Saturday, April 28, 2007

PFLAG Friends of Our Children Award



I was very honored to be awarded the Friend of Our Children award from the local Fremont/East Bay Chapter of PFLAG. I have worked with many of the PFLAG members in the Not In Our Town project after Gwen Araujo’ murder. As a result of this effort the City of Newark (where Gwen was murdered) made many modifications to their policies
to be more LGBT friendly. All of the city employees underwent mandatory LGBT training.

PFLAG has also sponsored the International Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial that I organize every year. This memorial helps to raise awareness about the high rate of transgender violence and the lack of resources put towards solving those crimes.

This award means a lot to me. I used to be a youth group leader and was not allowed to teach anymore after I transitioned. I have five kids and five grandchildren. I’ve been a soccer coach for both boys and girls teams. It was a very sad day for me when I was not allowed to this anymore. I redirected my efforts into helping transgender youth. My movie was just one of those efforts.

I was also presented a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition by Pete Stark. Stark has been an active supporter of the LGBT community.
The same night I got my award, Nina Moore, President of the Fremont Board of Education, was also given a Friends of Our Children award. Nina has striven tenaciously and courageously to make both Fremont schools and the entire Fremont community safe and welcoming for all.

Earlier in the year I had spoke at a Fremont school board meeting that Nina was presiding over, in favor of an anti-bully training program the board was considering. Surprisingly, there were many people there that spoke out against the training. I thought to myself, how could anyone not want teachers better trained to handle bulling? Especially, in light of the recent shooting at Vagina Tech. But there were many who spoke out against the training. Apparently, they felt that the anti-bullying would somehow condone homosexuality. Talking with some of the speakers privately, I still wasn’t able to understand their reasoning.

After the award ceremony, many people came up to thank Nina, including myself. As I stood their waiting, I listen to a woman emotionally tell how important her defense of anti-bullying was to her. She conveyed her feelings so strongly that Nina began to cry. We all stood there with tears in our eyes. I know Nina felt how strongly our community feels about her stand against bullying. It was a very special night.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

CONGRADULATIONS!! You Definitely Deserve it!!