Deaths
- January 27 — Alan G. Rogers, 40, American Army major, first publicly openly gay combat fatality of the Iraq War
- February 12 — Lawrence King, 15, American murder victim
- May 22 — Paul Patrick, 58, British LGBT rights activist
- August 2 — Michael Causer, 18, British murder victim
- August 19 — Leo Abse, 91, British politician, noted for reforming laws on homosexuality and divorce
- August 27 — Del Martin, 87, American LGBT rights activist, married in first wedding performed after California legalized same-sex marriage in 2008
- September 14 — John Burnside, 91, American LGBT rights activist and partner of Harry Hay
- September 26 — Paul Newman, 83, American actor and advocate of gay rights
- October 11 — Allan Spear, 71, American openly gay politician
- November 6 — Phil Reed, 59, American first openly gay African American New York City council member
- December 17 — Jennifer Gale, 47, American transgender politician
- December 25 — Eartha Kitt, 81, American singer, actress, and advocate of gay rights
Read more about this topic: 2008 In LGBT Rights
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)
“As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)
“Death is too much for men to bear, whereas women, who are practiced in bearing the deaths of men before their own and who are also practiced in bearing life, take death almost in stride. They go to meet death—that is, they attempt suicide—twice as often as men, though men are more “successful” because they use surer weapons, like guns.”
—Roger Rosenblatt (b. 1940)