San Diego Pride Announces 2010 Award Recipients

Honorees to be Publicly Recognized at Outdoor Rally on July 16 in Balboa Park

            San Diego LGBT Pride annually recognizes individuals and organizations for their activism and notable contributions made to the LGBT community during the preceding year or for extended periods of time. This year’s awardees will be honored at Pride’s Spirit of Stonewall Rally, scheduled for 6 p.m., July 16, at Marston Point in Balboa Park.

The outdoor rally marks the start of San Diego Pride weekend, which continues with a mile-long parade at 11 a.m., July 17, through the heart of Hillcrest, and a two-day festival in the park featuring the legendary Devo and other headline entertainment on July 17 and 18.

Award categories and honorees are:

Champions of Pride: Navy veterans Joseph Christopher Rocha and Autumn Sandeen, both of whom fought on the political frontlines against the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

Rocha, who took an honorable discharge in protest of the discriminatory policy, has since has taken the issue to major media outlets such as CNN and National Public Radio in addition to writing editorials for The Washington Post and The Huffington Post. He has testified before city, state and national committees about the unfair treatment of service members and was arrested in a DADT protest. Now a junior at the University of San Diego, he is also fulfilling an internship at the federal office of Congresswoman Susan Davis.

Sandeen is a retired and decorated Navy veteran who has championed for transgender causes as well, including the protection of trans children. The activist lived her first day as Autumn beginning in February of 2003, while serving veterans in the Patient Health Library at the San Diego VA Medical Center. Since then, she has reported extensively on transgender issues for ExGayWatch.com and more recently, PamsHouseBlend.com. This year, she bravely handcuffed herself to a lighthouse in Washington, D.C., during a Get Equal protest calling for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Stonewall Service Awards: St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Hillcrest History Guild.

Since hosting the first national convention on the West Coast in the early 1980s calling for LGBT rights within the Episcopal Church, St. Paul’s Cathedral in Bankers Hill has visibly campaigned against Proposition 8, and enlisted its priests and clergy to go door to door in spreading a message of equality. It has also openly denounced hate crimes and false claims made by leaders of the “ex-gay” movement in their attempts to turn LGBT individuals “straight.” The cathedral serves as a beacon for tolerance, welcoming people of every faith regardless of their sexuality.

The virtual online museum that is the Hillcrest History Guild captures the rich and colorful history of a neighborhood that sits at the core of San Diego’s LGBT community. Since its launch in 2005 by Hillcrest residents Ann Garwood and Nancy Moors, the couple has collected and uploaded a plethora of photographs, videos and stories that showcase the neighborhood’s fascinating evolution. Offline, the Guild has created the Hillcrest Clean Team, which conducts quarterly cleanups of the neighborhood with the enlisted help of volunteers. The effort extends also to the massive cleanup that takes place on the Monday after Pride weekend. (HillcrestHistory.org)

Friends of Pride: Rabbi Laurie Coskey and Senior Vice President of Hillcrest’s California Bank & Trust branch Cindy Lehman.

Rabbi Coskey is the executive director of the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice and the rabbi in residence at St. Paul’s Cathedral. In the mid 1980s, she began officiating at same-sex commitment ceremonies at a time when “the laws lagged behind justice.” During that period, she also stirred controversy over a sermon addressing the myths and fears surrounding HIV/AIDS. More recently, she organized clergy representing many denominations to engage in the “No on 8” campaign. She has also worked with Assembly Member Lori Saldana in creating the alliance, United for a Hate Free San Diego, which brings attention to the dangers of hate speech and its potential for violence.

Lehman is a 25-year banker who led her branch into becoming the first bank to join the Greater San Diego Business Association (GSDBA), which ranks as the second largest LGBT-supportive chamber of commerce in the country. She has also engaged staffers in volunteering for the Hillcrest Mardi Gras, San Diego Pride and the Imperial Court de San Diego’s Easter-basket drive. Lehman currently serves on the boards of the Hillcrest Business Association, Uptown Partnership and Alpha Project for the Homeless.

Community Service Awards: Dr. Joyce Marieb, former CEO of the Greater San Diego Business Association and Cheryl Houk, past Executive Director of Stepping Stone.

Throughout her nine-year tenure with the GSDBA, Dr. Marieb significantly increased the chamber’s membership by forming corporate partnerships and implementing a variety of business-supportive programs. Her advocacy for LGBT equality within small and large businesses has resulted in an 800-plus membership that enjoys broad visibility both locally and nationally. Before retiring last year, she saw the organization through its 30th anniversary and had received The Center’s Woman of the Year Award.

Houk served 17 years as executive director of Stepping Stone, a sober-living agency for which she raised $2.6 million in a capital building campaign that resulted in a new, state-of-the-art residential facility in City Heights. Since retiring in 2006, she has joined the organization’s board of directors and helped plan the facility’s 10-year anniversary celebration that took place in early June.

Special Award for Cultural and Artistic Excellence: Playwright Patricia Loughrey.

The legacy of 70s activist Harvey Milk endures through Loughrey’s poignant production of Dear Harvey, which debuted last year at the Diversionary Theatre in a highly successful two-week run. It has since been reproduced by San Diego State University and was selected by the American College Theatre Festival for a reading at The Kennedy Center. Loughrey’s playwriting talents have also touched audiences through works related to HIV/AIDS, including The Inner Circle and Secrets, which won a Ryan White Award and continues touring high schools statewide.

For more information about San Diego Pride weekend (July 16-18) and volunteer opportunities, call 619-297-7683 or visit the web site: www.SanDiegoPride.org.