Brenda Howard

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Brenda Howard

Movement: LGBT rights movement
Major organizations: Gay Liberation Front, Gay Activists Alliance and New York Area Bisexual Network
Religion: Reconstructionist Judaism
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Brenda Howard (December 24, 1946 – June 28, 2005) was a bisexual rights activist and sex-positive feminist, who was an important figure in the modern LGBT rights movement.

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[edit] Biography

Howard was born in the Bronx and grew up in Syosset, Nassau County, New York. She graduated from Syosset High School and from Borough of Manhattan Community College with an AAS degree in Nursing.

A militant activist who helped plan and participated in LGBT rights actions for over three decades, Howard was a leader of the Gay Liberation Front and for several years chair of the Gay Activists Alliance in the early post-Stonewall era.

She is known as the "Mother of Pride", for her work in coordinating the first month anniversary rally and then the "Christopher Street Liberation Day March" to commemorate the first year anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Howard also originated the idea for a week-long series of events around Pride Day which became the genesis of the annual LGBT Pride celebrations that are now held around the world every June.[1][2]

A fixture in New York City's LGBT Community Howard was active in the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights which helped guide New York City's LGBT rights law through the City Council in 1986.

In 1987 Howard a Regional Organizer for BiNet USA helped found the New York Area Bisexual Network to help co-ordinate services to the region's growing Bisexual community. She was also an active member of the early bisexual political activist group BiPAC, a co-facilitator of the Bisexual S/M Discussion Group and a founder of the nation’s first Alcoholics Anonymous chapter for bisexuals.

On a national level, Howard’s activism included work on the the 1983 "March on Washington for Gay, Lesbian and Bi Rights and Liberation" where she was female co-chair of the leather contingent and "Stonewall 25" in 1994.

[edit] Quotations

The next time someone asks you why LGBT Pride marches exist or why Gay Pride Month is June tell them "A bisexual woman named Brenda Howard thought it should be."

—Tom Limoncelli, in BiSquish, July 27, 2005[3]

Only a handful of activists in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement were there at Stonewall and never stopped.

—Andy Humm describing Brenda Howard in Gay City News August 11-17, 2005

[edit] The Brenda Howard Award

In 2005 the Queens Chapter of PFLAG announced the creation of the "Brenda Howard Award".[4] This is the first time a major American LGBT organization has named award after an out bisexual member of the LGBT Community.

This award to be given yearly, recognizes an individual or organization whose work on behalf of the LGBT Community best exemplifies the vision, principals and community service exemplified by the late Brenda Howard and who serves as a positive and visible role model for the Bisexual Community.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Channel 13/WNET Out! 2007: Women In the Movement
  2. ^ The Gay Pride Issue: Picking Apart The Origin of Pride
  3. ^ In Memoriam, Brenda Howard
  4. ^ The PFLAG Queens Chapter Names New Award for Bisexual Activist Brenda Howard

[edit] External links

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