COMMUNITY
Timely Bequests For Five LGBTQ Groups
Herb Cohen, Daniel Cook’s estates provide $2.8 million in COVID’s midst
BY ANDY HUMM
Herb Cohen,
MD, and Daniel
Cook, a librarian,
were
together for 53 years when
Cohen died at 89 in 2014.
Cook died at age 81 in 2018.
Now, with the accounting
of their estates completed
and approved by the New
York State attorney general’s
offi ce, $2.8 million in
bequests to fi ve major LGBTQ
advocacy and service
groups have been made —
just as those groups were
forced to close their offi ces
and cancel big fundraisers
due to the coronavirus catastrophe.
As a friend of the couple
for more than 30 years, I
served as Cohen’s trustee
and Cook’s executor and
was responsible for distributing
the proceeds from the
sale of their home and their
investments to their heirs.
The AG’s offi ce signed off
on the distributions last
month.
SAGE, Advocacy &
Services for LGBT Elders,
where Cohen was a
longtime board member,
received $1,176,297. Together,
the couple also left
$705,778 to New York’s
LGBT Community Center,
$470,519 to Lambda Legal,
and $235,259 each to
GMHC and the National
LGBTQ Task Force.
I spoke with the benefi
ciaries and others about
the status of their fi nances
and services as well as how
there is now an upsurge in
community members getting
their end-of-life documents
in order as we all
confront our mortality in
this pandemic.
“The timing of this gift
could not possibly be better,”
said Michael Adams,
executive director of SAGE.
The estates of Daniel Cook (top at left) and Herb Cohen are providing nearly $3
million to fi ve LGBTQ advocacy and services groups.
“We do get some bequests
but few this generous.”
SAGE had already
named its library for Herb
Cohen.
Though its SAGE Centers
and offi ces are closed, 35
staff members “are phoning
2,000 SAGE constituents
every day to ensure that
they hear a human voice
every day. We’re checking
into see if they’ve received
meal deliveries or if they’re
sick and need help. We’re
hand-delivering food from
food pantries. And we have
a growing body of virtual
programming.”
SAGE has had to cancel
upcoming fundraisers and
paid training it was doing
for nursing homes — a revenue
loss Adams estimated
at half a million dollars.
But, he said, people are
stepping up with gifts without
being asked.
“Our elders are in crisis
and they realize it,” he said.
“But a lot of people have lost
their jobs and are worried
about their own personal
fi nances.”
To learn about SAGE’s
Legacy Giving program,
visit the Get Involved section
at sageusa.org.
Kevin Jennings, who has
been executive director of
Lambda Legal for just four
months, called the Cohen-
Cook bequest “a life-saver.”
“While the pandemic has
shut down much of society,
it has not shut down the
court,” Jennings said, and
Lambda continues to fi le
cases as do our right-wing
opponents.
Jennings said that
Lambda, founded in 1973,
has received more than
2,000 bequests over its long
history through it Guardian
Society.
“We have the degree of
freedom we have today because
of the sacrifi ces that
previous generations made
in far darker and scarier
times than the one we are
living in now,” he added,
urging people to consider
the fact that “this work is
going to continue past your
and my lifetimes and there
will continue to be a need
for resources to sustain the
fi ght for the foreseeable future.”
The LGBT Community
Center’s executive director
Glennda Testone, in
her post since 2009, had
to cancel all of its spring
events including the annual
Garden Party in June,
though there will be a virtual
alternative.
“We’re looking at a shortfall
but people are responding
positively — including a
$100,000 donation a week
ago,” she said.
The Center, Testone said,
has become “a virtual community
center,” set up a
chat function on its website,
“running all groups as
before but online.”
“We’re trying to provide
general support for our
community during this
time including a meditation
and mindfulness group,”
as well as “mental health
counseling, youth development,
HIV and ESL groups
— anything that we could
take virtual. The response
has been pretty tremendous.”
In accepting bequests,
the Center has the Powsner
Cooperberg Legacy
Society, named for two
past presidents who died of
AIDS.
Rea Carey has been with
the National LGBTQ Task
Force since 2004 and executive
director since 2008.
“We lived through the
2008-09 recession and
saw an eight to nine percent
drop in giving to nonprofi
ts in general then,” she
explained, adding that as
for now, “those that rely
more heavily on corporate
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