Partner Jim Wiley
Queer Places:
January's Restaurant, 2135 Davie Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312
Martin J. "Marty" Rubin (June 4, 1929 - February 14, 1994) was a South Florida gay activist, author and journalist. The Thebans was Florida’s first gay motorcycle club, founded in 1974. The biker group published the Theban, hosted the annual run known as the Theban Sun, and was a founding member of the Southern Conference of Motorcycle Clubs. Its balding leader, Marty Rubin, affectionately known as “Your Old Bike Daddy”, was also a synagogue member.
Rubin, a typesetter by trade, moved to South Florida in the mid-1970s from California, where he had been in the gay rights movement. His first activism in South Florida was as a political organizer for the 1977 gay rights referendum in Dade County, which was defeated. Rubin also began trying to get Broward gays and lesbians politically involved. He was the founding chairman of the Broward County Gay Pride Committee in 1980 and of the Dolphin Democratic Club in 1984. "He was the grandfather of the movement," said Brad Buchman, president of the predominantly gay Dolphin Club in Fort Lauderdale.
Rubin was born and raised in Toronto as the son of leftist political activists. He was pushed to his first union picket line in his stroller when he was 3, Rubin said in an obituary he wrote for David, a South Florida weekly gay and lesbian entertainment magazine. "He has always been an activist," said Jerry Byers, editor of David. In 1977, Rubin began writing a column called "Biker Daddy" for The Weekly News, a gay and lesbian weekly newspaper published in Miami and distributed statewide. In 1984, Rubin moved his column to David and changed the name to "Rubin At Random." In 1987, Rubin published his first and only book, The Boiled Frog Syndrome. The book, described as a gay political thriller by publishers Alyson Publications of Boston, sold more than 6,000 copies.
Marty Rubin died on February 14, 1994, after a struggle with AIDS. He was 64. Rubin was survived by his longtime companion, Jim Wiley. The memorial service for Rubin was held at January's Restaurant.
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