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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Thomas Stoddard

American lawyer and gay rights activist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 15, 2025
Entity authorityQ124325863 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas B. Stoddard (1949 – February 12, 1997) was an American lawyer and gay rights activist. He was the executive director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund from 1986 to 1992. He also served as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law beginning in 1981.

Activism

In addition to his work opposing discrimination against homosexuals, Stoddard was active in opposing discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS. He wrote a bill prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals in public accommodations that was passed by the New York City Council, and subsequently signed into law by New York City Mayor Ed Koch, in 1986; Koch later referred to the bill as "perfect".

He served as the director of the Campaign for Military Service, which publicly met with President Bill Clinton in 1993 in the hopes of persuading him to end the policy of prohibiting homosexuals from serving in the United States armed forces.

Personal life

Stoddard was born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in New York City. He attended Georgetown University and New York University School of Law, graduating from the latter in 1977.

Stoddard had a wedding ceremony with Walter Rieman in 1993, where the two men exchanged gold wedding rings from Tiffany's. Stoddard and Rieman were subsequently designated "domestic partners" in New York City.

Stoddard learned that he had Kaposi's sarcoma, an AIDS-related cancer, in 1989.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Thomas Stoddard” as american lawyer and gay rights activist. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1949, 1997, 1986, 1992—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1949. The account is most persuasive where Thomas, Stoddard and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american lawyer and gay rights activist. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q124325863. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1997, 1986 and 1992.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Thomas Stoddard”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Thomas Stoddard primary sources, Thomas Stoddard archive and Thomas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Thomas Stoddard”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Stoddard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.