COLUMN REMEMBERING TERRY DECARLO
Goodbye Terry deCarlo CanCer Claims lonGTime aCTivisT’s life South Florida Community Leader Became National Voice After Pulse Norm Kent norm.kent@sfgn.com
T
he South Florida LGBT community has lost one of its treasured members.
“He lived his life unselfishly in service of others.” Terry DeCarlo. Submitted by Tom Forcella.
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1 .29.2020
- John Castelli REALTOR
Terry DeCarlo, 57, passed away Monday, Jan. positions with various LGBT social service 27, at Memorial Regional Hospital, after being organizations. treated for stage 4 face and neck cancer over the Terry initiated such popular local projects past few months. as ‘The Amazing Race” and bed races, getting An LGBT and HIV activist for years, Terry hundreds of community members thoroughly gained national acclaim for his stewardship involved in fun causes for charitable programs. of The LGBT+ Center Orlando, after the Pulse Terry also became a voice for LGBT causes. massacre. He spoke out against the FDA, attempting Raised in New York, DeCarlo’s first to overturn its antiquated ban on gay men engagements with the LGBT community came donating blood. With his partner, and later husband, Billy about in the early 1990s, when he joined AIDS Huelsman, they started up Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT WHTN Productions in 1997. They UP). SYSTEMATICALLY, regrouped and launched their “I met Larry Kramer,” one of the enterprise again last year, after organization’s pioneers, DeCarlo TERRY BECAME Terry resigned from The LGBT+ told me on my radio show this fall, THE FACE, VOICE, Center in Orlando and returned “and never looked back.” True that. HEART AND SOUL to South Florida. Billy posted on Facebook For decades, Terry became a OF BROWARD Tuesday, regarding his husband’s force in his own right, inspiring passing. It reads simply, “It is care, concern, and commitment HOUSE, ALONG with the heaviest of hearts that I for others. WITH A HOST need to let everyone know I lost Armed with a bachelor’s the love of my life last night. The degree in public relations and OF NON-PROFIT cancer was just too aggressive for communications, he moved to SOCIAL SERVICE treatment.” South Florida in the late 1990s. Many people did not realize Systematically, Terry became ORGANIZATIONS. that Terry had also suffered a the face, voice, heart and soul of heart attack in 2018 while he Broward House, along with a host was living in central Florida. He was returning of non-profit social service organizations. Continuing with his AIDS activism, he home to slow the pace down; to start the ship turned the World AIDS Day celebration in again. Still, even healing, he partnered with SFGN Wilton Manors to a community wide event. His life story is a testimony to a gay spirit of to put on a memorial for Pulse at Richardson Park in Wilton Manors. authenticity and transparency. Terry did not discover he was sick until After college, Terry enlisted in the United States Air Force, where he would become an this past October, when he noticed some intelligence operations officer for the Strategic unexplained bleeding in his mouth. Tests revealed a cancerous tumor, which required Air Command’s 349th Air Refueling Squadron. immediate surgery. He served the nation proudly. On Oct. 15, Terry then underwent an Terry maintained his commitment to AIDS activism when he returned to civilian life. He exhaustive 11-hour procedure to rebuild his took on administrative and media relations’ face and jaw. He did not let up even then.