Farewell to LGBTQ+ People and Allies Who’ve Recently Died
Clela RorexClela Rorex, the first county clerk to knowingly issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, died June 19 at a hospice in Longmont, Colo., after complications from a recent surgery.
She was clerk of Boulder County, Colo., in 1975 when she granted a marriage license to two men who had been denied one in their home county. (A clerk in Minnesota had issued a license to a same-sex couple in 1971 but was under the impression they were a male-female couple.) Rorex granted licenses to six same-sex couples before the Colorado attorney general stopped her.
A straight woman, she became a strong LGBTQ+ ally and worked extensively with Out Boulder County and other activist groups.Hunter ReynoldsHunter Reynolds, a gay artist who appeared in elaborate gowns of his own design to raise awareness of HIV and fight homophobia, died July 12 at his Manhattan home of squamous cell carcinoma.
He was 62. He began appearing as an alter ego named Patina du Prey around New York City in the late 1980s, shortly after he was diagnosed with HIV.
