Randy Forrester, an icon of the gay rights and AIDS awareness movements in Western Pennsylvania, passed away on Wednesday, April 23,2008, after a lengthy bout with cancer at the age of 60.
“Once you met Randy, you would never forget him, because he would make an impact on you,” said Forrester’s partner of 37 years Jim Huggins. “He was that kind of a person. And he spoke his mind with tact, but bluntness. He didn’t pull punches if he thought that it was something that needed to be said. And not everybody liked him forthat. But they respected him.” Forrester of Fox Chapel boasted an impressive resume.
He founded the region’s first gay and lesbian rights organization, the Mattachine Society. In 1972, he and Huggins formed the Persad Center, making it the nation’s second oldest licensed counseling center specifically created to meet the needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Randy served as the agency’s first Executive Director.
He was among a group of local leaders that were the first to respond to the crisis of AIDS in the early 1980’s when AIDS was a death sentence to many gay men. Randy worked on the city’s nondiscrimination act to end the fear of gay Pittsburghers that they could be fired just for being gay. Randy served on the board of the ACLU and was honored in 2006 as the Pittsburgh chapter’s Civil Libertarian of the Year. Randy was named #53 in Pittsburgh Magazine’s 1999 list of the 100 most influential Pittsburghers of the 20th century and became the first gay person to run for Pittsburgh City Council, friends remembered.
“A natural leader, Forrester knew how to reach people,” said Chuck Honse, one of the founders of the Delta Foundation. “He was a mentor in a great many ways,” Honse said. “He instilled that spark of community, that sense of community, in people.”
“I think Randy is arguably this region’s most influential gay rights figure,” said Betty Hill, who succeeded Forrester as executive director of Persad Center. “I can’t think of anybody else in this region who has done more for the gay community or the HIV/AIDS community than Randy.”
