logo
livingroom

decorative bar

biographies


corner Last update of this page: July 24th 2017 corner
Dan J. Bradley
(1940 - January 8, 1988) U.S.A.

Dan J. Bradley

Political gay activist

separator

Dan J. Bradley was born in Warm Springs, Georgia, and was orphaned at the age of 5. He grew up in the Georgia Baptist Children's Home, separated from his five siblings. He received undergraduate and law degrees from Mercer University in Macon, Ga. He began his government career in 1967 as a lawyer in the legal services program in Florida. In 1977 he was appointed Racing Commissioner in Florida under Gov. Reubin Askew.

President Carter named Mr. Bradley in June 1979 to the top job at Legal Services, the independent, federally sponsored agency that finances local legal aid offices to provide noncriminal legal representation for the poor. He was widely credited with thwarting the Reagan Administration's attempts to abolish the agency. Mr. Bradley built a coalition of key conservative and liberal politicians, convincing them to continue financing the agency, according to Clinton Lyons, executive director of the National Legal Aid and Defenders Association.

In 1982, after more than 15 years of government service, Dan J. Bradley publicly announced his homosexuality and accepted appointments on the boards of the Gay Rights National Lobby and the Lambda Legal Defense Fund Inc. He later said that he delayed disclosing his homosexuality while Congress comtemplated the agency's fate so that opponents of legal aid could not use it to their advantage. Dan was the highest ranking federal official to have admitted publicly that he was gay.

In 1982, he moved his law practice to Miami and embarked on a new mission as an advocate for gay rights. He chaired the American Bar Association's committee on gay rights while he continued his law practice.

In recent years, the former poverty lawyer was best known as an advocate of gay rights. He chaired an American Bar Association committee on this issue, and as a person with AIDS, he was a diligent and effective fund-raiser for the cause of education and research. But Dan once said that he was confident he would be judged after his death not on the basis of his sexuality but by his life's work for the poor.

In an era when many young professionals are criticized for choosing careers where money is the only reward, it is good to remember that there are many who use their education, energy and talent to better the lives of the poor, the disabled and those who suffer discrimination. Dan was one of these, Dan J. Bradley died of AIDS related complications at Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables in Miami, where he had lived and practiced law since leaving the government. He was 47 years old and lived in Miami.

separator

Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/ and https://www.washingtonpost.com/

Click on the letter B to go back to the list of names

corner © Matt & Andrej Koymasky, 1997 - 2017 corner