Gay rights activist from Buffalo Grove dies
A 32-year-old gay rights activist from Buffalo Grove who waged a public campaign challenging people to “make things better now” for troubled youths has died.
Friends grew concerned when Michael Spivak failed to show up for an important meeting, and a female friend discovered Spivak's body about 3 p.m. Sunday in the Minneapolis house where he lived alone.
“There were no obvious signs of foul play,” said Lt. Richard Zimmerman of the Minneapolis Police Department, who noted Spivak was found fully dressed in his living room.
In the Daily Herald on Feb. 1, Spivak thanked his parents, friends and teachers who helped him through difficult years as a teen when he felt as if he didn't fit in. While he talked about his appreciation for the “It Gets Better” message for gay youths, Spivak challenged educators and classmates to “make things better now.”
Police found nothing to suggest burglary, suicide or other crimes, Zimmerman added.
Spivak, who joked during an earlier interview about being out of shape, had plans to pedal his bicycle 300 miles this summer to raise funds for AIDS-related services. The Hennepin County medical examiner performed an autopsy, but an investigator said Tuesday that because the death was not a crime, results would be shared only with his family. Spivak recently had complained to friends about not feeling well, Zimmerman said.
“Stomach and other issues = no sleep at all,” Spivak posted on his Facebook page at 4:01 a.m. Feb. 22. Days earlier he had written that he was sick with a fever of 101.2. A frequent and humorous poster on Facebook, Spivak's last entry was later that evening when he acknowledged the Chicago election results by posting, “All hail Mayor Rahmbo!!!”
Police said Spivak was last seen three or four days before his body was discovered, and his mailbox had accumulated several days of mail.
A graduate of the University of Illinois and Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Spivak recently served as a development chair for Creating Change, a five-day national conference in Minneapolis on equality issues for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Minneapolis.
“Michael and his team raised the second-highest amount of all host committees and spread the good news about the Creating Change Conference…,” Sue Hyde, director of that national conference, said Tuesday. “Michael will be sorely missed. His death comes as a shock to all of us at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Our hearts go out to his family and friends at this most difficult time.”
Spivak dedicated the last nine months of his life to that conference.
“People have asked me how the conference was, and I respond with, ‘Incredible,'” Spivak wrote in a recent note to friends about sharing the “joy” he got from that event. “Just thinking about my experience with Creating Change improves my mood and gets the endorphins flowing.”
Dozens of friends on Facebook expressed shock and sadness at Spivak's passing. One friend wrote that she'd miss many things about Spivak, “but most of all your efforts to be the change rather than wait for it.”
Spivak is survived by his parents — Marc Spivak, an attorney and longtime school board member, and Marlyn Spivak, a veteran teacher — and his younger brother, Daniel. His funeral will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday at Shalom Memorial Park, 1700 W. Rand Road in Arlington Heights. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Bisexual Organizing Project, P.O. Box 18143, Minneapolis, MN 55418, or the American Parkinson Disease Association's Midwest Chapter, 27 W. 353 Jewel Road, Winfield, IL 60190. For more information, visit www.shalom2.com or phone (847) 255-3520.
In a Spivak essay written after the national conference, he asked people to: “Do something to make our world better,” “Donate to Creating Change,” and “Smile. Really, it makes a difference. Share the positivity.”