OBITUARY
Ron Simmons Dies at 70
Key DC leader on queer Black men’s health
Ron Simmons was a Washington, DC-based educator and a community service leader who helped connect
numerous individuals, particularly gay Black men, to HIV/ AIDS prevention and care.
BY MATT TRACY
Ron Simmons, a gay
man whose wide-ranging
community-based
work helped countless
individuals living with HIV/ AIDS,
especially queer Black men, died
on May 28 at the age of 70 due
to complications stemming from
prostate cancer.
Simmons most prominently
spent more than two decades
spearheading Us Helping Us People
Into Living (UHUPIL), a non-profi t,
community-based service organization
that offered HIV prevention
and support services to Black folks
in Washington, DC. Those services
would prove to be especially vital
in light of the disproportionate impact
the epidemic has had on men
of color in recent decades.
Simmons was also an educator,
working as an assistant professor
at Howard University’s School of
Communications in Washington.
He continued to stay true to his
reputation for helping others after
he retired from UHUPIL In 2016,
going on to lead a sexual health intervention
workshop for Black gay
men between the ages of 16 and
29. He also shared the expertise
he gained over his decades with
UHUPIL as a consultant.
Among his other posts, Simmons
was a member of both the Global
Network of Black People Working in
HIV and the DC Regional Commission
on Health and HIV. He served
FACEBOOK/ RON SIMMONS CONSULTING
on the steering committee of the
International AIDS Conference for
African Nations, as well.
“Dr. Ron Simmons was a giant
in the HIV movement who fought
so that the lives of all Black people
mattered. He was boldly and unapologetically
Black and a teacher
to us all,” wrote Black AIDS Institute
president & CEO Raniyah
Copeland, who said Simmons mentored
many BAI staff members.
Others also refl ected on the man
known for being a pioneer in the
area of HIV/ AIDS service work.
“The Black LGBTQ community
lost one of our godfathers last
night,” Phill Wilson, founder and
former CEO of BAI, said in a written
statement. “Ron Simmons was
a leader, mentor, and historian.
Ron chronicled our lives and gave
life to our stories before we knew
we had stories to tell or lives worth
being chronicled… Most importantly
in the darkest of times, no
matter how fractured we might
have been, Ron was always willing
to smile and celebrate our humanity,
no matter what our differences
might have been.”
Simmons hailed from Brooklyn
and went on to attend the State
University of New York at Albany,
where he received a bachelor’s degree
in Afro-American Studies and
master’s degrees in educational
communications and African history.
He then obtained a doctorate
in mass communications from
Howard University.
Assemblymember
Deborah J. Glick
Honoring Stonewall by Fighting
for Black Trans Lives
Continuing to work for LGBTQ and Human Rights
Serving our Community since 1990
Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick, 66th District
212-674-5153 • glickd@nyassembly.gov
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