Mina Kay Meyer

Mina Kay Meyer was born in Zwickly Pennsylvania and as a young child moved with her parents back to their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Eddy Meyer, her Dad was employed in Zwickly during WW2 packing ammunition and weapons. Maddy Meyer, her Mom, had a sense of humor, was a hard worker and great homemaker. Mina became closer to both parents as they aged. She became an attentive gracious daughter after years of rebelliousness and stress in her teens. It was something to behold. And her parents appreciated both of us. They were great in laws.

Mina grew up in Cleveland and at age 19 moved first to Scottsdale Arizona with her parents and later moved to SF and later Los Angeles. In 1971 at age 31 Mina met Sharon Raphael age 30 who remembered Mina as they both grew up on same street in Cleveland area. It was as they say in Yiddish " Beshert" (fated to happen). And very shortly afterwards  they became a couple for the next 45 years.

Both shared interests working as Gay Liberationists and Lesbian Feminists totally dedicated to the Movement. Sharon taught at CSU Dominguez Hills and Mina went back to college receiving a B. A. Degree and M.A. In Sociology/Gerontology writing the first thesis ever completed on the topic of The Older Lesbian. Mina started her Movement work at the Gay Women's Service Center, the social service agency dedicated to serving Lesbians of all ages. When that Center closed, Mina took on the role of Vice President on the Board of Directors at Gay Community Services Center in Los Angeles. She created the first health clinic for Lesbians at GCSC and recruited Doctors to help give much need Pap smears and gynecological exams to Lesbians who desperately needed this service including introducing artificial insemination for Lesbians who wanted children using that technique which was not allowed or an option at all for most Lesbian clients.

Mina worked for sixteen years at Sisterhood bookstore, a well known place in Westwood where Lesbians and Feminists could exchange ideas and read the current publications (buy books, newsletters, non sexist cards and posters etc) all about women's lives and how to change the world for the better for women and men. Mina was a very popular salesperson and people gravitated to her as she knew what books each customer would like to read and helped open up minds a little wider in the process. One time she sold books to Maureen Reagan, the Feminist daughter of President Ronald Reagan. She met Hollywood stars and teenagers who had no money but managed somehow to get each customer information they wanted or needed. She also became acquainted with many struggling writers as well as famous ones. It was an amazing high point of Mina's life being at The  Bookstore that perpetually for a time spun out Feminists and Feminism.

In the late eighties, Mina and Sharon were part of core group of activists fighting the status quo on policies that affected persons with AIDS. In LA, Mina with help of others I.e. Michael Weinstein, set up first residential hospice for people with AIDS in Elysian Park near Dodger Stadium.

Mina was instrumental in creating the groundwork that inspired several pioneering conferences and gatherings that addressed issues about Lesbians growing old. In the 2000, she became Co-Chair of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (OLOC), a national organization that advocates on behalf of Lesbians over sixty making them visible and fighting the two scourges of Ageism and Lesbophobia.  She also started the local chapter of OLOC that meets at Bixby Towers and founded Lez Chat, a monthly brunch group with Sharon that still meets at the LGBTQ Center in Long Beach. Mina never stopped making the lives of the LGBT community better. She once received an award from Advocate Magazine as one of the Quintiessential Angelenos doing good works for Gay people. She worked on Jews against Briggs in the eighties and was victorious in battling homophobia wherever she found it.

Mina was "the love of my life".  I am a better person for joining with her in marriage and before that in partnership both in love and in our life long battle for justice for all people.

We worked for a group called the Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem going up against powers that be trying to keep an oppressed community under the control of undemocratic forces run by a bingo and casino owner.

Mina and Sharon received the Paul Self Memorial Award from Lambda Democratic Club in 2014 for unyielding commitment to protecting and promoting human rights in California and beyond. Both also received many other awards on that occasion from the Congressional level to the office of the Mayor in Long Beach.