Carmen Vázquez, a Force on L.G.B.T.Q. Issues, Dies at 72
Often outspoken, she was a fixture in advocacy groups in San Francisco and New York. She died of Covid-19.
Carmen Vázquez was called âone of the most brilliant activistsâ in the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement.Credit.National L.G.B.T.Q. Task Force
Published Feb. 5, 2021Updated Feb. 12, 2021
This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others
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It was 1996, and President Bill Clinton was running for a second term against Bob Dole, the Republican candidate. In the gay/lesbian/bi/trans world, there was talk of boycotting the election to show displeasure with the center-right politics of compromise that characterized Mr. Clintonâs first term. But Carmen Vázquez was having none of it.
Carmen Vázquez, the founding director of the Women s Building in San Francisco and a longtime activist for the LGBTQ community and social justice, died January 27 in New York City. She was 72.
The cause was complications of COVID-19, according to the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, where Ms. Vázquez had been a board co-chair.
According to a statement on the foundation s website, Ms. Vázquez, a butch lesbian, was the founding director of the Women s Building in San Francisco, helped found the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center in San Francisco, and the LGBT Health & Human Services Network, a coalition of over 55 organizations and groups in New York advocating for LGBTQ health and human services.
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Carmen Vázquez, the founding director of the Women s Building in San Francisco and a longtime activist for the LGBTQ community and social justice, died January 27 in New York City. She was 72.