Jim Toy, famed Michigan LGBTQ activist, dead at 91
Jim Toy, a famed LGBTQ activist thought to be the first openly gay man in Michigan, has died at age 91.
Toy’s cause of death is still unknown, but Joe Schoch, president of the Jim Toy Community Center in Ann Arbor, said Toy died peacefully on Jan. 1.
The longtime Ann Arbor man, who Schoch said moved to Saline about a year ago, rose to recognition after publicly coming out at an anti-Vietnam War rally in 1970.
Toy then took his activism to a new level. He co-founded the University of Michigan’s Human Sexuality Office, which has since become the Spectrum Center. It was the first-ever staffed office at a university dedicated to sexual orientation. He also lobbied the university to include sexual orientation in its bylaws on nondiscrimination.
Ann Arbor previously has proclaimed April 29 as Jim Toy Day and the Jim Toy Community Center, a resource center for the LGBTQ community in Washtenaw County, is named after him.
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“He always had a smile on his face and always could make anybody else smile,” Schoch said. “I think he was someone that was very proud of who he was and what he was able to do through his own visibility for others.”
The progress Toy pushed for was bold and impactful, Schoch said. His legacy is hard to describe, but it is rooted in learning and understanding. Toy inspired everyone around him.
“His name will forever be recognized with LGBT rights across the US, but especially here,” Schoch said. “It's also a reminder that he was just one person, we are all just one person, and if he can do it, why not us.”
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, in a Tweet said Toy was a good friend to her and her family, and that she will miss him dearly.
“Love continues to win because of the dedication that Jim put into his work,” she wrote. “We owe so much to him and it’s on all of us to ensure his legacy continues. I’m thinking about his family, friends, and the Ann Arbor community as we mourn this great loss.”
Toy was born in 1930 to a Chinese American father and a Scottish-Irish American mother, NBC reported.
In a Spectrum Center video from 2012, those who knew him said he always lived life to the fullest and wanted to ensure everyone else was, too.
He never shied away from speaking the truth, even to powerful people, and was comfortable in his own skin, friends said in the video.
“As these legends are passing, it's important that their stories are told, and it's important that these legacies are remembered,” Schoch said. “Because without them, we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing now.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jim Toy, famed Michigan LGBTQ activist, dead at 91
