Douglas M. Haller & Timothy H. Longnecker Wed in Detroit

Douglas M. Haller and Timothy H. Longenecker married on September 15, 2025, in Ferndale, a gay-friendly suburb of Detroit, after living as gay men in Midtown Detroit for 11 years. Julia Musick, Ferndale LGBTQ Pride Celebration Coordinator, served as emcee.

The couple sang the 1927 song “Side by Side” as their vows, and ended with the AI ​​same-sex marriage vow: “To be allies in the pursuit of happiness, equality, and a common dream.”

The couple’s families are from the Old Redford neighborhood of Detroit. Douglas is Irish and French-Canadian, and Timothy is German and British. DNA testing confirmed that the couple shared substantial ancestry from Ostrobothnia, Finland.

Douglas began his career as a gay cultural and political activist in 1971 by coming out in the disco dance scene of Detroit’s gay Palmer Park neighborhood. Since 1974, in Washington, DC, he was an interior designer at Little Caledonia Boutique in Georgetown. Douglas became co-owner of Hermès Antiques with Helen Coutts, a former English literature teacher at Redford High School. The first Pride celebration was held in front of their store on South Street at Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., next to the Lambda Rising bookstore. In the wake of anti-gay hate attacks, Douglas became public relations coordinator for the Gay Activists Alliance and the lead organizer of the Anita Bryant demonstration at Dupont Circle.

Returning to Detroit in 1979, Douglas received a master’s degree in ancient history and archive management from Wayne State University (WSU), studying with Finley Hooper and Philip Mason. Master’s thesis on cartoonists of the American labor movement, using the archives of the Walter Reuter Library. His 1973 WSU undergraduate degree included American Political/Diplomatic History and Interdisciplinary Studies. From 1979 to 1982, he served as information officer for the ASP (Assoc. of Suburban People), Metro Detroit’s largest gay and lesbian sociopolitical organization.

Douglas moved to San Francisco in 1982. He was curator of photography at the California Historical Society Libraries in Pacific Heights and Los Angeles. Living in Mission and Haight, he was active in gay life in the Castro and Southern Market, just as the HIV/AIDS epidemic was first emerging.

In 1986, Douglas moved to Philadelphia as chief archivist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. Wrote an illustrated encyclopedia about Maison Bonfils, a 19th century French Near East photographer. Douglas was the founding archivist of Penguin Place, now the William Way LGBT+ Community Center in Philadelphia. He became a charter member of the Academy of Certified Archivists. and founding member of the Association, Lesbian/Gay Archives Roundtable of American Archivists (Chicago).

Douglas returned to WSU’s Reuter Library (1998) as coordinator of the audiovisual collection and lecturer in the history of photography. After the 9/11 attacks (2001), he moved to New Orleans to work as chief curator at the Louisiana State Museum. Later, until Hurricane Katrina (2005), he owned the gay-welcoming Creole Inn B&B in the Marigny (near the French Quarter), and became sensitive to the tide of gay life in Nowlins. The GLBT+ area did not flood and became an island of vitality amidst the destruction. Douglas returned to Detroit in 2008 as a caregiver for his mother, Janet Carajal (Haller) Marchand, who was a radio singer in Detroit in the 1940s. He met Timothy in 2014.

Timothy earned an MBA in Finance in 1991 and a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems in 1985 from the University. of Ann Arbor, Michigan. For 30 years, he held positions in the information technology and automotive businesses in Metro Detroit and LA, including partners at Deloitte & Touche, Ford Motor, and IBM. His work as a consultant included extensive travel to North America, Europe, and Asia. He has two daughters from a previous marriage and is a pediatric cardiology nurse and a recruiting executive for an automotive technology client, both of whom live in Metro Detroit. As their final project before retirement, Timothy and Douglas worked as archivists and technology consultants for Detroit educators Harriet (choreographer) and Irving (sculptor) Berg. Harriet played the role of godmother during the early years of their relationship and helped care for Harriet in their later years.

Timothy and Douglas spend their retirement in a 1905 apartment near Detroit Institute of Arts exhibits, movies, and concerts, enjoying ethnic restaurants, and traveling. In 2025, they took a train to experience the “First Homosexuals 1869-1939” exhibit in Chicago. The exhibition curator Jonathan Katz’s 1976 book Gay American History inspired Douglas to become a gay archivist.