Honoring the legacy of Chuck Williams and Stu Walter, founders and funders of The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. #outleaders
Never underestimate the power that two people who love each other have to change the world.? Chuck Williams and Stu Walter were two such amazing men.? I first met Chuck in 2006, when I was at Merrill Lynch and was able to cobble together a $100k grant to The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law to fund a piece of research to quantify the incremental tax domestic partners paid because marriage equality wasn’t a reality (https://lnkd.in/e2S2Vz5c).? Chuck became a mentor to me, and invited me to join the Founders Council of the Institute (board) where I’ve been honored to serve for the last 17 years.? Chuck started The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law with a $2.5 million grant–the largest in history to fund LGBTQ research–a bar that he and Stu continued to raise over the next twenty years. In total, Chuck and Stu gave over $50 million (an apt number, as they were together for 50 years!) that created a permanent endowment to fight myths and stereotypes about LGBTQ+ people through reliable research that supports policy change.? Chuck passed away earlier last year, and Stu continued the legacy until he died this past week.? Brad Sears, who has been the Institute's Executive Director for 23 years (yes, he’s my sister), put it beautifully in his tribute: "From the depths of the closet of the 1950s and 60s, Stu created his own family. His 50-year relationship with Chuck Williams was an act of devotion, courage, and resistance. It sets an example not just for same-sex relationships but for any relationship....In the 1980s, Stu was diagnosed with HIV and then AIDS. He tried a number of toxic medications and alternative therapies that would seem bizarre to anyone but the dying and desperate before more effective medications became available in the mid-1990s. Stu knew if those medications had become available even a year later, he would not have survived. But Stu did survive, beating the odds not only against AIDS but lung cancer and COPD, living a full life of over eight decades. Stu did not take this borrowed time for granted. When the world dictated a life of loneliness, Stu created community. When the world punched down with homophobia, he helped forge a path forward not just for himself but for all LGBTQ people...But unlike Egyptian kings, Stu and Chuck did not bury their treasure with them. They gave everything they could to us, down to the widow’s mite. By focusing the last decades of their lives on creating an institution to advance LGBTQ equality with a permanent endowment, Stu and Chuck anticipated this day when they would be gone, and the future would be up to us." I'm so grateful for humans like Chuck and Stu, who made their life purpose creating change. #outleaders Out Leadership