Steve Endean 1948 – 1993| By Anthony T. Eaton
Born in Davenport, Iowa, in 1948, Steve Endean moved to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota. From 1968 to 1972, he studied political science at the University, but it would be his political action in 1971 that would change history. Three years after the Stonewall riots, Steve founded the Minnesota Committee for Gay Rights, which would go on to become the Gay Rights Legislative Committee.
In 1972 Steve became the first gay rights lobbyist in Minnesota and, a year later, began lobbying the Minneapolis City Council to include protections for gay rights in an anti-discrimination ordinance. His efforts and those of others led to Minneapolis being the first city to pass a gay rights Ordinance with a 12-0 vote.
Throughout the 1970s, Endean continued his political activism serving as co-chair of the Board of Directors for the National Gay Task Force and director of the Gay Rights National Lobby. He would go on to become the first executive director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, which he founded in 1980.
Despite being diagnosed with AIDS In 1985, a time when there was little hope, Endean continued to fight for equality and, in 1991, created the National Endorsement Campaign. The goal was to get straight media figures to endorse LGBT rights. In the same year, he published his memoir, Into the Mainstream.
In 1993 the Minnesota Legislature passed the Minnesota Human Rights Act banning discrimination in education, housing, and employment. This law was also the first in the country to include protections for trans people.
On August 4, 1993, after declining health, we lost Steve Endean, a true pioneer and icon of our community.
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