Tom Doerr
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| birth_name = Thomas L. Doerr
| birth_date = 1947
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| death_date = August 2, {{Death year and age|1987|1947}}
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| partner = Marty Robinson
| known_for = Introducing the lambda symbol into the gay movement
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Thomas L. Doerr (1947 – August 2, 1987) was an American gay activist. In 1970, he introduced the lambda symbol into the gay rights movement when the image was used to represent the political work of the Gay Activists Alliance.{{cite web|title=1969, The Year of Gay Liberation|url=http://web-static.nypl.org/exhibitions/1969/ref/1696848.html|website=The New York Public Library|date=June 2009|access-date=17 November 2018}}{{cite web|last1=Rapp|first1=Linda|title=Symbols|url=http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/symbols_A.pdf|website=glbtq.com|date=2003|access-date=17 November 2018}} The lambda became "a sign for gay liberation in general".
Early life
Thomas L. Doerr was born in 1947 to Charles W. Doerr (1922–2002) and Elizabeth F. Doerr (1922–1994).{{Citation needed|date=September 2017}}
Career
In the days after the Stonewall riots in 1969, Doerr became known as an activist who helped others understand the political implications of their actions.
He was a founding member of the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) in New York. He introduced the lambda symbol for the gay movement.{{cite book|last1=Clendinen|first1=Dudley|last2=Nagourney|first2=Adam|title=Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America|date=2001|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=56|isbn=9780684867434|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6zRFBGTSgoUC&pg=PA56|access-date=10 September 2017}} He meant the lambda to symbolize the liberation achievable through activism, the link because in chemistry, the lambda is a sign for a catalyst and in Doerr's concept, it symbolized an "exchange of energy." Originally, the sign was colored chrome yellow – a reference to the Aldous Huxley novel Crome Yellow – on a dark blue field.{{cite web|url=http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/qq-lbd.html|title=Lambda flags (gay pride)|publisher=CRW Flags Inc.|access-date=8 September 2017}}
In 1970, ten GAA members occupied the Republican State Committee headquarters to demand that Governor Nelson Rockefeller support gay rights. A Kay Lahusen photo shows Marty Robinson and Tom Doerr snuggling under an American flag.{{cite web|url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-57d7-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99|title=Tom Doerr and Marty Robinson during Gay Activists Alliance sit-in.|publisher=New York Public Library|access-date=10 September 2017}}
Personal life
Tom Doerr was a lover of Martin "Marty" Robinson (1943–1992). Born in Brooklyn, Robinson attended New York University and worked as a union carpenter.{{cite journal|last1=Lambert|first1=Bruce|title=Martin Robinson, Leader of Protests For Gay Rights, 49|journal=The New York Times|date=1992|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/23/nyregion/martin-robinson-leader-of-protests-for-gay-rights-49.html|access-date=8 September 2017}} Robinson, writing Doerr's obituary, said:
Anything that I had been able to contribute towards human liberation (self-acceptance) came from his love. I and many of your friends, Tom, will find it much harder to stumble on without you. A somewhat reticent, gentle prophet died this week... We are crushed at losing you... Fortified in having known you.{{cite web |title=Doerr, Thomas 13 Aug 1987 |url=http://obit.glbthistory.org/olo/imagedb/1987/08/13/19870813_Doerr_Thomas/m19870813_0.jpg |publisher=GLBT Historical Society |access-date=July 3, 2021}}
Doerr died on August 2, 1987, and is buried with his parents at Centre County Memorial Park, State College, Pennsylvania.
Vito Russo designed the panel honoring Tom Doerr for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, a blue shirt with the lambda yellow sign and underneath it the words: "In memory of Tom Doerr, who designed the Lambda as the symbol of the Gay Liberation Movement".{{cite book|last1=Schiavi|first1=Michael|title=Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo|date=2011|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|page=249|isbn=9780299282332|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMs06LSC42sC&pg=PA249|access-date=10 September 2017}}{{cite web|title=Search the Quilt|url=http://98.252.165.190:591/FMRes/FMPro?-db=search%20the%20quilt.fp5&key=33405&-img|website=The AIDS Memorial Quilt|access-date=25 September 2017|archive-date=25 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170925180916/http://98.252.165.190:591/FMRes/FMPro?-db=search%20the%20quilt.fp5&key=33405&-img|url-status=dead}}
References
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External links
- {{Find a Grave|id=125885921}}
- [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=Tom+Doerr# Tom Doerr photos at The New York Public Library Digital Collections]
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Category:AIDS-related deaths in New York (state)
Category:People from State College, Pennsylvania