"She became a warrior, a true champion for the rights of GLBT people everywhere."

I posted this on the PFLAG-MidAtlantic Region Facebook Group earlier today:

I do not know how many of you know Paul Wertsch. I recently learned that Paul’s wife, Kay Haggestad, passed away earlier this year.

Back in 2005, when we were battling the right-wing in Montgomery County, we needed an expert medical doctor to speak on the actual facts about sexual orientation. We were put in touch with Paul, who was then chair of the American Medical Association’s Advisory Committee on LGBT Health; Paul graciously flew down on his own dime from Madison, Wisconsin to address the Teachthefacts.org's Just Say Now to Comprehensive and Inclusive Health Education. His presentation was instrumental in the victories we have won here, both in terms of the climate of the community and the policies of the Montgomery County Public Schools.

Paul and I became friends, and I later got to know his wife Kay at PFLAG Conventions. In advance of her death, Kay wrote her own extraordinary, humorous, and life-affirming obituary. .http://www.channel3000.com/obitua…/kay-a-heggestad/270546837 I highly recommend reading it. There was also a Minority Report from Paul, which is included in the same link. Here is an except from the Minority Report:

"She was a part in changing the world. When she found out that her son was gay, she educated herself and became an advocate for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. She became active in their local PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and went on to serve on the National Board of PFLAG. She became a warrior, a true champion for the rights of GLBT people everywhere."

Mark Twain wrote that we should "endeavor to live so that when we die, even the undertaker will be sorry."

Twain could have been thinking of Kay.