Tell me about your early years and your upbringing. He has founded countless gay rights and support organizations around the state of Michigan and continues to be active in the Ann Arbor community at the age of 87. He was the first man in the state to publicly come out during an anti-Vietnam war rally in Detroit in 1970, the first person to establish a staffed sexual orientation support office at a university and in the world, The Spectrum Center, and was the driving force behind changing the University of Michigan's nondiscrimination bylaw to include sexual orientation.īoth the library at The Spectrum Center and the Jim Toy Community Center in Kerrytown are named after him. ANN ARBOR – The name Jim Toy is synonymous with the gay rights movement in Michigan.
