BRADLEY, DAN (1940-1988), U.S. Political Activist

In the early years of the Reagan administration, Dan Bradley was the president of the Legal Services Corporation, a federal government agency providing legal aid for the poor. In 1982, Bradley publicly announced that he was gay; in so doing, he became the highest-ranking openly gay official in the federal government. Soon thereafter, he resigned from the LSC and became active in the gay rights movement; he served on the boards of many organizations, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Gay Rights Advocates, and the Human Rights Campaign Fund. When he learned that he was infected with the AIDS virus, Bradley became especially active around the issue. "The fact that many of us are talking about out illness has to be beneficial," he said. "I believe knowledge, information, and awareness are three of the best cures for ignorance, bigotry, and discrimination." He died of AIDS at the age of forty-seven.