Andrew Cray

Andrew Cray was born on June 11, 1986, and was an activist for LGBTQ rights.

Cray attended Chippewa Falls High School where he played multiple instruments and received the John Philip Sousa award for outstanding performance in concert band. He attended Northwestern Universityy for his undergraduate studies and received his law degree from the University of Michigan.

Although Cray’s life was cut tragically short by cancer in 2014, he accomplished a great deal for the LGBTQ community. Cray came out as a transgender man during his time in college. Cray worked as a fellow or a member of the following coalitions:

• The National Coalition for LGBT Health
• The National LGBTQ Task Force
• The National Center for Transgender Equality
• The Center for American Progress

Cray’s commitment to nondiscrimination on a federal level resulted in LQTQ nondiscrimination being signed into law as part of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. His partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services also led to the creation of the Out2Enroll initiative (which helped more than eight million people sign up for health insurance) and the HOPE Act (a bill to assist HIV positive patients with organ donation).

Cray was posthumously awarded as a “Champion of Courage” by President Obama for his work with the White House. The National Center for Transgender Equality also established a fellowship in Cray’s name.