Jim Toy

Jim Toy (b. April 29, 1930 in New York Citycitation |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=bhlead;idno=umich-bhl-9744;view=reslist;didno=umich-bhl-9744;subview=standard;focusrgn=bioghist;cc=bhlead;byte=83892085 |title=James W. Toy Papers: Biography |periodical=Bently Historical Library, University of Michigan |accessdate=2007-09-12] ) is a long-time LGBT activist, considered a pioneer among LGBT activists in Michigan. He became the first gay person in Michigan to come out of the closet in public during a speech at an anti-Vietnam War rally in Detroit's Kennedy Square in April, 1970.citation |url=http://www.lgbtran.org/Profile.aspx?A=T&ID=79 |title=Jim Toy |periodical =The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Religious Archives Network |accessdate=2007-08-17]

Toy was a founding member of the Detroit Gay Liberation Movement and the Ann Arbor Gay Liberation Front. He successfully lobbied the University of Michigan to establish the Lesbian-Gay Male Programs Office in 1971. At its founding, it was the first LGBT office at any university in America. He was its co-coordinator and then director from its founding until 1994.

In 1972, Toy co-authored the first official "Lesbian-Gay Pride Week Proclamation" by a U.S. governing body, the Ann Arbor City Council. The same year, he co-authored the city's non-discrimination policy on sexual orientation. He also successfully lobbied the University of Michigan to include sexual orientation in the nondiscrimination clause of its bylaws, a fight that would last until 1993.

Toy continues to work for the University of Michigan as a diversity coordinator in the Office of Institutional Equity. He currently serves on Triangle Foundation's Board of Advisors [ [http://www.tri.org/about/advisors.html Triangle Foundation ] ] .

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