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Richard Rouilard
(1953 - 8 May 1996) U.S.A.

Richard Rouilard

Journalist

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Born to a French flight attendant who abandoned him, Richard Rouilard (also spelled Rouillard) was reared by adoptive parents in New Jersey who were horrified by the effeminate boy's emerging homosexuality. Certain that he was "this horrible thing", he attempted suicide at age 13 and again at 14. He went through six years of psychotherapy to learn to accept his homosexuality. When his parents spurned him, he returned to using his birth mother's surname.

Richard , one year out of law school, cofounded National Gay Rights Advocates of San Francisco, the country's first public interest law firm for lesbians and gay men, in 1979.

In 1981, he moved to Los Angeles, and began a journalism career that included being editor in chief of The Advocate . As editor-in-chief, Richard nearly tripled circulation, and upgraded the magazine's layout and journalistic standards.

He also worked as society and style editor for the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and as a senior editorial consultant and contributor to the Los Angeles Times Magazine . Richard also was a founder of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

He died at the West Hollywood home that he shared with his companion of 20 years, Fox attorney Robert Cohen, of AIDS-related illness.

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Sources: http://www.nlgja.org/ - http://www.stcl.edu/

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