San Francisco Pride announces nominee slate and public vote for 2015 community and organizational Grand Marshals, Pink Brick

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – The San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Pride Celebration Committee and its Board of Directors announced today the 2015 slate of nominees for public vote for Individual Community Grand Marshal, Organizational Community Grand Marshal, and the Pink Brick (a faux award given to a detractor of the LGBT community). The winners in each of the Grand Marshal categories will be honored at this year’s SF Pride Celebration and Parade.

2015 marks the 45th anniversary of the San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade. The Pride Celebration & Parade will be held over the weekend of June 27 and 28, 2015. With over 200 parade contingents, 300 exhibitors, and more than twenty community-run stages and venues, the San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade is among the largest annual gatherings of LGBT people and allies in the world. The two-day celebration is free and open to all.

Public voting for Grand Marshals opens February 2 and concludes on March 2, 2015. Voting online at sfpride.org/vote is now live. Pride’s Board of Directors will also soon announce polling stations in the Bay Area where community members can fill out their ballots in person. The general public as well as the SF Pride membership will be making their selections from among these nominees:

Community Grand Marshal (Individual):

Tita Aida
For two decades, Tita Aida has been a tireless transgender community leader in both the local and greater Bay Area LGBTQI communities. Her grassroots activism and community advocacy started in the 1990’s, when she spearheaded many initiatives and programs to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Her efforts were effective in changing and improving many lives in the Asian and Pacific Islander LGBTQI community. Appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom, she was the first Transgender member on the Commission on the Status of Women. She has produced numerous events, mobilizing the transgender community of San Francisco and raising support for various organizations, like the Transgender Law Center and the AIDS Housing Alliance. She served on the Board of Directors of San Francisco Pride, and was elected Chair in 2010. She currently manages the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center’s Trans Thrive Program, a drop-in center dedicated to helping the transgender community’s success in San Francisco. Serving over a thousand clients a year, particularly marginalized transgender people of color, the homeless, and people living with HIV, Trans Thrive provides a safe space for personal expression and empowerment, improving the quality of life for these communities.

Brian Basinger
Brian Basinger is a leading voice for the LGBTQI and HIV communities facing poverty and homelessness. Under his direction, the AIDS Housing Alliance/SF has prevented the eviction, or found housing for 2700 households, by providing financial assistance for back rent and deposits, providing affordable housing applications, educating tenants on their rights, and mediating landlord disputes. Policy achievements include: initiating the soon–to-open LGBTQ adult homeless shelter, inspiring the LGBTQ Project Homeless Connect, passing legislation to curb speculative evictions, passing legislation granting domestic partners the legal right to live together in rental housing, leading the efforts to secure funding to make the first LGBTQ senior housing in San Francisco 100% affordable, and recently worked on passing legislation with Supervisor David Campos requiring national housing developers to disclose if they provide consistent protections against housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Grateful to be nominated, Brian hopes to use his Grand Marshal status as a platform to ensure that all people have a safe, decent and affordable home.

Patrick Carney
Nominated for his role in organizing the annual installation of the Pink Triangle on Twin Peaks on Pride weekend, as well as the following Commemoration Ceremony. A visible reminder of “man’s inhumanity against man,” 2015 will mark the 20th anniversary of the project, which both educates the public about the tragic history of the Pink Triangle as well as reclaiming it as a symbol of Pride. Patrick works tirelessly year after year to ensure that the persecution of homosexuals during the holocaust and abroad is never forgotten. An architect, he has worked on low-income housing, historic preservation, including San Francisco’s City Hall, the SF Columbarium (for nearly 20 years), and the restoration of several art deco structures. His four years on the City Hall restoration team led Mayor Ed Lee to appoint him Commissioner on the City Hall Preservation Advisory Committee, which was approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors in 2013. Patrick is a recipient of an American Institute of Architects National Design Award.  www.thepinktriangle.com

Belo Cipriani
Belo Miguel Cipriani was born in Guatemala City to parents of Italian and Brazilian heritage and is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English. He is an award-winning author, a staffing professional, a freelance journalist, and a disabilities advocate. He is the career expert for the Ed Baxter Show on Talk Radio San Francisco 910AM, a spokesperson for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the author of two books — Blind: A Memoir and Midday Dreams. Additionally, he was the keynote speaker for the 2011 Americans with Disabilities Act celebration in San Francisco and for the 2012 queer conference at Skyline College, CA. He was also invited to be a guest lecturer at both Yale University and the University of San Francisco. Belo currently lives in San Francisco with his guide dog, Oslo. To learn more about Belo, visit BeloCipriani.com and connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube.

Masen Davis
Masen Davis is a transgender advocate who has dedicated his life to LGBT equality. He served as Executive Director of Transgender Law Center from 2007–2015, and grew TLC into the nation’s largest transgender advocacy organization. From sweeping changes to California nondiscrimination law to unprecedented healthcare access initiatives, Masen’s leadership has had a tremendous impact on the rights and wellbeing of transgender people. His advocacy was critical to the elimination of discriminatory insurance exclusions, creating a pathway for thousands of transgender Californians to access transition-related care. Masen was also an integral part of the coalition that helped pass California’s School Success and Opportunity Act (AB 1266) to ensure transgender students have access to facilities and activities that match their gender identity, and he led the campaign to defend the new law against an anti-LGBT referendum effort. Committed to increasing the visibility, rights and acceptance of transgender people around the globe, Masen has consulted on scores of publications, documentaries, and philanthropic efforts.

Photo Credit: Irene Young

Judy Dlugacz
Olivia has marched in the San Francisco Pride parade since 1977 and Olivia co-founder Judy Dlugacz has been fighting for equality and LGBT rights even longer. As co-founder of Olivia Records and Olivia Travel, Judy has been recognized by the GGBA of San Francisco and honored by Ernst and Young as its Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year. Just before “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and DOMA were overturned, Judy was the driving force behind six women’s roundtable discussions with Michelle Obama to create a voice on issues that impact LGBT women. Judy and Olivia contribute to, and actively participate with, dozens of human rights organizations including the Human Rights Campaign and the National Council for Lesbian Rights, and global organizations including the Nepal Youth Foundation and the Red Cross Relief Fund. Judy, through Olivia, is also one of the founding partners of the USAID LGBT Global Development Partnership. Judy Dlugacz has changed the course of lesbian history, not only in San Francisco, but around the world.

Alicia Garza
Alicia Garza is a co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter which began as a hashtag and grew into a national organizing project that is an affirmation and embrace of the resistance and resilience of Black people. She is currently the Special Projects Director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance and previously served as Executive Director of People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) in San Francisco CA. She has been the recipient of multiple awards for her organizing work in Black and Latino communities throughout the Bay Area.

Mary Midgett
Arriving in San Francisco in 1974, Midgett began working as a teacher with the Booker T. Center in Western Addition. She started hanging out in the East Bay and help found Bay Area Black Lesbians and Gays. Midgett’s activist life began as workshop leader and facilitator within many groups in the Bay Area: Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, Lesbians and Gays of African Descent, and New Leaf were just a few of them. However, it is the NIA Collective that Midgett co-founded in 1986 and has been most closely associated with over the last 24 years. It was created by and for Lesbians of African descent during the Black Caucus at the Lesbian of Color Conference in San Francisco. Recipient of the Pat Bond Award, she authored Brown on Brown, a collection of black lesbian erotica; Riding Desire; and New York Flavor With a San Francisco Beat. Her stories have also been published in volumes I, II, and III of Hot and Bothered. Midgett writes an inspirational column “Midgett’s Corner” for the Western Addition newspaper in San Francisco. The paper can be viewed online, www.thewesternedition.com. She continues to be active in the lesbian and gay communities as a speaker for Openhouse (an organization for lesbians and gays over 60 years old), OLOC, and the NIA Collective. Midgett prefers to be called “Midgett.”

Caitlin Ryan
Caitlin Ryan, PhD, ACSW is a clinical social worker who has worked on LGBT health and mental health for 40 years. Her work includes participating in the early LGBT health movement in the 1970s, developing AIDS services in the 1980s and promoting health and well-being for LGBT youth since the early 1990s. Caitlin is the Director of the Family Acceptance Project at SF State University. The Family Acceptance Project is a research, education, and policy project helping ethnically and religiously diverse families support their LGBT children. Caitlin and her team have developed multilingual family education booklets that are “Best Practices” for suicide prevention for LGBT youth, and a new research-based family support approach to preventing serious health risks, including suicide, homelessness and HIV. The Project seeks to promote wellness for LGBT children and adolescents – in the context of their families, cultures, and faith traditions. In addition to launching family services to build healthy futures for LGBT youth, this work is used to change the way that LGBT youth are supported and served, such as providing a research framework for the CA anti-reparative therapy law.

Miko Thomas
Two-Spirit activist, writer, leader, and performance artist, Thomas is known more by his drag persona Landa Lakes, a tongue in cheek reference to the use of Native images as mascots. Thomas currently serves on the Board of the Grand Ducal Council of San Francisco and is currently national titleholder for the Ultimate Panache Pageant. He is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, and found the path into the activist community via the Gay and Lesbian Alliance while attending the University of Oklahoma. Thomas relocated to San Francisco after serving in the U.S. Navy during the Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Desert Recovery campaigns. Thomas has been active in the Two-Spirit, Native American, LGBT, and Artists communities ranging from educational work to fundraising to social challenges. Most notably, Thomas served as Co-Chair for the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAIT-S). He has been an advocate for Marriage Equality and served on the board of the Native American Aids Project. Miko has worked as an accountant in the fashion industry for the past 22 years.

Community Grand Marshal (Organization):

AIDS Legal Referral Panel
ALRP’s mission is to help people living with HIV/AIDS maintain or improve their health by resolving their legal issues. ALRP serves clients in seven Bay Area counties and is the only legal services agency in the Bay Area whose mission is solely focused on the needs of people with HIV. At the start of the AIDS crisis in 1983, volunteers founded ALRP when most clients needed wills and durable powers of attorney. ALRP has helped people with HIV keep their housing, maintain their financial stability, get access to health care, fight discrimination in the workplace, and address immigration issues that keep them from becoming fully integrated into society. Since its founding, ALRP has taken on more than 70,000 cases, and during that time the life spans of people with HIV have greatly lengthened and the legal needs of people with HIV have become much more complex.

Magnet SF
Magnet is San Francisco’s premier gay men’s health and community center. Founded in 2003, Magnet became a program of San Francisco AIDS Foundation in 2007. Magnet’s mission is to promote the health and well being of gay, bi, and queer men in SF. Magnet provides culturally competent HIV and STI services and hosts a variety of cultural and social events including art exhibits, book clubs and open mic nights. In 2014, Magnet provided services to more than 14,000 customers, more than 10 times original projections for the clinic. This spring Magnet will move into a new location around the corner at 474 Castro Street. This will be the last SF Pride in which the Magnet name will be in use, as a new name will be unveiled when Magnet is co-located with other SFAF services and activities.

Openhouse
Since 1998, Openhouse has been providing LGBTQ seniors access to needed services like housing, housing assistance, information & referral services, health & wellness programs, adult education, and community engagement. Openhouse provides San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ seniors an opportunity to overcome the unique challenges they face as they age. As a result, they are reducing isolation and empowering LGBTQ seniors to improve their overall health, well-being and economic security. Openhouse recognizes and affirms that LGBT older adults are living at an intersection of race, ethnicity, class, culture, HIV status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and expression, spirituality and ability. Openhouse is committed to creating a safe environment that encourages participants to share their diverse perspectives and identities, fostering dynamic community engagement.

Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. Using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy, the Center works toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality. They employ a three-pronged strategy to battle racial and social injustice:

• Track the activities of hate groups and domestic terrorists across America, and launch innovative lawsuits that seek to destroy networks of radical extremists.
• Use the courts and other forms of advocacy to win systemic reforms on behalf of victims of bigotry and discrimination.
• Provide educators with free resources that teach school children to reject hate, embrace diversity and respect difference.

Transgender Law Center
Transgender Law Center changes law, policy, and attitudes so that all people can live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination regardless of their gender identity or expression. Since it’s founding in San Francisco in 2002, TLC has provided legal information to 17,000 transgender people and their families. As the USA’s largest trans-led organization, TLC is a leading voice in national transgender advocacy. Rooted in racial and economic justice values, TLC secures groundbreaking victories in the Bay Area and beyond, including:

• Litigating for and securing federal protections against employment discrimination based on gender identity or expression under Title VII;
• Advocating to remove transition-related healthcare exclusions from Healthy San Francisco and from all health insurance policies regulated and sold within CA;
• Ensuring CA schools provide trans and gender non-conforming youth equal access to educational facilities and programs by helping pass the School Success and Opportunity Act;
• Freeing transgender immigrants detained in ICE facilities and launching the Detention Project to improve conditions for incarcerated trans people; and,
• Providing leadership development and skills-building programs to the transgender movement nationwide.

Pink Brick Award Nominees:

The Pink Brick is an annual award given by the Pride Committee to the nominee receiving the most votes in the Pink Brick category during public polling. This faux award represents the first brick thrown at the Stonewall Riots and is given to someone who has caused significant harm to the LGBT community. Former President George W. Bush, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and evangelical leader Lou Engle (who has supported the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda), have all been past recipients of the Pink Brick.  This year’s slate includes:

American Family Association
American Family Association opposes same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion. Founded in 1977 by Donald Wildmon as the National Federation for Decency, the AFA defined itself as “a Christian organization promoting the biblical ethic of decency in American society with primary emphasis on television and other media,” later switching their stated emphasis to “moral issues that impact the family.” Promoting fundamentalist Christian values, it engages in activism efforts, including boycotts, buycotts, action alert emails, publications on the AFA’s web sites or in the AFA Journal, broadcasts on American Family Radio, and lobbying. The organization is accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) and posted a 2011 budget of over U.S. $16 million. AFA owns 200 American Family Radio stations in 33 states, seven affiliate stations, and one affiliate TV station (KAZQ TV in New Mexico). AFA has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center as of November 2010 for the “propagation of known falsehoods” and the use of “demonizing propaganda” against LGBT people. Among many other initiatives, the AFA has lobbied against the Employee Free Choice Act.

Pacific Justice Institute
A California-based right-wing advocacy organization, PJI is headquartered in Sacramento and has four other office locations in the cities of Santa Ana, Oakland, Riverside, and San Diego. It was founded in 1997 by its current president, Brad W. Dacus. In 2014, the Southern Poverty Law Center designated the PJI as an anti-LGBT hate group. PJI supported opt-out forms for parents who want their children excused from lessons on topics such as homosexuality or Islam; supported Proposition 8, a 2008 California ballot initiative that defined marriage as one man and one woman, until the Hollingsworth v. Perry decision in 2013; unsuccessfully opposed the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate provision;unsuccessfully opposed SB 1172, a 2012 California law which bans conversion therapy for children under 18; andopposed the School Success and Opportunity Act, a 2013 California law which allows transgender public school students to use restrooms and play on sports teams that fit their gender identity. In 2013, Media Matters for America described the Pacific Justice Institute as the “LGBT Misinformer Of The Year”, for its willingness to lie in the service of undermining LGBT rights. Publicizing a press release containing false claims against a transgender student as part of its campaign against the law, PJI has set a new standard for dishonesty on LGBT issues in 2013, by concocting a story about bathroom harassment by a transgender student in an effort to deny transgender students access to facilities that match their gender identities. In a year that witnessed a spike in transphobic commentary by right-wing media, PJI’s lie proliferated on outlets like Fox News, highlighting the extent to which outright misinformation undergirds the conservative media’s anti-LGBT horror stories.

World Congress of Families
World Congress of Families is the main exporter of Christian Right-Wing homophobia/anti-LGBTQ hate (mixed with anti-abortion efforts) to the rest of the world. They are largely responsible for Ugandan and Russian anti-LGBTQ efforts and violence. WCF is a United States coalition that promotes Christian right values internationally. They oppose same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, while supporting a society built on “the voluntary union of a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant of marriage.” WCF comprises organizations in several countries, and most of their member partners are strongly active campaigners for pro-life positions and specific Christian views on marriage, opposing same-sex marriage. WCF was formed in 1997 and is active worldwide, regularly organizing “large international ‘pro-family’ conventions.” Their opposition to gay marriage and abortion has attracted criticism. They were added to the list of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as anti-LGBT hate groups in February 2014 for their involvement with the 2013 Russian LGBT propaganda law and opposing LGBT rights internationally.