St. Paul resident Jean-Nickolaus Tretter, who was involved in the launch of Twin Cities Pride and began one of the few Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender archival collections in the country, passed away at the age of 76.
Tretter played an active role in the Twin Cities GLBT community for decades. He hosted "Night Rivers," the only regularly broadcast Gay and Lesbian classical music show in the country, for 16 years on KFAI. He co-chaired Minnesota's Gay/Lesbian Olympic Committee and served on the board of Twin Cities Pride.
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TOM CRANN: I'm Tom Crann in the Twin Cities. Thanks for joining us. For MPR News, Jean Tretter died Friday at the age of 76. He was originally from Little Falls and was a prominent figure in the early LGBT movement.
He took part in organizing the first Pride celebrations in Minneapolis 50 years ago. He was also a collector of historical artifacts that represented LGBT people and communities, from pamphlets and posters to T-shirts. His extensive collection of artifacts now resides at the University of Minnesota as the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies.
Earlier this summer, Tretter came to our studio to talk about what that first Pride was like. He traveled from his home by light rail and then on foot. It was not an easy trek for him at the time, but he was determined to be present in person. And during our conversation, I asked him what Pride means 50 years later.
JEAN TRETTER: We have survived AIDS. We've survived COVID. We've survived police brutality. We're still here. We have our history. We're preserving it.
And we're showing that we're everywhere. And that we have an ability of kindness and forgiving and gentleness that the rest of society needs to learn from us with all the brutality and all the meanness and the difficulties and you name it. And we've been through it and we've survived.
So that's what I would say. That we've not only proven ourselves, but the important thing is, is we've proven ourselves to ourselves. And if the rest of the world doesn't want to accept us, you know what, there's going to be a Pride Parade in 25 years on our 75th anniversary.
TOM CRANN: Remembering Jean Tretter, a pioneer who embodied the kindness and gentleness he was talking about. He died Friday at the age of 76.