Gay State Senator Dies After Aids Fight

Cal Anderson, the first openly gay member of the Washington Legislature, died Friday after a long battle with AIDS.

Secretary of the Senate Marty Brown said Anderson was found dead by his partner, Eric Ishino, at their Seattle home when Ishino came home from work.

The immediate cause of death was not known. However, Anderson, a Democratic senator from Seattle’s 43rd District, was absent for most of the 1995 legislative session, battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma, an AIDS-related cancer.

Anderson announced in April that vigorous chemotherapy had eradicated the lymphoma, but he was left weakened and susceptible to further opportunistic illnesses. In June, he missed being grand marshal of Seattle’s gay-pride parade because of blood clots in his legs and lungs.