For more than 30 years, Donna Red Wing was a national leader in the fight for human rights, civil rights and LGBTQ equality. The Christian Coalition once reportedly called Donna “the most dangerous woman in America”. Donna wore the title proudly.

Born in 1950 in public housing in Worcester, Massachusetts, Donna embarked upon a career of activism during the 1960’s anti-war protests. She quickly came to believe in agitation and grassroots activism as the cornerstones of lasting change. From the anti-war movement, she joined the burgeoning women’s movement in Massachusetts, and cut her teeth professionally by running the Child Assault Prevention Project of New England. In the early 1990s, Donna and her partner Sumitra moved to Portland, Oregon, just in time for one of America’s great gay rights electoral battles: Ballot Measure 9.

Oregon Ballot Measure 9 was written to permanently define LGBTQ people as second-class citizens. Ultimately it went down to defeat, but not before right-wing Christians and avowed neo-Nazis made death threats against Donna and Sumitra. Donna’s fearless leadership was showcased in the award-winning documentary Ballot Measure 9, and recognized when The Advocate magazine named her Woman of the Year.

In subsequent decades, Donna played countless important roles in the campaign for LGBTQ inclusion and equality. She worked in various capacities with GLAAD, HRC, the Gill Foundation, and the Howard Dean 2004 presidential campaign. She served as co-chair of the Barack Obama campaign’s LGBT Leadership Council. She received the Interfaith Alliance’s first Walter Cronkite Award for Faith and Freedom, and later served as the Alliance’s Washington DC chief of staff. Not tired yet, in 2012, Donna moved with Sumitra to Des Moines, Iowa, where she served as executive director of One Iowa for four years.

In 2017, Donna was diagnosed with cancer. Hearing this news, OUTWORDS hurried an interview team to Des Moines, Iowa in March 2018. Donna and Sumitra welcomed us with pastries and tea, and Donna bestowed on OUTWORDS possibly our most compelling, inspiring interviews to date. But anyone who knew Donna in her hale and hearty fighting days could tell she was not long for this world. Six weeks later, she passed away.

OUTWORDS thanks Donna Red Wing for her courage, for her steadfastness, and for her spirit of dialogue and reconciliation.