Urvashi Vaid, a pioneering social justice activist, attorney and author who led the nation’s oldest LGBTQ advocacy organization during the height of the AIDS crisis and fought for fundamental reforms long before same-sex marriage and other basic rights were won, has died at 63.
Vaid, who had been battling cancer, died Saturday at a hospital in New York City, said Richard Burns, a friend and board chairman of the American LGBTQ+ Museum. Vaid was a fellow board member.
As comfortable in board rooms as she was on the streets fighting for change, Vaid was both fiery and pragmatic. She saw the mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ people as an encouraging first step, but cautioned that it could well be an illusion and that greater social change was needed to achieve true liberation.
