In moments of grief and distress, I continually find myself turning to the words of Audre Lorde. A few lines from her poem A Litany for Survival:

Let us remember the fearlessness of those who have passed, their accomplishments, their words, their faces, and return to them. Let their memory continue to echo through us, our own voices, and our actions.

Julie Anne Peters

Sheila Merritt

“… Sheila was well known and loved in Atlanta for her work with the LGBTQ community. Along with her professional endeavors as marketing manager for various prominent institutions, like the Georgia International Convention Center and Gateway Center Arena, she worked for a decade as project manager for Q&A Events, which represented Atlanta Pride.Sheila was engaged with her community as president of the Atlanta Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce as well as president of the Jefferson Park Neighbors Association. Her advocacy earned her the title of Atlanta Pride Grand Marshal in 2014, and she often used her platforms to speak fiercely about and advocate for queer rights and racial justice.” – From Katie Burkholder’s article “Remembering Sheila Merritt”

Maureen Seaton

“Poet Maureen Seaton earned an MFA from Vermont College in 1996. She is the author of the poetry collections Fear of Subways (1991), winner of the Eighth Mountain Poetry Prize; The Sea Among the Cupboards (1992); Furious Cooking (1996), winner of both the Iowa Poetry Prize and a Lambda Literary Award; Little Ice Age (2001); Venus Examines Her Breast (2004), winner of the Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Award; and Cave of the Yellow Volkswagen (2009).

“Maureen Seaton was an absolute gem of a human being and we were so privileged to have her among us for so long. Her words and spirit live on in all of us who knew her.”

Gabriel Cleveland

Robert Patrick

Mr. Patrick never stopped writing plays, but in later years he paid the rent by working as a ghost writer and as an usher for the Ford Theater in Los Angeles, where he moved in the 1990s; he also wrote reviews of pornographic movies. For the last decade or so, he performed a cabaret act at Planet Queer, a riotous variety show held monthly at a bar in Los Angeles.

Robert Patrick, a wildly prolific playwright who rendered gay (and straight) life with caustic wit, an open heart and fizzy camp, and whose 1964 play, “The Haunted Host,” became a touchstone of early gay theater, died on April 23 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85. – From Broadway World

R J Theodore

“R J Theodore (they/she) is an author, graphic designer, and all-around collector of creative endeavors. They enjoy writing about magic-infused technologies, first contact events, and bioluminescing landscapes.

Theodore’s love of fantastic storytelling developed through grabbing for anything-and-everything “unicorn” as a child, but they were subverted by tales of distant solar systems when their brother introduced them to Star Trek: The Next Generation at age seven. A few years later, Sailor Moon taught them stories can have both.

Their short fiction can be found in Metastellar, Lightspeed, and Fireside Magazines, as well as the anthologies Glitter + Ashes, Unfettered Hexes, and Bridge to Elsewhere. They live in New England, haunted by their childhood cat” – From Theodore’s personal website

Amber L. Hollibaugh

Amber L. Hollibaugh was an inconic member of our community, including as a 2001 Double Lammy nominee (Lesbian Studies and Lesbian Biography/Memoir) for My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home.

“A former sex worker and self-described Marxist feminist, Hollibaugh was active in a number of LGBTQ+ organizations, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Gay Men’s Health Project and the group Queers for Economic Justice, which she co-founded.” – From the Los Angeles Times article on her death

Bill McMahon

Bill McMahon, a NYC-based playwright passed away on Nov. 20, 2023. Bill McMahon’ss COVER was produced in the Midtown International Theater Festival. to sold-out houses and MISSING THE 4:55 was winner in the Slippery Rock University One-Act Play Contest. Bill was also the winner of the Paul Green Playwrights Prize for his full-length play A WINTER BEAUTY, produced by Emerging Artists Theatre. A WINTER BEAUTY was winner of the SNAP!fest Competition in Omaha, NE; it was produced there. BLIND CORNER, received a workshop by Emerging Artists and a developmental reading by the Abingdon Theatre in New York City.

Bill also wrote the book for ALPHAGIRLS, a children’s musical, with music and lyrics by Bob McDowell. His plays have also been produced at Expanded Arts, Emerging Artists, Playwrights Horizons/The Collective, American Theatre of Actors in New York; Full Figure Productions in Los Angeles; The Shelterbelt Theatre in Omaha and S.T.A.G.E. in Dallas. PEARLS AND DIGNITY was included in the Samuel French Festival. Two of Bill’s pieces have been published by Smith and Kraus as part of their collection THE BEST WOMEN’S STAGE MONOLOGUES. Recently published: DISCOVERING GENRE: DRAMA, a high school drama textbook employing classic works of Ibsen, Shaw and Chekhov to illustrate dramatic structure, character and theme. (Prestwick House Publishers.)

Minnie Bruce Pratt

“Minnie Bruce Pratt was recognized as an eminent poet in the United States. In addition to receiving acclaim for her verse, Pratt is acknowledged as an essayist, activist, lesbian-feminist, and educator. By chronicling her existence in poetry and prose, Pratt has explored themes reflecting the particularities of her life. She has surveyed her Southern, middle-class upbringing, her ten-year marriage and strained divorce, her battle to retain relationships with her sons, and her subsequent life as a lesbian poet.” – From Platt’s page on the Poetry Foundation website

Julie R. Enszer wrote a beautiful memorial article that you can read here: When We Say We Love Each Other: Loving the Life and Work of Minnie Bruce Pratt September 12, 1946 – July 2, 2023.

Achebe Betty Powell

“[Achebe Betty] Powell was one of the first Black women to have a leadership role in the LGBTQ+ liberation movement and the first Black lesbian to serve on the board of directors of the National Gay Task Force, later renamed the National LGBTQ Task Force… She also was one of the ‘founding mothers’ of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice and had been active in the national organization for the past 45 years, according to the Advocate. ” – From James Factora’s “Pioneering Black Lesbian Activist Achebe Betty Powell Has Died at 82”

Richard Bowes

Richard Bowes has won two World Fantasy Awards, published several novels, including the 2013 Lambda nominated Dust Devil on a Quiet Street, and four short story collections including 2013’s, The Queen, the Cambion and Seven Others and If Angels Fight. He has published over seventy short stories. – From Bowes’ Macmillian page

Lilli Vincenz

Trailblazing lesbian activist Lilli Vincenz, a formative member of the Mattachine Society and co-creator of the newspaper that became the Washington Blade, has died at the age of 85. Vincenz died last week of natural causes in an assisted living center in Virginia, per the Blade.

In addition to being an activist, Vincenz was also a prolific documentarian, with lesbian photojournalist Kay Tobin-Lahusen calling her the first lesbian videographer. “I knew that no one else was really documenting our work, and I had recently taken a film workshop and was able to borrow the Bolex 16mm camera from the instructor,” Vincenz said in her interview with Nichols. “I felt that this footage would be important some day, and, indeed, my films have been shown in many cities and excerpted in several recent documentaries shown on PBS.” – From James Factora

Charles Silverstein

Charles Silverstein, who played a pivotal role in depathologizing homosexuality and coauthored the landmark book The Joy of Gay Sex, has died at the age of 87. 

Those contributions included a presentation in front of the American Psychiatric Association in February 1973, according to the Rutgers Oral History Archives.  According to the New York Times, Silverstein used his speech to remind psychiatrists present how many past diagnoses seemed absurd at the time. 

That December, the American Psychiatric Association changed the diagnosis of homosexuality in the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-II). In the third edition of the DSM, homosexuality was removed entirely. 

Silverstein also founded New York-based counseling center the Identity House and the Institute for Human Identity, which is the “nation’s first and longest-running provider of LGBTQ+-affirming psychotherapy,” according to the Washington Post. In 2011, Silverstein was awarded the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Practice of Psychology by the American Psychological Foundation. 

In addition to The Joy of Gay Sex, he also authored several other books including A Family Matter: A Parents’ Guide to Homosexuality, published in 1977, and Man to Man: Gay Couples in America, published in 1982. While such book titles might seem utterly uncontroversial contemporarily, at that time, they were unprecedented.  – James Factora

Terence Davies

According to Davies’ website, screenwriter Terence Davies won the LAMDA Gold Medal and first prize in the National Arts Awards. He would go on to write more than a dozen screenplays, including “The Terence Davies Trilogy, which put him on the cinematic map as one of the most original British film-makers of the late 20th century.”

“Davies was one of the prime historical filmmakers, never making a dramatic feature set in the present day. But his sense of history wasn’t staid or academic; it was intensely personal. ” From the New Yorker piece on his death.

Frank Galati

Frank Galati, Academy Award-nominated and Tony Award-winning writer, died at the age of 79. He was especially well-known for his impact on the Chicago theatre scene, including as a member of the iconic Steppenwolf theatre.

Galati both wrote and directed the stage adaptation of Grapes of Wrath, celebrated by audiences and critics alike. His career was based on audacious and insightful choices from writing to casting. Find out more at the New York Times article about his death.

Sjohnna McCray

“[Sjohnna] McCray’s poetry collection, Rapture, was selected by Tracy K. Smith as the winner of the 2015 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets and was published by Graywolf Press in 2016.

McCray’s poems have been published in numerous journals, including Chicago Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, and The Southern Review. His honors include the AWP Intro Journal Award, Ohio University’s Emerson Poetry Prize, and a Pushcart Prize nomination. In addition to poetry, he has published essays on race, mental illness, and homosexuality in various journals. McCray taught in the English department at Savannah State University and later taught at Georgia Gwinnett College.” – From McCray’s Poet.org page

Read Lambda’s official memorial post: Award-Winning Poet Sjohnna McCray Died

Rachel Pollack

“Rachel Pollack authored 41 books, including two award-winning novels, Unquenchable Fire, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Godmother Night, winner of the World Fantasy Award. She had also written a series of books about Tarot cards known around the world, a book of poetry, Fortune’s Lover, and had translated, with scholar David Vine, Sophocles’s ‘Oedipus Tyrannus’ ( “Oedipus Rex”) under the title, Tyrant Oidipous. She designed and drew her own Tarot deck, The Shining Tribe Tarot. With artist Robert Place she has created two more decks, The Burning Serpent Oracle, and The Raziel Tarot. She had taught and lectured on four continents. For eleven years she taught at Goddard College’s MFA writing program. Rachel lived with her wife and manager Zoe Matoff in New York’s Hudson Valley.” – From Pollack’s personal website

Maurice Jamal

An impactful filmmaker, Maurice Jamal was well-known for his “authentic portrayal of the LGBTQ+ community, demonstrating Jamal’s dedication to promoting visibility and inclusivity in cinema.”

In addition, he was an essayist, writing pieces for national publications on the state of diversity in entertainment– From Black Alphabet‘s article on Jamal’s death

Megan Terry

Megan Terry’s wrote over forty-five plays include Breakfast Serial. She won a number of major writing awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Obie Award. She was elected to lifetime membership by the College of Fellows of the American Theatre, installation at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, in recognition of: “Distinguished service to the profession by an individual of acknowledged national stature.”

Terry had a long association with the Omaha Magic Theatre, in Omaha, Nebraska, as playwright in residence, photographer, performer, and musician.

“[Everett] Quinton was the founder and artistic director of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, and appeared in several productions there.

Everett was a member of The Ridiculous Theatrical Company and served as its Artistic Director from 1987-1997. He has appeared in Charles Ludlam‘s Medea, The Secret Lives of the Sexists, Salammbo, Galas, The Artificial Jungle and the original production of The Mystery of Irma Vep (Obie and Drama Desk Award). He was also seen in Georg Osterman‘s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Brother Truckers (Bessie Award); Richard and Michael Simon’s Murder at Minsing Manor (Drama League Award); as well as in his own plays: Carmen, Linda, Movieland, A Tale of Two Cities (Obie Award), and Call Me Sarah Bernhardt.

Everett has directed revivals of Charles Ludlam‘s Big Hotel, Camille, Der Ring Gott Farblonjet and How to Write a Play. He also directed Brother Truckers (in New York, London and as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Carmen, Sebastian Stewart’s Under the Kerosene Moon, as well as The Beaux Stratagem at the Yale Rep and Treasure Island at the Omaha Theatre for Young People.” – From Stephi Wild’s “Actor and Director Everett Quinton Dies at 71“

“Poet Naomi Replansky was born in the Bronx, where her working-class parents raised her. During the 1930s and 1940s, she was a member of the Communist Party, and her poetry draws on leftist themes, Jewish history, and oral and folk traditions. Her first book, Ring Song (1952), was nominated for a National Book Award and won her admirers such as George Oppen. Replansky published slowly over the next decades. Her books include the chapbook Twenty One Poems Old and New (1988) and the full-length collections The Dangerous World: New and Selected Poems 1934–1994 (1994)and Collected Poems (2012), which won a William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.
 
Replansky was a translator of Bertolt Brecht in the 1950s, a friendship she believes alerted the FBI to her political beliefs. Though modest in her output, Replansky has been an important figure for poets such as Philip Levine and B.H. Fairchild, who said of her work, “Replansky has become the master of a Blakean music radically unfashionable in its devotion to song-like meters and the reality and politics of working-class experience.” – From the Poetry Foundation website

Mari Ruti was the author of twelve books, with a particular interest in queer theory and feminism. She died at the age of 59.

Her recent work on feminist and queer theory investigates biopolitics; neoliberalism; postfeminism; contemporary ideals of femininity; new forms of heteropatriarchy; female self-objectification; queer antinormativity; queer negativity/pessimism; queer utopianism/optimism; queer discourses of failure and bad feelings; the relationship between queer theory and affect theory; and ethical debates within queer theory.” – From Ruti’s personal website

Let us remember, also, that this is a small number of our queer community that has passed. With the rise of anti-trans legislation in the U.S., the genocide in Palestine, Sudan, and the Congo, and the violence of our governments, let us also hold space for those who have been taken from us, whose name we have never had the chance to learn.