Spear Allan

American politician and educator who come out as gay on 9 December 1974, becoming one of the first openly gay Americans serving in elected office. His coming out drew national attention, being featured in the New York Times amongst others. He served almost thirty years in the Minnesota Senate (1973-2001), including nearly a decade as President of the Senate (1992-2000). Spear was instrumental in passing the 1993 Minnesota Human Rights Act, which guaranteed protection from discrimination in education, employment, and housing to GLBT Minnesotans. He had been working on this for nearly 20 years, and later called it his "proudest legislative achievement." Allan Spear died on 11 October 2008 from complications following heart surgery earlier that week. He was survived by his partner of 20-plus years, Junjiro Tsuji. He had partially completed an autobiography (Crossing the Barriers) at his death; a colleague of his in the Minnesota Senate, John Watson Milton, provided an afterword listing the accomplishments of his later years. This book was published in 2010. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less