Lige Clarke

Elijah Hadyn "Lige" Clarke (February 22, 1942 − February 10, 1975) was an American LGBT activist, journalist and author. He was the author of two books with his lover, Jack Nichols.

Lige Clarke
Clarke in 1972
Born(1942-02-22)February 22, 1942
Knott County, Kentucky, US
DiedFebruary 10, 1975(1975-02-10) (aged 32)
Veracruz, Mexico
Cause of deathMurder
Occupation(s)Activist, author
SpouseJack Nichols (partner)

Early life

Clarke was born on February 22, 1942, in Cave Branch, an unincorporated community in Knott County, Kentucky, just outside of the town of Hindman, where he grew up and attended school.[1] Clarke was a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University and later left Kentucky and joined the United States Army.[1]

Career

By the early 1960s, Clarke worked for the United States Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.[2] He held "a host of security clearances."[3]

Clarke and Nichols created and wrote "The Homosexual Citizen" as a continuation to their original column written for The Mattachine Review beginning around 1965. It was published in Screw magazine.[2] It was the first regular LGBT-interest column printed in a non-LGBT publication. By 1972, they edited Gay,[2] the first weekly national homosexual magazine.

Clarke and Nichols authored two books about same-sex attraction.

Personal life and death

Clarke met Jack Nichols in the early 1960s in Washington, D.C.[2] They became lovers.[2]

On February 10, 1975, Clarke was shot and killed near Veracruz, Mexico while traveling with a friend, Charlie Black. The two men were pursued while driving by four men on two motorcycles before being shot; Clarke was shot through the chest multiple times by gunfire, while Black was only wounded.[4]

Clarke is buried in Hindman, Kentucky.

Selected works
  • Clarke, Lige; Nichols, Jack (1972). I Have More Fun With You Than Anybody. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 9780900997907. OCLC 993400702.
  • Clarke, Lige; Nichols, Jack (1974). Roommates Can't Always Be Lovers: An Intimate Guide to Male-male Relationships. New York: St. Martin's Press. OCLC 1054028.

References
  1. Rolle, Elisa (2018). "Queer Places: Cocoa, FL, USA". queerplaces. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  2. Byrnes, Ronald (August 6, 1972). "The 'gay' world in sunshine and in shadow". Star Tribune. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 62. Retrieved July 31, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Johnson, David K. (Fall 1994). "'Homosexual Citizens': Washington's Gay Community Confronts the Civil Service". Washington History. 6 (2): 58. JSTOR 40073414.
  4. Nichols, Jack (1996). The Gay Agenda: Talking Back to the Fundamentalists. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. p. 191. ISBN 9781573921039. OCLC 260011378.

Further reading
  • Bullough, Vern L. (2002). Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context. Routledge. ISBN 1-56023-193-9.
  • Coleman, Jonathan (2020). "'Old Kentucky Homo': Lige Clarke's Gay Liberation". Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 118 (1): 163–194. doi:10.1353/khs.2020.0006. S2CID 229200846. Project MUSE 772266.
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