Australia

Activist

b.  March 9, 1947, Manila, Philippines

d.  December 17, 2012, Los Angeles, California

“We really felt that people could achieve the life they wanted.”

Richard Adams filed the first U.S. lawsuit to seek federal recognition of same-sex marriage. What should have been the beginning of a happy marriage laid the groundwork for his almost 40-year quest for federally recognized marriage equality.

On April 21, 1975, Adams and his Australian partner, Anthony Sullivan, obtained a marriage license in Boulder, Colorado. They were married before the Colorado Attorney General declared same-sex marriage licenses invalid.

Adams applied to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for Sullivan to receive a permanent residency green card as the spouse of an American citizen. In response, the couple received an INS reply that stated, “You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.”

Adams lodged a formal protest. The INS reissued their denial without the slur. Adams filed a suit in federal court, but the judge upheld the INS. Adams filed a second federal suit claiming that after an eight-year relationship, deportation of Sullivan constituted extreme hardship. The federal district court and U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against Adams.

Subsequently, Sullivan requested permanent residency for Adams in Australia. The Australian government denied the request. In 1985 the couple moved to Britain. Adams left behind his family and friends and a job he had for over 18 years. After one year in Britain, the couple returned to the U.S. and kept a low profile so as not to attract INS attention.

Subsequent to Adams’s death and after the U.S. Attorney General in 2011 declared the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, Sullivan filed for a green card as Adams’s widower, so he could remain permanently in the United States.

Olympic Diver 

b. March 2, 1988

"Being ‘out' for me means being just as I am with nothing to be ashamed about and no reasons to hide."

Australian diver Matthew Mitcham is one of the few openly gay Olympic athletes. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Mitcham won a gold medal after executing the highest-scoring dive in Olympic history.

Mitcham grew up in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He competed as a trampoline gymnast before being discovered by a diving coach. By the time he was 14, he was a national junior champion in diving. A few years later, he won medals in the World Junior Diving Championships.

In 2006, after battling anxiety and depression, Mitcham decided to retire from diving. The following year, he returned to diving and began training for the Olympics.

In Beijing, Mitcham won an Olympic gold medal in the 10-meter platform dive. It was the first time in over 80 years that an Australian male diver struck Olympic gold. After his triumph, he leaped into the stands to hug and kiss his partner, Lachlan Fletcher.

Mitcham was the first out Australian to compete in the Olympics. There were only 11 openly gay athletes out of a total of over 11,000 competitors in Beijing.

Mitcham was chosen 2008 Sports Performer of the Year by the Australian public. The same year, Australia GQ named him Sportsman of the Year. After accepting the GQ award, Mitcham joked, "Oh, my God, I’m a homo and I just won the sports award!"

Mitcham was a guest of honor at the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne. He is studying at Sydney University and training for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

"I look at the last 20 years as a long, winding path of lessons and some hardship," Mitcham said in 2008. “I hope I do have more lessons to learn. I look forward to that."
 

Historian

Joan Nestle is an award-winning author of lesbian literature, both fiction and nonfiction. She is the cofounder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives.

Nestle was born and raised in Queens, New York.  Her father died before she was born.  Nestle credits her mother with instilling in her “belief in a woman’s undeniable right to enjoy sex.”

In 1963, Nestle graduated from Queens College. She became active in the black civil rights movement, taking part in the Selma to Montgomery march and helping with voter registration in the Southern states.  

After Nestle earned a master’s degree from New York University, she taught at Queens College.  In the late 1960’s, she was active in the New York City gay and lesbian bar scene.  The bars were run by organized crime and riddled with blackmail and extortion.  After the Stonewall riots in 1969, she became a gay activist.  

In 1973, Nestle helped launch the Gay Academic Union (GAU) to pursue gay liberation in academics. GAU members began to collect and preserve documents related to lesbian history. From this initiative, she helped found the Lesbian Herstory Archives in 1976.  

Originally housed in the pantry of Nestle’s apartment, the Archives moved to its permanent home in Brooklyn. It is the oldest and largest lesbian collection in the world, housing more than 20,000 volumes, 12,000 photographs, and 200 special collections, among other artifacts and memorabilia.  Since its inception, Nestle has played a vital role in amassing the collection and promoting it to the community.   

In 1978, she began writing lesbian-themed fiction focused on the femme-butch relationship. She has won awards from the Lambda Literary Awards and the American Library Association. Her writings have been influential, and her anthology, “The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader” (1992), has become a staple in lesbian studies.

In 2002,  Nestle’s life was made the subject of the documentary film “Hands on the Pulse.” She teaches at the University of Melbourne, in Australia, where she lives with her partner, Diane Otto.

Supreme Court Justice       

b. March 18, 1939

“If every gay person in Australia stood up and said this is me, get over it, the whole shabby charade would be finished.”

Michael Kirby is a former justice of the High Court of Australia. He is the world’s first openly gay justice of a national supreme court. When he retired, he was Australia’s longest-serving judge.

Kirby was born in Sydney, Australia. He attended Fort Street High School, which is renowned for the accomplishments of its graduates. He earned three bachelor’s degrees and a Master of Laws degree from the University of Sydney.

Kirby practiced law for 13 years. In 1975, he was named deputy director of the Australian Conciliation & Arbitration Commission. Subsequently, he served as judge of the Federal Court of Australia, chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission and as president of the New South Wales Court. In 1996, he was appointed to the High Court.

A pioneering AIDS activist, Kirby served on the World Health Organization’s Global Commission on AIDS and the United Nations Global Commission on HIV and the Law. 

In 1991, Kirby received the Companion of the Order of Australia, the nation’s highest civil honor, and the Australian Human Rights Medal.

In 1999, Kirby came out when he named his long-term partner, Johan van Vloten, in his listing in “Who’s Who in Australia.” The couple has been together since 1969.

In 2010, Kirby received the Gruber Justice Prize for his work on sexual orientation discrimination and international human rights law, including laws relating to privacy and HIV/AIDS. In 2011, his biography, “Michael Kirby: Paradoxes/Principles,” was published.

Kirby lives with his partner in Sydney, where he advocates for LGBT equality and for people with HIV and AIDS.