Faces of Michigan

Jim Toy: Visionary Pioneer Advances Acceptance, Understanding, and Support

Jim Toy was the first lesbigay person in Michigan to come out of the closet publicly, during his speech at an anti-Vietnam-War rally in Kennedy Square, Detroit, in April 1970. At the rally Jim was representing the Detroit Gay Liberation Movement, of which he was a founding member. He was as well a founding member of the Ann Arbor Gay Liberation Front. In 1971 he helped establish the Lesbian-Gay Male Programs Office at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The LGMPO was the first staff office in a United States institution of higher learning, and presumably the first of its kind in the world, to respond to sexual-orientation concerns. Jim served as its Co-Coordinator from 1971 until 1994. He co-founded the Ann Arbor Gay Hotline in 1972 and served as its Coordinator and Trainer until 1985.

In 1972 he became the co-author of the first official “Lesbian-Gay Pride Week Proclamation” by a governing body in the United States, the Ann Arbor (Michigan) City Council. He was the co-author of the City’s non-discrimination policy regarding sexual orientation (1972). He participated (1973-1993) in the efforts to amend the University of Michigan’s non-discrimination bylaw so as to include sexual orientation as a protected category. He engaged in the campaigns to create and retain the City of Ypsilanti’s non-discrimination ordinance (1997-1998). In 1999 Jim and Dr. Sandra Cole, Director of the University of Michigan Health Systems Comprehensive Gender Services Program, wrote the language of Ann Arbor’s non-discrimination policy regarding gender identity. Jim presently works at the University of Michigan’s Human Resources Office as the Diversity Coordinator in the Office of Institutional Equity, providing training on diversity concerns and responding to complaints of harassment and discrimination.

In 1971 Bishop Richard Emrich of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan appointed Jim a founding member of the Diocesan Commission on Homosexuality. The group published the Report & Recommendations of the Commission on Homosexuality (1973), one of the earliest church documents in this country to support the concerns of lesbigay people. Since 1975 Jim has served as the Secretary of the Diocesan Church & Society Committee. He is a co-author of the Diocesan Human Sexuality Curriculum and is Secretary of the Diocesan Committee on Transgender/Bisexual/Lesbian/Gay/Concerns. He is a founding Board member of the Oasis TBLG Outreach Ministry of the Diocese.

Jim helped found in 1986 Wellness Networks/Huron Valley, now the HIV/AIDS Resource Center/Washtenaw County (HARC). He became the first Co-Coordinator of HIV/AIDS Education for the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan in 1987. He has served since 1987 as a certified Pre- & Post-Test HIV/AIDS Counselor and as a support group facilitator and volunteer trainer for HARC. He is a founding member of the City of Ann Arbor HIV/AIDS Task Force and of two four-county HIV/AIDS prevention and resource-provision groups.

He is a founding member of the Washtenaw County LGBT Retirement Center Task Force, PFLAG/Ann Arbor, GLSEN/Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti Area, Washtenaw Rainbow Action Project (WRAP), Transgender Advocacy Project (TAP), AFSC LGBT Issues Program, Washtenaw Faith Action Network, Ypsilanti Human Rights PAC, Ypsilanti Rainbow Neighbors, and the Out Loud Chorus. He is a former Executive Board member of Guild House (“A Campus Ministry”).

He is a trained mediator and a trainer for the AFSC LGBT Issues Program’s non-violent-dialogue training (“LARA”).

He holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work from the University of Michigan and serves as a pro bono counselor and therapist.

His archives are housed in the James Toy Collection at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library. He is included in the Profiles Gallery of the LGBT Religious Archives Network (LGBT-RAN).

What he is the most thankful for is the support he has received from hundreds of TBLG and ally individuals over the past 35 years…

And he is grateful for the messages he has received from students and others who have survived their self-hatred—self-hatred engendered by homophobic families, peers, co-workers, and our educational, religious, legal, medical, and governmental systems: "If I hadn't come to you for counseling and hadn't had the support of the office at the University of Michigan, I would have killed myself." Everyone deserves a life free of harassment, discrimination, and assault—a life filled with acceptance, understanding, and support.