Jeffrey Alan Basinger

Jeffrey Basinger, or Jeff as his friends and colleagues knew him, had a rich life of service. His obituary contains a detailed outline of his life’s work. Instead of repeating that information, this space will be used to briefly add some texture. The information here comes from an oral history conducted with Jeff in the summer of 2017 as well as from other local sources.

Jeff moved with his family to Grand Junction in 1962 when the pavement on the major north/south streets ended at Orchard Avenue and north of there were orchards. He experienced a lot of change in his life, and he believed it was change for the better.

Jeff was a founding member of the Common Decency Coalition (CDC), the organization that was formed six days after the election in 1992. On November 3, 1992, concerned Grand Junction residents learned that 53% of Colorado voters had approved Amendment 2, a ballot initiative that made protections for people of “homosexual, lesbian, or bisexual orientation” illegal. The members of the CDC emerged from Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays and from the LGBTQ+ community in Grand Junction that was, at that point, largely in the closet. In a March 1993 Daily Sentinel feature entitled, “Bound by Backlash,” Nancy Lofholm wrote about some of the activists involved with the CDC. She wrote, “The gays and lesbians in this area aren’t marching in the streets. They aren’t calling for boycotts. They aren’t, in most cases, even honoring them. They haven’t stood up in the face of Amendment 2 and said, ‘I’m gay, and this is how I feel about a law that directly affects my life.’ They are muzzled by fear.” Several Grand Junctionites agreed to talk to Lofholm under the condition of anonymity. None of these members of the community used their given names. A year and a half after that election night, Jeff spoke at a local Juvenile Crime Forum about hate crimes and homophobia. As he wrote later: “The statement was the result of 40 years of teasing, abuse and attacks, and 18 months of Amendment 2 politics.”

Shortly after that meeting, the Daily Sentinel published a story about him, headlined, “Man ‘Comes Out’ to Curb Threats against GJ Gays.” In the CDC newsletter, Jeff wrote about his experience, emphasizing the positive, but also mentioning the negative. In the days of phone numbers listed in the telephone book, Jeff received phone call after phone call. On his answering machine, “a scripture raving, unidentified male.” When he answered his phone: “One, two, three calls in support. A caller hoping I’ll die from AIDS.” What he didn’t know when he wrote the piece in the newsletter, but what he said in his 2017 interview, was that he was forced out of his business by his partners in the wake of his coming out and, as a result of his continued visibility, had the windows broken in his house on more than one occasion. Despite this, Jeff never looked back and emerged from these frightening incidents stronger and more willing than ever to be out about who he was, as a gay man with HIV.

The rest really is history. Reading his obituary will show Jeff’s long and rich involvement in organizations and actions that helped to make the world a better and safer place for all LGBTQ+ people and for people with HIV or AIDS. In 2017, he ended the oral history with this statement, which sums up his life and his commitment to grassroots change. When asked what message he had for young people, he replied, “It really takes a movement and no revolution is ever started from the top down, it’s always the grassroots up. I think that’s the only way we are going to continue to achieve equality and it’s the only way we are going to continue to achieve social justice and it’s the only way we are ever have any sense of peace in our homes, in our country and around the world.”