ARVADA, Colo. — When it comes to Pride, many of us celebrate the LGBTQ leaders and figures of today.
But for one Colorado family, their ties to the LGBTQ community go back decades. Renee Fajardo knows members of her family have been breaking down gender roles here in Denver for generations.
“I want to say that we were not the norm," said Renee Fajardo, an Arvada resident and relative of Mary Lopez Dussart and Joann Lucero.
“So Joanna Lucero is my father’s first cousin. It’s very complicated. We are a Manito family which means we are from southern Colorado and northern New Mexico," Fajardo said.
Their ties to the LGBTQ community go far back, to her great aunt, Mary Lopez Dussart.
"Mary Lopez Dussart was actually a very, very out front lesbian in the 1940s. She actually owned a lesbian courier company. They were biker lesbian women and they would go around town and deliver packages, sort of like we have today but it was very innovative," Fajardo said. "I remember seeing pictures of her on her motorcycles with some hot woman on the back. And I was like, that’s my auntie!"
Mary Lopez Dussart wasn't the only out member of the family. Fajardo said her uncle, Jake Lopez Dussart, was a gregarious, talented chef and a drag queen in the 1940s.
Her aunt, Joann Lucero, was also a member of the LGBTQ community. Fajardo said she turned heads at a young age.
“This is a woman who lived openly doing men’s jobs in a man’s role her whole entire life. She worked on cars, she was interested in things most women were discouraged from doing but for our family, you didn’t bat an eye," Fajardo said. “She was an electrician, she worked at Rocky Flats. And she was a kick-ass electrician. This woman was a brown electrician in a field that was traditionally men, was one of the first women certified, worked at Rocky Flats, and on top of that she’s a lesbian!"
After years working as an electrician, Lucero found a new career helping other women join fields men had dominated for decades.
“Then she went to work for Mi Casa teaching other women who were unemployed, who were considered ‘welfare moms’ or whatever, to get jobs in non-traditional fields, to be able to respect themselves," Fajardo said. “She’s like, you can do it, you’re strong and I’m going to instill that in you. She got to meet President Clinton, I mean, she did these amazing things.”
Her boss and close friend, Alice Daly, worked with Lucero at Mi Casa. She said Lucero helped train women on skills like basic carpentry and job readiness, helping place and keep women at non-traditional jobs.
"We hit the jackpot," Daly said of the decision to hire Lucero at Mi Casa. "The women loved her, she didn't pull punches, she respected them."
“She led by her example and by her embracing and her gregarious nature of living her life to the fullest and making sure that everyone was well aware that she was a gay woman and that she could do anything that any man could do and maybe she could do it better," Fajardo said.
Lucero passed away from pancreatic cancer last November.
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