Hoover Lee, a Hawaii-born gay Chinese American activist and champion of global LGBTQ human rights, died February 11 at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. He was 83.
His friend Edgar Poma said that Mr. Lee's death was due to several health issues but was not COVID-related.
Mr. Lee was a founding member of the Association of Lesbian and Gay Asians; one of the original organizers of the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance; founder of the Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club; and coordinator and community organizer for many successful progressive political campaigns and causes.
"If there was ever to be a founding father of the gay Asian movement in San Francisco it would be Hoover Lee," Lawrence Wong, a gay man and former elected official, wrote in an email to the Bay Area Reporter. "Hoover was active as an openly gay man as a member of straight groups like the Organization of Chinese Americans and the Chinese American Democratic Club. But it was his activism in the San Francisco gay community where he has left his lasting legacy. He was a founding member of the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance where he mentored members like me to run for political office. I became the first openly gay Asian elected to political office in the U.S. when I was elected to the San Francisco Community College Board in 1994."