Mina K. Meyer

1940 - 2016

Mina Kay Meyer

Lesbian Feminist activist and Long Beach resident since 1982, passed away from Endocartitis at the age of 76. Mina had many health challenges over the years but managed to rally each time in the past.

In 1971 Mina by chance ran into her old childhood friend, Sharon Raphael in Hermosa Beach. They grew up on same street in University Heights, Ohio. Both attended Cleveland Heights High School. Soon after, they became partners in life, commenced to live together soon after they remet for the next 45 years and legally married in Long Beach in 2008.

Mina co-founded or led many organization and groups in the Gay and Lesbian community in Los Angeles, Long Beach and nationally. She began her Gay Liberation career volunteering at Del Whan's Gay Women's Service Center, a pioneering social service center for Lesbians of all ages. She served as a Vice-President on the Board in the early seventies at Gay Community Services Center, now The LGBT Center in LA. Mina was co-founder of the AIDS Hospice Committee in 1987 and continued to be an important force behind what became AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a global AIDS medical treatment and advocacy organization.

Mina received a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Sociology from CSU Dominguez Hills. In 1979 she completed the first thesis ever written on the subject of The Older Lesbian. She was a pioneer in educating society about issues concerning later life for Lesbians and Gay men and coordinated and spawned several pioneering conferences bringing professionals and laypeople together on the topic of aging in the LGBT community.

She served as Co-Chair of The Steering Committee for Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, a national group that supports and helps Lesbians and others confront Ageism and Lesbophobia. She founded the group Lez Chat at the LGBTQ Center in Long Beach and created the local OLOC (Old Lesbians Organizing for Change) that continues to meet at Bixby Towers (under leadership of Pat Lamis) in Long Beach.

Mina worked at the famous feminist "watering hole" Sisterhood Bookstore in Westwood for 16 years. She loved helping customers learn about Feminism. One time she sold books to Maureen Reagan, daughter of President Ronald Reagan. Those were heady wonderful years.

In 2014, Mina and Sharon received The Paul Self Humanitarian award from the Lambda Democratic Club and many other official proclamations from all levels of governmental entities representing Long Beach. She believed in justice for all and was a loving presence and role model in her family and for her many friends both within and outside the LGBT community.

A Memorial Service for Mina Kay Meyer will be held Saturday, September 3, 2016 at 11am at Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach, 5450 E. Atherton, Long Beach 90815. Please sign the guestbook at www.presstelegram.com/obits