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Mahaffey stood with - and for - Detroit's gay community

Few people in the metro Detroit area need to be told who Maryann Mahaffey was.
The former Detroit City Council president stood with the poor, not only during our country's recent all-too-brief progressive era, but also long after it became politically and socially unfashionable to do so. She was a feminist before that was chic – and a peace activist when the country was for war, a labor activist when our country turned corporate, a social worker during an era when executives are celebrated and social service professionals ignored.
And, of course, she always stood with the LGBT community.
In the words of Johnnie Jenkins, "She didn't have to stop to think about it or take a poll, she just knew it was the right thing to do."
Mahaffey embodied a spirit found in all great activists and teachers, from Jesus Christ to Harriet Taubman to Mahatma Gandhi.
As she herself said it, in a 1999 interview with the Metro Times, "If you stand for something then do it. And if there is a penalty, then pay it. Otherwise, how will people know you're really serious?"
Christ destroyed a temple marketplace, Taubman risked returning to slavery so that others could be free, Gandhi stood up to slander and clubs and, finally, an assassin's bullet. All of them paid penalties, from fear and doubt and pain to crucifixion.
Mahaffey stood, and Mahaffey paid, and Mahaffey stood again. Over and over again, win or lose, Mahaffey stood for our community even when many more of us were crouched in closets – just as she stood with all those who could stand with her and for those who could not.
She did it all, not because public opinion polls told her to, but because she knew it was the right thing to do.

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