Welcome to the
Pride Wall of Honor
The Pride Wall of Honor stands as a testament to the extraordinary individuals who have shaped the vibrant tapestry of Palm Springs and the Greater Coachella Valley. This distinguished recognition celebrates LGBTQ+ community members and dedicated allies whose contributions have left an indelible mark on our region through their unwavering commitment to service, education, and excellence.
Our community has long been enriched by visionary leaders, compassionate volunteers, innovative educators, and accomplished professionals who have dedicated their talents and passion to making the Coachella Valley a more inclusive, prosperous, and welcoming place for all. The Wall of Honor recognizes those who have gone above and beyond—individuals whose volunteer efforts have strengthened our social fabric, whose community service has addressed critical needs, whose educational contributions have enlightened minds and opened doors, and whose professional achievements have elevated our region's reputation and economic vitality.
From grassroots organizers who built the foundation of our thriving LGBTQ+ community to business leaders who created opportunities for others, from educators who championed equality in our schools to healthcare professionals who provided compassionate care during challenging times, these honorees represent the very best of what it means to be a community builder and change-maker.
The Wall of Honor serves not only as recognition of past contributions but as inspiration for future generations. It reminds us that each individual has the power to make a difference, whether through quiet acts of service or bold leadership that transforms entire communities. These stories of dedication, resilience, and impact demonstrate how personal commitment to the greater good can create lasting change that benefits everyone.
We invite you to explore the stories of these remarkable individuals whose legacies continue to inspire and whose contributions have helped make Palm Springs and the Greater Coachella Valley a beacon of acceptance, opportunity, and community pride.
Andy Linsky
Andy Linsky has been and remains deeply committed to philanthropy for over a quarter of a century. He has served on the Board of Directors for Desert AIDS Project (DAP) for 14 years (1990-2004), and four as its president (1998-2002). For many years he has been a Board
Member for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), as well as, actively participating in the AIDS Assistance Program and the LGBT Outreach Committee of the Palm Springs Police Department.
He strongly advocates that.as we work together, we form an undeniable presence that has moved our nation and city forward.
Ruth
Debra
Ruth Debra is a leader in the equal rights movement in New York, Louisiana, Texas and Minnesota. In Texas she was co-founder of a shelter for battered women and a Rape Crisis and Suicide hotline. She was involved in the formation of the National Organization for Women and later served as vice-president of the Twin Cities Chapter. Further service includes the Boards of Twin Cities Pride, InterPride, Out to Brunch, The Pride Center, the Golden Rainbow Center and Palm Springs Pride. In January 2018, after serving nearly a decade as the first female Chair of Desert Stonewall Democrats she became Chair Emeritus. She remains on the National Steering Committee for Old Lesbians Organizing for Change and is active in the Courageous Resistance. Ruth volunteers with Equality CA and is a founding member of Desert Women for Equality and L-Fund and served five years on the Harvey Milk Diversity Coalition. In 1917 Ruth received the Harvey B. Milk Leadership Award in 2017 and in 2018 she was the recipient of the City of Palm Springs, Human Rights Commission Community Service Award, as well as, a Lifetime Achievement Award from Desert Stonewall Democrats.
Ruth and her spouse Sherry Fulton moved to Palm Springs in 2003 and later married on October 11, 2008. As a successful business owner, community organizer, and a lifelong activist in the Civil Rights and Peace and Justice movements, she’s a proud radical old Lesbian feminist and who is still protesting and organizing.
Will
Paige
As publisher of the Desert Daily Guide, Will Paige has given a voice to social justice and human rights issues since the late 1990s. In addition to raising awareness on issues that impact our community, Will has helped countless nonprofit organizations and equal rights events by promoting them in the Desert Daily Guide (DDG). He was recognized in 2017 by the City of Palm Springs, Human Rights Commission with a Community Service Award for providing a voice for the disenfranchised, a platform to educate the community, and serving as a resource for nonprofit organizations across the Coachella Valley.
The DDG and Will Paige are institutions in Palm Springs. One can always count on Will to share his wisdom either in print or via Facebook.
Jack Newby
Jack Newby began his involvement in the LGBT political movement in the early 1980's with the Human Rights Campaign Fund. He was on the committee for the first Southern California fundraiser for the organization, later served with Sheila Kuehl as Southern California Co-Chair in the 1984 "Show Our Strength" campaign. Jack served for many years on the Board of Directors of the LGBT Community Center in Long Beach and was instrumental in the purchase of their current building. (one of the first LGBT Centers to own their own building). He served as Executive Director of the Long Beach LGBT Center and AIDS Project Long Beach for four years. Jack was on the founding Executive Committee of AIDS Walk Long Beach and personally guaranteed a loan for funding the first AIDS Walk Long Beach event. He co-founded Southland Political Action Committee (SOLPAC), a non-partisan LGBT PAC in the south Los Angeles County modeled after the Municipal Elections Committee of Los Angeles and the Elections Committee of the County of Orange. SOLPAC grew into the largest independent PAC in the South Bay Los Angeles area, raising funds and supporting city council, Assembly, and State Senate candidates who were committed to advancing LGBT rights.
Moving to Palm Springs, Jack was founding chair of the Desert Pride Center, the first LGBT Community Center in Palm Springs and again personally guaranteed the lease on the original space at Vista Chino and Palm Canyon Drive, later working the organization to 611 S. Palm Canyon after it rapidly outgrew the original space. He has served on the board of the CAEAR (Communities Advocating Emergency AIDS Relief) Coalition and AIDS Action, both in Washington, DC. Jack served a term as Vice-Chair of the CAEAR Coalition. He has served on the Board of the Desert Business Association in the 1990's and again in 2008.
Maria Fraser
Maria Fraser has worked tirelessly as the Intake Coordinator for the L-Fund bringing financial assistance and information to Lesbians in need in the Coachella Valley. She has been and is a vital and visible part of the LGBT Community consistently standing up for and supporting equal rights for all.
Greg
Day
June 15th marks the 40 anniversary of Greg Day’s my arrival in California from the East Coast via the Rainbow Migration. He has served the LGBT community as a documentary photographer, journalist, artist, elected official, non-profit administrator, and social justice advocate. He is currently the Board President and former Director of the California LGBT Arts Alliance and a Board Member and past President of Friends of the Palm Springs Mountains. His My photo archive documents 50 years of LGBT community life in California, New York, Berlin and the American South. In September of 2018, his images of the 1970's New York Queer Underground Art Scene will be exhibited at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art.
Palms Springs has been his home for 17 years.
Lena Ingram
As a cofounder of 'The Lunch Ladies' and a Trangender woman of color in Palm Springs, she advocates the importance of providing a comfortable and open space to bridge the gap for the Cis and Trans community to further communication and a greater respect for one another.
She is a member of the P.S.P.D. LGBT Outreach Committee and The National Day of HIV Testing Committee comprised of members of local medical and trans organizations in the valley. She has authored several articles documenting her experience as a trans woman including 'Revealing the Flower' and 'Face First' for Desert Outlook Magazine. She feels like it is important for her to go where she is needed to further the rights and give representation for the Transgender Community, including working with IEHP for 7 months in order to get Dr. Marci Bowers, the most advanced GRS surgeon in the country, covered under their policy.
She strongly believes we have a long way to go, but times are changing. She is honored to be a part of that change. “If we are brave enough to tell our stories, we can create a space for empathy and understanding.”
Christine Hammond
Christine Hamond has been an active member and Board Directors of the PFLAG Palm Springs/Desert Communities chapter since 1999. She has been and is a visible advocate for LGBTQ individuals and their families in the Valley, representing PFLAG at community events, including chaperoning at the always-amazing Safe Schools-hosted Pride Prom! Christine has also been an active community volunteer, organizer of three different neighborhoods, has Chaired and/or worked with numerous committees and work groups for the city, and worked with Organized Neighborhoods of Palm Springs (PSNIC/ONE-PS). In 2012 Christine was appointed by Palm Springs City Council to the Measure J Oversight Commission (MJOC).
There, she integrated her neighborhood advocacy endeavors with her work on the Commission by collaborating with neighborhood, business, hospitality, and City representatives to identify and address pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicle safety concerns in the City. These collective efforts have resulted in grants and MJOC funding in support of over $10 million for public safety projects. Her newest project is working with the City of Palm Springs Sustainability Commission, Desert Water Agency, neighborhoods and the larger community to educate and advocate for the need for additional Monarch Butterfly habitats and to plant Desert Milkweed.
Christine has lived in Palm Springs since 1998 and counts her greatest gifts as 30 years with her love and inspiration, Sly Zelnys; amazing daughter Emily, son-in-law Geoff, and grandsons Oliver and Callum.
Ralph Payne
Ralph Payne was a principal organizer of the first national civil disobedience on AIDS culminating in the arrests of 64 activists at the Reagan White House in 1987. He was instrumental in the organization of the National March for Lesbian/Gay Rights at the 1984 Democratic National Convention and the Lobby Days for the 1987 National March for Lesbian & Gay Rights. Ralph was appointed by Governor George Deukmejian to California’s Strategic AIDS Planning Commission and served as California and San Francisco Co-Chair of the 1986 No on Proposition 64 campaign, the initiative placed on the ballot by Prevent AIDS Now Initiative Committee (PANIC), followers of Lyndon LaRouche Jr., to quarantine people, for life, who were suspected of carrying AIDS. When the initiative qualified for the ballot, polls showed it winning by 3 to 1. The campaign raised $3 million, and the initiative was defeated by the same margin. As Development Director for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, he helped raise several million dollars for the last AIDS hospice to be built, and which is no longer being used for that purpose. While the Executive Director of the San Francisco Apartment Owners Association, he led the organization in gaining statewide support of apartment owners for AB-101 (California’s gay rights bill) that was passed by the Legislature but vetoed by Governor Pete Wilson.
He was appointed by San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, and served for nine years, as a commissioner on the Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board that oversees San Francisco’s rent control ordinance. He also served on the Steering Committees of Feinstein for Governor and Feinstein for Senate, and wrote Feinstein’s comprehensive AIDS policy – the first such effort for either office.
When Senator Feinstein recruited Ralph to be on her personal staff in Washington D.C., he became the first person to serve as a Senator’s liaison to the LGBT community and principal advisor on AIDS. In this position, he authored the Senate bill and spear-headed the effort to secure passage of Senator Feinstein’s Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act. This was the first successful legislation in the history of the United States Congress to provide protections on the basis of sexual orientation, and was signed into law by President Clinton in 1994.
While working in Senator Feinstein’s office he also participated in obtaining massive funding increases for AIDS research, treatment, prevention, and housing. He initiated and led the successful effort in the Senate to exempt NIH from the Clinton administration’s hiring freeze, allowing NIH to hire 150 additional AIDS researchers whose work resulted in many of today’s life-saving medications.
Ralph’s history of activism includes serving as a founding or original member of numerous organizations, including San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Mobilization Against AIDS, LIFE AIDS Lobby in Sacramento, San Francisco Community AIDS Network, California Community AIDS Network, Bay Area Non-Partisan Alliance, San Francisco’s first gay/lesbian PAC, and AIDS International Candlelight Memorials.
He has served as president of the Stonewall Gay Democratic Club, the Nation’s second oldest gay Democratic club, the Mission Planning Council and as a board member of the Technical Advisory Committee at San Quentin State Penitentiary and he was a member of the Host Committee for the 1984 Democratic National Convention.
Ralph Payne’s activism has spanned protests and demonstrations in the streets to help shape the political landscape and effecting AIDS policy in and outside of government. His involvement and efforts have led our movement to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic and shaped effective responses to the stigmatization of gay men and the gay community.
David Powell
An active volunteer, David Powell’s community service includes serving on the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast Coalition, Cathedral City LGBT Days committee, the City of Palm Springs Police Chief’s LGBT advisory committee, and volunteering for the Diversity DHS and Safe Schools Desert Cities. Prior to moving full time in Palm Springs in 2012, Dave was involved with the LGBT community in the Bay Area. This included being Pacific Gas and Electric Company's liaison to the San Francisco LGBT community, a member and advisor to PG&E's Pride Network employee group, and on the Board of AIDS Project Contra Costa. He served six years on the City of Walnut Creek Planning Commission where he advocated for the underserved and helped give a voice the city’s diverse communities.
David’s work in the community includes a commitment to raising the visibility of the LGBT community through his service with the Desert Business Association (2015-present).
Through the decades of community service and in the workplace, David Powell has been driven to ensure that all voices and opinions were heard, and that all communities have the opportunity for inclusion.
Pamela Genevrino
Pamela Genevrino was born in Newark New Jersey to first generation Italian parents. As a teenager she entered the convent intent on becoming a nun. Following the death of her father and before she took her final vows she left the convent to care for her mother and her special needs sister. She relocated to Provincetown Massachusetts where in the early 70’s she founded the Pied Piper which arguably was the largest women’s bar in existence in the United States providing a safe gathering place for 1,500 women nightly. Many women to this day attribute the Pied as the place where they recognized that it was time to stop hiding who they were. Through her ownership of the Pied Piper she became involved in LGBT rights utilizing the bar to do fundraisers for Lesbians running for office or in need of assistance in other legal issues. Recognizing the existing separation of the Gay & Lesbian communities where the men stayed in their social setting and the women stayed in theirs she initiated a tradition of celebrating after T – T bringing Gay and Lesbians together in a social setting which at that time was not the norm. In the late 80’s she sold the Pied Piper and moved to Los Angeles where she purchased the restaurant and cabaret known as the Rose Tattoo in West Hollywood. It was in that restaurant/cabaret that Jean O’Leary and Rob Eichberg first conceived National Coming Out Day, two HIV/AIDS organizations were planned, and numerous fundraisers for LGBT causes were held.
Pamela has lived in Palm Springs since 1999 with her partner and wife of 30 years, Ginny Foat. She has worked for financially supported and encouraged many organizations from our community.
David Brinkman
David Brinkman has worked passionately in leadership roles in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, housing homeless youth, and aiding the disenfranchised in acquiring job skills and employment opportunities. Since 2006, he has served as Chief Executive Officer & President of Desert AIDS Project (D.A.P.). He led the organization through a period of unprecedented growth, increasing the number of clients and volunteers, diversity and volume of services, number of staff, and size of the budget by 100%. Under his leadership, D.A.P. established a dental clinic, a permanent supportive housing complex, a community center, a department of Community Health, a sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinic, and a vocational program as well as achieved Federally Qualified Health Center status. Currently Mr. Brinkman is at the helm of D.A.P.’s greatest expansion yet, Vision 2020. By collaborating with clients, the community, D.A.P.’s board of directors, and staff, he is overseeing the creation of a new campus that will serve as the medical home to thousands more in the community. An additional 30,000 square feet of space will enable staff to double the number of clients served in its medical clinic, dental clinic, and behavioral health practice. And an additional 61 onsite apartment homes will bring the total number of units to 141.
Alexis Ortega
A Palm Springs native, Alexis Ortega started her advocacy efforts at Stanford University, as a volunteer canvasser for President Obama’s first campaign, as well as, the No on Prop 8 campaign. After Prop 8’s passing, Alexis was part of campus organizing of LGBTQ students and allies in protest. Upon returning to the Coachella Valley in 2009, she began volunteering at Desert AIDS Project, eventually being hired on full-time. Alexis has focused most of her energy in LGBTQ causes, organizing local young queer women nightlife events, serving on the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast Coalition, organizing for the Palm Springs Dyke March, and currently through her work at the LGBT Community Center of the Desert. At The Center, Alexis’s focus is om creating LGBTQ spaces for youth and folks of color, initially manifested through the first-ever Eastern Coachella Valley Pride event in 2017 in partnership with Building Healthy Communities Coachella Valley.
Her work now has been some of the most fulfilling work of her short career thus far, existing in the intersections of her multiple and layered identities as a queer Mexican woman of color, while simultaneously recognizing the privileges afforded to her by way of her education, access, resources, and more. Her goal is to help connect marginalized communities across issues for greater impact.
Tony Marchese
Tony Marchese is the owner of Trio Restaurant which has been one of the top three contributors to Dining out for life for DESERT AIDS PROJECT, He is the President of the Board of Aids Assistant Food Samaritan program, a Board member of the Palm Springs Hospitality Association, and sponsor of Trio’s Oscar Party for AAP. He was recognized with the 2017 Spirit of Stonewall Community Service Award for his strong commitment to giving back and supporting the community. Tony is a philanthropist at heart and is driven to support dozens of events, programs and fundraisers each year. He was voted the first runner up in the 2013 Dancing with the Desert Stars fundraiser for Desert AIDS Project. An entrepreneurial executive since the mid-80s, Tony started his career in Chicago where he opened Rhumba Brazilian, a top- rated restaurant and two high profile night clubs. He has also served as Director with two Chicago non-profit Boards, the Howard Brown Memorial Clinic and Stop AIDS Chicago.
He has I always felt the importance of giving back to the community which in some way doesn't always mean money, Service and giving back can be time or help an organization with fundraising. We live in an amazing place and he appreciates all the support from our LGBT community at Trio.
Douglas Woodmansee & Marshall Pearcy
Douglas Woodmansee and Marshall Percy both believe in making the world a better place, by doing whatever you can. “It may not be earthshaking, but you can make changes.” They have tried for twenty-three years to make that our communities mantra though the performances of their characters, Dottie DuBois and Maude Chapeau, Les Dames du Soleil. They are proud of the results, not just raising money for AIDS charities, but being able to convince so many others to become involved in the whole movements.
“We tossed a pebble in the pond, and the ripples were beyond anything we hoped for with this wonderful community.”
Warren "Woody" Wood
Woody was librarian and was in the vanguard of library automation at the K-12 level. He was a teacher in the same school for 30 years, department chair, and served the district in many capacities as a mentor teacher and curriculum writer. He presented many sessions on library automation for the California Library Association and nationally for Follett Software Company,
volunteered at the YMCA in Redlands, and was the Director of the Great All-American Youth Circus for 19 years. The circus, the oldest and largest youth circus in the world, included over 250 youthful performers and is still one of the most attended annual events in Redlands. Woody received an annual award as Redlands Man of the Year for his volunteer work with the circus. He has served as honorary fund-raising chair for additional circus practice space at the Redlands Y.
For nine years, he and his partner, Doug Hairgrove, planned and directed a 46-day annual educational tour for 70 high school students that included both the United States and eastern Canada. Retiring in 1994 and moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico, Woody began a new career as a library automation consultant for Follett Software Company in the Southwest US. He often testified when New Mexico legislative committees were discussing bills which would ensure equal rights for the LGBT community in New Mexico. Both Woody and Doug held active leadership roles at St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Santa Fe. Woody was a member of the Board of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale and a member of the New Mexico Gay Men's Chorus. Woody is a founding member of Safe Schools Desert Cities and served on the board from 2003-2018. During this time, Woody and his husband, Doug Hairgrove, often traveled to high schools across the Coachella Valley and the high desert to provide guidance and support to Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs and advisors. In 2000 he was the recipient of the Human Rights Advocate Award and in 2012 Greater Palm Springs Pride recognized Woody as the Spirit of Stonewall Volunteer of the Year. Woody is a past president of the Vista Norte neighborhood organization in Palm Springs and was one of the founders of the group.Woody is recognized for his role in planning and presenting the annual desert-wide Rainbow Youth Summit for GSA members and advisors and for leading and organizing the Pride Prom (2012-present) for GSA students and their friends from across the Coachella Valley and Yucca Valley. Woody continues to serve as an active member of PFLAG and Stonewall Democrats.
Woody and Doug Hairgrove fell in love during their senior year at the University of Redlands and were married in California in 2008 after a 47 year "engagement".
Jeffrey Ewell
Jeffery Ewell is resident of Palm Springs who is involved with fundraising efforts for Desert Aids Project, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Sober in the Sun, The LGBT Center, and other organizations throughout California.
Doug Hairgrove
Doug Hairgrove taught English in the same school for 30 years. He served as ASB leadership advisor and director of student activities, as well as, a journalism and yearbook advisor for many years. He was also department chair and served the district in many capacities as a mentor teacher and curriculum writer. Doug was a member of the Bay Area Writing Project and presented writing in service seminars at schools and for the California Association of Teachers of English for many years. Retiring in 1994 and moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico, Doug volunteered as a gay rights advocate, helped establish Faith Communities against Hate Crimes, was founder of the Hate Crimes Crisis Line in northern New Mexico, was a member of the PFLAG board for many years, and held several board positions for the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance. Doug and his husband, Woody Wood, often testified when New Mexico legislative committees was discussing bills which would ensure equal rights for the LGBT community in New Mexico.
Doug served on the Community Policing Implementation team for the Santa Fe Police Department. Moving back to Palm Springs in 2003, Doug was founding member of Safe Schools Desert Cities and served as president to 2018. He became, and for fifteen years served as, president of that organization which empowers LGBTQI+ youth, their allies and Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) advisors through education, guidance, advocacy and opportunities for self-expression. In 2000 he was the recipient of the Human Rights Advocate Award and in 2012 Greater Palm Springs Pride recognized Doug as the Spirit of Stonewall Volunteer of the Year.
Doug serves on the Palm Springs Police Department Outreach Committee to the LGBT community (2006 – present) and the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast committee (2017-present). He coordinated youth participation in the Palm Springs Pride parade (2011 - 2018)and he continues to serve as an active member of PFLAG and Stonewall Democrats.
Doug is recognized for his role in planning and presenting the annual desert-wide Rainbow Youth Summit for GSA members and advisors and for leading and organizing the Pride Prom (2012-present) for GSA students and their friends from across the Coachella Valley and Yucca Valley.
Doug and Warren "Woody" Wood fell in love during their senior year at the University of Redlands and were married in California in 2008 after a 47 year "engagement".
Gary Moline
Gary Moline moved to San Francisco in 1974 from the Mid-West (teaching music in Iowa and Illinois) where his involvement in the LGBT community began. Not the typical activist, music brought him to places he had never dreamed. He was a charter member of the (then-called) San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps working with Jon Sims, the founder. He played at “No on 6” rallies with Harvey Milk and marched in parades where they were, in some cases, not well received. He enjoyed what they did and was not aware that they were actually making history.
After 25 years in the SF Bay Area, working in mostly financial institutions, my husband, Larry Chew, and I moved to the Palm Springs Area. We began exploring all the area had to offer and soon discovered that there was a Gay Men’s Chorus (Caballeros), but no Gay Band. We put up flyers, secured a recruitment booth at the Palm Springs Pride Festival, (generously provided by then President, Jack Schloeder), held a few organizational meetings, and began rehearsing with 8 musicians. Our first formal concert with 25 musicians was held in 2001 at the Church of St. Paul in Palm Springs. The Desert Winds Freedom Band (directed now for 11 years by Dean McDowell) has grown into a full-fledged symphonic concert band, Jazz Band, and Marching Band and, several small ensembles. They participate in many community activities. As part of our educational outreach, every spring they present scholarships to graduating area high school students who are pursuing a music career in college. We bring in noted composers/conductors who not only guest conduct our band but conduct workshops in local area high schools.
Our membership is as diverse as our audiences. We truly feel that we are an integral part of the LGBT Community and the Greater Palm Springs Area at large.
Kerry Hendrix
Kerry Hendrix is an Air Force Veteran and past Executive Director for the Desert Business Association, the LGBT Chamber of Commerce for the Coachella Valley. Through DBA, Kerry worked with the Western Business Alliance and the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). He was awarded the 2017 Spirit of Pride award by Greater Palm Springs Pride for his work and leadership in the LGBT community. Kerry has volunteered for a variety of organizations including Greater Palm Springs Pride, Desert Aids Project, AAP, and has served on the Board for 4 years with the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast.
When he isn’t providing financial services, you can find him hiking the mountains, out with friends, or spending time by the pool with his boyfriend and their three pups.
Drew Kramer
Drew Kramer moved to New York City in 1989, He became active with ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. The majority of his activism focused on the response of the Giuliani administration in providing care--or failing to provide care--to New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. He was the principle architect of a part of legislation that guaranteed a baseline of medically appropriate services and care for residents of the city living with HIV that was passed by the City Council and signed, however reluctantly by the Mayor, and is still the law. Professionally, he has devoted himself to HIV prevention, and served for five years as the Executive Director of the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center, one of the city’s sterile syringe access programs whose mission was to give the people of Manhattan’s Lower East Side the tools, resources, and information they needed to meet the challenges posed by the AIDS crisis. He credits ACT UP for teaching him the nuts and bolts of community organizing which he uses to this day. Moving to Palm Springs in 2008, his endeavors along these lines have centered on the Leather community here in the desert and affirming those rights to love and make love in ways that culminate in happiness when that form is consensual and satisfying to all involved.
He is proud to give people the opportunity to put on the leather or other gear that makes them feel great and go out and meet others.
Greg Rodriguez
Greg Rodriguez has been active in LGBT and HIV/AIDS issues for over 30 years. He was the founding Executive Director of the Fairness Lobby in Seattle, Washington which eventually became Equality Washington. He has worked as a Desert AIDS Project Board member, Campaign Board Member of the Victory Fund, and worked against anti LGBT initiatives. He has donated tens of thousands of dollars to LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations.
Mike and
Carol Balasa
In 1992, the daughter of Mike and Carol Balasa returned from college to tell them that she was gay. Carol pulled her close and promised that they would love whomever she loved. Like most parents they were unprepared for this news and concerned about her safety and civil rights. In 1993, they marched with her in in Seattle in their first Gay Pride Parade. They found a like-minded group of parents in the PFLAG contingent. From that introduction, they decided to become fully involved PFLAG parents. In 1995 they both retired and devoted all their efforts to LGBTQI civil rights. They joined the PFLAG Speakers Bureau and took charge of the Information Table. They set up our Information Table and spoke at schools, festivals, corporate diversity day events, or any venue that would have them. They joined the board of Seattle PFLAG and wrote their newsletter, helped start the Bellevue, WA, PFLAG chapter, and supported several satellite chapters in nearby communities. They lobbied political leaders and worked on campaigns and initiatives.
They were on the board of the Seattle Freedom Day Committee that put on the Seattle Gay Pride March and were in charge of security. In 1997, They collected over 12,500 signatures for an anti-job discrimination bill by even accosting persons on the street. For this effort, they were honored as 1997 Grand Marshalls of the Seattle Pride Parade. They have written dozens of letters to the local newspapers advocating for LGBTQI issues and taking the editorial staffs to task for unfair reporting practices such as always including a quote from a religious bigot in any article about LGBTQI issues. They helped organize several protests during their time in Seattle including efforts for same-sex marriage. They are charter members of the first LGBTQI Parent Teacher Association. In 2001, the cold, damp weather of Seattle drove them to seek a warmer climate, and they choose Palm Springs. It didn’t take them long to bring their activism to the Coachella Valley.
In 2003, they assumed the leadership of Palm Springs/Desert Communities PFLAG as Co-Presidents and continued in this roll for 15 years, charter members of the Palm Springs Police LGBTQI Outreach Committee, active members of the Stonewall Democrats, and assist in voter registration and other efforts to support political issues and candidates. The local PFLAG chapter remains vibrant and has published a monthly newsletter for over 15 years. They intend to continue along with other parents and friends to make this a safe and fair world for our children.
Michael
Green
Michael Green moved to Atlanta in 1979, fresh out of college, and not quite out of the closet. He was working full-time for a publishing company (and in the closet - at least at work), but found himself looking for ways to get involved in what was, at that time, still a new LGBTQ movement (remember - this was the South). He started volunteering for the Atlanta Gay Center working on the newsletter, handling press releases, and eventually became the volunteer Public Relations Director for the Atlanta Gay Center (AGC). In 1980, he participated in a protest march with a crowd of around 1,000 people down Peachtree Street to the steps of the Capitol Building. The LGBTQ community was far from accepted at the time in Georgia, and some of that prejudice (sadly) remains to this day despite all our advancements as a community.
While doing some freelance writing, he heard about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, did some research, wrote a piece about Westboro and what they were doing which ended up with a cover article on the New York Native. This was when Christopher Street and The New York Native were at the height of their popularity (pre-AIDS). In 1982, we saw the world change as reports of a Gay Cancer started filtering into our community.
Shortly thereafter, the Atlanta LGBTQ community started losing people to what is now known as HIV/AIDS. He spent several years working hard, visiting people, sitting with friends, and attending funerals. Many of those were the leaders of our community at the time, including Ray Kluka, the man who hired me as a volunteer for the AGC. I feel fortunate to have seen and participated in much of Atlanta’s gay history during the seventies and the eighties. By the nineties, H focused much of his time on work and career. My husband Stephen and I gave back to our community during that time, but mostly by giving to charities in our community.
That all changed in 2000, when we moved to Palm Springs, CA, and purchased the Triangle Inn Palm Springs. Being an owner of an LGBTQ business, and being a member of a smaller community, gave him ample time and reasons to get involved. He joined the Board of the Desert Gay Tourism Guild at the suggestion of Denise Goolsby, who was its president at the time. She also encouraged him to join the Desert Business Association, the Palm Springs Hospitality Association, and the Palm Springs Tourism Advisory Board. He soon I found myself working at many levels as an ambassador for the Palm Springs LBGTQ community; writing articles about Gay Palm Springs, bringing writers to town to write about Gay Palm Springs, and going out to other cities to promote Gay Palm Springs. He continues these activities by working on behalf of LGBTQ Tourism businesses, as well as our city’s small hotels.
In 2009, he began working with the Palm Springs Cultural Center, a local charity dedicated to providing access to cultural programs. He currently serves as the Executive Director and the Festival Director of Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs LGBTQ Film Festival.
Rick Smedstad
Prior to moving to the Coachella Valley, Rick Smedstad volunteered with ONE in Long Beach, a LGBT non-profit service organization in Southern California. In 1990, he began meeting weekly with a local support group for LGBTQ youth called Gay Associated Youth. By the late 90s he realized the support and advocacy needed for our local queer youth was greater than what could be accomplished on a once-a-week basis, so he pulled together a small group of people to lay the groundwork for, and eventually open in 1999, an LGBTQ youth drop-in center which served approximately 150 individual youth monthly during the years He was its Executive Director. He designed The GAY Center to allow our gay youth to meet their friends, gay or straight, to talk, laugh, learn, play, and just be themselves cocooned in a totally safe, supportive, and nourishing environment free of judgement, fear, and danger. He helped create Safe Schools Desert Cities, which continues to proudly support and advocate for LGBTQ students in local area schools.
“Working with our LGBTQ youth has been the greatest honor of my life.”
Harvey
Stern
Harvey Stern is the Executive Director of the Golden Rainbow Senior Center which has evolved into its current identity as The LGBT Center of the Desert. He has lobbied to have Riverside County recognize the LGBT senior as a special needs population paving the way for many benefits previously not available to this population. Harvey developed and funded a comprehensive mental health program, a food bank servicing Coachella Valley residents, and a host of educational enrichment programs and classes for LGBTQ members of all ages
Janet Malachowsky
Janet Malachowsky grew up in New York State and attended college in New York City where she was exposed to a rainbow of people, cultures, morays and lifestyles. Throughout her life Janet has spoken up against injustice. She marched in Washington DC for Women’s Rights and marched in NYC for LGBT Rights. She joined progressive organizations to build change. Janet was elected to the Diversity Council of Wachovia Corporation in the mid 2000s and been involved in other corporate Diversity Councils over her career. Because of her openness and honesty, she created settings where people felt comfortable to ask questions and learn about LGBT and other issues they knew little or nothing about. She was elected to the Board of Directors of the Desert Business Association, the Coachella Valley’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce in 2013. She became board president for one year tanking on the charge of bringing more women into the organization. In 2015, Janet was awarded the Spirit of Pride award by Greater Palm Springs Pride for her work fostering diversity, equality and inclusion in and out of the LGBT community. She wants people to accept each other even if they perceive there are differences.
Janet and her wife, Lenore, are life partners and have been together since 1977.
Hank
Plante
Hank Plante is an Emmy and Peabody-winning journalist who was one of the first openly-gay TV reporters in America. He spent 30 years reporting for the CBS TV stations in San Francisco and Los Angeles specializing in covering politics and LGBT issues. Previously he worked as a print journalist, including at The Washington Post. His awards include several local and national Emmys, as well as the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award -- broadcasting's equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize -- as part of CBS 5's "AIDS Lifeline" reporting team. He has been awarded the Pioneer Award at the GLAAD Media Awards, and the James R. Harrison Award from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. He was a named “Reporter of the Year” by the Associated Press.
In addition to being honored as the Community Grand Marshal of the 2012 Palm Springs Pride Parade, Hank’s community service has included work with the Human Rights Campaign, the Lambda Legal Defense Fund, GLAAD, Project Open Hand, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Hank and his husband, artist Roger Groth, have been Palm Springs homeowners since 2002.
Tobi
Sherman
Tobi Sherman’s advocacy began back in the mid-80s with Lesbian Rights for Childbirth, Act-Up, and Registered Domestic Partnership. Under Registered Domestic Partnership protections, He challenged schools and Medical/Dental/Mental Health entities into compliance. Throughout, continuing to challenge Mental Health on changing perspectives in Diversity. Currently, He assists with LGBTQ+ Cultural Competency at Eisenhower Health along with developing a peer support program for the Transgender and HIV communities.
Lawrence Lane
Lawrence Lane co-founded the Joshua Tree Stonewall Remembrance Days in 2015. He is an actor (MFA) and theatrical producer who is best known as one of the original producers of Harvey Fierstein’s “Torch Song Trilogy.” Mr. Lane, who served as Managing Director for The Glines, Inc, produced the play in 1981 with his partner and opened at the Little Theatre, now the Helen Hayes, on June 10, 1982. Mr. Lane won a Tony award as a producer when the production won the 1983 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1983 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play. He was one of the original producers of William B. Hoffman’s play As Is. The play was originally produced by Circle Repertory Company and The Glines at Circle Repertory Theatre. It was moved to Broadway opening at the Lyceum Theatre in 1985. The play won the 1985 Drama desk Award for Outstanding New Play. Mr. Lane was nominated, as a producer, for a Tony award when the production was also nominated for the 1985 Tony Award for Best Play. Mr. Lane produced the 1991 Off-Broadway production of Harvey Fierstein in Robert Patrick’s Haunted Host. Other plays he produced include Joseph Pintauro’s “Wild Blue” and Michelle Morris’ “Carla’s Song”. In 1993 he directed a production of Robert Patrick’s “Meet Marvin” for The Glines. In 1980 and 1981 he produced the First and Second Gay American Arts Festival for the Glines in New York City. In 2018 he is serving as co-organizer for the Joshua Tree Stonewall Remembrance Days, an inclusive LGBTQIAA+ celebration of Gay Pride Day in the upper desert. He continues directing plays including a staged reading, during 2018 Pride Month, of Jane Chambers’ 1980 landmark lesbian play, Last Summer At Bluefish Cove. Mr. Lane produced the original Off-Broadway production in 1980.
Willie
Rhine
Willie is Scottish-born and was forced to leave home at an early age for being gay. Willie spent many nights in the comfort of the building that housed The Scottish Homosexual Rights Group. It was there he found the gift of compassion, solidarity, giving and true friendship. Rhine quickly adopted a new family, his gay peers, and at the age of 16, exercised his voice for Gay rights and was later instrumental in the founding of the first Gay Youth Group in Scotland. In 2011 in Palm Springs California with the help of Safe Schools of the Desert Willie was able to cater the high school prom of his dreams for the local Desert Cities Gay Youth at the Palm Springs Art Museum. Watching over 200 kids enjoy and celebrate who they are erased the memories of the past. Willie, his team, and many volunteers created an amazing Prom that everyone could enjoy freely. He has volunteered his time and donated his construction skills at the Special Care Unit at Desert Regional Medical Center working hands on with HIV patients. Willie Rhine and his loving partner Albert Gonzalez are Members of The Desert Aids Project’s Partners for Life and The Aids Assistance Program’s Jeannette Rockefeller Angel Program and The Center’s Ocotillo Club. Willie co-owns EIGHT4NINE where he has the opportunity to give back to our charities and community organizations such as the Desert Aids Project, Loving All Animals, The LGBT Community Center of the Desert, The Jewish Family Service of The Desert, Aids Assistance Program. ABC Recovery Center and many more.
Rev. Kevin A. Johnson
As a pastor and a business person, the Rev. Kevin A. Johnson (Rev. Kev) has been on the quest for justice and inclusion for almost 40 years. Rev. Kev began his career as an ordained United Methodist pastor in the late 1970s. While serving a 1200-member church in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as associate pastor for youth and education, he decided to reconcile himself as a gay man and came out to a few trusted friends and colleagues. After several months, one person decided to “out” him to others, which led to his dismissal after a brief ecclesiastical struggle. Jobless, yet still ordained, he moved to Chicago in April 1982. This began his 20-year career in various business sales roles. In Chicago, he developed a network of colleagues in business, film, and gay communities. He was an active supporter of the Howard Brown Health Center, Horizons Community Center, Chicago Filmmakers, Human Rights Campaign, and Chicago Professionals of North America (CPNA) – a semi closeted, mostly gay business networking group – which, after much internal prodding, eventually came out of the closet organizationally (in the 80s, business people still got fired summarily for being gay). As an independent producer, he worked in films about social justice. In June 1989, he traveled to the World AIDS Conference in Montreal where he secured the contacts for the PBS television’s “The AIDS Quarterly” with Peter Jennings, to come to Chicago to tell the story of Howard Brown Health Center’s community support and early intervention because of being the site of previous STD research studies.
While working on a proposed documentary “More Light, Less Heat,” about gay Christians, he sent a film crew to get 16mm footage of the March on Washington in 1987, which included the first mass wedding performed in front of the IRS building. Later, he filmed an interview with Harry Brit, the defrocked United Methodist minister who was appointed to the San Francisco supervisor seat vacated by Harvey Milk’s 1979 assassination and served through 1992. In 1994 Rev. Kev traveled to New York to march in the Stone Wall 25th Anniversary Parade. After the 2000 General Conference of the United Methodist Church refused to remove language abusive to lesbian and gay clergy and members, Broadway UMC in Chicago appointed Rev. Kev. to shepherd a process for consideration toward leaving the denomination. After seven-month process, the church voted to remain United Methodist by a margin of one vote. Later, when the pastor of the church, Rev. Greg Dell, was subjected to a church trial and suspended for a year, Rev. Kev served as an informal advisor to the interim pastor. In 2002, Rev. Kev was a member of the organizing group that eventually formed the national Church Within A Church Movement, www.cwac.us, an intentionally inclusive and affirming group of Methodists with a mission “to BE fully inclusive church” now. One missional area of the group was new church starts and church revitalization. Palm Springs’ Bloom in the Desert Ministries was the first new church start of that movement.
For several years following, Rev. Kev served as a national coordinator for the group. He was instrumental in their authorizing Extraordinary Ordination credentials for persons in Methodist traditions who were barred by United Methodist hierarchy from serving their spiritual calling. After 20 years in business, Rev. Kev felt called to return to inclusive, justice-inspired pastoral ministry, so he and his partner, Michael Shear, quit their jobs, sold everything, bought a passenger van, and moved to the Coachella Valley where inclusive liberal Protestant churches were scarce at the time. Rev. Kev co-founded Bloom in the Desert Ministries (Bloom) with his partner-now-husband in July 2002 as a “Progressive, Inclusive, Christian, Methodist” ministry intentionally welcoming and affirming all persons with God’s unconditional love. Bloom was the first Methodist Reconciling Ministry in the Coachella Valley. In 2004, the United Methodist General conference legislated even stronger prohibitions in ministry against “homosexuals.”
This led participants in the Fledgling Bloom church to decide to look elsewhere for denominational affiliation. In 2005, the Bloom in the Desert Ministries participants gathered as the first congregational United Church of Christ (UCC) in Palm Springs. Bloom was the first Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice UCC in the Coachella Valley. For work associated with peacemaking, Rev. Kev was named a Peace Day Award Winner by Veterans for Peace in 2007. He was the leader of the community-based business and faith coalition group to “plant” the eight-sided, 16-language International Peace Pole to the Downtown Village Green in Palm Springs on January 18, 2008. It is the first Peace Pole in the world to display the iconic “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in the Cahuilla language. As an out-gay ordained minister, Rev Kev supported community peace rallies, labor actions, immigration marches, religious discrimination protests, veterans’ honors, marriage equality rallies, and vigils for victims of gun violence and bullying. Since arriving in the desert, he has been a leader in west-valley and mid-valley interfaith clergy and laity associations, which welcomed LGBTQ members. For more than a decade, Rev. Kev has written quarterly “Words of Faith” columns and occasional “Valley Voice” columns for The Desert Sun on topics of justice and inclusion related to religious and political ideals.
Starting in 2010, he led a coalition of local faith leaders though a three-year process with city planning and the council to change the Palm Springs’ zoning ordinance in 2013 to be more accessible throughout the city to smaller congregations and start-ups and in compliance with federal religious fairness protections. He served on the first organizing committee for the Palm Springs Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast. Through Bloom, he provided financial support for the Coachella Valley’s first Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil on the College of the Desert campus, November 20, 2013. Rev. Kev has been the speaker for Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday community gatherings and various political associations on religious perspectives.
Twice he was honored to be the Righteous Gentile reader at local Yom Hashoah Holocaust Memorial Day services. He conceived of and collaborated with Temple Isaiah’s Rabbi David Lazar to host the first Pride Interfaith Welcome Shabbat service on the opening Friday night of 2015 Pride Weekend. This is now an annual public event. He inspired plans for Bloom and Temple Isaiah to host the Shower of Stoles project over Palm Springs Pride weekend 2018, which honor’s the sacrifice made by interfaith clergy defrocked or otherwise denied their calling when religious authorities learn they are LGBTQ. He led Bloom to be the first church in California to endorse the 2016 End of Life Options act ensuring health choices remain for terminal patients. In February 2017, the Kenosha church that fired Rev. Kev invited him and his husband back for a Weekend of Reconciliation. The congregation apologized for their November 1981 action in a formal Sunday service and signed the “Kenosha Declaration” stating their actions and encouraging churches everywhere to apologize and reconcile with clergy they defrocked and fired from their ministries.
Since June 2012, Rev. Kev has been enrolled in a doctoral course of study for executive leadership at San Francisco theological Seminary in pursuit of a Doctor of Ministry degree. As of summer 2018, he has completed course work and is in the process of completing a dissertation project entitled, “Making the Covenant Work: A Web-Based Resource for Welcoming Gay Pastors.”
Barbara and Jerry Keller
Barbara and Jerry Keller have been advocating for equal rights for years. They enthusiastically support Equality California, the LGBT Center, and all pride activities promoted in the Coachella Valley and beyond. They elevate, nurture and contribute to equal rights and social justice both personally and through their restaurants, LULU and Acqua, where they have hosted many LGBT fundraisers, parties and meetings. They will continue to march for the cause as long as they are able and proudly watch as their children and grandchildren do the same. Barbara was the recipient of the Humanitarian Award from EQCA and she and Jerry received the Friends of Pride Award in 2016.
Brad
Fuhr
Brad Fuhr is the owner and e-publisher of Gay Desert Guide LGBT, the top destination for locals and visitors alike for LGBT resources in the Greater Palm Springs area. After a long career in broadcasting, digital media, and publishing, Fuhr launched Gay Desert Guide on Labor Day weekend 2013. He consulted Palm Springs Life and San Diego Magazine, Frontiers magazine, and national broadcast groups. It was that experience that gave him the light-bulb moment for his LGBT-centric business. It was named “Business of the Year” in 2015 and “Business Person of the Year” in 2018 by the Desert Business Association. Brad was recognized by the City of Palm Springs Human Rights Commission with their Community Service Award for “Promoting Universal Human Rights Closer to Home” in February 2018. He is using this award to springboard into starting at G4G (Gay For Good) chapter in Palm Springs. Brad has served as Board Chair for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and helped restart the fledgling PFLAG chapter in Chicago, as well as served on many boards and committees throughout his career.
Betty Berrysmith
Betty has been a L-Fund Board Member since 2013. She created the award-winning Gumbo for the L-Fund’s annual Gala Fundraiser from 2014-2017. Betty has been an active member of the LGBT community in the Coachella Valley since moving to La Quinta with her wife Teri in 2012.
David
Gray
From the time David Gray came out as a gay man in the 80s and joined the Gay Fathers of Boston, he believes the best way to advance equality for all was to be OUT. To that end professionally, he has served as the Fundraising Chair of the Stonewall Book Awards for the American Library Association, Newsletter Editor for SDA Kinship International, and as the first openly gay vestry member of my local Episcopal Parish. Moving to Palm Springs full-time in 2007, He started my own public relations/marketing firm that looked to not only help local LGBT businesses through the Desert Business Association, but also helping various LGBT non-profits. His first client, the Golden Rainbow, has now grown into the vibrant and thriving LGBT Community Center of the Desert. He became involved as a founding member of the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast Coalition and has taken part in many local political campaigns for individuals running on the local and state level for equal justice and equality. In addition, he served as a Trustee and President of the Palm Springs Public Library Board of Trustees and is currently serving as a Commissioner on the Measure J Commission for the City of Palm Springs.
Lucy DeBardelaben
Lucy and Gail have promoted and produced events of interest for women for since 2003. These have included cultural experiences like the Palm Springs Women’s Jazz Festival and social justice endeavors like the Conversation on Race series. They have supported empowering the lesbian community through the formation of Your Women’s Circle, a lesbian business organization. Their goal is to strengthen the lesbian community in Palm Springs so that it becomes an influential partner in the local and national effort to promote and achieve social, economic and political equity in this country.
Gail Christian
Lucy and Gail have promoted and produced events of interest for women since 2003. These have included cultural experiences like the Palm Springs Women’s Jazz Festival and social justice activities like the Conversation on Race series. They have supported empowering the lesbian community through the formation of Your Women’s Circle, a lesbian business organization. Their goal is to strengthen the lesbian community in Palm Springs so that it becomes an influential partner in the local and national effort to promote and achieve social, economic and political equity in this country.
Mike Thompson
Mike Thompson joined the staff of The LGBT Community Center of the Desert as Chief Executive Officer in June 2014 with more than 18 years of nonprofit leadership experience. Prior to coming to Palm Springs, Mike served as the COO and Acting President of GLAAD and the Executive Director of Equality Utah. In addition, Thompson worked with the Gill Foundation and Gill Action to form One Colorado and has worked extensively as a leadership and organizational development consultant. Under Mike’s leadership, The Center has expanded its programs both geographically across the Coachella Valley as well as demographically to better serve the diversity of LGBTQ people living in the desert’s communities. Currently, The Center experiences nearly 70,000 visits annually
David Wallace
David Wallace, author (and co-author) of a dozen nationally published books whose work has been hailed by The New York Times as “inspired,” is a long-time advocate for social justice. He has been the Creative Writing instructor at Palm Springs’ LGBT Center for four years. Among his most popular works is “A City Comes Out - How Celebrities Made Palm Springs a Gay and Lesbian Paradise.” His latest book, a memoir of growing up in his grandmother’s Independence, Missouri, home across the upstairs hall from his uncle, Harry S. Truman (and his Aunt Bess and Margaret), will be published this fall."
Annette LaBarca
In October 1988 Annette LaBarca celebrated the first year National Coming Out Day in the then called San Gabriel Valley. Annette remembers being devastated by the AIDS epidemic, and how it was killing dear friends. It was then she knew she wanted to be not just a lesbian, but a lesbian involved. She served as Treasurer on the LB LGBT Center Board from 1994-1998. For several years she served on the Beneficiary Audit Committee for Aids Walk Long Beach and was involved in Long Beach Pride, assisting in their business affairs. I’ve raised over $15K for LA LGBT Center’s AIDS LifeCycle, twice riding her bicycle from SF to LA. She will be riding again in June 2019. Three years ago Annette became involved in the L-Fund Palm Springs and was very excited to become part of an organization that focused on helping Lesbians having never heard of one before the L-Fund. She joined the L-Fund Board to assist in their getting their 501(c)(3) and setting up their business structure and professional character to help the organization come to light. She is amazed and sometimes overwhelmed with how the organization has grown in just three short years. Albeit most of her work is behind the scenes, it has been extremely rewarding, and has always made her feel proud to be part of the LGBT Community.
Katherine V. Forrest
Katherine V. Forrest’s seventeen works of fiction, in translation worldwide, include the lesbian classics Curious Wine, An Emergence of Green, her nine-volume Kate Delafield mystery series, and Daughters of a Coral Dawn, the first novel in her award-winning lesbian-feminist utopian trilogy. Her numerous awards and honors include five Lambda Literary Awards, the Golden Crown Literary Society’s Trailblazer Award, a Lifetime Achievement from the Publishing Triangle, the Pioneer Award from the Lambda Literary Foundation, and a profile in USA Today. She is president emeritus of the nation’s premier LGBT literary organization, Lambda Literary.
Senior editor at the storied Naiad Press for ten years, editor of hundreds of lesbian novels over a span of more than three decades, she is currently supervising editor at Spinsters Ink and Bella Books.
Brian (Bella) Wanzek (da Ball)
Brian Wanzek, perhaps better known as Bella da Ball, big hair/long leg hostess with the moistest, and social ambassador has volunteered, entertained, and helped raise funds for many organizations, groups and charitable events. Bella has a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars, received Safe Schools Desert Cities Champion for Youth Award for LBGT Youth in the Desert, and in 2015 was named the Greater Palm Springs Pride Spirit of Stonewall Volunteer of the Year. Other awards include being recognized with the Outstanding Community Service Leader award from the Desert Business Association, being named the inaugural Community Sweetheart at the 25th Festival of Light Parade for the City of Palm Springs, receiving the P.S. I Love You award from the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce, as well as being named PrideNation Best Entertainer People’s Choice Award for many years. Additionally, Brian has received the Herb Lazenby Community Service Award from AIDS Assistance Program (AAP) at Evening Under the Stars. In addition to hosting weekly variety and cabaret shows, Brian has hosted the Pride cabaret stage for many years, the Desert AIDS Project’s Everyday Heroes, Queen of the Desert pageant, and AIDS walk. Other hosting duties include Arenas Road Halloween, Modernism Week, Film Festivals, Palm Springs Art Museum events, and Women’s Club functions.
Brian and his partner, Kenneth Hamman, came to the desert in 2000 and love spoiling their dog, Holly.
Paulina Angel
A true born and raised native of the Coachella Valley, Paulina Angel began her activist career 10 years ago as a youth attending College of the Desert, where she helped make change on her campus for LGBTQ students. Her work took her to Sacramento as the first Transgender Student Senator for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges where she worked alongside Gov. Brown’s office on LGBTQ Students Rights and authoring the first Student Resolution for Gender Identity Equality in higher education. Within her two terms, she worked tirelessly on Equity and Diversity issues and composed a letter of recommendation by request of Gov. Brown on Senate Bill 48: FAIR Education Act. Today, she continues to bring change as Executive Director of Trans Community Project, the first Transgender Board Member of Palm Springs Pride, and member of the Human Rights Campaign steering committee and East Coachella Valley Pride. She has also co-authored the first Transgender Studies textbook, coming out in early 2019. She is also a songwriter/singer and owns her own label, PMI Music Group, and is also a freelance journalist.
Dr. Ronni Sanlo
Author, LGBT historian, and playwright Dr. Ronni Sanlo is the Director Emeritus of the UCLA Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center (LGBT) Center and a frequent keynote speaker and consultant on LGBT issues in Higher Education. Now retired, Dr. Sanlo directed the UCLA LGBT Center, was professor and director of the UCLA Masters of Education in Student Affairs. Prior to going to UCLA in 1997, Dr. Sanlo was the director of the LGBT Center at the University of Michigan. In a previous life, Dr. Sanlo was an HIV epidemiologist in Florida from 1987-1994. Ronni earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Florida, and a masters and doctorate in education from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. She developed the initial standards and guidelines for LGBT work with the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) and was founding chair of the Consortium of LGBT Professionals in Higher Education. Ronni is the originator of the award-winning Lavender Graduation, a commencement event that celebrates the lives and achievements of graduating LGBT college students. Ronni continues to research and write with a focus on LGBT history which is the foundation for the award-winning documentary Letter to Anita. While Ronni has many academic publications, her post-retirement books include her memoir The Purple Golf Cart: The Misadventures of a Lesbian Grandma and an historical novel about the last five months of WWII entitled The Soldier, the Avatar, and the Holocaust. Her next projects include Readers’ Theater plays with LGBT themes and an historical novel about the lesbians in Key West. She and her wife, UCLA alumna Dr. Kelly Watson, are LGBT philanthropists and community volunteers, specifically supporting the L-Fund, the LGBT Center of the Desert, and the Well in the Desert. In addition, they are working on a lesbian history of Palm Springs. Ronni and Kelly have been deeply involved in the current Resistance movement, travel and bike ride in interesting places both internationally and domestically, and both play really bad golf. They live in Palm Springs, CA and Sequim, WA. Ronni may be emailed at ronnisanlo@gmail.com
Barbara Carpenter
Barbara Carpenter has been the recipient of Palm Springs Pride Stonewall Advocate of the Year Award 2016, My Sister’s Keeper Award from SAGE Riverside 2016, and the Human Rights Commission Equality Award.2017, She was named one of Valley’s “Most Influential Women” 2017. Her tireless efforts include Co-Chair for the National Center For Lesbian Rights 2017 Garden Party, serving on the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast Committee 2017, Co-Chair of Opera Arts 2018, and Vice Chair’s for Pride’s Outstanding Voices Award Celebration 2018. She was recently awarded the Desert Business Association Outstanding Leadership Service Award 2018.
Barbara’s other accomplishments include Spotlight in The Desert Sun’s Outlook Magazine and KMIR News, Eye on the Desert 2017.
Gary D Soto
Gary Soto is a former Board of Directors President of Equality California, California’s largest LGBT civil rights organization. A past Major Donor and Statewide Sponsor for EQCA, and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Co-Chair of Palm Springs’ National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) Garden Party 2017 and 2018.
Nicholas Snow
Nicholas Snow is a self-described Multimedia Entertainment Activist. His personal mission statement is "expressing my creativity in a way that makes a difference." He came out to family in 1983 at the age of 21 and publicly in the media in about 1984. His achievements include serving on staff for the first National Coming Out Day in 1988 and during the 1990s, he produced and hosted the long-running public access TV show, Tinseltown’s Queer. Snow is currently the producer/host of the two-year old PromoHomo.TV, an expanding online television network devoted to "Connecting the Circuitry of Humanity," and he advocates for health and fights stigma by living openly and powerfully with HIV.
Lisa Middleton
Lisa Middleton was a member of the Palm Springs City Council and is the first transgender person ever elected to any non-judicial office in California. She previously served as a member of the Palm Springs Planning Commission and Chairwoman of the Organized Neighborhoods of Palm Springs (ONE-PS). She currently serves as a member of the Boards of Directors of Neighborhoods USA, Equality California Institute and Desert LGBT Center. She retired after serving 36 years with the State Compensation Insurance Fund of the State of California. At the time of her retirement she was the Senior Vice President of Internal Affairs. Lisa was recognized by Greater Palm Springs Pride with the Spirit of Stonewall Community Service Award in 2015. Previously she served on the board of directors for Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Services in San Francisco, the Lambda LGBT Alumni Association of the University of Southern California, the LGBT Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, and the Pastoral Council of Most Holy Redeemer Church in the Castro. Lisa is a graduate of UCLA and USC.
Lisa and her wife Cheryl were married in July 2013. She is the proud parent of two adult children, both of whom are accomplished educators in Southern California.
.
.
Tommi Rose
In 1976, Tommi Rose started doing drag at the age of 17. It was the bi-centennial 4th of July weekend. She entered the Miss Firecracker contest in Daytona Beach and won. That was the beginning. Her first involvement as an activist was a year later when she joined hundreds of others and marched against Anita Bryant in Miami in 1977 because Ms. Bryant wanted gay teachers out of the schools. Two 2 years later in 1979, Tommi moved to California, was part of the White Night riots in San Francisco, and marched again after the murder of the Mayor and our beloved Harvey Milk. She was involved in all kinds of community action and also a member of the Imperial Court of San Francisco, raising monies for all types of charities. In the early 1980's, the AIDS crisis hit. In the beginning, we didn't have a name for it. All we knew was friends were getting sickneedinf financial help, and were dying. And they needed financial help. So, along with Alexis Miranda, Sissy Spaceout, and Empress Ginger Spice, Tommi held the very first fundraiser at Kimo's on Polk Street. When it finally had a name, AIDS, the fundraising really kicked in to high gear. “We had no idea that we'd still be raising money for our friends' survival 35 years later. But we're still fighting the fight!”
“During all those years, my efforts were focused on the youth. San Francisco was home, so to speak, to so many young homeless kids with nowhere to go. Especially during winter months when it was cold and wet, I turned my flat on Castro Street in to a youth shelter. If a kid needed a place to sleep, they all knew they could ring my doorbell anytime of the day or night and find a warm sofa or a pallet on the floor along with food and a hot shower. I remember one particular Thanksgiving, I woke up and counted a total of 14 kids between the ages of 15 and 22, sleeping on the floors, 2 curled up together under my dining table, and one curled up underneath my grand piano. Fortunately, I purchased a 22-pound turkey. That was one Thanksgiving that had NO leftovers! It was wonderful. Friends often joked that I didn't have a front door, I had a turnstile. During that time, I worked with the Larkin Street Youth Center as well as many other organizations. I drove and cooked for Meals on Wheels, and also went to nursing homes and hospices to entertain those that otherwise couldn't get out. Anything to try and make their days a little more normal.“
In the 1990's, Tommi moved to Los Angeles continuing to work with youth as a youth advocate and counselor with the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. and was a "house parent" for a 13 bed shelter that still exists today. While in L.A., Tomi I again joined the Imperial Court and was eventually crowned empress, then a few years later, became empress for the Royal Court of Santa Monica and continued fundraising. Her biggest achievement there was to establish "Soles For Souls", a program to purchase new school shoes for under privileged children. Happily the program was brought by Tommi to the desert 2 years ago, with the assistance from DESERT AIDS PROJECT when she was "Queen of the Desert".
Her community service is not limited to the LGBTQ community. She offers help to anyone that needs it including as volunteer at the USO and as a driver for SOS, providing rides to our military men and women between Palm Springs and 29 Palms.
After Hurricane Katrina, Tommi offered her services as a SCUBA guide and rescue diver. As a member of the national SCUBA rescue registry, she was contacted and asked to fly to Mobile, Alabama, where numerous houseboats had been ripped from their moorings in the surrounding rivers. Sadly, it was not a rescue mission, but a recovery. The team pulled many deceased from the waters, something you didn't see on the news. As tragic as it was, it gave the surviving family members peace to know their loved ones were properly laid to rest.
Another achievement was being a founding member of the Board of Directors for "Baby's with AIDS". It wasn't until the past couple of decades that insurance companies covered the cost of newborns with HIV/AIDS. Many new parents found themselves with mounting medical bills with no way to pay for service. So, BWA was created. Although only "in business" for 2 1/2 years due to lack of funding, they were able to assist in lobbying insurance companies to change their policies regarding newborns.
Tommi has produced, directed, hosted and performed for a multitude of fundraisers and I'll continue to do so as long as I'm able.
“So you ask what have I done for the community? It's more like what the community has done for me. It's given me a sense of purpose, knowing that I can make just a little bit of difference to hopefully let one more person wake up with hope, to make one-person smile, to give one person the feeling of being able to sleep in a safe place, to know that one person won't go to bed hungry, to know that one person knows that someone else cares about them. It's given me hope for the future.”
.
.
Jeff
Hocker
As a community leader and volunteer, Jeff Hocker is recognized with the 2016 Spirit of Stonewall Community Service Award. Jeff has a passion for helping others filling that role through his tenacity and willingness to make a keen and long-lasting difference in the world.
Before relocating to the desert, Jeff was involved and instrumental in a variety of LGBT organizations in the Bay Area, which became models for non-profits throughout the United States: ACT UP, The Names Project, AIDS Foundation, Shanti Project, PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support), James Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Main Library, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Gay Youth Program, Academy of Friends, Men’s Associated Exchange, Maitri and along with Gilbert Baker, Cleve Jones, and Allen White created Pink Saturday in the Castro District of San Francisco. Jeff is known in the Coachella Valley for his work with the Palm Springs Gay Men’s Chorus, Boo 2 Bullying, Safe Schools of the Desert in conjunction with the Gay/Straight Alliances, LGBT Community Center of the Desert, Desert Business Association, Greater Palm Springs Pride, Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast, and Desert AIDS Project. He has worked on Equality California initiatives, actively participates with the Desert Stonewall Democrats, and has worked on local city council campaigns for Paul Lewin (Campaign Manager), Ginny Foat, Geoff Kors, Chris Mills, and multiple campaigns for former Mayor Steve Pougnet. He thrives on communicating with others, an integral part of his career. Jeff has been in the media his entire life working as a traffic reporter, TV Anchor, and Promotions Director. Currently, Jeff is a member of a variety of committees with visions to build a society whose residents are educated out of poverty and have a passion for the performing arts. For United Way of the Desert, Jeff is on the Community Impact Committee, which makes crucial decisions about which organizations get funding; and, he chairs the events committee. He is on the PS Cares Committee which provides for a safer Palm Springs through signage, cross walks, and bike lanes. Jeff is a mentor for the Arts Institute of Palm Springs High School, giving guidance to youth striving for a career in the event production and communication fields. He has been co-chair for two past Equality California Annual Awards Galas and continues to support its efforts, team captain and participant for Desert AIDS Walks, Gala co-chair for the Opening Night of the Annenberg Theater with Elaine Paige and then for Brian Wilson, supporter of Gilda’s Club Desert Cities, Neuro Vitality Center, Guide Dogs of the Desert, and Cabot’s Museum. He is a member of the Palm Springs and Palm Desert Chambers of Commerce, Desert Business Association, and works closely with the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism bringing in travel writers, media, and film crews to promote this desert oasis.
Originally from Los Angeles, he lived for 30 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been a proud Palm Springs resident since 2001 enjoying the outdoor lifestyle playing golf, tennis, bicycling, and swimming alongside his chocolate lab, Chelsea. Through service and leading by example, empowering people, organizations, and those less fortunate, Jeff has built a career and his life.
Michael Holmes
Best known as owner of Michael Holmes’ Purple Room, the leader of The Michael Holmes Trio, and the creator and star of The Judy Show! Michael is recognized for his generosity in supporting the local community. From entertaining to hosting a wide variety of charity benefits, Michael Holmes makes a positive and lasting impact on Palm Springs.
Holmes, like many Palm Springs residents, has solid Midwestern roots. “I grew up west of Chicago,” he says. “My family owned a restaurant, and I literally grew up in that business. Not surprisingly, I have been in the restaurant business, in one fashion or another, all my life.” Holmes came to California, having already established himself as a worldwide entertainer doing The Judy Show, so when he arrived, it was not surprising that he gained a loyal local following for the show. His first Palm Springs show was at the Rainbow Cactus and moved to perform to consistently sold out audiences at Blame it on Midnight, and finally being recruited to perform at the Purple Room. Not content to just run a successful business, Michael also participates in the local community fulfilling a personal goal to give back. Generous with his time and not shy at the microphone, you can see Michael regularly hosting a wide variety of charity benefits, for diverse charities including the American Cancer Society, the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, The LGBT Center of the Desert, Dezart Productions, the Gay Men’s Chorus, David Green’s Musical Theatre University, Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs LGBTQ Film Festival, and Dine Out For Life. He is a local businessman and community leader with a big heart. One Halloween, Michael Holmes did what lots of gay men do. He got dressed up in drag – specifically, as Bette Davis. Then he went out, camped it up, cracked some jokes and had a really great time. A number of special performances and charity benefits later, the concept of a show was born – Bette and the Boys. From there, he decided to expand his impressions. He looked into a number of potential show concepts before settling on a nostalgic send up of gay icon Judy Garland. It wasn’t long before the restaurateur became a show business sensation, and The Judy Show was born. At round the same time, Michael, long a fan of jazz and the Great American Songbook, decided to create a Jazz Band, performing as himself. He toured with both shows for several years, hitting resort hotspots all over North America and Europe, before deciding to move to Palm Springs.
Palm Springs proved to be just the right answer for Michael Holmes, welcoming him with open arms. He continued to perform the Judy Show, and put together another jazz Trio. By the time he landed at the Purple Room, he was well known to locals and tourists alike. But he still had that desire to have a business. So when he had the opportunity to purchase the Purple Room, and make it his own, he jumped at the chance. Since then, he has added a whole new level of glamour to the desert institution, bringing in top nationally known performers, and establishing a regular core of local entertainers as well. He’s also done what he grew up doing and taken the restaurant and bar to a whole new level. Michael Holmes’ Purple Room ranks among the top Supper Clubs in the country.
Michael Holmes was also recognized as the 2017 Palm Springs Pride Community Grand Marshal.
Jim Suguitan
While on teacher's sabbatical from South Florida Jim I discovered his desert destiny the spring of 1980, the year I met my soulmate, Bill Gordon.. Having been a high school instructor for 12 years while hiding in the proverbial closet - Anita Bryant ranting about gays - he lived a sheltered life; hence his frequents flights out of the state. Jim and Bill Gordon purchased The Bottom Line in 1982 and published until selling it in 2000. Those were tumultuous early years for the gay community. Demonstrations at city halls; picketing Gov. Pete Wilson; the Sonny Bono recall . . . an endless list earmarking the potential and growth of the gay community. One decisive event happened when Bill worked on Deyna Hodges' council campaign - her election to the Palm Springs City Council with Chuck Murawski's marked the genesis of gay political clout. They joined Mayor Sonny Bono, Earl Neel, and Tuck Broich.
Tuck worked with Deyna and Chuck. The gay community found its place at the table - and the rest is history. Because Bill's involvement in local, state and national politics; Jim was active in the Stonewall Democratic Club. Jim has served on the following boards: Desert Business Association; Palm Springs Pride; Gay Tourism Guild; Rainbow Foundation; Desert Press Club; and member of the Human Rights Task Force that was empowered by Palm Springs Mayor Lloyd Maryanov. Our report resulted in the Human Rights Commission and Ordinance.
From 2000 - 2003 they enjoyed their lives together without the pressures of publishing weekly, board and committee meetings; rallies; and the like. He grew tired of doing nothing and in 2003 I started work at the Palm Springs Follies. Mr. Markowitz and Mary Jardin offered the opportunity to be: Purchasing Assistant; HR Assistant; and Receptionist. He would joke, "They pay me for saying 'Fabulous' each time the phone rings." In 2006 he I was awarded the Front Line Employee for the Coachella Valley. In 2014 the Follies closed forever and the excitement and crowds that it brought to downtown for 23 years ended. The Follies must be credited for bringing life to the Plaza Theatre and filling downtown cafes, restaurants and shops. For eleven years Jim was in charge of Follies "mission control" - a dream job.
Bill passed away in 2013. He went to bed and never woke . . . “my life has never been the same.”
Arlene Rosenthal
Arlene was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and got a B.A. in Spanish at U.C.L.A. After graduating in 1966 she worked for the Probation Department as a counselor and then as a bilingual teacher in the L.A. District. The lure of Berkeley and all the social change happening there was too great, so she picked up and left L.A. for life in the Bay Area. She spent several years there teaching school and enjoying all the political fervor, the S.F. Opera House, the Symphony, theater, and all the natural outdoors where one could hike and commune with nature.
She came to the desert in 1973 with her partner, worked as a bilingual teacher until starting her own custom-clothing business. Her spirit of community, something learned as a child, stuck and she found herself involved in social change and working in organizations where she could be a voice for those who were unable to advocate for themselves. As a child her parents taught her the value of community action and interaction and the idea that we all had an obligation to help make things better in the world in which we lived. After years of serving on many boards and raising much money she was asked to sit on the Board of the Well in the Desert. She later became its President. We make sure that people who are in need have a daily hot meal and supplemental food for themselves and their families, along with offering a myriad of other much needed services. Arlene has created events and fundraised for the following organizations: Stroke Recovery Center, Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, Animals Samaritans, Mizell Senior Center.
She has sat on the Boards of Museum Associates Council (MAC) at the Palm Springs Art Museum, for 16 years, Mizell, for 3 years, Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce, for 7 years, Aids Assistance Program, for 3 years, Palm Springs Opera Guild, for 18 years, Well in the Desert, 8 years, and OperaArts, for three years. She created the Mentoring Project that ran for 6 years at Cielo Vista Elementary, on behalf of the then Desert Museum (now the Desert Art Museum), chaired the Palm Springs Athena Awards for 9 years, chaired the Indian Wells Athena Committee for 5 years, ran the Vocal Competition of the Palm Springs Opera Guild for 18 years, and created and produced Opera in the Park for 10. And then, with other opera aficionados, created OperaArts and the Festival of Opera and Art which is now in its fourth year. They have produced well over 16 programs these past 2 and a half years.
The organization was created to provide quality cultural events to the public for free or for affordable prices and concentrates on outreach to children and seniors.
Ginny
Foat
Ginny Foat attended her first National Organization for Women meeting in 1973. What followed was a lifetime commitment working to advance human rights, LGBT rights, women’s rights and social justice and equality for all. Her career includes serving in senior leadership positions for a number of organizations including: Legal Advocates for Women, Caring for Children and Families with AIDS, California National Organization for Women, American Task Force on Homelessness and YWCA of the USA.
She was on the organizing committee for two National Women’s Right to Choose March demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and two March on Washington events for national LGBT civil rights. She has chaired and worked on many boards and commissions including co-chair, Los Angeles County HIV/AIDS Commission, Los Angeles County HIV/AIDS Housing Task Force; Child Welfare League, National Task Force on Children and Families and National Board of Directors, Federal Conference on Women Health and HIV. Current community involvement includes serving as secretary of the Coachella Valley Regional Housing Trust; Vice Chair Coachella Valley Association of Governments (CVAG) Homelessness Committee, member CVAG; Riverside County Transportation Committee; Regional Board, League of California Cities, and Board of Directors of the Friends of the Palm Springs Animal Shelter. Ginny is also credited with a leadership role in the creation of Roy’s Homeless Resource Center, development of Palm Springs Neighborhood Organizations, and the Palm Springs Animal Shelter.
Geoff
Kors
Geoff Kors first moved to Palm Springs in 2000 and was elected to serve a four-year term on the Palm Springs City Council in November 2015. He currently serves on several City Council Subcommittees, including Finance and Budget, Non-motorized Transportation, Measure J, Sustainability, Business Retention, Medical Cannabis, Information Technology, along with the Ethics, Transparency and Government Reform Task Force and Homelessness Task Force.
A graduate of Stanford Law School, Geoff has had a distinguished career working in government, and on government policy and law. He currently serves as Government Policy Director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights where he spearheads work on local, state and federal legislation and government policy. Previously, Geoff served for nine years as Executive Director of Equality California where he led the effort to transform California from a state with almost no legal protections for the LGBT community to the state with the broadest protections in the nation. During that time, Geoff helped pass more than 70 bills, many of which he conceived of and drafted. Geoff’s experience also includes representing local government as a lawyer, working as a senior legislative staffer for a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors/City Council, serving as an Assistant Regional Counsel for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and owning two small businesses including one in Palm Springs. Geoff has been honored for his work by the State of California, the City of San Francisco, the Human Rights Campaign, Los Angeles and Palm Springs Pride, Metropolitan Community Church, and awarded commendations by both the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Justice. Geoff has been an active member of the Palm Springs Community since 2000, serving on the Palm Springs Community PAC, Palm Springs Neighborhood Involvement Committee, Digicom Advisory Board, Sanctuary Palm Springs Advisory Board, and Desert Stonewall Democrats Steering Committee. Geoff is a member of the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce, Desert Business Association, Mizell Senior Center Stars Club, Desert AIDS Project Partners for Life, AIDS Assistance Project Angel, Palm Springs Museum Theater Council, PS Mod Com Preservation Partner, HRC Federal Club, Equality California Capitol Club, and many other community organizations. Geoff also serves on the national board of directors of Freedom to Marry and previously served on the board and as PAC Chair for the SF League of Conservation Voters.
Geoff lives in Palm Springs with his husband, Palm Springs Unified School Board Member James Williamson. Geoff’s father, Murray was also a resident of Palm Springs.
James Williamson
James Williamson has been extremely active in the LGBT community, volunteering for numerous organizations including serving as president of the Desert Stonewall Democrats, the Shanti Project, where he served as an emotional support volunteer to people with end state HIV/AIDS, and as a member of the LGBT advisory committee to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. In 2002, James joined the board of directors of the Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center, where he served on both the executive committee and as the organization’s treasurer. After two terms of service on the API Wellness board, James joined the board of the Horizons LGBT Community Foundation where he served as the organizations board co-chair. In 2009, James joined the board of directors for the San Francisco LGBT Community Center where he serves as co-chair. James’ service to the community includes serving as campaign treasurer for a number of candidates for public office, volunteering on numerous campaigns, and supporting candidates and organizations who believe in full equality and justice.
Robert Moon
Robert Moon has been a resident of Palm Springs since 2001. He was elected to a four‐year term as Mayor of Palm Springs in November 2015. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and did graduate work at George Washington University. He served as an officer in the United States Navy for 22 years, retiring with the rank of Commander. During those 22 years of commissioned service he spent 14+ years at sea, including multiple tours in the Middle East, Persian Gulf, and Mediterranean, as well as most of the Atlantic and Pacific regions. While in the Navy his tours ashore included budget manager for the Vice Chief of Naval Operations for Surface Warfare and as the Deputy Director of Operations and Director of Information Technology for the Office of Naval Research and Development. He worked for a year as a financial analyst at the White House during the first Reagan administration on the staff of the President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, known as The Grace Commission. In the civilian sector Rob spent 17 years as a Section 16 “C” level executive in the field of information technology for large publicly traded corporations including Micros Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCRS); ViewSonic Corporation; LeapFrog Enterprises (NYSE: LF); and K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN). Rob served as on the Palm Springs Measure J Commission from its inception in 2012 until 2015, the first two years as Chairman. He serves as the President of the Palm Springs Desert Roundtable and is on the board of the Palm Springs Art Museum Contemporary Arts Commission. He has severed on the boards of the Palm Springs Sunup Rotary Club; the Palm Springs Opera Guild; Palm Springs Front Runners; and the Vista Las Palmas Neighborhood Organization. As Mayor, Rob currently serves on several City Subcommittees, including Finance & Budget, Walk of Stars, iHub/CVEP, Water Conservation, Library Remodel & Expansion, Sustainability, College of the Desert West Valley Campus, Special Events, Ethics, Transparency and Government Reform, Plaza Racquet Club, Vacant Building and Lot Regulations and Holiday lighting. In addition, Rob serves on the Coachella Valley Association of Governments, (CVAG), Executive and Public Safety committees. He is also the liaison to the Main Street /Uptown Business Association, Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce, Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Center, Riverside County Community Action Commission and the Eastern Riverside County Interoperable Communications Authority.
Rob and his husband and partner of 35 years, Bob Hammack, live in the City’s Vista Las Palmas
neighborhood with their shelter cat of 14 years, Simi. They enjoy cooking, wine collecting, and have traveled extensively.
Ron
Oden
Ron Oden is the first African American and the first openly gay man to hold the office of Mayor of Palm Springs, California. Born on March 21, 1950 in Detroit, Michigan, Oden attended Oakwood College (now University) in Huntsville, Alabama where he received a Bachelor of Arts in History, Sociology and Theology. He continued his studies in Family Life and Counselling at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, earning a Master of Arts Degree in Theology. Oden continued his education at the State University of New York in Albany, completing a Master of Arts Degree in Ethnic Studies. He has pursued post-graduate courses in Marriage, Family and Child Counselling Studies at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California. Oden began his career in community and political involvement in 1990 when he moved to Palm Springs and began teaching as an adjunct Sociology instructor at College of the Desert. Oden also worked at Desert Career College, Chapman University and has served as pastoral care consultant at the Betty Ford Center. Concern about educational and social issues led Oden to enter local politics. In 1995 he was elected to Palm Springs City Council only five years after he arrived in the city. While on the council he advocated for social causes. In 2003, Oden was elected Mayor of Palm Springs, a city of approximately 40,000 residents known primarily as a resort and retirement destination in the Southern California desert. His election was significant because of both his race and his sexual orientation. Oden was the first openly gay African American elected to lead a California city. Although blacks comprise only 3% of the city’s population, the gay and lesbian population, an estimated 30 % of the total, is proportionately one of the largest of any California city. As a City Councilmember and as Mayor Oden worked tirelessly to promote respect for diversity through organizations such as the Palm Springs Human Rights Task Force, the Palm Springs Human Rights Commission, and the Palm Springs branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Oden was noted for his support of community organizations such as United Way of the Desert, Shelter from the Storm, and Coachella Valley Counselling.
Oden, who served as mayor until 2007 brought international recognition to the city of Palm Springs as a top destination resort. During his term the city’s budget doubled as it experienced more growth than in its entire history. In recognition of his success as a humanitarian and civic leader Oden was honored with the 300th golden star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars, in December 2007.
Ron Oden lives in Palm Springs and continues to work in the public sector.
J.R. Roberts
J.R. Roberts, a long-time resident of Palm Springs was elected to a four-year term on the City Council in November 2015. Prior to moving to Palm Springs, Roberts served as Mayor and a member of the Sausalito City Council. Prior to his election, Roberts served on the Palm Springs Planning Commission and was the former Managing Director of the Palm Springs Art Museum’s internationally renowned Architecture and Design Center. He has served as the Chairman of the museum’s Architecture and Design Council and is the former Vice President of the Palm Springs Modern Committee. Roberts is well known in the world of architecture for his preservation efforts, including the City’s famed Edris House, which Roberts extensively renovated and is now designated a Class One Historic Site. Roberts attended UCLA and worked for individual clients before spending 12 years as a partner with Boccardo Roberts Architecture and Design. Roberts currently serves on City Council subcommittees for the Downtown Development Project, Vacation Rentals, and CV Link. He serves as the City’s liaison to the Palm Springs International Airport Commission, the Walk of Stars, the Town & Country Project and historic Plaza Theatre.
Ron deHarte
Ron deHarte is a recognized human rights and diversity champion and currently serves as Chairman of the City of Palm Springs Human Rights Commission. Ron’s long history of involvement in the LGBT community includes a primary focus on supporting LGBT youth and youth related programs. He serves as President of Greater Palm Springs Pride, and is a member of the board of the Consolidated Association of Pride and InterPride, the international association of Pride organizers. Having a strong belief that volunteering is a fun way to make the world a better place, deHarte became involved in the LGBT Pride Movement through San Diego Pride in 2003 as a volunteer in the Children’s Garden. He continues to support LGBT youth by participating in numerous activities including the annual Rainbow Youth Summit, and by creating a platform for youth to participate in civic events like the Equality March for Unity and Pride, and to march in other Pride parades representing Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley.
Ron was instrumental in creating an environment at Palm Springs Pride that empowers Coachella Valley youth. In 2011 he sat with LGBT students planning their annual prom and learned of the challenges they were facing finding a location, organizing, and securing funding. Pride became a fiscal sponsor for the prom and teamed up with Safe Schools to secure the Palm Springs Art Museum as the venue and the prom was a great success. Under Safe Schools guiding hand, the Prom now hosts 500 students in the Valley’s most popular prom.
In 2011, Ron engaged students from Gay-Straight Alliances (GSA) and invited them along with civic leaders to carry a 300’ rainbow flag in the Pride Parade. The students were overwhelmingly received by the community with support and encouragement. What started with a handful of schools participating in 2011 has become a significant feature of today’s Pride Parade in Palm Springs. Today, creating an empowering and life affirming experience, students from just about every school in the Coachella Valley march in the parade representing their GSA. This opportunity is made possible by the partnership Pride has with Safe Schools who works tirelessly advocating for our youth. As founding Chairman of the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast, Ron led the way to adopt youth programs as its beneficiary. Over the last six years, $84,000 has been raised to directly support area GSA and LGBT youth driven activities. Not only does the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast honor the legacy of Harvey Milk, the occasion creates a showcase to recognize hundreds of youth through their participation in the event. Active in the community, deHarte serves on the City of Palm Springs Police Chief’s LGBT advisory committee 2016-2018, Palm Springs Transgender Day of Remembrance committee, and the Palm Springs Transgender Day of Visibility committee.
Ron’s service and commitment to the Palm Springs community was recognized by the Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau on June 12, 2018 when he was presented the Santa Rosa Award in recognition of destination excellence. Other community honors include Safe Schools Desert Cities as the 2018 Champion of Youth, the Human Rights Commission with the 2017 Advocate for Equality Award, and with the Desert Business Association’s 2015 Outstanding Community Service Leader award. He is recognized for his mentorship and support, was the first person to be recognized as the International Grand Marshal (2007), International Friend of the Year (2012), and Grand Marshal (2017) of the Tijuana Pride parade. Locally, Ron can also be seen helping to organize the City of Palm Springs Veterans Day Parade, Cathedral City LGBT Days and the new Palm Springs Community Leadership Council.
Ron and his partner of twenty years, Keith Gran are fathers of two sons and live in the Little Tuscany neighborhood of Palm Springs.
Shann
Carr
Shann Carr is a well-known comedian across the country and a local favorite too, but she's no selfish diva. From serving as a mentor to students at Palm Springs High School and College of the Desert to offering her house to host parties for volunteers at the LGBT Community Center of the Desert and for College of the Desert Gay Straight Alliance youth. Shann participated in Palm Springs' Wedding Celebration Day in LaPlaza in 2008 formally announcing each newly married couple to the city. She's been marrying people since early 2000 and says it is one of the most moving experiences of her entire life. Shann spent this year mentoring a wonderful high school senior, Maygan Zink in the Arts District program at Palm Springs high school and says she got at least as much out of the experience as her mentee kid did. She said, "I loved it!" Shann is known for taking-in strays, both doggie and human versions. Her own boy-dog, Becky was a foster pet gone permanent. Throughout her 30-year comedy career Carr has written, produced, and performed exclusively gay comedy and has always accepted a minimum of 25% pro-bono gigs to keep her life in good balance. For every year since its inception, Shann has volunteered in some capacity with Cinema Diverse. She is known for volunteering and has served on the host Committee for Desert Aids Projects Midsummer Dance Party, the American Cancer Society's first LGBT Dance Relay for Life, and the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast.
Thomi Clinton
Thomi Clinton began working in human rights issues in 1988 and has advocated for full LGBT equality since that time. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Transgender Community Coalitionin Palm Springs, CA which advocates for open access to health care, housing and employment for transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming people in the Coachella Valley. She serves on the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast Committee raising funds for safe schools. She serves on the Cathedral City LGBT Days Committee, the Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigil Committee, and Trans Pride Committee. Thomi sits on Congressman Ruiz's LGBT Outreach Committee and the Riverside Transgender Coalition. Thomi collaborates and works with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Transforming California, Equality California, and the Transgender Law Center. She facilitated transgender sensitivity training for Coachella Valley Police and Sheriffs with Mattie Lynden. She has served on the National Corrections Committee to create the Prison Rape Elimination Act standards to protect LGBT inmates from sexual assault and has worked on numerous reports before Congress on a wide variety of LGBT issues.
Thomi Clinton was nationally recognized by LAMBDA as one of 2015's Trans 100 because of her work within the Inland Empire. She volunteers as a consultant for the Desert AIDS Project, Desert Regional Medical Center, Roy's Desert Resource Center, Desert Best Friends Closet, Diversity Film Festival, and Eisenhower Medical Center. On her birthday in 2015, she was given
the key to the city of Palm Springs to recognize her service to the Valley's residents. In 2016, she received the Palm Springs Human Rights Commission Service of Excellence Award and was named one of 2016's most influential women in the Coachella Valley by the Desert Sun.