Terry Dolan (activist)

John Terrence "Terry" Dolan (1950 – December 28, 1986) was an American New Right political activist who was a co-founder and chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC).[1] Dolan was also, during the mid to late 1970s, in the leadership of Christian Voice, "the nation's oldest conservative Christian lobby".[2]

While Dolan was a proponent of family values and the organizations he led were persistently critical of gay rights, he was revealed to have been a closeted homosexual,[3][4][5][6] who frequented gay bars in Washington, D.C.[7] At a Washington fundraising event in 1985, the renowned AIDS activist Larry Kramer reportedly tossed a glass of water in his face.[8] Dolan died from complications of AIDS at the age of 36.[9] He is one of many with panels dedicated to them (in his case three panels) in the AIDS Quilt.[10]

  1. ^ Elizabeth Kastor (1987), The Cautious Closet of the Gay Conservative; In the Life and Death of Terry Dolan, Mirror Images From the Age of AIDS, The Washington Post, May 11, 1987.
  2. ^ Christian Voice, Inc., archive.org.
  3. ^ Gallagher, John; Bull, Chris (May 13, 1997), Perfect Enemies, Crown Publishers, ISBN 0-517-70198-7, retrieved 2010-05-25
  4. ^ Rich, Frank (2005-05-15), "Just How Gay is the Right?", The New York Times, archived from the original on 2012-01-18, retrieved 2007-09-06
  5. ^ Shilts, Randy (2000), And the Band Played on, St. Martin's Press, p. 407, ISBN 0-312-24135-6
  6. ^ Lauerman, Kerry (June 23, 2012). "Terry Dolan". LGBT's worst foe: The Closet Monster. Salon.com. Archived from the original on June 25, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
  7. ^ Steve Endean (2006), Bringing Lesbian And Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress Archived 2014-07-05 at the Wayback Machine, Haworth Press; ISBN 1-56023-526-8, p. 269
  8. ^ Larry Kramer, writer who sounded alarm on AIDS, dies at 84,The Washington Post, May 28, 2020 [1] Archived 2020-05-28 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Henry, III, William A. (1990-01-29), "Forcing Gays Out of the Closet", Time, archived from the original on September 30, 2007, retrieved 2007-09-06
  10. ^ "Interactive AIDS Quilt". www.aidsmemorial.org.