By Robyn Ochs
On June 25, 2026, Loraine Hutchins (1948-2025) was added to the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. (Yes, that Stonewall Inn!)
The National LGBTQ Wall of Honor is a memorial located inside the historic Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village. It honors deceased LGBTQ+ pioneers, trailblazers, and other heroes who shaped the fight for civil rights, culture, and social justice. It was created in 2019 as a joint endeavor of the Imperial Court and the National LGBTQ Task Force, with 50 original inductees, including bicon Brenda Howard. Each year since, approximately five honorees are added to the wall. In 2025, ABilly S. Jones- Hennin became the second bi+ advocate (though certainly not the second bi+ person) added to the wall. This year, Loraine joins them.
I was invited to speak at the ceremony to share what Loraine Hutchins meant to me. The ceremony took place on the second floor of the Inn. Though I grew up in New York City and often visit family and friends there, I had somehow never been to the Stonewall Inn. The place is steeped in history and symbolism. Next door to the Inn is the Stonewall National Monument which, so far, has managed to survive the current administration’s rampage of cultural and historical destruction.
An Imperial Court queen with bi+ advocates Kierra Johnson, Executive Director of the National LGBTQ+ Task Force; Amber Dodd; Robyn Ochs; Estraven; and Dennis Slade. Photo credit: National LGBTQ Task Force
For those not familiar with her work, Loraine was a bisexual activist and writer, most well-known for co-editing Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out in 1991 which, after being mislabeled as a “Lesbian Anthology” by the Lambda Literary Awards, sparked a campaign to force the addition of bisexual categories to the awards, which finally succeeded in 2006.
Loraine fought for bi visibility, for bi+ inclusion, for racial justice, and for sexual liberation locally, in the Washington, D.C. area where she lived, and nationally; and she continued this work for decades.
Loraine was brave, and she was ethical. For her entire adult life she did her very best to walk her talk, to practice her values in her daily life and work.
Loraine believed (I’m quoting from her website) that “social justice and equality are all that really matter and that erotic justice, economic justice, and environmental justice are all connected” and that “none of us are free until/unless all of us are free; sex and spirit are one, and our most sexually alive moments—if we would just realize it—are also our most spiritually potent ones.”
I am grateful to my friend and co-conspirator Loraine for doing so much, for so long, for shining light on the B in LGBTQ+, and for providing for me and so many others a role model for how to live our values.
Note: Loraine wrote several articles forBWQ, which can be found by searching “Loraine Hutchins” on our website.
Robyn Ochs is a global speaker, a writer, and editor of this publication.
Featured image credit: Dennis Slade