John Lyon Burnside III (November 2, 1916 – September 14, 2008) was an American inventor and gay rights activist, known for inventing the teleidoscope, darkfield kaleidoscope, and the Symmetricon. Because he rediscovered the math behind kaleidoscope optics, makers of optically correct kaleidoscopes sold in the United States paid him royalties for decades. Burnside was the life partner of Harry Hay from 1962 until Hay's death in 2002. Burnside was living in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, at the time of his death on September 14, 2008, from complications of brain cancer.

Early life

An only child born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, he was raised by his mother after his father abandoned the family; being poor, she periodically placed her son in the care of orphanages. He served briefly in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, and settled in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

in the 1940s.

Gay rights activism

Burnside and Hay formed the Circle of Loving Friends in 1965, a group that promoted gay rights and gay love. In May 1966, the two were part of one of the earliest gay protest actions, a 15-car motorcade through Downtown Los Angeles protesting the military's exclusion of homosexuals. In 1967, the pair appeared as a gay couple on '' The Joe Pyne Show''. Burnside and Hay helped plan the first gay pride parade in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1977. In 1979, the pair, together with Don Kilhefner and

Mitchell L. Walker Mitchell Lynn Walker (born 1951) is an American gay activist and Jungian psychologist who has written many influential articles and books on gay-centered psychology. Biography Walker enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles where ...

, founded the Radical Faeries.

Personal life

Burnside married Edith Sinclair in Los Angeles. The pair had no children. Burnside later met Harry Hay in 1963 at One, Inc. The two fell in love and became life partners. Burnside died Sunday, September 14, 2008, at the age of 91. His ashes, mixed with Hay's, were scattered in Nomenus Faerie Sanctuary in Wolf Creek, Oregon.

References

External links

Published obituaries

Obituary
on ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

''
Obituary
on '' Bay Area Reporter''
White Crane Blog

Obituary
on '' San Francisco Bay Times''
''Gay City News'' obit

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnside, John Lyon 1916 births 2008 deaths Deaths from brain cancer in the United States American LGBT rights activists Radical Faeries members People from Seattle American LGBT military personnel LGBT people from Washington (state) 20th-century American inventors 20th-century LGBT people