Jacob was out of the closet, not just to friends and family but to the entire community. He had helped found a gay club at his high school, a move that had prompted the Salt Lake City school board to shut down all extracurricular activities rather than grant the club official status.

Jacob was highly regarded by his friends and peers in the East High School Gay/Straight Alliance. He was gentle, funny, and warm-hearted. He was slated to be the Alliance's president in the 1997-1998 school year. When he took his life in his mother's home on September 3, 1997, he was 17, a senior in high school.

In his final days, Jacob had been busy reorganizing the club. Despite the ban on extracurricular clubs, the Gay/Straight Alliance had held evening meetings last spring at his school, East High, which is required by law to rent space to community organizations. In his final days, he had been dealing with a new obstacle, finding $400 to buy a $1 million liability insurance policy demanded by the school before the club could resume its evening meetings.

"Jacob stood out as a dynamic, funny and seemingly confident young man," wrote Jeff Dupre and Eliza Byard, two documentary filmmakers who interviewed Jacob and others involved in the club for their film, Out of the Past, on the history of gays and lesbians in the United States. "He was an accomplished athlete, a talented gymnast and an inspiration to the fellow members of the [Gay/Straight] Alliance... a vibrant and impressive young man who turned handsprings on a sunny lawn to the applause and admiration of his friends."

Words by Jacob:

"To me, taking clubs from us is like putting a gun in our hands and waiting for the trigger to be pulled."

Sources:

Jacob Orosco: In Memory of a Teen Activist

Jacob Orosco Memorial Fund (The Touchstone, Sep-Oct 1997)

Who's to Blame? (What's Up Magazine, 26 September 1997)

Jacob Lawrence Orosco: February 17, 1980 – September 3, 1997 (ACLU Reporter, Fall 1997)

For Teen Gay Activist, a Sudden, Baffling End