Career
Foreign the Scottish writer (born 1955), see John Burnside. Because he rediscovered the math behind kaleidoscope optics, for decades, every maker of optically correct kaleidoscopes sold in the United States paid him royalties. He was living in San Francisco, California, at the time of his death on September 14, 2008 from complications of brain cancer.
He served briefly in the United States Navy, and settled in Los Angeles in the 1940s.
Burnside and Hay formed a group in the early 1960s called the Circle of Loving Companions that promoted gay rights and gay love. In 1966 they were major planners of one of the first gay parades, a protest against exclusion of homosexuals from the military, held in Los Los Angeles
In 1967, they appeared as a gay couple on the Joe Pyne television show. In the late 1970s, they founded, with Don Kilhefner and Mitch Walker, the Radical Faeries.
Los Angeles Times obituary
Bay Area Reporter obituary
White Crane Blog
San Francisco Bay Times obituary
Gay City News obit
Queensland News obit.
