My Attic Youth Center Leadership Award Acceptance Remarks

OK, so this in my last post on this event (smile). There was a very brief piece on WHYY FM Radio where my HIV prevention work was quoted. That clip can be found here.


As usual in my long winded nature I went over the time that was allotted to me for my remarks, but I felt it necessary to say these things while I had this platform.

Saturday November 15, 2008- Philadelphia PA
Attic Youth Center 15th Anniversary Crystal Gala

First, I want to thank The Attic for acknowledging my work with their leadership award this evening. The Attic is an important institution in our community and they have helped in many ways with the work I have done here in Philadelphia.

Being a leader and standing up for the things you believe in is an important asset to have in a society that often challenges who we are and in some cases our civil rights as LGBT people in America. I am immensely grateful for the opportunities that have been provided for me to be part of the leadership structure here in Philadelphia and the warm reception that I have received as a “transplant” to Philadelphia in the words of one of my community elders and mentors, Tyrone Smith.

For those of you who know me and know how long winded I can be, I won’t disappoint you tonight, but will do my best not to be so long that I’ll have to be ushered off the stage before the conclusion of my remarks. There are a few things I want to share this evening, while I have this soapbox:

1. It would be wonderful to think that we are living in a post-racial society because America has had the courage to elect Barack Obama as its first African American President. However, the reality is that we have more work to do in LGBT communities around issues of race and class among others. Unfortunately, the current gay marriage debate has once again bought some of these challenges in our communities to light. I am an optimist and believe that we have the capacity in our communities to have real conversations about how we are supporting all issues that impact members of LGBT communities whether it be issues related to HIV, gender identity protections, poverty, affirmative action, gay marriage, etc. In my short time in Philadelphia I feel we have made progress in this area and I am looking forward to us working collectively together to making Philadelphia a model community for inclusive activism.

2. Second, I want to send a call for action to all of you here tonight. Let us understand the goldmine we have in organizations that focus on developing LGBT youth in this community such as The Attic, COLOURS, GALAEI and others. If you were coming out 16 years ago, these organizations would not have been here for you and if we don’t continue to do our part to support these organizations with our presence, talents and money, they may not be here to serve our communities in the future. This isn’t to say that any organization is financially unstable, but to say that we know that given the current conditions in our economy, that the government has tightened its purse strings and programs serving sexual minorities will likely not be at the top of their list of programs to save.

3. Lastly, I want to say to the young people in the audience and “young” can be defined any way you’d like. I know sometimes it can be challenging to be who you are at home, in school, at work on the street and in any other environment at times. But know that your life is valuable and that you are a precious work of art designed by a higher power. I hope you will take the time to talk to some of your elders to learn from them what life was like and has been like as a sexual minority and likewise allow them to learn from you as a young person what life is like. Indeed if there were no elders to blaze the civil rights trails for us there would be no Attic, there would be no gayborhood , no LGBT community center and some of the other rites of passage we have obtained over the years. On the flipside, if we don’t invest in our young people, who are current and future leaders, we have the potential to lose the ground we have gained.

I’d like to thank The Attic for this award. I would also like to thank Georgeo Bosco, who is here in the audience, for his unwavering support and commitment to helping me whenever I asked him over the past several years. I’d also like to thank the countless numbers of you in the audience who I have worked with over the years. I realize that my efforts are only a small part of a larger mosaic of efforts put forth by you all to make Philadelphia a better place for its LGBT citizens.

In closing, I’d like to share my vision for 2009: Let’s build an unprecedented, inter-generational, multi-racial, multi-gendered, multi-issued LGBT rights movement. This task starts with us and ends with us. Earlier this year, Grammy award winning music artist Alicia Keys said in her acceptance speech that we need to remove the word “can’t” from our vocabulary. I agree with her and I also believe in the words of president-elect Barack Obama, that “yes we can” form an unprecedented LGBT civil rights movement, so let’s make it happen!