Tineke Bodde Tan

Tineke Bodde Tan was born on June 8, 1932 in Roermond, a small town in the south of The Netherlands. She was the sixth child in a family of 10 children and had a happy childhood until World War II broke out when she was almost eight years old. Holland underwent five years of German occupation. She witnessed soldiers marching through the streets, food rationing, bombings, and the arrest and incarceration of her oldest brother by the Germans. The family took in two refugee girls, lost a baby brother, learned of the reprisal execution of a cousin by the Germans, and survived a long, freezing winter without food, running water, gas, and electricity. After the war Ms. Tan completed high school, learned typing as well as shorthand in Dutch, French, English, and German, and worked as a 4-language secretary in Amsterdam. She also worked as an au pair for a French family in Paris and Algeria. Eight years later she found herself in need of new challenges and decided to immigrate to the United States in 1960. There she married an American citizen and began raising a family and – unusual for those days - went back to college to pursue a degree. In 1981 she obtained her Bachelor's Degree (Cum Laude) in journalism and health sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park. She worked several years as a reporter for the Montgomery Journal and as a medical writer for the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. During that period, she earned more than two dozen writing awards despite writing in a language which was not her native tongue. After 15 years she retired from the Federal Government, and in 1999, at age 67, she obtained her master’s degree from the University of Maryland School of Social Work in Baltimore. She subsequently worked as a clinical therapist in local schools on the Eastern Shore. When she realized there was no organized support for gays in the area, Ms. Tan started an Eastern Shore Chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), with the assistance of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Easton. In the year 2000, Governor Parris Glendening appointed Ms. Tan to his Special Commission to Study Sexual Orientation Discrimination on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Thanks to her hard work and that of other gay rights groups, Maryland legislators passed a bill the following spring (2001), prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, and public accommodations. Ms. Tan gave workshops on sexual orientation, transgenderism, and counseling gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens and their parents. Subsequently, she trained in conflict mediation, and volunteered in that field. Ms. Tan was fond of wide horizons and water scenes, swimming, sewing and gardening. In 1989 she moved from Rockville to Stevensville on Kent Island, Maryland, together with Gerry Tan, her second husband. She has two adult sons who live in Greenbelt and Amsterdam. Gerry and Tineke retired happily on Kent Island. In the early 2010’s Tineke developed Parkinson’s disease and progressively worsening dementia. Gerry dutifully and lovingly cared for her until his passing in August of 2024.

Tineke Bodde Tan

June 8, 1932 - March 5, 2025