Longtime Lesbian Activist Dies

Veteran Chicago and national lesbian activist Renee Hanover (pictured, right, with daughter Nancy) died Wednesday at age 84 in California, Windy City Times reports.

Hanover, a lawyer, was an advocate for the rights of women and racial minorities as well as LGBT people. She helped overturn a Chicago law against cross-dressing and worked for the desegregation of the city’s beaches. She was involved in a huge demonstration against antigay singer Anita Bryant in Chicago in 1977, was arrested for protesting in front of the Supreme Court the weekend of the national gay march on Washington in 1987, and helped defend the “D.C. 12,” a group of gay men arrested while in the nation’s capital to attend a Black Panthers convention in 1970.

Hanover had moved to Los Angeles a few years ago to be near her daughter. Services will be held in Chicago. Read more about Hanover’s life and work here.