The LGBT Fallen Heroes Fund Fund has signed the contract and made a down payment to buy the sites that we will eventually hold the LGBT Fallen Heroes Memorial at the Historic Congressional Cemetery. The LGBT Fallen Heroes Fund works to identify and honor those fallen LGBT Law Enforcement Officers, Firefighters, EMS, and members of the Military who have dedicated their lives to their communities and give recognition to their survivors.
The memorial will be located in what has become a special location at the cemetery, where several LGBT community members are remembered. The memorial is steps away from the gravesite of Sergeant Leonard P. Matlovich, a vietnam veteran remembered for bravely coming out as gay on the cover of Time Magazine in 1975. The site is adjacent to the memorial marker for LGBT civil rights pioneer and veteran Frank Kameny.
An annual service to honor LGBT Veterans takes place every year at the cemetery on Veterans Day.
Other individuals memorialized at the Cemetery include Barbara Gittings (Daughters of Bilitis, The Ladder); Alain Locke (hailed by many as the father of the Harlem Renaissance); and Peter Doyle (believed by historians to have been the greatest love of gay American poet Walt Whitman).
While the deposit has been made on the memorial site, the LGBT Fallen Heroes Funds will be making monthly payments for the site for the next two years. To make a donation to support this important work, visit their website at lgbtfallenheroesfund.org.