Raymond Broshears (February 14, 1935 – January 10, 1982) was a gay Pentecostal Evangelist preacher and activist who founded the Lavender Panthers, an armed self-defense group for the LGBT community in San Francisco, active from the summer of 1973 until the spring of 1974.
He also helped organize the first gay pride march in San Francisco in June 1972[1][2][3][4] and founded the Orthodox Episcopal Church of God.
[6] He enrolled in the Pentecostal Robert E. Lee Bible College in Cleveland, Tennessee in the mid fifties, and became a travelling preacher in the early 1960s.
Broshears moved west to Long Beach, California, and established a ministry and community centre on Skid Row designed to improve the quality of life for people living below the poverty line.
The late 60s and early 70s were a dangerous time politically for queer people, and Broshears picked up on a lack of protection from local law enforcement.