Long Live Nancy Wohlforth
A founder of Pride at Work, Nancy Wohlforth was a powerful voice in the fight for lesbian and gay rights, particularly in the workplace. Her career was dedicated to connecting gay rights to women’s rights, workers’ rights, and international labor solidarity.
Nancy Wohlforth, a pioneering labor leader and gay rights activist, died on December 31, 2024, after a long illness. She was 79.
One of the first openly gay labor leaders in the United States, Wohlforth was a powerful voice in the fight for lesbian and gay rights, particularly in the workplace. Her career was dedicated to connecting gay rights to women’s rights, workers’ rights, and international labor solidarity.
Wohlforth said that she’d had a lifelong “love affair” with her union, the Office and Professional Employees, beginning in 1974, when she started working for Local 3 in San Francisco. By the time she retired in 2010, she was secretary-treasurer of the international union. She also served as an executive board member of the San Francisco Labor Council and as vice president of the California Labor Federation.
Wohlforth was a founding member and former president of Pride at Work, the LGBTQ constituency group within the AFL-CIO. As a representative of PAW, she became the first openly gay member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council. She worked tirelessly to ensure equality for all LGBTQIA+ individuals in their workplaces, unions, and communities—and build a labor movement that ensures dignity and respect for all.
As an activist, Wohlforth was as fearless as she was dedicated. She was often outspoken on controversial issues—while maintaining an infectious sense of humor. She believed that war did not serve the interests of working people anywhere. She was a fierce critic of U.S. wars and foreign policy, and co-founded U.S. Labor Against the War in 2004. She was also a longtime leader of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare.
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Reflecting on her years in the labor movement, Wohlforth said that being secretary-treasurer of the Office and Professional Employees was “the most difficult, most exciting job of my life. I got the chance to build this union of ours, and to fight for things we believe in like health care for all, domestic partner benefits, and social justice.” She warmly remembered “the thousands of OPEIU members who have marched with me, organized with me, lobbied with me, rallied with me, negotiated with me, joked with me, befriended me, hugged me, and most of all, have been with me” through it all.
Wohlforth’s activism started early. As a high school student, she took part in Freedom Summer, the 1964 campaign to register Black voters in Mississippi (before the passage of the Voting Rights Act). While pursuing her master’s degree in American history at Columbia University in 1968, she participated in the sit-in protesting the university’s complicity in the Vietnam War.
Nancy was a life-long athlete. As a young woman she competed on the Midwest tennis circuit even before women’s tennis was professional, playing once with tennis great Billy Jean King. She also played tennis in the first international Gay (Olympic) Games in San Francisco. She and her partner Denice Lombard were avid hikers and kayakers.
Wohlforth is survived by Denice, her wife and partner of more than 43 years. “Every single thing I’ve done in this union—every single thing I am in life—is because of her,” Wohlforth once said.
A celebration of Nancy’s life will be held in the spring in Washington, D.C. on a date to be determined.
