Longtime lesbian activist Jean Harris passes away

Jean Harris, center Another icon leaves us to carry on. From LGBT POV: (UPDATED with bio at 2:10pm Pacific) Late Sunday night, June 26, open lesbian Palm Springs City Councilmember Ginny Foat sent an email to friends announcing the death of longtime lesbian politico Jean Harris: Hi Friends, First I must apologize for contacting you in this manner but there are so many people to contact that I could not call all of you.
It is with great sadness and grief that I let you know that our friend Jean Harris passed away yesterday. Many of you have not seen Jean in awhile since she retired to her condo in Palm Springs. After leaving her job with the State Senate she tried relaxing around the pool of her condo but did not give up politics. She was very active in my last campaign, Steve Pougnet’s congressional run for the 45thCD, several races in Long Beach and other parts of the State. And of course always in local and state Democratic party business. She was considering a possible position with the Democratic Party when her health took a bad turn. She has been very quiet about her physical condition. In Jean’s own inimitable way she was always in charge and tried to do that with her health. Unfortunately she was not in charge and rather suddenly lost that battle. We are not sure if her heart or her liver failed but what does it matter. Jean herself never failed. We have lost another icon in the LGBT movement. And from a press release: (Palm Springs) LGBT Community leader Jean Harris died at home in Palm Springs last week from complications due to several health issues. She was 66. Jean Harris has been on the cutting edge of LGBT politics for over three decades and has built state-wide nonpartisan LGBT political advocacy organizations in both Oregon and California. In Oregon, she brought together and organized LGBT activists to defeat a statewide discrimination measure (No on 13) and was the first Executive Director of “Basic Rights Oregon,” founded in 1996. Harris moved back to California, bringing her skills to The California Alliance for Pride and Equality (CAPE) which was to become the present-day Equality California (EQCA). As the Executive Director, she transformed CAPE from a fledging grass-roots organization to a powerful lobbying organization with a database of close to one million registered voters.]]>