Welcoming Remarks
Rick Rosendall
GLAA President
GLAA 42nd Anniversary ReceptionWashington Plaza Hotel
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Good evening, and welcome. Thank you all for being here, and special thanks to the generous donors listed in our program. Thanks also to our volunteers, including our current and past officers.
After 42 years of advocacy, GLAA has much to be proud of. We and our allies have helped make D.C. one of the world’s most LGBT-welcoming jurisdictions. Yet as our latest policy brief shows, reforms are still needed in areas ranging from surrogacy agreements to birth certificates. Just as importantly, vigilance is needed to translate our city’s fine laws and policies into reality. We are blessed to have many allies in public office and in public agencies. We will shortly hear from some of them.
First, we honor our heritage. Our pioneer and friend Frank Kameny is no longer with us. But his exhortation still shines as brightly as when he wrote these words in 1969:
"It is time to open the closet door and let in the fresh air and the sunshine.
It is time to doff and to discard the secrecy, the disguise, and the camouflage.
It is time to hold up your heads and to look the world squarely in the eye as the homosexuals that you are, confident of your equality, confident in the knowledge that as objects of prejudice and victims of discrimination you are right and they are wrong, and confident of the rightness of what you are and of the goodness of what you do.
It is time to live your homosexuality fully, joyously, openly, and proudly, assured that morally, socially, physically, psychologically, emotionally, and in every other way: Gay is good."Thank you, Frank, and thanks to those who preserve your legacy.
A few months ago we lost our friend and colleague Dan Massey. Dan was a passionate advocate for social justice and was involved in many organizations. He was a strong friend of the transgender community. He and his wife Alison, our Secretary, worked for numerous LGBT and progressive causes. They opened their home many times for receptions and fundraisers. Dan was not only generous and thoughtful – I can’t think of anyone who was more kind. We dedicate our anniversary reception to him this evening, and honor him with our memory.
Another old friend died last week. Frank Zampatori, a Democratic and gay rights activist, was 68. He was a member of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club and served on the Democratic State Committee in the 1980s. He was the first openly gay member of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, and a longtime community activist on Capitol Hill. His memorial service directly conflicted with this reception. But his friends will gather afterwards at Trattoria Alberto at 506 8th Street, SE, around 8:30 pm, so you can still catch it.
Now I am pleased to call forward the Director of the D.C. Office of GLBT Affairs, our friend Sterling Washington, to make a presentation.
