Robert Rogers; Publisher of Gay Magazine
Robert L. Rogers, co-founder of “Buck Rogers’ Happenings,” a magazine with wide circulation in Los Angeles’ gay community, has died of AIDS. Ironically, he had spent the last months of his life championing a group called “Aid for AIDS,” the almost-always-fatal acquired immune deficiency syndrome that strikes primarily at homosexuals.
Rogers, who was 52 when he died Tuesday, began the magazine, a monthly calendar of events, in 1980. It has a circulation of 30,000 in churches, stores, clubs and other places frequented by gays.
Rogers was a public relations man who, with Sydney Barbaro, decided to start a magazine to help gays communicate. It lists theater events, meetings for gays and their parents and other support activities, Barbaro said.
A memorial service for Rogers is scheduled Sunday at 1 p.m. at Pierce Brothers Mortuary, 5959 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, contributions are being asked in Rogers’ name to Aid for AIDS, 7985 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 109-171, Los Angeles 90046.
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