[from White Crane Magazine] It is just incredibly sad to announce that John Burnside, Harry
Hay's lifetime partner, has passed, peacefully in San Francisco,
surrounded by the circle of Radical Faeries who have taken care of him
since Harry passed.
John Lyon Burnside III
November 2, 1916 – September 14, 2008
John Lyon Burnside III passed away peacefully at the age of 91 in this home on Sunday, September 14, 2008, surrounded by the Circle of Loving Companions who had been caring for him. He had been recently diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer.
John was an activist, inventor, dancer, physicist, a founder of the Radical Faeries, and partners for nearly 40 years with Harry Hay. Hay started the Gay rights organization the Mattachine Society in 1950 and is considered a founder of the modern gay freedom movement.
READ THE REST OF WHITE CRANE'S OBITUARY ABOUT JOHN BURNSIDE'S LIFE AND LEGACY
Speaking for the Circle of Loving Companions, John’s friend of 27 years, Joey Cain said:
“We are sadden by our dear, sweet John’s passing, but are gratified that John’s last years were happy and he was surrounded by people who loved him. His life dispelled the notion that haunted all the early LGBT freedom fighters, that without the hetero family structure you will die lonely and unloved. The work that John, Harry and the other LGBT pioneers did has dispelled that destiny forever for all of us.”
Donations in John’s honor may be made to the Harry Hay Fund, to continue the activist work of John Burnside and Harry Hay. Donations may be sent to
The Harry Hay Fund
c/o Chas Nol
174 ½ Hartford Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
ADDENDA:
A celebration of the life of John Burnside
Saturday, November 8, 2008
12:00 noon
San Francisco LGBT Community Center
1800 Market Street
San Francisco
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"In Blackwater Woods" by Mary Oliver
Look, the trees are turning
their own bodies
into pillars of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
the long taper of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders of the ponds,
and every pond, no matter what its
name is, is nameless now.
Every year everything I have
ever learned in my lifetime
leads me back to this:
the fires and the black river of loss
whose other side is salvation,
whose meaning none of us will never know.
To live in this world
you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it against your bones
knowing your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
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