April 14, 2021 Frances Goldin was my friend for nearly 20 years, and my wife’s friend and mentor for 45. She died in May 2020, just short of her 96 th birthday, and short of New York’s Gay Pride Parade, which didn’t happen anyway, because of COVID-19. For decades, Fran carried her sign, “I adore my lesbian daughters: Keep them safe,” written in gracious script, enhanced with glitter, to the march. She had two, who had left their New York birthplace for California and upstate. But whoever went to the march with her could be one of her lesbian daughters for the day. She stood on the side and later sat in her wheelchair, her hair a radiant purple. People rushed up to embrace her, weeping, wishing their parents could express such wholehearted public approval of them. Until a few years ago, she would offer to call their parents, tell them what a wonderful son or daughter they had.