{{short description|American LGBTQ, HIV/AIDS and disability activist (1955–2018)}} {{Infobox person | name = Janet Weinberg | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1955|04|03}} | birth_place = Manhattan, New York, USA | death_date = {{death date and age|2018|09|01|1955|04|03}} | death_place = | education = York College CUNY | known_for = LGBTQ activism | spouse = {{marriage|Roz Richter|2011}} | children = }} '''Janet Inez Weinberg''' (April 3, 1955 – September 1, 2018) was an American LGBTQ activist, advocate for people with HIV/AIDS and advocate for disability rights, based in New York City. She was a fund-raiser and executive for social service organizations including Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), Educational Alliance, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Services Center.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=https://www.mannycantor.org/2018/09/05/death-janet-weinberg/|title=Educational Alliance mourns the death of Janet Weinberg|last=MannyCantorNYC|date=2018-09-05|language=en|access-date=2019-06-25|archive-date=2019-06-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190625233353/https://www.mannycantor.org/2018/09/05/death-janet-weinberg/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Weinberg in her later years helped on major projects to mark LGBTQ history in the United States including the Stonewall National Monument, the nation's first monument of LGBT rights and history, the New York City AIDS Memorial, and an effort to create the first national LGBTQ museum.
== Early life and education == Janet Inez Weinberg was born in Manhattan April 3, 1955, to Esther Hariton Weinberg and father Herbert.<ref name=":6" /> She grew up in Highland Park, New Jersey, her mother Esther, a homemaker, died when Janet was three.<ref name=":6" /> Herbert, a stockbroker, remarried to a woman named May, Janet has a brother Kenneth who is now a doctor.<ref name=":6" />
Janet attended Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, and graduated from York College, City University of New York with an occupational therapy degree.<ref name=":6" />
== Career == Weinberg started working at VTA Management Services (VTA), which provides contract rehabilitation therapy services in New York State, as an occupational therapist (OT) staff member.<ref name=":4" /> She mainly took care of children with “learning disabilities, traumatic injuries and neuromuscular diseases”.<ref name=":6" /> Over a decade she rose to a role overseeing “the work of more than 1,000 other therapists”,<ref name=":3" /> and earned a reputation for her activism on behalf of people with HIV and disabilities.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.hivplusmag.com/long-term-survivors/2018/9/18/janet-weinberg-hiv-and-disability-activist-dies|title=Janet Weinberg, HIV And Disability Activist, Dies|date=2018-09-19|website=www.hivplusmag.com|language=en|access-date=2019-06-27}}</ref> She was made vice-president in 1998 of VTA's parent company,<ref name=":6" /> Symphony Health Services.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2004/12/06/daily9.html|title=Symphony Health finds new conductor|last=Milani|first=Kate|date=Dec 7, 2004|website=www.bizjournals.com|access-date=2019-06-27}}</ref> Years later she still remembered a 1985 incident in Rockaway Beach, Queens when the local community “erupted” in anger to shut down a proposal to house homeless dying AIDS patients in a nursing home instead of hospitals.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/obituaries/janet-weinberg-dead.html|title=Janet Weinberg, 63, Dies; Advocate for Gay Causes and the Disabled|last=Sandomir|first=Richard|date=2018-09-14|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-06-27|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> “They were never allowed to enter the nursing home,” she said, the city leaders bowed to “homophobia and hatred.”<ref name=":6" /> She also witnessed homophobia from medical staff firsthand in the 1980s during the height of the AIDS pandemic, although not HIV positive herself, she was an inpatient and the hospital staff refused to come into her room because she was lesbian.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ascopost.com/issues/october-10-2016/the-medical-profession-has-to-become-culturally-sensitive-to-the-needs-of-lgbt-cancer-survivors/|title=The Medical Profession Has to Become Culturally Sensitive to the Needs of LGBT Cancer Survivors - The ASCO Post|website=www.ascopost.com|access-date=2019-06-27}}</ref> She became disabled herself in the 1980s due to an illness, and from then required a wheelchair.<ref name=":6" />
In the mid-1990s, while still working at VTA,<ref name=":6" /> she was hired to the board of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center (The center).<ref name=":0" /> The center had made an offer, and she was looking for a transition to work serving “a population still affected by the AIDS epidemic”.<ref name=":6" /> She worked for many years at The center as its development director.<ref name=":3" /> At The center, she also served as co-chairwomen helping lead a $14 million fundraising renovating its Greenwich Village headquarters.<ref name=":0" /> She was disabled and in a wheelchair, and utilized her experience to effect design changes as well as the organizations scope.<ref name=":0" />
=== 2000s === In 2005 she was recruited to join Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), an AIDS service organization,<ref name=":6" /> becoming Senior Managing Director of Development and Legislative Funding (from 2005 to 2009),<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|url=http://www.gmhc.org/news-and-events/press-releases/gmhc-salutes-janet-weinberg-on-her-departure|title=GMHC {{!}} GMHC Salutes Janet Weinberg On Her Departure|website=www.gmhc.org|access-date=2019-06-27|archive-date=2018-12-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202002212/http://www.gmhc.org/news-and-events/press-releases/gmhc-salutes-janet-weinberg-on-her-departure|url-status=dead}}</ref> and then becoming Chief Operations Officer (COO), and briefly serving as Chief Executive Officer until she left in 2014.<ref name=":0" /> At GMHC she was a “staunch and compassionate advocate” for people with HIV/AIDS and disabilities.<ref name=":0" /> She also led programs helping the agencies’ thousands of clients with General Equivalency Degree diplomas, financial planning, and immigrant issues.<ref name=":0" /> As the Senior Managing Director of Development and Legislative Funding her duties included public and private fundraising.<ref name=":5" /> Her work there included organizing for AIDS Walk New York, which chiefly benefits GMHC, it's the largest single-day AIDS fundraiser in the world,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/05/20/aids-walk-new-york-central-park-gay-mens-health-crisis/|title=AIDS Walk New York Deemed A Success After Raising Millions Of Dollars On Sunday|date=2018-05-20|language=en|access-date=2019-06-27}}</ref> in 2008 they had 45,000 participants raising $7.4 million.<ref name=":0" /> Weinberg secured GMHC's “first-ever federal appropriation” to mitigate crystal meth use among clients, total federal funding for that effort over time amounted to $1.8 million {{as of|2018|September|lc=y}}.<ref name=":3" /> She “dramatically” expanded the organization's mental health and substance abuse programs resulting in a dedicated clinic being opened in 2017.<ref name=":3" /> As COO she helped “secure over $10.8 million in new grants to expand GMHC's core services”.<ref name=":5" />
In 2012 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, “relatively early, stage IIB, during a routine mammogram screening” which she said many lesbians don't get due to heteronormativity and homophobia, that after treatments and surgery went into remission.<ref name=":2" /> At a memorial, Urvashi Vaid, who formerly led the National LGBTQ Task Force, talked about “the Breasties,” a breast cancer support group, “We hated the color pink and loved saying ‘fuck cancer.’”<ref name=":1" /> From her experience with breast cancer and talking with other lesbians who avoided healthcare for the same bias against them concerns, she became a “fierce breast cancer screening advocate“.<ref name=":3" />
She intended to retire after her work with GMHC but took on consulting work for Educational Alliance (EA) “whose community centers serve 50,000 residents of the Lower East Side and the East Village”.<ref name=":6" /> Her last job, from 2014 to 2018, was as executive vice-president at EA, a Jewish legacy organization started in the 1880s that provides multi-generational programs and services in education, health and wellness, arts and culture, and civic engagement across fifteen sites and a network of five community centers.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gaycitynews.nyc/stories/2018/24/weinberg-remembrance-2018-11-22-gcn.html|title=Janet Weinberg's Life Celebrated|last=Andy Humm|website=Gay City News|date=2018-11-14|language=en|access-date=2019-06-27|archive-date=2019-06-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627104249/https://www.gaycitynews.nyc/stories/2018/24/weinberg-remembrance-2018-11-22-gcn.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> She first worked for the organization as a consultant, then was hired as Executive Vice President for Programs and Operations.<ref name=":4" /> One of her biggest tasks was to oversee construction of a center for addiction services and recovery, EA had a large hole in the ground for ten years.<ref name=":6" /> Alan van Cappelle, EA's president, said, “Fill the hole and build the center. She lived it and breathed it,” with the center opening in 2016.<ref name=":6" />
=== Later years === In later years she was part of major projects to mark LGBTQ history in the United States including the effort to create the Stonewall National Monument, the nation's first monument of LGBT rights and history, designated by President Barack Obama in June 2016.<ref name=":0" /> She also served on the board of the New York City AIDS Memorial, which honors the city's 100,000 citizens who died of AIDS, their carers and activists, that was opened on World AIDS Day on December 1, 2016.<ref name=":0" /> She was also central in an effort to create the first national LGBTQ museum.<ref name=":1" />
Weinberg received “numerous awards from the NYC Board of Education, local political clubs, and professional organizations honoring her many years of service in the nonprofit sector”.<ref name=":4" />
She died on September 1, 2018, from a chronic heart condition at 63 years old.<ref name=":0" />
In June 2019, Weinberg was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn.<ref name=":23">{{Cite web|url=https://www.metro.us/news/local-news/new-york/stonewall-inn-lgbtq-wall-honor|title=National LGBTQ Wall of Honor unveiled at Stonewall Inn|last=Glasses-Baker|first=Becca|date=June 27, 2019|website=www.metro.us|access-date=2019-06-28}}</ref><ref name="SDGLN">{{Cite web|url=https://sdgln.com/news/2019/06/19/national-lgbtq-wall-honor-be-unveiled-historic-stonewall-inn|title=National LGBTQ Wall of Honor to be unveiled at historic Stonewall Inn|last=Rawles|first=Timothy|date=2019-06-19|website=San Diego Gay and Lesbian News|language=en|access-date=2019-06-21}}</ref> The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ebar.com/news/news//272833|title=Groups seek names for Stonewall 50 honor wall|website=The Bay Area Reporter / B.A.R. Inc.|language=en|access-date=2019-05-24}}</ref> while The Wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sfbaytimes.com/stonewall-50/|title=Stonewall 50|date=2019-04-03|website=San Francisco Bay Times|access-date=2019-05-25}}</ref>
== Personal life == Weinberg was Jewish; she joined Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the world's largest LGBTQ synagogue in 1992.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/199082/cbst-the-worlds-largest-lgbt-synagogue-gets-a-new-home|title=CBST, the World's Largest LGBT Synagogue, Gets a New Home|date=2016-04-01|website=Tablet Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-06-27}}</ref>
In August 2011 Weinberg married her longtime partner Roz Richter, an associate justice on the New York State Appellate Division's First Branch bench in Manhattan, two months after same-sex marriage in New York was legalized.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/fashion/weddings/janet-weinberg-rosalyn-richter-weddings.html|title=Janet Weinberg, Rosalyn Richter: Weddings|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 12, 2011}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gaycitynews.nyc/stories/2018/19/weinberg-remembrance-2018-09-13-gcn.html|title=Janet Weinberg, Leader in Health, Social Services, Dies at 63|last=Schindler|first=Paul|website=Gay City News|date=2018-09-12|language=en|access-date=2019-06-27|archive-date=2019-06-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627104258/https://www.gaycitynews.nyc/stories/2018/19/weinberg-remembrance-2018-09-13-gcn.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weinberg, Janet}} Category:1955 births Category:2018 deaths Category:20th-century American Jews Category:Hofstra University alumni Category:Lesbian Jews Category:LGBTQ people from New York (state) Category:Activists from New York City Category:York College, City University of New York alumni Category:21st-century American Jews Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people Category:LGBTQ rights activists from New York (state)