John (Jack) Reid Yoakam was born in Toledo, Ohio on January 11, 1947 and graduated from Bellaire High School in Houston, Texas in 1965. After completing his B.A. at Texas Christian University in 1969, Yoakam attended Chicago Theological Seminary and graduated with a M.A. in Religious Studies in 1973.
While in seminary, Yoakam became involved with Chicago’s Gay Liberation Front and came out in 1972. Upon graduation, the United Methodist Church denied his application for ordination. The church’s rejection led Yoakam to travel the United States seeking a ministerial role to the fledgling Gay and Lesbian liberation movement. He visited Gay House in Minneapolis and moved there in 1973. In 1974, Yoakam was hired by the Neighborhood Counseling Center as a counselor/educator, where he remained until 1979. From 1979 to 1983, he was Food Services Manager at Parkview Treatment Center in Minneapolis. He returned to counseling at Parkview in 1983, and was subsequently hired as a psychologist at the Minnesota Department of Health in 1987. His position entailed counseling clients with HIV/AIDS. From 1985-1989, Yoakam developed and ran AIDS support groups for the Minnesota AIDS Project.
During the late 1970s and 1980s, Yoakam founded or participated in several organizations, including a men’s coffeehouse at the Plymouth Congregational Church, the Minnesota Committee for Gay Rights, and the Minnesota AIDS Project. In 1989, he became the Coordinator and Case Manager at the University of Minnesota’s Youth and AIDS Project, heading that organization until 2000. Yoakam also designed and taught courses on a range of social work-related content areas at the University of Minnesota and St Thomas University between 1992 and 1999. After completing his dissertation-- “A History of the Gay and Lesbian Counseling Program of Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis, 1974-1987” in 1999, Yoakam joined the faculty of the Social Work Department at the College of St. Benedict in St Joseph, Minnesota. At the College of St. Benedict, Yoakam served as faculty sponsor to PRISM, a GLBT student group on campus. His primary research interests included aging in the GBLT community, services to at risk GLBT youth, and service learning.
Yoakam met his life partner Gary Gimmestad in 1994. Both became involved with MN Bears, the gay “bear” subculture. John Yoakam died of cancer on April 20, 2009.
From the guide to the John R. Yoakam Papers, 1947-2010, (University of Minnesota Libraries. Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies [scrbt])
