Welcoming Remarks
Mitch Wood
GLAA President
GLAA 40th Anniversary ReceptionWashington Plaza Hotel
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Good evening and welcome. I am Mitch Wood, President of GLAA. Thank you for joining us to celebrate GLAA’s 40 years of advocacy and vigilance on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Washington. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to move into our program a little early, due to some tight schedules. We have many distinguished guests with us this evening, including Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton; DC City Council Chairman Kwame Brown; At-Large Councilmembers Michael A. Brown, David Catania and Phil Mendelson; Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham; Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans; Patrick Mara, candidate for at-large city councilmember; former Ward 5 Councilmember, and candidate for at-large city council, Vincent Orange; and Philip Pannell, candidate for Ward 8 DC School Board member. We are also joined by Jeff Richardson, Director of the Mayor’s Office on GLBT Affairs, who is representing Mayor Vincent Gray, and Phil Eure from the Office of Police Complaints. We are grateful for these public servants and concerned citizens attending tonight, for making the time in their busy schedules to share this special moment with us. Some of the councilmembers need to leave shortly to attend a budget hearing being sponsored by Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, so we now invite the councilmembers to come forward, to read and present the city council’s ceremonial resolution and to give a few remarks. [presentation of resolution and the Congressional Record entry honoring GLAA’s anniversary followed]
Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for your flexibility, and again thanks to all the councilmembers and our illustrious guests. Their presence is a testimony to GLAA’s clout and influence, and we can all be proud what that says about our organization. Please take a few more minutes to socialize and greet one another, and shortly we’ll continue with the rest of our program for tonight, including the presentation of GLAA’s 2011 Distinguished Service Awards.
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Since 1971, GLAA has been at the center of the fight for LGBT equality in the District, from prohibiting anti-gay discrimination in the schools, to passage of the D.C. Human Rights Act of 1977, fighting discrimination by Metro, enacting a hate-crimes law, repealing the anti-sodomy law, establishing condom availability programs in our schools and prisons, passing the domestic partners law as a precursor to marriage equality, fighting anti-transgender discrimination in our public safety agencies, and prohibiting harassment in our schools. Like the marriage equality victory that we celebrated a year ago, much of our success over the decades has been the result of coalition work. We and our coalition partners are facing a renewed attack from right-wing members of Congress, who are expected to push several anti-democratic social riders on D.C.’s Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations bill. Already we are talking with our allies, gay and non-gay, local and national, to revive the Working Group that fought past congressional interference in the self-government of the people of Washington.
One organization that we had a hand in establishing to help us face just this kind of challenge is the Campaign for All D.C. Families, which has already had meetings on Capitol Hill. As we collectively reactivate the broader coalition, we will coordinate efforts with the Mayor, members of the D.C. Council, and Congresswoman Norton. This time around, we are pleased that Congress has an LGBT Equality Caucus to work with us.
So after 40 years, our work is not done. To help us communicate with the city we helped change, we have expanded our outreach through our website, blog, and other new media. Our technical guru Charlie Watson has helped us enhance our informative website at GLAA dot org and our blog at GLAA Forum dot org, and has been instrumental in helping us launch DCGayEtc dot com, our new LGBT news aggregator project. Our secretary Miguel Tuason has helped us with graphic design, including the crisp, professional look of our election-year policy brief, Agenda: 2010, and our treasurer-my partner Gary Collins--has faithfully provided accurate records of our expenses and income, and helped to inaugurate our online PayPal payment system. Thanks to each of them. Incidentally, we seem to have been experiencing difficulties with our PayPal account recently, so if your name has been inadvertently left off of the program’s listings of sponsors and benefactors, please accept our apologies, let us know, and we will see to it that when we post our proceedings to our website that you are appropriately recognized.
This year we have also received help from the local LGBT business community. Of course there is our great friend D.C. Allen, who has given us his staunch support and invaluable advice ever since he bankrolled our fight against regulatory abuse against our clubs in the 1990s. We are pleased that he is here tonight along with his partner Ken Flick. Thanks, guys. Now, thanks to D.C.’s efforts, we have started what we hope will be a long and fruitful relationship with the Capital Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. GLAA tends to attract policy wonks more than businesspeople, so we do need the guidance. In fact, our own gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny was D.C. Allen’s guest at the Chambers’ annual awards dinner on April 8, and we’d like to present a letter of appreciation from him to them. So if Frank and the Chamber’s Executive Director, Mark Guenther, would please step forward. [letter from Kameny accepted on behalf of Mark Guenther by D.C. Allen]
Let me tell you something about our organization. GLAA is all-volunteer. We pay no staff. We rent no office space. Your donations support our no-frills activism. Because you cover the costs of copying, postage, advertising and website maintenance, we can spend more of our volunteer time on our advocacy. Thank you, thank you so much.
We dedicate our 40th anniversary celebration to the memory of our friend and colleague Jeff Coudriet. Jeff served not only as President of GLAA but as President of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club as well as ANC commissioner, Capitol Hill Staffer, D.C. Council staffer, and Director of Operations for the Alcohol and Beverage Regulatory Administration. He was smart, funny, generous, hardworking, and tireless in fighting for equality. He left an indelible mark on GLAA and on our city, and he will be sorely missed.
Even though we have been honored with a ceremonial resolution from the D.C. Council and a tribute in the Congressional Record from Congresswoman Norton, we have a tradition of marking our anniversary by recognizing the contributions of others. So this evening we are pleased to honor six people who have served our community in a variety of ways.
