Arnie Kantrowitz
Arnold Kantrowitz, pioneering and beloved gay activist and writer, passed away peacefully on 1/21/22, at the Upper East Side Rehabilitation Center in New York City, where he was being treated for complications of COVID. He was the author of a gay classic, Under The Rainbow, which famously described the first Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day Parade in New York City in 1969. Together with his closest friend, leading gay activist Vito Russo, he was a co-founder of Gay Activists Alliance, and later of GLAAD. He established a pioneering Gay Studies course at the College of Staten Island, where he served as chairperson and professor of the Department of English. He wrote often about his own beloved hero, the poet Walt Whitman. He was a true sage and champion whose loss will be mourned by his his family and by the many students, colleagues and friends whose lives he so deeply touched. He is survived by his life partner, Larry Mass, and his brother, Barry Kantrowitz.
AP News 4/13/22
Gay USA January 26, 2022 from Manhattan Neighborhood Network on Vimeo.
"When I see young men and old women come out of the closet and face being called faggots and dykes and pariahs and betrayers of the family dream, then I am honored to be gay because I belong to a people who are proud." ~ Arnie Kantrowitz