Richard J. Rosendall
Bio
Richard J. Rosendall is a freelance author based in Washington, DC. He writes a regular column, “Holding the Center,” for the Boston gay newspaper Bay Windows. His work has appeared in Salon.com and FrontPageMagazine.com. He is a contributor to Independent Gay Forum and Liberty Education Forum.
Rosendall is a longtime member of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC (GLAA), and was its president for three years ending in January 1999. In 1981 he co-founded the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW), which he served as public relations director from 1985 to 1996. He was active with the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses in the 1980s and 1990s, and attended its first five choral festivals. He produced benefit performances by the gay male vocal quintet The Flirtations for the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League in 1991. His interest in international activism led him to persuade both GLAA and GALA Choruses to join the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), whose conferences he attended in 1993 and 1994. In 1996 he launched world wide web sites for GLAA and GMCW, and he continues to administer the GLAA site. He is a founding member of the NAACP-DC Metropolitan Police and Criminal Justice Review Task Force. He participated in "celebrity roast" fundraisers for DC's Black Lesbian and Gay Pride Day in 1996 and 1997. He wrote and officiated at a gay wedding ceremony for friends in October 1994. He is a native Washingtonian.