Jim Toy
| Jim Toy | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
James W. Toy April 29, 1930 New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Denison University, University of Michigan |
| Occupation | US lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activist and educator |
| Known for | Gay Liberation Front, Lesbian-Gay Male Programs Office at the University of Michigan, Episcopal Diocese of Michigan Commission on Homosexuality |
James W. "Jim" Toy (born April 29, 1930 in New York City) is a long-time LGBT activist, considered a pioneer among LGBT activists in Michigan.
Toy earned his B.A. at Denison University in 1951. He holds a master's degree in Clinical Social Work from the University of Michigan and serves as a pro bono counselor and therapist. Toy underwent bureaucratic retirement in 2008 from the University of Michigan as the diversity coordinator in the Office of Institutional Equity. He was awarded the Alumni Citation, Denison's highest alumni honor, in June 2001, and was featured as an early LGBT alumnus in an article on the college's LGBTQ history in 2013.
Jim Toy identified as being gay during his speech at an anti-Vietnam-War rally in Kennedy Square, Detroit, in April 1970. At the rally Toy 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 Human Sexuality Office (HSO) at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (later renamed The Spectrum Center.) The HSO 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, and Gay Male advocate, from 1971 until 1994. The HSO, now named the Spectrum Center, has named its library in Jim's honor. The Jim Toy Library (JTL) currently hosts a collection of over 1500 titles and supports LGBTQA student development by exposing students to, and engaging them in, the rich cultural, social, historical, psychological, political, and relational aspects of LGBTQ people, identities, experiences, and communities.
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 successful 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, former Director of the University of Michigan Health System's Comprehensive Gender Services Program, wrote the language of Ann Arbor’s non-discrimination policy regarding gender identity. With many others, Jim advocated successfully (1993–2007) for the amendment of the University's non-discrimination bylaw so as to include gender identity and gender expression as protected categories.
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