Jean O’Leary

Jean O’Leary was born in Kingston, New York, and grew up in Cleveland. Straight out of school, in 1966, she entered a Catholic convent, hoping to “have an impact on the world”. She studied psychology and left the order in 1971 before taking her final vows; she later wrote about her experience in the anthology “Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence” (1985).

In New York she joined the Gay Activists Alliance. Finding it dominated by men, she founded Lesbian Feminist Liberation in 1972, one of the first lesbian activist groups in the women’s movement. In 1974 she became co-executive director of the National Gay Task Force and insisted on equal representation of women in its leadership.

In 1977 she organised the first meeting of gay and lesbian activists at the White House. President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year – the first openly gay person on a presidential commission. At the National Women’s Conference in Houston that year she helped win support for a resolution on lesbian and gay rights. She served for twelve years on the Democratic National Committee and in the 1980s led National Gay Rights Advocates, one of the first organisations to fight legal battles over AIDS.

In 1988 she co-founded National Coming Out Day with Rob Eichberg, still marked every 11 October. She later regretted having opposed drag queens at the 1973 Pride rally. O’Leary died of lung cancer in 2005, aged 57.