On August 26th, Washington, DC's  community of lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered people and gay men lost a community member who was a friend, firm in his convictions, who took stands -- at times uncompromising -- who reached out to troubled youths, to those isolated and lonely, to those oppressed by racism, classism, and homophobia.  Bruce Pennington celebrated his gayness and his community.  He believed in his heart in the phrase coined by Dr Franklin Kameny "Gay is Good".

As an activist he was an early member of DC's Gay Liberation Front, helped stage DC's first Pride celebration in 1972, and worked on youth, racial and other community issues.   With other GLF members, he created one of DC's earliest gay collectives: GLF House at 1620 S St. NW.    Bruce helped organize gay support of the Black Panthers' People's Revolutionary Constitutional Convention in 1970.  A close friend of journalist and writer David Aiken, Bruce collaborated on several of Aiken's articles for the Advocate.   With Aiken, Lou Chibbaro, and others, he created the Stonewall Nation Media Collective which produced the Friends radio show on WGTB and WPFW from 1973 to 1982.  In the late 70s Bruce became one of DC's first officially sanctioned gay foster parents.  In the 1980s he helped found DC's Black and White Men Together and was at one time its president.  In the past few years, Bruce Pennington was actively involved in the Rainbow History Project and served as its first vice-president.

Bruce had a strong sense of personal and community history.  He was one of the first to volunteer to record an oral history for the Rainbow History Project.  He preserved many early papers and publications of the Gay Liberation Front and other local gay civil rights organizations.  With admirable prescience, he also preserved both David Aiken's papers and the broadcast recordings of the Friends radio program (a collection of over 250 reel-to-reel tapes).

Friends and members of the community remember Bruce's sense of humor and style (especially his Halloween costumes), and love of the color purple (the only color allowed for Christmas ornaments on his tree).   His gift for cooking and the meals he produced are also well-remembered.  An invitation to dinner at Bruce's was not to be missed. Having worked for many years in local restaurants, he turned to teaching at the Marriott Hospitality Charter School, where he infused his English lessons with cooking lore.

                                

If you would like to post your memories of Bruce on this site, please email them to
info@rainbowhistory.org

Several people have asked about memorial contributions:  we are putting those received into a memorial fund in Bruce's name.  Two suggestions have been to use the money either to preserve tapes of the Friends radio program or to establish an annual lecture about gay DC activism and history in his name.

Contributions can be sent to:

Rainbow History Project
1414 17th St, NW, #413
Washington, DC 20036

Please write donations to Rainbow History Project but mark them as Pennington Fund.

REMEMBERING BRUCE:  click on 'remembering' to go to the next page.

[Due to the growing list of tributes, we have moved them to a separate page.]