radfae.org

John Burnside

November 2, 1916 – September 14, 2008
Gay Activist and a Founder of the Radical Faeries

John Lyon Burnside III, 1916-2008 photo by Rory Cecil

Harry and John at Gay Pride SF photo by Peridot

Los AngelesTimes
September 18, 2008

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-burnside18-2008sep18,0,699210.story

John Burnside dies at 91;
gay rights activist, teleidoscope inventor

By Dennis McLellan,Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

John Burnside, the inventor of a kaleidoscope-like device called the teleidoscope and an early gay movement activist who was the longtime partner of the late gay rights pioneer Harry Hay, has died. He was 91.

Burnside, who had recently been diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer, died Sunday at his home in San Francisco, said Joey Cain, a longtime friend.

"I don't think it's a cliche to say that John Burnside epitomized the full meaning of the word gentleman," said Mark Thompson, a well-known writer on gay history and culture who knew Burnside for nearly 30 years. "He was not only smart and funny and bright, he was also profoundly, at his core, a gentle man and all that that implies.

"He was a very beloved person in our community of men loving men."

A onetime staff scientist at Lockheed, Burnside had an interest in optical engineering that led to his inventing the teleidoscope, a variation on the kaleidoscope that works without the use of colored glass chips and instead uses a lens to transform whatever is in front of it into a colorful design.

In 1958, he launched California Kalidoscopes, which became a successful Los Angeles design and manufacturing plant.

In the 1970s, Burnside created the Symetricon, a large mechanical kaleidoscopic device that projects colorful patterns; it was used in a number of movies, including the 1976 science fiction film "Logan's Run."

By then, Burnside was more than a decade into what would be a 39-year relationship with Hay, who had started the pioneering Mattachine Society, a gay rights organization, in Los Angeles in 1950.

When they first met at a gay community center in downtown Los Angeles in 1963, Burnside was married with no children. He divorced his wife and moved in with Hay.

The two men became a highly visible activist couple, including appearing together on confrontational TV talk show host Joe Pyne's program.

In 1965, Burnside and Hay helped form the Southern California Council on Religion and the Homophile.

A year later, they participated in one of the country's first gay rights demonstrations: a 15-car motorcade through downtown Los Angeles protesting the exclusion of gays from the military.

And in 1969, they participated in the founding meetings of the Southern California Gay Liberation Front, one of which was held at Burnside's teleidoscope factory.

"They were real role models for positive gay life, and they were activists who put their lives literally on the line in countless demonstrations, marches and parades," Thompson said.

But Hay and Burnside weren't committed just to gay issues, he said. "They were totally committed to peace and justice issues on a wide spectrum of social concerns, including Native American rights, women's and labor issues, fair employment and housing -- they were just good social activists."

In 1970, Burnside and Hay moved to San Juan Pueblo, N.M.

"They had gone out there to help Native Americans reclaim their water rights," said Don Kilhefner, co-founder of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. "They were a very socially and politically conscious couple. You couldn't ask for better."

In 1979, Burnside and Hay joined Kilhefner in organizing the first Spiritual Gathering for Radical Faeries, a weekend get-together in a remote ashram east of Tucson.

The Radical Faeries, which Kilhefner said began as a gathering of about 150 gay men to bring a new level of consciousness and spirituality to the gay liberation movement, has grown into an international movement.

Burnside and Hay were featured in the 1977 documentary "Word Is Out," and they appeared together in the 2002 documentary about Hay, "Hope Along the Wind."

John Lyon Burnside III was born in Seattle on Nov. 2, 1916. He joined the Navy at 16 and married soon after his discharge.

A 1945 graduate of UCLA, where he studied physics and mathematics, Burnside launched his career in the aircraft industry.

Burnside and Hay moved back to Los Angelesfrom New Mexico in 1979.

They moved to San Franciscoin 1999 and continued their activist work; Hay died in 2002 at age 90.

A memorial service for Burnside in San Francisco is pending.

Donations in Burnside's memory to continue his and Hay's activist work may be made to the Harry Hay Fund, c/o Chas Nol, 174 1/2 Hartford St., San Francisco, CA 94114.

by Liz Highleyman

John Burnside greets the crowd after being acknowledged from the stage during the dedication of the Harvey Milk bust in San Francisco City Hall on May 22. Photo: Rick Gerharter

John Lyon Burnside III, an inventor, dancer, and activist, died Sunday, September 14. Recently diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer, he passed away surrounded by loving friends at the age of 91.

Mr. Burnside was perhaps best known as the life partner of Harry Hay, who started the first U.S.gay rights organization, the Mattachine Society, in 1950. Having lived in the Castro since 1999, Mr. Burnside resided for the past several months at the Haight-Ashbury home of former Pride board president Joey Cain.

"It was a blessing for all of us to have John in our lives," Cain said. "He was so beloved by the community. He just exuded warmth and joy, and he had a dead-on fashion sense."

"He was an amazing human being, he was magical, he was fairy dust, and he was a stalwart early pioneer of LGBT human rights," said Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), who met Mr. Burnside shortly before Mr. Hay's death in 2002.

Mr. Burnside was born November 2, 1916, in Seattle. An only child, he was raised by his mother after his father left the family; being poor, she periodically placed her son in the care of orphanages.

Mr. Burnside joined the Navy at age 16. Soon after his discharge, he settled in Los Angeles and married Edith Sinclair; the couple had no children. He studied physics and mathematics at theUniversity of California at Los Angeles, graduating in 1945. He pursued a career in the aircraft industry, including a stint as a staff scientist at Lockheed.

Mr. Burnside's interest in optical engineering led him to invent the teleidoscope, a type of kaleidoscope that works without colored glass chips. He received a patent on the device, which brought him considerable income. In 1958, he started his own company, California Kaleidoscopes. He later created the symetricon, a large kaleidoscopic device that projects patterns, which was used in several Hollywood films.

Mr. Burnside began coming to terms with his attraction for men in the 1960s. Some gay workers at the kaleidoscope workshop told him about the ONE Institute, and he began attending classes. There, in 1963, Mr. Burnside (then age 47) met Mr. Hay (then 51), who was promoting a gay square dancing group. The two embarked on a whirlwind romance that led to Mr. Burnside divorcing his wife and moving in with Mr. Hay.

Together, Mr. Burnside and Mr. Hay participated in many of the key events of the burgeoning gay movement. In May 1966, they were part of a 15-car motorcade through downtown Los Angeles to protest the military's exclusion of homosexuals. In 1969, they attended the founding meetings of the Southern California Gay Liberation Front. Although Mr. Burnside had not been an activist before meeting Mr. Hay, the two men became fixtures at pickets and demonstrations supporting labor and the anti-war movement, as well as gay rights.

"John was always so inquisitive and had so many interests politics, the environment, social justice, history, science, engineering, the arts he could engage anyone in meaningful conversation," said Mr. Hay's niece, Sally Hay, a lesbian activist in Rhode Island who worked at Mr. Burnside's kaleidoscope factory as a college student in 1969. "To the very end, he lived his life with great enthusiasm."

In 1970, Mr. Burnside and Mr. Hay moved to San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico, drawn by their involvement in the Indian Land and Life Committee and Mr. Hay's growing interest in Native American culture, in particular the two-spirit people. Like Mr. Hay, Mr. Burnside came to see gay people as a distinct group with a particular role in society. "The crown of gay being is a way of loving, of reaching to love in a way that far transcends the common mode," he wrote in 1989.

In 1979, frustrated with the gay movement's drift toward mainstream assimilation, Mr. Burnside and Mr. Hay, along with fellow activists Don Kilhefner and Mitch Walker, organized the first Spiritual Gathering of Radical Faeries. Since that first gathering of 200 men at an ashram near Tucson, the faerie movement has held dozens of gatherings around the world and established permanent sanctuaries across the country. "The people who have come to the gatherings came looking to find themselves," Mr. Burnside once said, "but they found each other, too."

Mr. Burnside and Mr. Hay were among the first long-term gay male couples in the public eye, and thus served as role models for countless LGBT people. As early as 1967, they appeared together on the Joe Pyne television show in Los Angeles. They were featured in the groundbreaking 1977 documentary Word is Out, as well as the 2002 biographical documentary Hope Along the Wind.

"People mostly remember him as Harry Hay's partner, but John was his own very powerful and very creative person," said Hope Along the Wind director Eric Slade. "He was a deep thinker and a beautiful man." Slade said he plans to incorporate hours of additional footage of Mr. Burnside into a feature for the DVD release of the film.

In 1999, Mr. Burnside and Mr. Hay came to San Francisco, where Mr. Hay had been selected as grand marshal of that year's Pride parade. After Mr. Hay became too ill to return to Los Angeles, friends helped the couple to relocate to the city. Mr. Burnside became a familiar presence, never missing the weekly Faerie Coffee Circles at the LGBT Community Center after it opened.

Although they maintained a loving partnership for nearly 40 years, Mr. Burnside and Mr. Hay had an open relationship and expressed no interest in legal marriage. In a 1989 Valentine to Mr. Hay, Mr. Burnside wrote, "Hand in hand we walk, as wing tip to wing tip, our spirits roam the universe, finding lovers everywhere."

"John and Harry, along with Del [Martin] and Phyllis [Lyon], symbolized for a whole generation the possibility that two gay people could sustain a committed, long-term loving relationship," said Cain. "However, John had no interest in imitating the heteros in any way, and marriage was for him an unimaginative institution of the oppressor. He believed that gay people would create new forms of relations that were suited to their unique ways of loving one another."

Indeed, Mr. Burnside and Mr. Hay created around themselves a broad community of friends, lovers, and supporters. A group of Radical Faeries dubbed the Circle of Loving Companions cared for the two men during their final years.

"His life dispelled the notion that haunted all the early LGBT freedom fighters, that without the hetero family structure you will die lonely and unloved," Cain added.

"John Burnside's gifts to queer life are deep and powerful," said GLBT Historical Society board member Terence Kissack. "His love for art, justice, and the beloved communities he helped nurture continue to inspire. I am particularly grateful for the way he helped take a word, 'fairy,' that has cut so many of us to the quick and made it a living symbol of joy, freedom, and fellowship."

A spontaneous memorial altar for Mr. Burnside has been set up at the corner of 18th and Castro streets. A public memorial service is being planned. In accordance with his wishes, Mr. Burnside's ashes will be co-mingled with those of Mr. Hay and scattered at the Nomenus Radical Faerie Sanctuary in Wolf Creek, Oregon.

Donations in Mr. Burnside's memory may be made to the Harry Hay Fund, which will continue their work toward gay liberation. The Harry Hay Fund, c/o Chas Nol, 174 1/2 Hartford Street, San Francisco,CA 94114.

It is just incredibly sad to announce that John Burnside, Harry Hay's lifetime partner, has passed, peacefully in San Francisco, surrounded by the circle of Radical Faeries who have taken care of him since Harry passed.

John Lyon Burnside III
November 2, 1916 – September 14, 2008

John Lyon Burnside III passed away peacefully at the age of 91 in this home on Sunday, September 14 surrounded by the Circle of Loving Companions who had been caring for him. He had been recently diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer.

John was an activist, inventor, dancer, physicist, a founder of the Radical Faeries, and partners for nearly 40 years with Harry Hay. Hay started the Gay rights organization the Mattachine Society in 1950 and is considered a founder of the modern gay freedom movement.

John Burnside was born on November 2, 1916 and was an only child . He joined the Navy at age 16. Soon after his discharge he was married to Edith Sinclair.

He studied physics and mathematics at UCLA, graduating in 1945. John pursued a wartime career in the aircraft industry, eventually securing a job at Lockheed as a staff scientist.

His interest in optical engineering lead to his invention of the teleidoscope, an innovative variation on the kaleidoscope that works without the traditional glass chips to color the view. Instead it turns whatever is in front of its telescopic viewfinder into a symmetrical mandala. His patent on the device allowed him in 1958 to drop out of mainstream society and set up the California Kalidoscopes in Los Angeles which soon became a successful design and manufacturing plant. The teleidoscope was sold in stores across the country and was featured in the Village Voice.

John continued his optical innovations in the 1970s, creating the Symetricon, a large mechanical kaleidoscopic device that projects intricate, colorful patterns. Images from the symetricon were used in a number of Hollywood films, including Logan’s Run.

It was in 1963 that John made perhaps the biggest change of his life. After befriending Gay workers at his teleidoscope factory he learned of the ONE Institute, a Gay community center in downtown Los Angeles. While attending a seminar at ONE in September of that year he met Harry Hay. The two began a whirlwind romance and, after divorcing Edith, John moved in with Harry.

Together John and Harry were involved in many of the Gay movement’s key moments. In May of 1966 the two were part of a 15 car motorcade through downtown Los Angeles protesting the military’s exclusion of homosexuals. The event is considered one of the country’s first gay protest marches.

John and Harry appeared as a Gay couple on the Joe Pyne television show in Los Angeles in 1967, two years before the Stonewall riots in New York. In 1969 they participated in the founding meetings of the Southern California Gay Liberation Front, which met in John’s teleidoscope factory.

Drawn by Harry’s lifelong interest in Native American culture and a shared involvement with the Indian Land and Life Committee, they moved to San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico in 1970. While there, John and Harry were interviewed for the groundbreaking Gay documentary Word is Out. John was honored at the Frameline GLBT Film Festival in San Francisco this year during the 30th anniversary screening of the film. He was also featured in Eric Slade's 2002 documentary film about Hay, Hope Along the Wind.

In 1979 John and Harry joined with fellow activists Don Kilhefner and Mitch Walker to call the first Spiritual Gathering of Radical Faeries. Fed up with the Gay movement’s steady drift towards mainstream assimilation, the gathering called to Gay men across the country. Since that time dozens of Faerie gatherings have been called around the world and permanent Radical Faerie sanctuaries have formed across the country. The movement helped to nurture and create a specifically Gay centered spiritual exploration and tradition.

John published a short essay in 1989 titled "Who are the Gay People?", that helped explain his views of Gay people’s role in the world. John writes, “The crown of Gay being is a way of loving, of reaching to love in a way that far transcends the common mode.”

In 1999 John and Harry moved to San Francisco where they continued their activist work. A group of Radical Faeries, the Circle of Loving Companions, became caretakers for the two of them. Harry Hay died in 2002 at the age of 90. The two had been together for 39 years.

In a 1989 Valentine to Harry, John Burnside wrote, “Hand in hand we walk, as wing tip to wing tip our spirits roam the universe, finding lovers everywhere. Sex is music. Time is not real. All things are imbued with spirit.”

John was a familiar and much loved presence in San Francisco’s LGBT Community. He rode every year, including this last, in the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade. He never missed a single Faerie Coffee Circle held each Saturday in San Francisco’s LGBT Community Center.

Speaking for the Circle of Loving Companions, John’s friend of 27 years, Joey Cain said:

“We are saddened by our dear, sweet John’s passing, but are gratified that John’s last years were happy and he was surrounded by people who loved him. His life dispelled the notion that haunted all the early LGBT freedom fighters, that without the hetero family structure you will die lonely and unloved. The work that John, Harry and the other LGBT pioneers did has dispelled that destiny forever for all of us.”

Donations in John’s honor may be made to the Harry Hay Fund, to continue the activist work of John Burnside and Harry Hay. Donations may be sent to:

The Harry Hay Fund
c/o Chas Nol
174 ½ Hartford Street
San Francisco, CA94114

A memorial shrine to John Burnside sprang up at 18th and Castro, on news of his death. Photo by Rink.

John Lyon Burnside III passed away peacefully at the age of 91 in this home on Sunday, September 14 surrounded by the Circle of Loving Companions who had been caring for him. He had been recently diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer. Burnside was an activist, inventor, dancer, physicist, a founder of the Radical Faeries, and partner for nearly 40 years with Harry Hay. Hay started the gay rights organization, the Mattachine Society, in 1950 and is considered a founder of the modern gay freedom movement.

Burnside was born on November 2, 1916 and was an only child. He joined the Navy at age 16. Soon after his discharge, he was married to Edith Sinclair. He studied physics and mathematics at UCLA, graduating in 1945. He pursued a wartime career in the aircraft industry, eventually securing a job at Lockheed as a staff scientist.

His interest in optical engineering led to his invention of the teleidoscope, an innovative variation on the kaleidoscope that works without the traditional glass chips to color the view. Instead it turns whatever is in front of its telescopic viewfinder into a symmetrical mandala. His patent on the device allowed him in 1958 to drop out of mainstream society and set up the California Kaleidoscopes in Los Angeles, which soon became a successful design and manufacturing plant. The teleidoscope was sold in stores across the country and was featured in the Village Voice. He continued his optical innovations in the 1970s, creating the symetricon, a large mechanical kaleidoscopic device that projects intricate, colorful patterns. Images from the symetricon were used in a number of Hollywood films, including Logan’s Run.

It was in 1963 that John made perhaps the biggest change of his life. After befriending gay workers at his teleidoscope factory, he learned of the ONE Institute, a gay community center in downtown Los Angeles. While attending a seminar at ONE in September of that year, he met Harry Hay. The two began a whirlwind romance and, after divorcing Edith, Burnside moved in with Hay.

Together they were involved in many of the gay movement’s key moments. In May of 1966, the two were part of a 15-car motorcade through downtown Los Angeles protesting the military’s exclusion of homosexuals. The event is considered one of the country’s first gay protest marches.

They appeared as a gay couple on the Joe Pyne television show in Los Angeles in 1967, two years before the Stonewall riots in New York. In 1969, they participated in the founding meetings of the Southern California Gay Liberation Front, which met in Burnside’s teleidoscope factory.

Drawn by Burnside’s lifelong interest in Native American culture and a shared involvement with the Indian Land and Life Committee, they moved to San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico in 1970. While there, they were interviewed for the groundbreaking gay documentary Word is Out. Burnside was honored at the Frameline LGBT International Film Festival in San Francisco this year during the 30th anniversary screening of the film. He was also featured in Eric Slade’s 2002 documentary film about Hay, Hope Along the Wind.

In 1979, the couple joined with fellow activists Don Kilhefner and Mitch Walker to call the first Spiritual Gathering of Radical Faeries. Fed up with the gay movement’s steady drift towards mainstream assimilation, the gathering called to queer men across the country. Since that time, dozens of Faerie gatherings have been called around the world, and permanent Radical Faerie sanctuaries have formed across the country. The movement helped to nurture and create a specifically gay-centered spiritual exploration and tradition.

Burnside published a short essay in 1989 titled “Who Are the Gay People,” that helped explain his views of queers’ role in the world. Burnside wrote, “The crown of gay being is a way of loving, of reaching to love in a way that far transcends the common mode.”

In 1999, the couple moved to San Francisco, where they continued their activist work. A group of Radical Faeries, the Circle of Loving Companions, became caretakers for the two of them. Harry Hay died in 2002 at the age of 90. The two had been together for 39 years. In a 1989 Valentine to Hay, Burnside wrote, “Hand in hand we walk, as wing tip to wing tip our spirits roam the universe, finding lovers everywhere. Sex is music. Time is not real. All things are imbued with spirit.”

Burnside was a familiar and much loved presence in San Francisco’s queer community. He rode every year, including this last, in the SF LGBT Pride Parade. He never missed a single Faerie Coffee Circleheld each Saturday in the LGBT Community Center.

“We are saddened by our dear, sweet John’s passing, but are gratified that John’s last years were happy, and he was surrounded by people who loved him,” Burnside’s friend of 27 years, Joey Cain, speaking for Circle of Loving Companions, said. “His life dispelled the notion that haunted all the early LGBT freedom fighters - that without the hetero family structure, you will die lonely and unloved.” Cain added, “The work that John, Harry, and the other LGBT pioneers did has dispelled that destiny forever for all of us.”

Donations in Burnside’s honor may be made to the Harry Hay Fund, to continue the activist work of John Burnside and Harry Hay. Donations may be sent to The Harry Hay Fund, c/o Chas Nol, 174 ½ Hartford Street.

Gay City News [New York, NY]
September 18, 2008

http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20127430&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568862&rfi=6

John Burnside, Gay Pioneer, Dies

By Jason Victor Serinus

John Lyon Burnside III, longtime partner of Mattachine Society founder Harry Hay, died peacefully in San Francisco on September 14 at the age of 91. The cause of death was an extremely aggressive form of glioblastoma brain cancer. Hay, who many consider the founder of the modern gay liberation movement, died in 2002 at the age of 90 from a tumor in the lungs.

At the time of his passing, Burnside was surrounded by members of the Circle of Loving Companions. The group, whose name derives from a non-profit Burnside and Hay founded in the 1960s, re-formed in 1999 when the couple moved to San Francisco in order to receive round-the-clock support and care.

John Burnside was an activist, inventor, dancer, physicist, and lover of men. He and Harry Hay became a couple in 1963, more than a decade after Harry founded the Mattachine Society in 1950. They were part of a generation of lesbian and gay elders, including Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, who founded the LGBT movement. In 1979, together with Don Kilhefner and Mitch Walker, they convened the first Spiritual Gathering of Radical Faeries.

By appearing in the landmark 1977 gay documentary "Word is Out," John and Harry gave hope to generations of lesbians and gays that gay couples can form in their mature years and survive into old age. Burnside was honored at the Castro Theater this year during the 30th anniversary screening of the film. He was also featured in Eric Slade's 2002 documentary film about Hay, "Hope Along the Wind."

"We know John had a joyful end," said Circle member and former San Francisco Pride Parade president Joey Cain. "In his last years, he was surrounded by people who loved him. He knew he had that love. Let's face it; the great bugaboo of gay men's lives is that when they grow old, they will die alone, without the support of the family structure. What John and Harry created continues to help dispel that destiny for themselves and for all of us."

Many valued Burnside for his unflaggingly cheerful countenance and outlook. In the midst of any hot-tempered debate over gay politics or values, it was Burnside who cooled people down by reminding them of the deep gay brotherhood and commonality the community shares. In a 1989 essay, "Who are the Gay People," Burnside wrote, "The crown of Gay being is a way of loving, of reaching to love in a way that far transcends the common mode."

That same year, in his Valentine to Hay, he wrote, "Hand in hand we walk, as wing tip to wing tip. Our spirits roam the universe, finding lovers everywhere. Sex is music. Time is not real. All things are imbued with spirit."

Thankfully, Burnside was able to reap the rewards of his beliefs through the love that was reflected back to him.

Less known is John Burnside's history as a physics and mathematics graduate from UCLA who for a time worked at Lockheed as a staff scientist. Burnside invented the teleidoscope, an innovative variation on the kaleidoscope that works without the traditional glass chips to create a symmetrical mandala. In 1958, he set up California Kaleidoscopes in Los Angeles, which manufactured and marketed his device across the nation.

In the 1970s, Burnside created the symetricon, a large mechanical kaleidoscopic device that projects intricate, colorful patterns. Images it created were used in a number of Hollywood films, including "Logan's Run."

The couple met at a seminar at the ONE Institute, the national gay and lesbian archives in Los Angeles, and Burnside divorced his wife Edith to move in with Hay. Three years later, in 1966, the two men were part of a 15-car motorcade through downtown Los Angeles protesting the military's exclusion of homosexuals. The event is considered one of the country's first gay protest marches. In 1967, two years before Stonewall, they appeared as a gay couple on "The Joe Pyne Show" on Los Angeles television.

In the wake of Stonewall, the Southern California Gay Liberation Front was founded and met in Burnside's teleidoscope factory. The following year, the couple moved to San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico, where Hay pursued his lifelong interest in Native American culture. The couple later returned to Los Angeles before moving to San Francisco.

Burnside's final home was in Cain's longtime Haight-Ashbury flat.

"John was a lovely, creative individual," said filmmaker Slade, also a Circle member. "He studied modern dance in the 1950s. I think John's view of life was that it was all a dance, and he moved through life in that way."

Donations in Burnside's honor will continue the activist work of John Burnside and Harry Hay. Donations can be sent to The Harry Hay Fund, c/o Chas Nol, 174 1/2 Hartford Street, San Francisco, CA 94114.

Radical Faery takes flight at 91

John Burnside (right) with Harry Hay in 2002.

A pioneering gay rights activist who co-founded a worldwide gay spirituality movement has died.

John Burnside, who helped found the Radical Faeries with his partner of 39 years, Harry Hay, died at his San Francisco home on Sunday, September 14. He was 91.

British-born Hay, who died in 2002, was already a pioneering gay rights activist when he met the then-married Burnside in 1963.

A communist, Hay founded America's first gay rights organisation, The Mattachine Society, in Los Angeles in 1950.

Burnside divorced after meeting Hay, and together they formed another gay rights group, the Circle of Loving Companions.

The pair’s interest in gay spirituality found voice in 1965 when they formed the Southern California Council on Religion and the Homophile.

And in 1966 in Los Angeles, Burnside and Hay planned one of the world’s first gay parades, a 15 car motorcade, to protest the exclusion of gays from the US military.

In 1979, they co-founded, with Don Kilhefner, the Radical Faeries gay spirituality movement, now worldwide.

Speaking from their sanctuary near Nimbin in NSW, a spokesperson for the Australian Radical Faeries told Queensland Pride the group was saddened by the recent death of one of its founders.

“The Faeries were called into being in Arizona in 1979 by visionary gay activists such as Harry Hay and his long-term partner John, and have since spread around the globe,” Spider-cutie said.

“The Radical Faeries seek to develop the artistic, spiritual, magical and community aspects of being gay. John and Harry’s insights and radical philosophies continue to inspire us.”

Burnside was also a scientist and inventor, having created kaleidoscope-like devices such as the teleidoscope and the symmetricon, which was used in the 1976 film, Logan’s Run.

Burnside had been diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer.

Donations in Burnside's memory to continue his and Hay's activist work may be made to the Harry Hay Fund, c/o Chas Nol, 174 1/2 Hartford St., San Francisco, CA 94114.