(Photo from DignityMemorial.com, provided by Maines’ family)
A pole star is a celestial light— bright, steady and unwavering – that guides travelers to their destination. It’s also the perfect metaphor for the life of my dear friend, Ted Maines. Ted died on Dec. 14 after a courageous battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In his 64 years, he made an indelible impact on our community, and on the lives of his family and many friends.
I met Ted and his husband, Jeff Miller, soon after they moved to Orlando in the late 1980s. Still uncertain about my gay future, they were the role models I needed; striking exemplars of life lived with style, grace, humor and a passionate commitment to full equality.
“Ted was an early and strong voice for the LGBTQ community,” Jeff told the Orlando Sentinel. “We fought in the trenches in that battle for a long time.”
Ted was a founder of Central Floridians United Against Discrimination and the Rainbow Democratic Club, both precursors to Equality Florida. Back then, the LGBTQ community had no influence, no seat at the table. By 2012, Ted and Jeff were named the area’s #1 Power Couple by Orlando Magazine. They held dozens of fundraisers at their art-filled condominium at The Sanctuary. Elected officials and power brokers coveted a place at their dinner parties, where no topic was off limits.
“Teddy was brash and passionate,” said Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan. “He was engaging, he was funny, and he could tell you to go to hell and enjoy the trip. He was just an amazing human being.”
In 1994, when I shared my idea for a local LGBTQ newspaper over lunch, Ted and Jeff were enthusiastic. They invested, and Ted offered to write a column. “Mixed Media” covered growing LGBTQ culture – local and national – with the style and wit I hoped would define Watermark.
Was Ted opinionated? Here’s a snapshot from his column in our third issue.
“’Rock Hudson’s Home Movies’ is the cheesiest piece of trash ever assembled to cannibalize on a dead celebrity. There are no home movies … just clips from his films slapped together to make it obvious HE WAS GAY! Maybe that’s a revelation to someone who spent the ‘70s and ‘80s in a coma.”
Back then, Ted worked in management at a Fortune 500 company. When he was asked to skip over a more qualified African American woman for a promotion, Ted refused and was terminated. He sued, and the result was one of the largest whistleblower verdicts handed down at that time.
That episode, difficult and stressful, opened the door for Ted to explore his passion for style and design. As a teenager in northeast New Jersey, and then as a student at Rutgers University, Ted routinely ventured across the Hudson River to explore the latest trends in Manhattan. As design consultant at The Sanctuary and Star Tower, Ted brought a sophisticated big-city perspective to downtown Orlando. When he opened Ted Maines Interiors in 2010, he shared that award-winning sensibility with hundreds of private clients.
All the while, Ted kept busy with meaningful community service. For many years he was President of the Board of Trustees at the Orange County Public Library System. He served on Orlando’s Historic Preservation Board, as well as the Boards of the Orlando Ballet, the Creative City Project, the Hope and Help Center and the Orlando Police Foundation. Ted also co-chaired the Paws for Peace Walk benefitting Harbor House, and he and Jeff were instrumental in creating the Upstanders Anti-Bullying Campaign at the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida.
“Ted touched so many people in very profound ways,” Jeff said. “Not just on the big scale, but in a very immediate and personal way.”
A memorial service for Ted will be held at a later date. In the meantime, contributions in his memory can be made to the Holocaust Center, Harbor House and the Zebra Coalition.
