James W. Toy is a long-time LGBT activist, considered a pioneer among LGBT activists in Michigan. Toy earned his B.A. at Denison University in 1951. He graduated with a master's degree in Clinical Social Work from the University of Michigan and served as a pro bono counselor and therapist. Toy underwent bureaucratic retirement in 2008 from the University of Michigan as the diversity coordinator in the Office of Institutional Equity. He was awarded the Alumni Citation, Denison's highest alumni honor, in June 2001, and was featured as an early LGBT alumnus in an article on the college's LGBTQ history in 2013.
He was as well a founding member of the Ann Arbor Gay Liberation Front. In 1971, he helped establish the Human Sexuality Office at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The HSO was the first staffed office at an institution of higher learning in the United States, and presumably the first of its kind in the world, to address and support sexual minorities. Jim served as its Co-Coordinator, and Gay Male advocate, from 1971 until 1994. The HSO, now named the Spectrum Center, has named its library in Jim's honor. The Jim Toy Library currently hosts a collection of over 1500 titles and supports LGBTQA student development by exposing students to, and engaging them in, the rich cultural, social, historical, psychological, political, and relational aspects of LGBTQ people, identities, experiences, and communities. In 1972, Toy co-authored the first official "Lesbian-Gay Pride Week Proclamation" by a U.S. governing body, the Ann Arbor City Council. The same year, he co-authored the city's non-discrimination policy on sexual orientation. He participated in the successful efforts to amend the University of Michigan's non-discrimination bylaw to include sexual orientation as a protected category. He engaged in the campaigns to create and retain the City of Ypsilanti's non-discrimination ordinance. In 1999, Jim and Dr. Sandra Cole, former Director of Michigan Medicine's Comprehensive Gender Services Program, wrote the language of Ann Arbor's non-discrimination policy regarding gender identity. With many others, Jim advocated successfully for the amendment of the University of Michigan's non-discrimination bylaw so as to include gender identity and gender expression as protected categories.
In 1971, Bishop Richard Emrich of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan appointed Jim a founding member of the Diocesan Commission on Homosexuality. The group published the Report & Recommendations of the Commission on Homosexuality, one of the earliest church documents in this country to support the concerns of lesbigay people. Since 1975, Jim has served as the Secretary of the Diocesan Church & Society Committee. He was a co-author of the Diocesan Human Sexuality Curriculum and was Secretary of the Diocesan Committee on Transgender/Bisexual/Lesbian/Gay/Concerns. He is a founding Board member of the Oasis TBLG Outreach Ministry of the Diocese and currently serves as the secretary. On Sunday, October 27, 2019, he was seated as Canon Honorary at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit, at an Evensong for the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude.
He co-founded the Ann Arbor Gay Hotline in 1972 and served as its Coordinator and Trainer until 1985. In 1986, Jim helped found the Wellness Networks/Huron Valley, now known as Unified: HIV Health and Beyond. He became the first Co-Coordinator of HIV/AIDS Education for the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan in 1987. He has served as a certified Pre- & Post-Test HIV/AIDS Counselor and as a support group facilitator and volunteer trainer for Unified: HIV Health and Beyond. He is a founding member of the City of Ann Arbor HIV/AIDS Task Force and of two four-county HIV/AIDS prevention and resource-provision groups.
Additional organizations
He was a founding member of the Washtenaw County LGBT Retirement Center Task Force, PFLAG/Ann Arbor, GLSEN/Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti Area, Washtenaw Rainbow Action Project, Transgender Advocacy Project, American Friends Service Committee Inclusive Justice Program, Washtenaw Faith Action Network, Ypsilanti Human Rights PAC, Ypsilanti Rainbow Neighbors, and the Out Loud Chorus. He was a former Executive Board member of Guild House. He was a trained mediator and trainer for the American Friends Service Committee Inclusive Justice Program's non-violent-dialogue training. He was a member of the Program Committee of the AFSC Michigan's Inclusive Justice Program. He served on Equality Michigan's Board of Advisors and the WikiQueer Global Advisory Board. He was a founding member of the gay Baroque trio, Rosetta Stoned, & The Higheroglyphics.
Acknowledgements
The Washtenaw Rainbow Action Project is a local Ann Arbor resource center that exists to provide information, education, social events, and advocacy by and for the Queer and Ally community in the Washtenaw County area. The center was renamed the Jim Toy Community Center in 2010 to honor the local gay activist legend. His archives are housed in the James W. Toy Papers at the University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library. He is included in the Gallery of the LGBT Religious Archives Network.
