Lansing’s LGBT Connection!
Lansing Association for Human Rights
The LGBT News Michigan’s oldest community based organization!
February 2016 : Volume 37 : Issue 5 : Published Monthly
Lansing Community Mourns Passing of LGBT Leader Bill Beachler founded LGBT scholarship, worked to run local organization for decades By Todd A. Heywood This article was originally printed 1/13/2016 in Issue 2401 of Between The Lines News and is reprinted with permission. Bill Beachler, with his “perfect hair” and “remarkable presentation,” was an everpresent figure at nearly every LGBT and HIV related organizational event and activity in the Capitol City for decades. But on Tuesday January 12, the former state department of transportation employee, Spartan alumni and longtime publisher of the Lansing Association for Human Rights newsletter, passed away. He was 70. Gary Hicks, a retired attorney in Lansing, has known Beachler since their days as undergrads at Michigan State University. He said in the summer of 1976, when he came out, Beachler was one of the people he struck up a friendship with. “It was probably due to our being alumni of MSU, his love of sports and his participation in the community,” that caused the friendship to “bloom,” Hicks said. Beachler was involved in the very early days of the Lansing Association for Human Rights. Hicks said he was in attendance at every meeting of the group from the late 70s on. For decades Beachler also served as the publisher of the organization’s monthly newsletter. “He relished his role as publisher of the newsletter because it allowed him to keep in contact with the different organizations and promote what they were doing,” said Hicks. That early and lifelong commitment to the community made him a storehouse of history for the local community said Hicks. Penny Gardner, president of LAHR, said he
Bill Beachler in 2014 attending the Rose Bowl where MSU played. Photo courtesy of Gary Hicks.
was “an institution.” Activists and community leaders noted that Beachler was particularly proud of the formation, in 2000, of a scholarship for LGBT students. State Rep. Jon Hoadley (D-Kalamazoo) was the second student to receive that scholarship. “He wanted to get to know each winner of the scholarship,” Hoadley said in a phone interview Wednesday from the floor of the state House. “As a freshman he took me to lunch at Clara’s - someplace I had never been to before - and he shared all this history and culture of the LGBT community that I, as a person from South Dakota, simply had no idea about. That mentorship was pivotal in the next choices I made to get involved.” Hoadley said the scholarship introduced him to educational advocacy and empowered his love for politics. Hoadley became one of the
state’s first openly gay lawmakers two years ago. Beachler was a long time employee of the Michigan Department of Transportation, and the department named a rest area in Allegan County near Saugatuck after him upon his retirement. But Hicks said there was more to Beachler than the politics. He said the former farm boy from Independence, Iowa loved euchre spending two or three nights a week playing the card game and participating monthly in tournaments. Hoadley said Beachler left “some big shoes to fill.” “There is no question that the state of Michigan and the LGBT community lost an institution in Bill Beachler,” said Hoadley. (Continued on page 3)
Dedication to William “Bill” Beachler by Melissa Cogswell, Layout Editor On Tuesday, January 12th, our friend Bill Beachler passed away. Bill was the longserving Publisher of this publication and served on the board of LAHR (Lansing Association for Human Rights) for many years. We’ve dedicated this issue to Bill. I’ve had the joy and honor of working with Bill on the past 78 issues of the LGBT News. It’s with great sadness that I work on this issue without him. Bill, we love you, we miss you and we’ll never forget you and the impact you had on our lives and community.
BUILDING STRONG LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER COMMUNITIES IN THE LANSING AREA