During the 50th anniversary celebration of the Stonewall Riots last year two of the oldest LGBTQ orgs, The International Imperial Court System of the United States, Canada & Mexico established in 1965 & the National LGBTQ Task Force founded in 1973 created the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at the historic Stonewall Inn in NYC. This year’s honorees include Phyllis Lyon, founder of first lesbian organization, Daughters of Billitis in 1955, Sean Sasser, AIDS activist, educator & reality television personality, Lorena Borjas, transgender & immigrant rights activist, Mother of trans Latinx community of Queens, Aimee Stephens whose historic court case paved the way for LGBTQ non-discrimination protections in employment in the recent Supreme Court ruling & Larry Kramer, playwright, author, LGBT & AIDS activist & founder of Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Nicole Murray Ramirez, Queen Mother I of the Americas stated, “Now more than ever it is important for us to remember whose shoulders we stand on. For a community, indeed a civil rights movement, that does not know where it came from doesn’t really know where it is going.” Rea Carey, Executive Director, the National LGBTQ Task Force concluded,
“As we add these names to the Wall of Honor this year, we reflect on how these five people have helped to change the world & improve the lives of LGBTQ people & those with HIV. Each one of them represents the fierceness, the resiliency & the determination to do what is right, to move us all towards freedom & liberation. Against the odds & the forces stacked against them, they provided a beacon for what our community, what our country, is capable of accomplishing.” In 2015 I talked to Larry Kramer who died in May about what he would like to see happen for LGBTQ equality & more in this exclusive audio interview.
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For More Info: thetaskforce.org
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