Joe Tom Isley, a gay rights activist and lawyer who worked to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy and whose 2003 wedding was one of the first same-sex unions to be announced in The New York Times, died Feb. 2 . 13 in a hospital in Miami Beach. He was 81 years old.
The cause was complications from a lung disease, Mr Isley’s husband Peter Freiberg said Tuesday.
Mr. Easley, who served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, fought for years to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule that President Bill Clinton passed in 1993 to allow gays to serve in the military. provided they keep their sexuality a secret. In 2010 President Barack Obama signed the policy.
Mr. Easley was chairman of the Military Legal Advocacy Network, a group that sought to end discrimination against gay military personnel and end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Joe Tom Isley born September 28, 1940 in Robstown, Texas, to Tom Lee Isley and the former Lady Hampton. He grew up in Truby, Texas during the 1940s and 1950s, when openly gay people were far from common.
In 1966, when he was called to the Vietnam War, Mr. Easley decided to join the Navy, where he served at the intelligence base on Adak Island, Alaska. According to Freiberg, he was told a year later that a friend who offered him sex before he entered the service told the government that he was gay.
According to Mr Freiberg, Mr Isley’s commanding officer told him that he should kick him out because gays are forbidden from serving, but that “because of his exemplary service” he would make sure Mr Isley received an honorable discharge. and veterans benefits. .
A graduate of Texas A&M, Mr. Easley received a law degree from the University of Texas and a master’s degree in public health from Yale University.
According to Freiberg, although he was nearly 38 years old when he came out, he sought to catch up with his gay activism using his skills as a public speaker, teacher, and leader.
After working for three years in Europe for a consumer watchdog that investigated price-fixing by pharmaceutical companies, Mr. Easley moved to Washington, D.C., where his husband says he lived in the late 1970s and early 80s. .
Mr. Easley was initially hired as a tenured law professor at American University. After he retired in 1978, he was appointed assistant dean in addition to his teaching duties. Later, he was a professor at the then Antioch Law School, where he served as an advisor to the LGBT student group.
He also became president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, a gay political organization in the Washington area.
Eventually Mr. Easley left Washington for New York, where he met Mr. Freiberg and continued his human rights work.
From 1983 to 1987 Mr. Easley was chairman of the LGBT group The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Foundation. He then served as president of the Human Rights Campaign Fund.
Vic Basil, former executive director of the Campaign for Human Rights, said in an email that Mr. Easley “has made an important contribution to shaping the goal of electing pro-LGBT candidates to Congress.”
On August 24, 2003, less than a year after Daniel Andrew Gross and Steven Goldstein became the first same-sex couple to have an affair. ad about their civil union published in The New York Times, the marriage of Mr Easley and Mr Fryberg at Toronto City Hall was featured on the wedding pages of the newspaper.
Mr. Freiberg, the sole survivor of Mr. Easley, was described in the ad as a freelance writer and editor. Mr. Easley has been described as a lecturer at BAR-BRI Bar Review, a company that prepares future lawyers for the bar exams.
Two years later, Mr. Easley gained national attention when he appeared in front page article in The Times about sponsoring an Iraqi boy who was burned and blind in one eye after stepping on a cluster bomb. Mr. Easley worked for over a year to bring the boy to the United States for treatment.
He made a list of eye surgeons and dermatologists to treat the boy for free.
“People ask me why this boy, why help him when so many others are in a worse situation,” Mr. Easley said in an interview at the time. “I tell them, well, I don’t know about the other boys. But I know about Ayad.