Remembering Lives of 2015

Some members of the lgbt community who had died over the past twelve months. This list is not exhaustive but merely reflects the range of achievements that their passings represent. They include the good, the bad and the fabulous. As has been the case for many years the number of transgender victims of violence is large and I could not possible do them just today. Ages are given immediately after the names. If no actual date is known the individual appears at the top of the monthly list.

JANUARY
Freyda Faivus (62), 1986 Gay Games double swimming silver medallist.
10^th      Taylor Negron (57), comedian, actor, writer.
18^th      Lowell “John” Evans (80), ex-ex-gay advocate.
18^th      Paul O’Grady (47), Australia’s first openly gay state MP.
22^nd     Kamrun, gay porn actor, on his 22^nd birthday.
24^th      Toller Cranston (65), US Olympic bronze medal figure skater.

FEBRUARY

1^st        Michael Mason (67), activist, editor of “Gay News”.
4^th        Koos van den Akker (74), fashion designer.
5^th        Niki Quasney (38), US same-sex marriage campaigner.
11^th      Jerry Hoose (69), Stonewall veteran, founding member of Gay Liberation Front (US).
13^th      Steve Strange (55), lead singer with 1980’s band Visage.
16^th      Robin Duff (67), 1^st openly gay parliamentary candidate in New Zealand.
27^th      Rev. Malcolm Boyd (91), civil and gay rights activist.

MARCH

Ike Cowen (97), leading member of Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
5^th        Dirk Shafer (52), Playgirl Magazine’s Man of the Year 1992.
10^th      Richard Gatzer (63), film director and writer.
16^th      Lesley Gore (68), 1960s popular singer.
16^th      Andy Fraser (62), bass player with 1970’s band Free.
25^th      Martyn Goff (91), founder of the Booker Prize for fiction.

APRIL

3^rd        Ariana Victoria Jacobus (29), writer and poet.
4^th        Jeane Dolan (52), Vice-President of Booz-Allen Hamilton security consultants.
8^th        Marc Naimark (54), lgbt sport campaigner and Gay Games volunteer.
15^th      Sydney Abbott (77), feminist writer and lesbian activist.
19^th      Martin Fisher (50), Professor of HIV medicine.

MAY

4^th        Debra Dunkle (60), psychologist, 1990 Gay Games double athletics champion.
10^th      Sam Ciccone (71), co-founder of the Gay Officers Action League.
15^th      John Jarvis-Smith, DSC (91), D-Day veteran.
17^th      Bill Kelley (72), activist, founder of the US National Gay & Lesbian Law Association.
20^th      Hon. Edward Adeane (75), ex-Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales.
22^nd     Nicole LaViolette (52), Ottawa law professor, multi Gay Games cycling champion.
29^th      Mario Cooper, leading AIDS educator and US Presidential adviser.
30^th      Jim Bailey (77), female impersonator and cabaret performer.
30^th      Adam Kizer (16), anti-bullying campaigner.

JUNE

6^th        Ronnie Gilbert (88), folk singer, founding member of The Weavers.
9^th        Pedro Zerolo (55), Spanish politician and lgbt activist.
27^th      Harvey McGregor (89), lawyer and Oxford don.

JULY

3^rd        Alan Green (75), drowned attempting to rescue fiancé Martin Winfield (59).
4^th        Daya Rani Kinnar (56), trans activist and India presidential candidate.
10^th      Roger Rees (71), actor.
15^th      Paul Shammin Cruikshank (50), an asteroid was named after him in November.
25^th      Robin Phillips (75), theatre artistic director.

AUGUST

3^rd        Chris Hyndman (49), Canadian designer and chat-show host.
6^th        Charles van den Berg (33), Mr Gay World 2010.
8^th        Alan Wakeman (79), founding member of Gay Liberation Front (UK), writer.
25^th      Colin Fry (53), television psychic.
26^th      Bryce Williams (41), journalist who shot ex-colleagues live on-air.
31^st      Lord Montagu of Beaulieu (88), motor museum founder.

SEPTEMBER

3^rd        Mahran Chestnut (25), gay porn actor aka King B, and reality tv show actor.
16^th      David Cook (74), original presenter of popular UK kids series “Rainbow”.
20^th      Jack Larson (87), actor, Jimmy Olsen in 1960’s tv “Superman”.
21^st      Honey Lee Cottrell (69), pioneering lesbian erotica photographer.

OCTOBER
1^st        Illtyd Harrington (84), ex-Deputy Leader of Greater London Council.
10^th      Blue Blake (52), gay porn actor, director and producer.
10^th      Wes Funk (46), novelist and broadcaster.
10^th      Kurt Cunningham (46), mental health campaigner, co-ordinator of 1987 March on Washington.
22^nd     John J. McNeill (90), leading figure in lgbt Christianity, writer.

NOVEMBER

1^st        Dorien Grey (81), mystery novelist, real name Roger Margason.
8^th        Robert Chetwyn (85), theatre director.
22^nd     Dimitri Kane (20), gay porn actor.

DECEMBER

6^th        Holly Woodlawn (69), trans actor and Warhol superstar.
7^th        Kenneth Partridge (89), fashion show and interior designer (for the Beatles).
21^st      Maj. Adrianna Vorderbruggen (36), 1^st out serving USAF soldier killed in combat.