Photography by M. Sharkey

After his partner, Rand Harlan Skolnick, died of pancreatic cancer in 2008, Meck turned The Palette Fund into a private foundation that has since granted more than $2.5 million to support LGBT causes, including queer youth initiatives and a scholarship that funds student internships of their choice with other nonprofit organizations.

Photographed at Sun Studios in New York City on September 13, 2012