William E. Woods

William E. Woods

Woods in 1974

Born: William Everett Woods; October 9, 1949; Decatur, Illinois, US
Died: September 28, 2008 (aged 58); Honolulu, Hawaii, US
Alma mater: University of Hawaiʻi
Occupation: Gay rights activist

William Everett Woods (October 9, 1949 – September 28, 2008) was an American gay rights activist. He advocated for better treatment of gay people through his political organizing and public commentary. In 1990, he took three same-sex couples to fill out marriage licenses, beginning the series of events that would lead to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States.

Woods was born in Decatur, Illinois, and attended Millikin University before transferring to the University of Hawaiʻi. Upon graduating in 1971, he secured a job in the Hawaii Department of Health before founding a social services organization for gay people called the Sexual Identity Center. The organization held panels on gay issues and organized petition campaigns; in his capacity as executive director, Woods critiqued media treatment of homosexuals and advocated for their civil rights. He mounted an unsuccessful campaign for a seat in the Hawaii Senate in 1974, the first of many failed attempts to be elected to a state-level political position. With three other delegates, he represented Hawaii on the steering committee for the 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

In 1980, Woods unsuccessfully sought a seat on the Hawaii Board of Education. The following year he led a group in disrupting Jerry Falwell's visit to Hawaii by registering an organization called "Moral Majority of Hawaii". After another unsuccessful campaign for the Board of Education in 1984, Woods was named to the Mayor's Advisory Committee on AIDS in 1985, and also served as president of a University of Hawaiʻi alumni group from 1985 to 1987. By 1990 he was directing and managing the Gay Community News, resulting in his election to the national board of the Gay and Lesbian Press Association.

In 1990, Woods brought three same-sex couples to the Hawaii Department of Health's main office in Honolulu to fill out marriage licenses. When the licenses were not issued, the couples filed a lawsuit with Woods's support, initiating Baehr v. Miike, an important case in the development of legal same-sex marriage in the United States. He continued his advocacy on gay issues for the rest of his life, founding the Gay and Lesbian Education and Advocacy Foundation in 1990 and mounting an unsuccessful campaign to be Governor of Hawaii in 1994. Woods himself traveled to Vancouver to marry another man in 2003; he died in September 2008 after a long illness.

{snip}