Add this share Winston Johnson (second from right) and friends at the Atlanta Pride parade in 2016. (Photo courtesy Terry Bird) Winston Johnson helped build a vital alliance between the LGBTQ and civil rights movements through his friendship with Coretta Scott King. He’s being remembered for that work and more in the wake of his death last month at 79. The longtime gay Atlanta resident and LGBTQ activist lost a long battle with cancer. Friends and family will gather for a memorial service in July. Johnson was a driving force in getting white gay men in Atlanta to “get off their chairs and make a political statement,” according to longtime friend Terry Bird.