Rick Garcia, a longtime Chicago LGBTQ+ activist and community leader who was at the forefront of many civil rights victories, died this week.

Community activist and political strategist Richard Streetman confirmed on social media that Garcia died Monday, Jan. 12. The statewide LGBTQ+ rights group Equality Illinois, of which Garcia was a founder, called him "a towering leader in the fight for civil rights across our state ad nation."

Garcia was 69.

A native of St. Louis, Garcia told the Chicago Reader in 1996 that he got involved in organizing for the United Farm Workers in Missouri as a young man, but kept his sexual orientation a secret throughout high school and into college.

But when Garcia attended a speech at City Hall in St. Louis by theology professor Fr. Louis Hanlon in 1976, and Hanlon said something about the "sin" of homosexuality, the devout Catholic Garcia "lost it," the Reader reported.

Quoted by the Reader, Garcia said he told the priest: "Father Hanlon, you have misrepresented our church today. You need a refresher course in theology. Gay people are entitled to friendship, love, and justice, according to the American Catholic bishops. What you said was neither friendly, loving, or just." Television cameras were rolling, the Reader reported.

Garcia went on to join the gay Catholic group Dignity in St. Louis, and moved to Washington, D.C., in 1980, where he worked for the liberal gay Catholic group New Ways Ministry, the Reader reported.

Garcia moved to Chicago in 1986, and joined the effort to pass the city's LGBTQ+-inclusive Human Rights Ordinance. A gay rights ordinance had been proposed all the way back in 1973, but had stalled out for many years, published reports noted.

Mayor Harold Washington supported the Human Rights Ordinance, but it was defeated in the City Council in 1986, published reports recalled.

Afterward, a new group called the Gay and Lesbian Town Meeting led a strong push to secure the passage of the ordinance. This push was led by a group known as the Gang of Four — Garcia, Laurie Dittman, Art Johnston, and the late Jon-Henri Damski.

In 1988, under Mayor Eugene Sawyer, the Human Rights Ordinance passed and was enacted.

Garcia and his colleagues went on to launch a push for similar protections at the Cook County level, and a Cook County Human Rights Ordinance was enacted in 1993, recalled the LGBT Hall of Fame.

In 1992, Garcia was a principal founder of the Illinois Federation for Human Rights, later renamed Equality Illinois. The group became the chief organizing voice for LGBTQ+ rights in Chicago and statewide.

Garcia was at the forefront of advocacy for the passage of an Illinois law against discrimination based on sexual orientation, which was approved in 2005. He was also at the forefront of the push for marriage equality, which Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law in Illinois in 2013.

Garcia served as public policy director of Equality Illinois until parting ways with the organization in 2010. In 2012, he joined the staff of The Civil Rights Agenda.

Streetman said when it came to the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, Garcia was "the fighter we needed" — willing to stand up and fight and prove the community could be strong, and serving as a leader for every victory.

"Rick Garcia is the preeminent civil rights leader of his generation, and in recent months, he has turned to close friends and family and said: 'I have done all I can do. I'm proud of my work, but it's time for me to go home,'" Streetman said.