American activist Bob Kohler was BOTD in 1926. Born in Queens in New York City, little is known about his early life. He served in the US Navy during World War Two, until his discharge after a serious injury. After the war, he worked as a producer for CBS-TV, before opening his own talent agency, becoming one of the first agents to represent Black actors and hold classes for Black performers who lacked audition experience. During the 1960s, he joined the Congress of Racial Equality, helping organise Freedom Rides in the burgeoning Black civil rights movement, and protested US involvement in the Vietnam War. In June 1968, he witnessed the riots at the Stonewall Inn, staying to cheer the protestors. On the second night of the riots, he and a group of friends formed the Gay Liberation Front, credited with introducing radical politics into New York’s burgeoning gay rights movement. He became a prominent community leader, leading demonstrations and clocking up over 30 arrests. He also mentored homeless queer and trans youth, including Sylvia Rivera, who he befriended and supported financially throughout her life. In the late 1970s, he became the manager of the gay bathhouse Club Baths. As the HIV/AIDS epidemic devastated 1980s New York, he argued for bathhouses to stay open, arguing that they were controlled environments where condoms and safe-sex information could be provided to customers. Following his business’ closure, he opened The Loft, a retail store with shops in New York City and on Fire Island and became involved with advocacy groups ACT UP and Sex Panic! In 1999, he helped form Fed Up Queers, a direct action cell that challenged the rise of right-wing gay groups and discriminatory policies targeting queers, people with HIV/AIDS and people of colour. Arrested for protesting the police killing of Guinean student Amadou Diallo, the 73-year old Kohler told the press, “I do not equate my oppression with the oppression of blacks and Latinos. You can’t. It is not the same struggle, but it is one struggle. And, if my being here as a longtime gay activist can influence other people in the gay community, it’s worth getting arrested.” In 2001, he became a core member of DASIS Watch, a group of volunteers who protested the denial of emergency housing to homeless people with AIDS. He continued his activism work into his 80s, mentoring the activist group FIERCE! to support queer youth in a gentrified and increasingly heterosexual New York. He died in 2007, aged 81.