Stephaun Elite Wallace, a scientist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and LGBTQ+ advocate, died Aug. 5. He was 45 years old.
Over the years, Wallace had garnered several titles for his career combating HIV, AIDS and COVID-19 disparities. But, to many of his chosen family members in the national ballroom scene, he was known as Father, said C. Davida Ingram, who co-organized the annual Legendary Children celebration with Wallace.
The event spotlighted LGBTQ+ Black, Indigenous and people of color artists and the Pacific Northwest house ballroom community, in which Wallace served as a historian and mentor for artists. The competitive performance artform originated in Black and Latin culture in which artists walk a runway, dance and vogue in front of an audience. The ballroom scene is made up of “houses,” which have traditionally competed as teams in balls while also providing safety, comfort and even shelter to LGBTQ+ people who have been rejected by their biological families. The “houses” create a chosen family, which often consists of a mother, father and children. Wallace is the founder of the House of Marc Jacobs, which is led by his chosen son, legendary performer Jamari Amour.
“He was the epitome of a father,” Ingram said. “If you’re stuck on heteronormativity you think of people’s blood children, but ask someone, ‘Was Stephaun your father?’ And hear the response from the people that he loved.”
For decades, Wallace led efforts to expand health access to LGBTQ+ people of color while also serving as a mentor to many people in ballroom by providing support and guidance. Wallace’s chosen son Ricardo Wynn, 35, of Milwaukee, Wis., recalls his father as a visionary for communities of color.
“He used to tell me, ‘We have to change the lens in how we see things and how we encourage people to see things,’” Wynn said. “He opened doors for people like myself and other Black same-gender-loving men to do this work unapologetically.”
As a scientist, Wallace blended his professional passion for health equity with nurturing and protecting the family tree he built through the ballroom scene in the U.S. and beyond. In the ballroom scene, Wallace aimed to connect vulnerable populations to health care, through bringing local COVID-19 and monkeypox vaccine clinics to events, Ingram said. Similarly, he also created HIV and AIDS prevention ball categories and “encouraged HIV and STI testing among competing houses to win significant cash prizes,” according to his obituary.
“Stephaun is a lion in the field of public health,” Ingram said. “He really helped us understand that we should be learning from HIV and AIDS how to uplift leadership from community because they’re closest to the solutions.”
In the weeks since his death, many of his chosen children, friends and colleagues remembered Wallace for his dedication to uplifting future leaders.
Wakefield, who retired from Fred Hutch in 2020 and was a mentor to Wallace, described him as a link between marginalized groups and institutions.
“Stephaun was a bridge between the highest-ranking scientist at a university [to] the house ballroom community,” said Wakefield, who uses only a single name. “He would bring them into the same room and have them see the humanity they have in common.”
In Seattle, Wallace was the director of external relations for Fred Hutch’s HIV Vaccine Trials Network and a clinical assistant professor at University of Washington. He was also an affiliate professor at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University. In 2021, Bill Gates recognized Wallace as a hero in the health care field for his work to make COVID-19 vaccines accessible to communities of color.
Much of Wallace’s passion for social justice stemmed from his upbringing as a Black bisexual teen in Los Angeles during the L.A. riots, a series of protests condemning police brutality in the 1990s, according to Wynn.
“There wasn’t a blueprint for him,” Wynn said. “The level of success that he achieved was important to share so that people who look like us didn’t have to suffer.”
Witnessing the outsized effect of health and racial disparities on Black LGBTQ+ people pushed Wallace to take action. While in Atlanta at 23 years old, Wallace co-founded My Brothaz Keeper, a nonprofit organization focused on STI, HIV and AIDS prevention among Black LGBTQ+ men. He later worked as the deputy director of programs at The MOCHA Center, a health and wellness nonprofit for communities of color, in Rochester, N.Y., New York, in 2008.
In 2013, Wallace moved to Seattle, where he joined the staff of the Legacy Project, a program in the Office of HIV/AIDS Network Coordination at Fred Hutch. Dr. Larry Corey, the organization’s former president and director, recalled Wallace’s infectious laugh and commitment to closing gaps in medicine.
He said Fred Hutch must carry on Wallace’s legacy through its work, “not only in developing safe and effective vaccines against HIV and COVID, but in seeing the equitable distribution and accessibility of these vaccines globally. He would expect no less of us.”
Outside of ballroom and vaccine research, Wallace enjoyed eating seafood, traveling and listening to music at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley and Benaroya Hall, Wakefield and Wynn told The Seattle Times.
Wallace is survived by his brother, Jeremiah; his sister, Krystal; and extended and chosen family members. As a father, Wallace took pride in providing his chosen kids with abundant love, cheering for them at balls or keeping mementos like service booklets from graduation ceremonies.
Wynn, who is the mother of a ballroom chapter in Milwaukee known as The Iconic International House of Mizrahi, said Wallace traveled to the city to celebrate the anniversary of his chapter last year. For Wynn, this marked another moment Wallace poured into his chosen family.
“He said, ‘You’re a true blessing and an example of leadership and family bond,’ ” Wynn said. “I told him, ‘Thank you Dad. I’ve learned … this from the best. Now, I need to pay it forward.’”