Remembering a Capital District pioneer

The life of longtime LGBT rights activist and early Task Force board member Joseph Norton was honored and celebrated this past Sunday in Albany, N.Y. Norton, a Capital District pioneer in the fight for equality, recently passed away at the age of 92.

According to the Times Union newspaper:

 In 1970, Norton was among a group of men who — in the wake of the gay rights protests that flared in New York City a year earlier — coalesced to form the Capital District Gay & Lesbian Community Council, now 41 years old and believed to be the oldest such continuously operating organization of its kind in the country.

Norton fought for passage of Albany’s nondiscrimination ordinance and is credited with his work on behalf of such groups as the Task Force; the Association of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexuals in Counseling; the New York State Coalition of Gay Organizations; and the National Association of Gay Psychologists, among many others.

In a 2006 interview, Norton said:

 It’s important to be out and proud and visible. People need to know the diversity of the people they live around.

Read the full story here.