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LGBTQ ally Olivia Newton-John has died at 73

Performer had been battling breast cancer for over three decades

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Olivia Newton-John (Photo by DFree/Bigstock)

In an announcement on Facebook Monday, John Easterling, the husband of singer and actress Olivia Newton-John relayed the news that she had died at age 73.

Newton-John had been battling breast cancer for over three decades, her first cancer diagnosis in 1992 when she was 44. Although she had previously seen her cancer in remission, in 2017 she was diagnosed again.

In October of 2020Ā in an interview with The GuardianĀ the pop star and actor spoke about her third diagnosis of cancer. ā€œThree times lucky, right?ā€ she smiles warmly. ā€œIā€™m going to look at it like that. Listen, I think every day is a blessing. You never know when your time is over; we all have a finite amount of time on this planet, and we just need to be grateful for that.ā€ She genuinely sounds as if she means every word.

The cancerā€™s return in 2017 was,Ā she told The Guardian, not unexpected. ā€œItā€™s been a part of my life for so long. I felt something was wrong. Itā€™s concerning when it comes back, but I thought: ā€˜Iā€™ll get through it again.ā€™ā€

What of her health problems? ā€œI donā€™t think of myself as sick with cancer,ā€ she says firmly. ā€œI choose not to see it as a fight either because I donā€™t like war. I donā€™t like fighting wherever it is ā€“ whether itā€™s outside or an actual war inside my body. I choose not to see it that way. I want to get my body healthy and back in balance. Part of that is your mental attitude to it. If you think: ā€˜Poor me,ā€™ or ā€˜Iā€™m sick,ā€™ then youā€™re going to be sick.ā€

The popstar-singer was arguably best known for her breakout role in Grease, the 1978 American musical romantic comedy film based on the 1971 musical of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, which co-starred Oscar nominated actor John Travolta.

Travolta paid tribute to his co-star in a post on his Insta:

Newton-John was an ally to the LGBTQ community who was appreciative of her LGBTQ fans. In an interview with Logo/MTV she noted: ā€œThe gay fans have always been very loyal, they are a really great audience and have always been there for me.ā€

Out actor George Takei tweeted his remembrance:

In addition to her husband she is survived by her 36-year-old daughter, Chloe Lattanzi. 

The family asked for donations to be made to her cancer organization, the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, in lieu of flowers.Ā 

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Obituary

William Troy dies at 69

Longtime D.C. resident worked on the Hill and in antiques

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William Troy (Photo courtesy family)

William Joseph “Bill” Troy passed away peacefully on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024, at Cayuga Medical Center with his family at his bedside, from recent medical issues after living an active and robust life, according to a statement released by family. He was 69.

Troy was born April 15, 1955, in Elmira, N.Y. to William and Shirley Troy. He attended school in Ithaca and left to attend college at the University of Rochester. He worked at the university at various positions to help pay his way through, and he graduated in 1978 with a bachelorā€™s degree in history. He continued working at the university and living in Rochester until he accepted an internship in the federal offices of Congressman Matt McHugh of the NY 28th District from 1978-1983. 

Troy was a life-long collector of various things, starting with coins and comics as a youngster, but in the 1980s he moved on to Art Deco lamps, disco records, antique furnishings, Arts & Crafts pottery, and a multitude of similar objects. He followed his passion of seeking antiques and used furnishings in Washington where he met many like-minded people and formed friendships with collectors and dealers.

Troy lived with his friend and partner Kirk Palmatier in Washington until December 2022 when he moved to Newark, N.Y., Palmatier’s hometown. He also wanted to enjoy his IthacaĀ  family more by living nearer to them.

Troy is survived by five loving sisters and two loving brothers and several nieces and nephews. His death was preceded by that of his parents, William and Shirley Troy. Troy is also survived by his friend and partner Kirk Palmatier of Newark, N.Y., and a number of D.C.-area friends and business associates from over the past years. Arrangements to memorialize Troy will be with his family at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to your favorite cancer or hospice organization.Ā 

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Longtime LGBTQ advocate ABilly S. Jones-Hennin dies at 81

Credited with advancing bisexual presence in the movement

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A. Billy S. Jones-Hennin (Photo courtesy of A. Billy S. Jones-Hennin)

ABilly S. Jones-Hennin, a longtime D.C. LGBTQ rights advocate who co-founded the National Coalition of Black Gays in 1978 and helped organize the first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979, died Jan. 19 at his and his husbandā€™s winter home in Chetumal, Mexico.

His partner and husband of 45 years, Christopher Hennin, said the cause of death was complications associated with Parkinsonā€™s Disease and advance stage spinal stenosis. He was 81.

Jones-Hennin, who identified as bisexual, is credited with advancing the presence of the bisexual community within the LGBTQ rights movement while working through several organizations he helped to form to advance of the overall cause of LGBTQ and African-American civil rights.

He was born in St. Johns, Antigua in 1942 and was adopted at the age of 3 by an American civil rights activist couple. According to  biographical information on Jones-Hennin released by organizations he worked with, he grew up in South Carolina and Virginia. He served in the U.S. Marines after graduating from high school in Richmond before graduating from Virginia State University in 1967. He later received a masterā€™s degree in social work at Howard University in D.C.

A biographical write-up on Jones-Hennin by the National Black Justice Coalition, an LGBTQ organization, says he was married to a woman for seven years and had three children before he and his wife separated. In a 2022 interview published by the AARP, Jones-Hennin said the separation came after he came out as gay before coming to the self-realization that he was in fact bisexual. He said he remained on good terms with his children and even took them to LGBTQ events.

Christopher Hennin said he and Jones-Hennin met in 1978 in D.C. while Jones-Hennin worked in accounting and management for different consulting firms, including the firm Macro International. At one point in the 1980s Jones-Hennin worked for D.C.ā€™s Whitman-Walker Clinic where he became involved with providing services to people with HIV/AIDS in the early years of the epidemic.

A write-up on Jones-Hennin by D.C.ā€™s Rainbow History Project, which named him a Community Pioneer, its highest honor, said Jones-Hennin managed several federal and state HIV/AIDS research and evaluation projects while working for a national management consulting firm.

Jones-Hennin is credited with breaking ground in the then gay and lesbian movement in 1978 when he co-founded the National Coalition of Black Gays, which became the first national advocacy group for gay and lesbian African Americans. One year later in 1979, he served as logistics coordinator for the first ever National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

During the March on Washington weekend Jones-Hennin helped to organize a National Third World LGBT Conference at Howard University, which led to the creation by students of the Howard University Lambda Student Alliance, the first known LGBT organization at a historically Black college or university in the U.S.

Among his other activities, Jones-Hennin worked as minority affairs director of the National AIDS Network, was a founding member of the Gay Married Menā€™s Association, and helped co-found the National Association of Black & White Men Together. During the administration of President Jimmy Carter, Jones-Hennin participated in the first delegation of gay people of color to meet with officials working for a U.S. president, according to the National Black Justice Coalition write-up on Jones-Hennin.

Christopher Hennin said he and Jones-Hennin were married in 2014 and began spending winters in Mexico around 1998, in part, because the cold weather had a negative effect on Jones-Henninā€™s spinal stenosis condition, which at one point, required that he undergo surgery to treat the condition, which sometimes caused intense pain.

ā€œHe was a person totally dedicated to turning adversity into hope,ā€ Christopher Hennin said of his husband. ā€œHis passion was definitely social change and improving peopleā€™s well-being,ā€ said Hennin, describing Jones-Hennin as a ā€œvery impressive 21st century renaissance thinker.ā€

Hennin said a memorial service and celebration of Jones-Henninā€™s life was being planned sometime later this year at D.C.ā€™s Metropolitan Community Church, where Jones-Henninā€™s ashes will be placed in a crypt.

Lesbian activist Susan Silber, one of Jones-Henninā€™s longtime friends, said she viewed him as the LGBTQ communityā€™s Bayard Rustin in his role as the ā€œamazing organizerā€ of the first national Lesbian and Gay March on Washington and as lead organizer of  the Third World LGBT Conference.

ā€œABilly lit up the room with his warmth and charisma,ā€ Silber said.

Jones-Hennin is survived by his husband Christopher Hennin; his sister Pat Jones; his children Valerie Jones, Anthony ā€˜TJā€™ Jones, Forrest ā€˜Peachesā€™ Taylor, Danielle Silber, and Avi Silber; 10 grandchildren; and 11 great grandchildren.

Family members have invited those who knew Jones-Hennin to share their memories of him online, which they plan to compile and share with his friends and family members:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeBiRDTlZFi4U8s7j26bEH5UChj5fgfpeklL5Km2q34eS3V3A/viewform

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Prominent LGBTQ rights attorney Mauro Montoya dies at 65

Former D.C. resident was legal director at Whitman-Walker in 1980s

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Mauro Walden-Montoya died Dec. 18.

Mauro Walden-Montoya, a prominent LGBTQ rights attorney in D.C. who was among the first to represent people with HIV facing discrimination before he moved to New Mexico and became active in LGBTQ rights endeavors and operated several small businesses, died Dec. 18 from complications associated with cancer. He was 65.

People from D.C. and Albuquerque, N.M., where Montoya lived and worked since the late 1990s, describe him as a selfless advocate and supporter of the LGBTQ and HIV communities for decades.

Amy Nelson, an official with D.C.ā€™s Whitman-Walker Health, said Montoya became Whitman-Walkerā€™s first director of legal services in 1986 as a gay man living with HIV. Nelson said Montoya for at least two years assisted Whitman-Walker patients ā€œwho were facing unspeakable mistreatment and discrimination as they battled AIDS.ā€

Montoya was born and raised in Albuquerque. He graduated in 1976 from Albuquerqueā€™s Highland High School and received a bachelorā€™s degree in 1980 from New Mexico State University. He received his law degree from D.C.ā€™s George Washington University School of Law in 1984.

He began work as Whitman-Walkerā€™s legal director in 1986. Nelson said he worked with a network of dedicated volunteer attorneys to provide legal support for people with HIV facing discrimination that drew local and national news media attention. Nelson pointed to a 2016 event that Montoya attended in 2016 where he ā€œrecounted the clients he assisted and befriended in the 1980s, their prolonged legal battles in that time of uncertainty and missing legal protections, and the many funerals he attended as well.ā€

According to Nelson, Montoya shared that he was ā€œtoo shakenā€ to continue in that role after two years but remained committed to serving the LGBTQ and AIDS communities in other ways in D.C. before returning to his home city of Albuquerque. Before returning to Albuquerque, Montoya served as president of D.C.ā€™s Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, an LGBTQ group, from 1990 to 1991, according to former Stein Club President Kurt Vorndran.

In 1994, Montoya was the keynote speaker for the federal governmentā€™s World AIDS Day events in D.C., where President Bill Clinton introduced him, a biographical writeup by the LGBTQ Victory Fund says.

Among his endeavors in Albuquerque, Montoya became co-owner of the real estate management companies ABQSEQ Partners and Barbary Lane. He also became owner of a classic vehicle restoration shop called Madness Motors, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fundā€™s writeup, which came out at the time Montoya became a candidate in 2021 for a seat on the Albuquerque City Council.

Montoya lost that race in the November 2021 election, but supporters said he raised important issues as a candidate and drew attention as the first out LGBTQ and Latino candidate with HIV to run for a seat on the Council.

The Victory Fund biography says in July 2013, Montoya became a minister in the Universal Life Church and performed marriages for more than 100 same-sex couples in New Mexico, California, Texas, and Washington State.

Upon his retirement as an attorney, Montoya became a professional volunteer, the Victory Fund writeup says. Among other things, he became the LGBTQ Liaison for the Albuquerque Trolley Company, he served as president of the Albuquerque LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce, and sat on several boards, including Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and the Wheels Museum.

Montoya is survived by his husband of 15 years, Andy Walden-Montoya. Walden-Montoya couldnā€™t immediately be reached for comment, but he expressed his thoughts about his late husband in a post on Facebook.

ā€œHe was a good man, with a passionate heart and deep soul,ā€ Walden-Montoya wrote. ā€œI am a better person because of the 15 years we had together,ā€ he stated, adding, ā€œFor all of those who knew him, I hope feelings of contentment, happiness, and joy grow to replace loss and sorrow. Our world is safer and happier because of the life he lived. I miss him immeasurably. I am a better person because of Mauro.ā€

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