Aristide J. “A.J.” Laurent, a pioneer in the gay-rights movement and a founder of The Advocate newspaper, died at his home in Los Angeles Oct. 26 after a long illness, according to a press release. He was 70.
Laurent helped start The Los Angeles Advocate in 1967, working alongside Richard Mitch (Dick Michaels), Bill Rau and Sam Allen. When The Advocate was sold and relocated to the Bay Area eight years later, he moved with it. However, Laurent returned home shortly afterward and helped start NewsWest, which folded in 1977.
Regarding his advocacy work, Laurent was in the anti-war movement of the 1960s and ’70s, and was part of pre-Stonewall protests against police harassing gays. In the 1980s, he was part of the ACT UP movement.
In 1996 he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and given two years to live. “Thanks to the prayers and support of friends and family—and some highly qualified medical professionals—I have lived many years past the doctors’ predictions,” he wrote in a letter released after his death.
Services will be held Nov. 5 at St. John’s Catholic Church in Magnolia Springs, Ala., where Laurent was born. Memorial contributions may be sent to Best Friends Animal Society (www.bestfriends.org).