#michaellynch

Michael Lynch and so many others, 1991 #toronto #churchandwellesley #churchstreet #aidsmemorial #inmemoriam #michaellynch #1991 #latergram (at AIDS Memorial, Toronto.)

#MichaelLynch who died of #AIDS on 7 July 1991 in #Toronto #Canada (pictured with his son Stefan in 1986) was a #Gayactivist, #poet, #academic. He was the editor from 1981 of the international #GayStudiesNewsletter@and active in many community efforts (The Gay Alliance Toward Equality;the Committee to Defend John Damien; Gay Fathers of Toronto; Whitman in Ontario Conference, 1980; Wilde ’82; Sex and the State, 1985). For many years he was a frequent writer for The #BodyPolitic, a gay liberation magazine in Toronto. Wrote on many subjects, but his early pieces on AIDS (“Living with Kaposi’s,” paired with a piece by his friend #BillLewis in a 10-page feature on AIDS) were particularly important. They contributed to the more humane, less panic-driven approach to the disease in Canada. Michael was later a founder of the #AIDSCommitteeofToronto (1983), #AIDSActionNow! and the #TorontoAIDSMemorial (from 1988), the #TorontoCentreforLesbianandGayStudies (1990), and #GayFathersToronto. His collection of poems, These Waves of Dying Friends, was published in 1989. His son, #StefanLynch, lives in #SanFrancisco, and carries on his father’s activism—he has been very involved in #COLAGE, an organization for the children of lesbian and gay parents.