Mel Boozer

Mel Boozer
Melvin "Mel" Boozer
Born	1946 Washington, D.C.
Died	1987 Washington, D.C.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Professor of sociology, LGBT rights activist, President of the Gay Activists Alliance
Known for	The first openly gay candidate for Vice President of the United States

Melvin "Mel" Boozer was a university professor and activist for African American, LGBT and AIDS issues.

Boozer grew up in Washington, D.C. where he graduated as salutatorian of his class at Dunbar High School. Boozer attended Dartmouth College on a scholarship. He entered the university in 1963, one of only three African Americans admitted that year.^[1] Following his graduation he became a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland.^[2] In 1979, Boozer was elected president of the Gay Activists Alliance,^[3] in which office he served for two one-year terms.^[4] He was the first African American to serve as GAA president and became "a leading moderate voice among black gays nationally".^[5]

Boozer was nominated in 1980 for the office of Vice President of the United States by the Socialist Party USA^[6] and, by petition at the convention, by the Democratic Party.^[7] He was the first openly gay person ever nominated for the office.^[6] Boozer spoke to the Democratic convention in a speech televised in prime time, calling on the party to support equality for LGBT people.

"Would you ask me how I dare to compare the civil rights struggle with the struggle for lesbian and gay rights? I can compare them and I do compare them, because I know what it means to be called a 'nigger' and I know what it means to be called a 'faggot,' and I understand the differences in the marrow of my bones. And I can sum up that difference in one word: none."^[8]

Boozer received 49 votes before the balloting was suspended and then-Vice President Walter Mondale was renominated by acclamation.^[9]

In 1981, Boozer was hired by the National Gay Task Force as district director^[5] and a lobbyist. NGTF executive director Virginia Apuzzo fired him in 1983,^[10] replacing him with then-GAA president Jeff Levi.^[11] This had the effect of "leav[ing] the nation's oldest gay organization even whiter"^[12] and drew protests from other gay African Americans.^[10]

Boozer died of an AIDS-related illness in March 1987 at the age of 41 in Washington, D.C.^[5][13]

Notes

1. ^ Sears, p. 298
2. ^ Clendenin, et al., p. 419
3. ^ GLAA.org 20 Years Later, GLAA Remembers Mel Boozer. Retrieved 12 Mar 2010
4. ^ "1971–2007: Thirty-five years of fighting for equal rights". Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance. http://www.glaa.org/resources/timeline.shtml. Retrieved 2009-01-02. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} Witt, et al., p. 18
6. ^ ^{a b} Smith, et al., p. 193
7. ^ Shilts, p. 32
8. ^ Rutledge, p. 156
9. ^ Sears, p. 389
10. ^ ^{a b} Smith, p. 42
11. ^ Clendinen, et al., p. 477
12. ^ Clendinen, et al., p. 495
13. ^ "..:: IN Los Angeles Magazine ::.. ..:: AIDS at 25 ::..". In Magazine. http://www.inlamagazine.com/1105/aids25/908_aidsat25_rem_group.html. Retrieved 2009-04-30. ^{[dead link]}

References

• Cleninden, Dudley and Adam Nagourney (1999). Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America. New York, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684810913.
• Rutledge, Leigh (1992). The Gay Decades. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0452268109.
• Sears, Thomas James (2001). Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones: Queering Space in the Stonewall South. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813529646.
• Shilts, Randy (1987). And the Band Played on: Politics, People, And the AIDS Epidemic. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312009946.
• Smith, Michael J. (1983). Colorful People and Places: A Resource Guide for Third World Lesbians and Gay Men, and for White People who Share Their Interests. Quarterly Press of BWMT.
• Smith, Raymond A. and Donald P. Haider-Markel (2003). Gay and Lesbian Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1576072568.
• Witt, Lynn, Sherry Thomas and Eric Marcus (1995). Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America. New York, Warner Books. ISBN 0446672378.

Persondata
Name	Boozer, Mel
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1946
Place of birth	Washington, D.C.
Date of death	1987
Place of death	Washington, D.C.