Tim Gill (born October 18, 1953) is an American computer software programmer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and LGBTQ rights activist. He was among the first openly gay people to be on the

Forbes 400 The ''Forbes'' 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by ''Forbes'' magazine of the wealthiest 400 American citizens who own assets in the U.S., ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is ...

list of America's richest people. He is the founder and co-chair of the Gill Foundation, a private Denver-based philanthropic organization supporting efforts to secure nationwide civil rights for

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

Americans. As of 2019, he was the single largest individual donor to the LGBTQ rights movement in U.S. history, having personally committed more than $500 million since the early 1990s. Gill is also the founder of the pioneering page layout software company Quark, Inc. Gill sold his fifty percent stake in the company in 1999 for a reported $500 million. Following the sale of his stake in Quark, Inc., Gill set aside sixty percent of his assets – more than $300 million – to fight for LGBTQ rights. He is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Josh.ai.

Early life and education

Tim Gill was born in

Hobart, Indiana Hobart ( , ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,752 at the 2020 census, up from 29,059 in 2010. It has been historically primarily residential, though recent annexation has added a notable retail corridor to ...

, and moved to Colorado with his family when he was in third grade. He attended Wheat Ridge High School in

Jefferson County, Colorado Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 582,910, making it the fourth-most populous county in Colorado. The county seat is Golden, and the most populous city is Lakewood. ...

, eventually studying computer science and applied mathematics at the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...

Philanthropy and political action

Gill is the founder of the Gill Foundation, Gill Action Fund, and OutGiving. Gill first became involved in LGBTQ activism as a freshman at the

. He volunteered for the campus gay-liberation group and later supported local

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

awareness. In 1992, he continued his involvement in LGBTQ political action in response to the passage of Colorado Amendment 2, which prevented non-discrimination ordinances in the state from protecting people based on

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...

and which the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

struck down as unconstitutional in its 1996 ruling in '' Romer v. Evans''. He is widely credited as a visionary strategist and mega-donor who has made significant contributions to virtually every major LGBTQ rights victory in the United States, from the 2003 '' Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health'' decision making

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

the first U.S. state to allow same-sex marriage, to the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

's 2015 ''

Obergefell v. Hodges ''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of th ...

'' decision legalizing same-sex marriage throughout the country. Gill, along with Pat Stryker,

Jared Polis Jared Schutz Polis ( ; ; born May 12, 1975) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 43rd governor of Colorado since 2019. He served one term on the Colorado State Board of Education from 2001 to 2007, and five terms as the Unite ...

and Rutt Bridges—called by the press the "Gang of Four"—together donated significant funds in support of Democratic organizations in Colorado, which many believe helped to flip control of the state legislature to Democratic control in 2004. In July 2017, Gill was the subject of a profile by journalist Andy Kroll for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' magazine titled "The Quiet Crusader: How Tim Gill turned a $500 million fortune into the nation's most powerful force for LGBTQ rights."

Gill Foundation

Tim Gill founded the Gill Foundation in 1994, and co-chairs it with his husband Scott Miller. The national,

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

-based non-profit organization underwrites academic research, polling, litigation, data analytics, and field organizing related to the LGBTQ rights movement. The foundation's initial focus was to build LGBTQ public acceptance through support of mainstream projects in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. The foundation established the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado in 1996, which provides financial support to a variety of non-profit organizations in the state. In addition to LGBTQ equality, the foundation focuses on providing

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

education to every Colorado student, curbing predatory lending and increasing financial literacy, and supporting public media.

Gill Action Fund

In 2005, Tim Gill established the Gill Action Fund, which is separate from the charitable endeavors of the foundation. The political fund has helped to elect hundreds of pro-equality lawmakers across the country at the local, state, and federal levels. In 2006, its first election year, the fund helped defeat 50 of the 70 anti-LGBTQ candidates it targeted. The fund also contributed to the successful 2016 election campaign of North Carolina Gov.

Roy Cooper Roy Asberry Cooper III ( ; born June 13, 1957) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 75th List of governors of North Carolina, governor of North Carolina from 2017 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), De ...

, who defeated the incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. Gill prioritized unseating McCrory after he championed and passed the anti-LGBTQ HB2 "bathroom bill," which forced

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

people to use public restrooms corresponding with their sex at birth rather than their

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent and consistent with the in ...

OutGiving

In 1996, Gill founded OutGiving, a private, invitation-only philanthropic conference, to bring major pro-LGBTQ philanthropists together. OutGiving holds a conference every two years to discuss philanthropic strategies.

Freedom for All Americans

Since the

's legalization of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

in 2015, Gill has shifted his focus to securing non-discrimination protections in the 28 states where it is still legal to discriminate against LGBTQ people in housing, employment and public accommodations. Gill is credited with developing a bipartisan strategy for securing non-discrimination protections in traditionally Republican states. In 2015, Gill, Paul Singer and Daniel Loeb, helped fund Freedom for All Americans to advocate for non-discrimination protections on the basis of

and gender identity in states and local communities across the country. Freedom for All Americans has successfully enlisted the support of businesses and corporations to work with Republican-held state legislatures to reject or overturn anti-LGBTQ legislation. The organization borrows the state-focused model of

Freedom to Marry Freedom to Marry was the national bipartisan organization dedicated to ensuring marriage for same-sex couples in the United States. Freedom to Marry was founded in New York City in 2003 by Evan Wolfson. Wolfson was president of the organizatio ...

, the grassroots organizations that directed the fight for

equality from state to state leading up to the

's 2015 ''

'' decision.

University of Colorado endowment

In 1998, Gill endowed the Tim Gill Professorship in Infectious Diseases at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

's medical school to support HIV research and education.

Others

In 2016, Tim Gill directed funding from the foundation to support a comprehensive theme study by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

to identify historically significant places related to

LGBTQ history LGBTQ history dates back to the first recorded instances of same-sex love, diverse gender identities, and sexualities in ancient civilizations, involving the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) peoples and cult ...

for potential inclusion in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

or designation as a

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

Business ventures

ALF Products

Quark, Inc.

After jobs at

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

and a consulting services firm, Gill started the company Quark, Inc. in 1981 with a $2,000 loan from his parents. Quark produced

page layout In graphic design, page layout is the arrangement of visual elements on a page. It generally involves organizational principles of composition to achieve specific communication objectives. The high-level page layout involves deciding on the ...

software for the graphics market. With the introduction of Fred Ebrahimi as CEO in 1986, and the launch of the company's flagship page layout software,

QuarkXPress QuarkXPress is desktop publishing software for creating and editing complex page layouts in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment. It runs on macOS and Windows. It was first released by Quark, Inc. in 1987 and is still owned and p ...

, in 1987, Gill became a multi-millionaire. Gill sold his fifty percent interest in Quark in 1999 for a reported $500 million, citing his growing involvement in philanthropic and activist endeavors.

Connexion.org

In 2003, Gill created Connexion.org, a social media platform for engaging the LGBTQ community in political activities. Connexion closed in September 2011.

JStar LLC

In March 2015, Gill co-founded the smart home technology start-up JStar LLC. He is the Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of the company. JStar's flagship product is Josh.ai, a voice-controlled home automation system using JStar's own artificial intelligence technology platform. The company is headquartered in

with offices in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. In July 2017, JStar announced an additional $8 million in private investment to create original hardware to compete with

Google Home Google Nest, previously named Google Home, is a line of smart speakers developed by Google under the Google Nest brand. The devices enable users to speak voice commands to interact with services through Google Assistant, the company's virtual ...

Amazon Echo Amazon Echo, often shortened to Echo, is a brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon (company), Amazon. Echo devices connect to the voice-controlled Virtual assistant, intelligent personal assistant service. ''Amazon Alexa, Alexa'', which resp ...

, and other devices with intelligent assistants inside. Josh.ai can be used through Amazon Alexa-enabled devices, Google Home, and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and Android apps.

Personal life

Gill married his husband, Scott Miller, in Massachusetts in 2009. They live in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

with their dog. In 2022, Gill's husband Scott Miller became the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Gill is an avid snowboarder.

Awards and honors

In 1996, Gill received the University of Colorado Distinguished Service Award for his work supporting HIV/AIDS research.

Macworld ''Macworld'' is a digital magazine and website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG. History ''Macworld'' was founded by David Bunnell and Cheryl Woodard (publishers) and Andrew Fl ...

awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. Gill was awarded the NOGLSTP GLBT Engineer of the Year Award in 2007. In September 2007,

People for the American Way People for the American Way (PFAW ) is a progressive advocacy group in the United States. Organized as a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization, PFAW was registered in 1981 by the television producer Norman Lear, a self-described liberal who founde ...

awarded Gill its Spirit of Liberty Award. Gill received

Liberty Hill Foundation The Liberty Hill Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Sarah Pillsbury, heir to the Minnesota Pillsbury baking fortune, along with Anne Mendel, Larry Janss and Win McCormack, in 1976. Its motto is "Change. Not Charity." The name of t ...

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author, muckraker journalist, and political activist, and the 1934 California gubernatorial election, 1934 Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

award in 2011. Colorado Governor

awarded Gill the Colorado 2019 Vanguard Legacy Governor's citizenship Medal. In August 2020, he was honored with Family Equality’s Murray/Reese Family Award. In January 2025, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Biden.

References

External links

Gill FoundationGill Action FundOutGivingGay & Lesbian Fund for ColoradoFreedom for All AmericansJosh.ai
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gill, Tim 1953 births American computer businesspeople American computer scientists American LGBTQ businesspeople LGBTQ people from Colorado LGBTQ people from Indiana American LGBTQ rights activists American LGBTQ scientists Living people People from Hobart, Indiana Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients University of Colorado Boulder alumni 21st-century American LGBTQ people