Author and
activist Berzon dead at 78

Betty Berzon, the revered lesbian activist, psychotherapist, and author of several esteemed books on maintaining gay relationships, challenging homophobia, and preserving self-esteem, died on Tuesday. She was 78. Berzon died of cancer at her home in Los Angeles, with Terry DeCrescenzo, her partner of 33 years, by her side. She had been battling cancer for 20 years and, according to DeCrescenzo, was told in 1986 she had less than two years to live. "Betty said, 'Bring it on,'" DeCrescenzo told Advocate.com. Berzon's numerous works include the best-selling Permanent Partners: Building Gay and Lesbian Relationships ThatLast. Published in 1988, the book was one of the first to advise gay couples on issues such as financial burdens, legal difficulties, and having children. Berzon served as editor of 1979's Positively Gay: New Approaches to Gay and LesbianLife, which has never gone out of print and was expanded, updated, and revised in 2001. Other works include The Intimacy Dance: A Guide to Long-term Success in Gay and LesbianRelationships;Setting Them Straight: You CAN Do Something About Bigotry and Homophobia in YourLife; and Queer Blues: The Lesbian and Gay Guide to Overcoming Depression. Berzon wrote of her own dramatic struggle with self-hatred in her Lambda Literary Award-winning 2002 autobiography, Surviving Madness: A Therapist's Own Story, which chronicled her journey from suicidal psychiatric patient to self-assured gay rights advocate and successful author. According to DeCrescenzo, Berzon's posthumous work includes her first novel, titled Queer Babies. DeCrescenzo, who described the book as a futuristic story about a researcher finding the biological key to sexual orientation, said a publisher is already attached to the project. Berzon's community activism extended to the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, where she served as the first woman on the board of directors and was instrumental in the center's design. She founded Southern California Women for Understanding, a nonprofit lesbian organization still in operation, in 1976, and served on the board of directors of the Whitman-Radclyffe Foundation, a gay and lesbian drug and alcohol recovery center in San Francisco. She served on the board of directors of National Gay Rights Advocates and was president of the Gay Academic Union. DeCrescenzo said Berzon's legacy will be her success in combining her tireless advocacy work with her groundbreaking accomplishments as a therapist and writer. "Betty had enormous sensitivity to people in our community that were caregivers. The most important thing she did was to help people, from 1971, when she came out as the first openly gay psychotherapist," DeCrescenzo said. "Betty always said, 'You can't go into a relationship without having reconciled your own self-esteem issues and your own embarrassment about being gay.'" Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. There will be a celebration of life event on February 26 at 5 p.m. at the Omni Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, DeCrescenzo asked that donations be made to Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services or the Lambda Literary Foundation. (Advocate.com)