LGBTQ community leader a ‘dedicated public servant’
Chris Kerr, a longtime leader in Houston’s LGBTQ community, died Friday after suffering a stroke in February. He was 65.
Kerr worked as clinical director at the Montrose Center, an agency that offers education, resources and mental and behavioral health services to the LGBTQ community. During his 19 years at the center, colleagues said Kerr helped build programs that aided LGBTQ youth, seniors and populations in between.
After a stroke, he had been recovering well with surgery and rehabilitation therapy, friends said. However bleeding in his brain returned last week.
“It’s a blow to the agency,” said Rick Musquiz, a Montrose Cen- ter program coordinator. “And actually, it’s a blow to the city and the LGBTQ community.”
Kerr worked closed with Ann Robison, the Montrose Center’s executive director, to help transform the center from a tiny nonprofit into a $5 million agency that serves thousands of people each year, Musquiz said. “They came in and they said, ‘What’s lacking in our community?’” Musquiz said. “Every program was built on asking that question: ‘What’s next? What else do we see lacking?’”
“He was a very thoughtful and
thorough person,” said Robison.
In fact, she said with a laugh, Kerr was so thorough that although he’d been ill for weeks, when he died “he had his timesheet finished and all of his counseling notes were up to date.”
Kerr was an activist for LGBTQ rights from the moment he arrived in Houston in the early 1990s, Robison said. He was new to town in 1991, when the murder of 27-year-old Paul Broussard sparked the city’s longest, biggest and loudest gay rights protest. Kerr quickly got involved in the demonstrations.
At the Montrose Center, he was the go-to person to speak for the organization in public, Robison said. “He spoke for the center often because he was so articulate and knowledgeable about all the issues.”
Kerr, who has a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of Houston, started at the Montrose Center as a substance abuse counselor, Robison said. He later led the center’s anti-violence and general counseling programs.
‘Committed public servant’
He spent several years helping youth through the center’s Hatch Youth program, which is designed for LGBTQ youth ages 13 to 20. Just this year, that program expanded to offer Hatch Jr. for kids as young at 7.
Kerr had a gift for starting new programs and seeing them through, Robison said. “He was really good at seeing the big picture and all the things that needed to happen to make it successful.”
With the help of a grant, Kerr had helped launch programs to help LGBTQ seniors find affordable housing, meals and a sense of community. Later this year, Robison said, the Montrose Center will break ground on an independent living center for seniors — a project Kerr helped organize.
Ray Hill, an activist in the Montrose LGBTQ community for many years, said Kerr was a “superb administrator” who had done a lot for Houston’s LGBTQ.
“He was a committed public servant,” Hill said.
As clinical director, Kerr oversaw all of the Montrose Center’s clinical programs — but he still provided counseling directly to people dealing with coming out, elder issues, chemical dependency, HIV and sexual violence.
Some of his colleagues remembered him on Facebook as loving, welcoming and a “great mentor.”
“He was kind and supportive and had a gentle spirit,” said Elizabeth Angela, a case manager at the Montrose Center. “As far as what he should be remembered for — he was dedicated to helping others and full of compassion.”
He was constantly working to help the LGBTQ community “in every aspect he could get his hands in,” Musquiz said.
‘Rocky relationship’
One of Kerr’s biggest contributions to Houston, Musquiz said, was helping improve the relationship between law enforcement and the LGBTQ population.
It has long been a “rocky relationship,” Musquiz said, but Kerr wanted to fix that. So he met with the Houston Police Department and the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office. He worked with the mayor’s office. He organized and attended community forums.
“I think, due to a lot of what Chris has done, he has mended that” relationship, Musquiz said. “Now I think a lot of the (LGBTQ) community is not as afraid to go to the police anymore.”
Kerr married his husband, Michael Goh Kerr, in San Diego in 2013. Goh Kerr posted on Facebook Sunday that May 8 would have been their 20th anniversary.
“When I think of Chris, I think of his dedication to the community and his leadership in the community,” Musquiz said — both the LGBTQ community he served and Houston, the city he called home. “I’m kind of at a loss. I’ve been there 15 years and I still depend on him. It’s scary to go forward without him.”