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Jerimarie Liesegang was known as a tireless advocate for Transgender rights in Connecticut.

She started out as a Harvard PhD chemist and ended up an activist who embodied the definition of intersectional work. She founded several organizations such as It’s Time Connecticut, and a political organization Queers Without Borders. She was active with CWEALF, PFLAG and on the Board of Love Makes a Family and the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective.

Jerimarie marched in the first Hartford Pride parade and in 2002 with her wife Anja Schaedler started the observance of the Transgender Day of Remembrance in Connecticut.    According to those that knew her, her proudest achievement was the amendment of Connecticut Public Act No. 11-55.  An act that included “gender identity or expression” to the list of what protections were embedded in the act.  She fought for the Trans community and this legislation for over a decade until Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed it into law in 2011.

Jerimarie would work with other oppressed groups as well. She lived her life and work through a quote from the Black lesbian civil rights activist Audre Lorde:  “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, as we do not lead single-issue lives.  

On November 3, Jerimarie Liesegang, the woman who many consider the grandmother of the Transgender movement in Connecticut died of cancer at age 70.

Related Links:

CT Trans Advocacy