Danny Cockerline was born on September 30, 1960, in North Bay, Ontario. As a gay sex worker, Cockerline spent much of the 1980s and 1990s advocating for the rights of sex workers, founding numerous sex workers’ rights organizations in the Toronto area. Cockerline faced many difficulties growing up in a small Canadian town, where he faced much anti-gay bullying, especially when his sexual relationship with another man came to light in his teenage yearsWhile at university, Cockerline became involved with the local student group, Ryerson Lesbians and Gay Men and began to write for The Body Politic, Toronto’s gay liberation newspaper, which he joined the editorial team of. In 1983, after a series of raids gay bathhouses by the Toronto police, Cockerline helped found the Canadian Organization for the Rights of Prostitutes alongside veteran sex workers. Cockerline himself became a sex worker around this time. By 1986, Cockerline had founded the Prostitutes’ Safe Sex Project, as sex workers’ rights became overshadowed by an urgent need to respond to the AIDS epidemic, and by 1988 Cockerline had received funding from the City of Toronto Board of Health to do education and prevention outreach with sex workers. With government funding, Cockerline was able to greatly expand his outreach in educating sex workers about safe sex practices and AIDS prevention. In 1989, Cockerline and several other sex workers protested the V International AIDS Conference in Montreal for its anti sex worker rhetoric. During the last few years of his life, Cockerline traveled the world extensively, attending conferences and taking photo shoots. He contracted AIDS himself during this period, which caused him severe depression and anxiety. On December 11, 1995, Cockerline tragically took his own life by intentional drug overdose. For more on Danny Cockerline, read Danny Cockerline: Toronto’s Patron Saint of Whores and Hustlers (1960-1995), by Ryan Conrad.