural causes at her home in San Francisco. She was 95. She and her spouse Del Martin were the first same-sex couple to marry legally in San Francisco in 2008—but her contribution to LGBTQ equality goes far beyond that.
Prolific and honored children’s book author and illustrator Tomie dePaola died today at age 85 after complications following a fall. Among his many works, DePaola, who was gay, wrote one of the earliest picture books to feature a boy who could be read as queer and “didn’t like to do things that boys are supposed to do.” The book was based on his own childhood experiences.
Mary Griffith, a conservative Christian who came to champion LGBTQ equality after the death of her gay son in 1983, died last Friday at her home in California. Her journey inspired a book and the award-winning movie based on it, Prayers for Bobby.
Deborah Batts, the first out LGBTQ federal judge–and also a mom—died this past Monday at the age of 72, after complications from knee replacement surgery.
Sharon Mattes, known as Sharon Bottoms when she fought to overcome anti-LGBTQ bias in a legal battle for custody of her son in the 1990s—a headline case for queer parents—has died at age 48.
After a queer mother, her two young children, and her partner were slain in New York in late December. comes news of two more Black, queer parents and one of their children being killed.
Debra Chasnoff, the Academy Award-winning film director of Choosing Children, about the first generation of out lesbian moms, and a number of award-winning LGBTQ-inclusive educational films, has died at the age of 60 from breast cancer.
She always seemed too full of life to ever be gone from it, with her signature scarf and boundless energy—but Edie Windsor, whose case led to the first federal recognition for same-sex couples, died yesterday at the age of 88.
The community of LGBTQ families lost a leader in April, but her passing went almost unnoticed in the media outside of her home of Ottawa.
One of the six U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan Monday was the first openly lesbian active-duty U.S. servicemember to die in action. She was also a mom.
