Ruth Simpson (activist)

Ruth Simpson (March 15, 1926 – May 8, 2008) was the founder of the United States' first lesbian community center, an author, and former president of Daughters of Bilitis, New York.

In Ruth Simpson's 1976 pioneering work From the Closet to the Courts she documented her history in the early days of the gay movement and the actions taken to achieve justice, civil rights and equal treatment under the law for the large, diverse LGBT population.

Ruth has had her poetry published in literary magazines, and she has given a number of talks on college campuses in the Hudson Valley area.

In the mid-1930s through the early 1940s Ruth's parents organized a UAW, AFL-CIO Union (Local 88) and with only $14 in the treasury, called a strike against the Willard Storage Battery Company, the first factory to be struck because of health hazards in the workplace.

Ethel Simpson had researched the symptoms of Local 88 workers at the Cleveland Public Library while her daughter chose books for the week.

Ruth says she vividly remembers the sound of wood on bone as heads were beaten and, more importantly, the deep pride for her parents and for the labor movement.

In her early years, Ruth Simpson learned organizational skills, as well as the importance of activism against injustice, from the legacy left by her parents.