One of America's most prominent gay journalists – Paul Varnell – has died, PinkPaper.com can report.
He died on 9 December of complications from pneumonia and a stroke. He was 70.
As reported by the WindyCityMedisGroup.com, Varnell was an active activist in the gay community. He was a board member of Parents and
Friends of Gays in Chicago from 1983 to 1984; chaired the Media
Committee of the Illinois Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1983 to 1990; was a
member of the Chicago AIDS Task Force from 1982 to 1990; was a
co-founder of CARGO, the Chicago Area Gay Republican Organization, in
1984; and helped to promote the Gay History Month founding in 1994.
Varnell was also appointed by Dr. Bernard Turnock, director of the
Illinois Department of Public Health, to its AIDS Interdisciplinary
Advisory Committee in 1985.
PinkPaper.com's International Correspondent, Rex Wockner, worked closely with Varnell in one particular professional masterstroke in 1989.
"Paul was one of the most independent persons I
ever have known," he said. "It wasn't easy to get close to him, and I figure I got
as far as anyone did. He was a journalist, he was an opinion columnist,
he was a thinker, he was a libertarian and, I think, a Libertarian, he
was an intellectual.
"His columns raised the intelligence quotient of all
the gay papers he appeared in. He was an activist, with the Illinois Gay
& Lesbian Task Force and other entities."
He added: "He
and I, as a journalistic exercise, tried to get a marriage license in
Cook County -- in 1989! And when rebuffed, we filed human-rights
complaints with the city and the state. We lost. We claimed sex
discrimination but they told us it was sexual-orientation discrimination
and that that wasn't illegal at that time in Illinois.
"The Sun-Times
made a big story of our little effort. We turned down an invite to
appear on Oprah. :-| I suppose everyone is unique, but Paul was unlike
anyone I've ever known. I think it was the degree of his independence
and the degree of his self-sufficiency that stood out. He had very
specific ideas about how he wanted to live his life -- and that is
exactly how he lived it, each day and without compromise."