Transgender activist Lois Bates dies


by Kate Sosin, Windy City Times  | News update posted Nov. 17, 2011 | 2011-11-23


http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=34823




Lois Bates, a longtime transgender activist and community leader passed away Nov. 17, just three days before Transgender Day of Remembrance. She was 41 years old.

"She was a lover, a fighter, an activist, an advocate, and an inspiration to many including myself," said Owen Daniel-McCarter of the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois. "She will be missed."

Bates was transgender health manager at Howard Brown Health Center and was an active advocate for the HIV community.

Bates had a long history of activism within the LGBT community.

Lois Bates, 1970-2011
Navy veteran a leader in Chicago's transgender community

By Rex W. Huppke, Chicago Tribune reporter
December 1, 2011

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-obit-lois-bates-20111201,0,6215631.story

There were few in Chicago's transgender community who did not know — or at least know of — Lois Bates.

"She was a sister to thousands of trans men and women," said June LaTrobe, trans-community liaison at the Center on Halsted and a longtime friend of Ms. Bates. "She was there to listen, to advise. She was a fierce advocate for the fair, equal and inclusive representation of trans people."