Image Pioneer Passes Away at 67

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) mourns the death of Regina Shavers, co-founder of the GRIOT Circle and long-time community activist, who died on January 30, 2008 at the age of 67. She is revered by many as a trailblazer who often championed the rights of the invisible.

Affectionately known by family and friends as “Gigi,” Shavers founded GRIOT Circle in 1995 to create a safe haven for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) elders of color, and, to date, remains the only group of its kind in the U.S. She also helped found Pride at Work and the Audre Lorde Project, which was named in honor of the renowned poet and activist as well as mentor to Shavers.

Image“Regina, is a bold, dynamic force, and a lover of all people,” said GLAAD’s Media Strategist for Communities of African Descent Katina Parker. “I speak in the present tense because her compassion and commitment to bringing visibility to underrepresented people will live on in all of us who take up her pioneering torch. She will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family.”

Shavers’ work on the Campaign for an Equal and Inclusive Family Policy helped secure domestic partner benefits for New York City employees under then Mayor David Dinkins. She was co-chair for District Council 37, where she organized for LGBT workers’ rights, and served on the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Lesbian and Gay Rights Advisory Board. She also served as the Assistant Director of the NYC Department of Health’s HIV Training Institute.

Born in 1941, Shavers was the only out lesbian in her high school. She is survived by her partner, Rev. Janyce Jackson, who pastors at Liberation in Truth Unity Fellowship Church in Newark, N.J. Among her many honors, Shavers received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Senior Action in A Gay Environment (SAGE). The Pioneer’s Memorial Service will be held February 2 in New Jersey.

About GLAAD
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org.