2017 Honorees

HEROES AWARD RECIPIENTS

Each year, Capital Pride Alliance designates as Heroes those individuals who have furthered the causes important to DC’s LGBTA community. These heroes have brought about positive changes to our lives and our community.

Dee Curry

Dee Curry’s experience as an activist was sparked during the early days of the AIDS pandemic when Act Up shook the nation’s consciousness and highlighted the neglect that had occurred during the Reagan years in combating the disease. As a contributing minority writer for In Step magazine, she witnessed first-hand the startling disparities in care between people of color and others in America.

More About Dee

Dee joined the Ryan White Planning Council and had the pleasure of working with extremely dedicated individuals who wanted to make the Ryan White law succeed. During this time, it became very clear to Dee that very outspoken advocates would have to usher in a new generation of people committed to getting the work done. Dee worked for one of the first AIDS organizations in Washington, D.C., the now defunct HIV/AIDS Coalition. She became the organizer of one of the premier transgender organizations known as Transgenders Against Discrimination and Defamation. Eventually that organization would evolve into Transgender Health Empowerment led by Ms. Earline Budd. Throughout her 62 years, Dee has worked and been affiliated with many organizations, including the D.C. Care Consortium, the D.C. Department of Health, the Administration for HIV/AIDS (currently known as HASTA). Among her mentors have been Dr. Patricia Hawkins, Theodore Kirkland, Thomas Gleaton, and Commander Hank Carde. Her greatest inspiration has been the determination of many national trans leaders, such as Mikal Little, Jessica Xavier, and Valerie Spencer who instilled in her that human rights have no dress code. Dee is currently working at Casa Ruby, the leading organization in the Washington DC area combating LGBTQ youth homelessness. She also promotes a wellness initiative, and hopes to open a wellness center that could be a model for the nation. As a transwomen of color she has never limited herself to only one issue. Instead, she has focused on health care, housing, employment, and building skills among her priorities for the community.

Juan Carlos Loubriel

Juan Carlos Loubriel has contributed a great deal to HIV prevention and care in both Washington, D.C. and in his home of Puerto Rico since 2000. He is currently Director of Community Health and Wellness at Whitman Walker-Health, which is the fastest growing health center providing HIV care in the DC area, and which has historically served the LGBT community.

More About Juan

Juan Carlos oversees prevention and education activities, including both mobile and clinic-based HIV counseling, testing, and education initiatives, PrEP navigation, and WWH’s outreach activities. He also has general oversight of Youth prevention services and Wellness programs and has forged new partnerships with LGBT-oriented businesses and community organizations. Juan Carlos has worked as a health manager and a testing counselor at WWH for several years and volunteered with various organizations to conduct outreach to at-risk adults and youth.

While he was a student in college in Puerto Rico, Juan Carlos took care of his father, who was bisexual and HIV positive. Juan Carlos quickly came face-to-face with stigma; and, he has spent much of his adult life trying to combat it. After his father’s HIV/AIDS diagnosis, there were family members who cut their ties to Juan Carlos and his father, and there were nurses and doctors who, out of fear, refused to provide adequate care. During this difficult period and continuing after his father’s death, Juan Carlos worked for a government program in Puerto Rico that offered HIV/AIDS counseling, testing, and education to LGBT individuals. He then moved to Washington, D.C. and started working at WWH. Juan Carlos is a hero to WWH, Washington, DC, and the LGBT community here, in particular.

Throughout his career, Juan Carlos has lifted spirits and saved lives, bringing countless LGBT HIV positive men and women into care. He has selflessly committed himself to giving back to the LGBT community and broadened access to quality care. Juan Carlos was interviewed by National Public Radio (NPR) on HIV prevention among MSM of color, has appeared on several Spanish-language television and radio interviews, and has been featured in the Washington Blade’s Queery column. He represented WWH at a number of HIV/AIDS-related conferences in New Orleans, San Diego, Atlanta, and elsewhere. Juan Carlos is a health advocate not only for WWH but for D.C.’s LGBT community, as well.

Amy Loudermilk

As a proud D.C. resident, Amy Loudermilk has advocated for some of the most marginalized members of the LGBTQ community for over a decade. She currently serves as the Government Affairs Director at The Trevor Project where she heads the DC office and directs all state and federal advocacy initiatives related to suicide and improving the lives of LGBTQ youth. Last year she spearheaded a coalition to successfully enact the first law in the nation to require suicide prevention training for school personnel that must specifically address the needs of LGBTQ youth.

More About Amy

During Mayor Vincent Gray’s administration, Ms. Loudermilk served as Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs. In addition to advising the Mayor on LGBTQ issues, she spearheaded the creation and delivery of culturally competent training curricula for government agencies and personally trained over 10,000 district employees on LGBTQ employee’s legal protections in the workplace. She was also instrumental in creating new District policy that prohibited health insurance companies from discriminating against transgender individuals in the provision of services, which effectively forced insurance companies to cover all transition-related healthcare services and surgeries.

Ms. Loudermilk previously spent five years at the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence where she led advocacy campaigns on behalf of service providers and victims and survivors of domestic violence in the District of Columbia to secure and protect their rights. She also served on the Mayor’s Sexual Assault Task Force, where she filled a statutorily appointed position to serve and advise as a subject matter expert in LGBTQ sexual assault. For over five years, Ms. Loudermilk also chaired the Board of Directors of the Rainbow Response Coalition, a community-based organization that is dedicated to addressing intimate partner violence in the DMV’s LGBTQ communities. During this time, she trained hundreds of police, probation officers, judges, and service providers regarding best practices and legal protections for LGBTQ victims. In addition to a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Towson University, she also has a Master of Social Work degree with a concentration in Social Change from George Mason University.

Richard Rosendall

Richard J. “Rick” Rosendall dates his gay activism to a wintry day in 1978 when he brought gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny to the campus of Villanova University to debate a resolution opposing discrimination based on sexual orientation. After graduating, he returned home to the DC area and contacted Kameny about becoming involved in local activism. A collaborative bond was formed which lasted until Kameny’s death in 2011. Rick first attended a meeting of the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA, later GLAA) in 1979. Much of the work of equality lay ahead (gay sex was still a felony in the District, for example); GAA was nurturing relationships with District policymakers and officials that laid the foundation for decades of LGBT advances.

More About Rick

Rick served a stint as GAA secretary along with other activities including volunteering at the Gay Men’s Venereal Disease Clinic, which ultimately became Whitman-Walker Health. In 1981 he and two dozen others formed the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW), just as a mysterious new disease that became known as AIDS was hitting major cities. Rick’s varied service to the chorus included three years as director of promotion and publications, including for its first appearance in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in 1986. He resumed regular GLAA involvement in 1988. His vocation as a writer and interest in public policy fit well with GLAA’s emphasis on issues over personalities and partisanship. His analysis, research, and testimony as GLAA president have reflected a commitment to the founding American ideals so fiercely embodied by Kameny decades earlier. This saw him defend adult entertainment as stoutly as he worked for gay families and police reform. Rick combines a vision of equality and community with the perseverance to advance it through coalitions in a shifting landscape amid changing expectations. He is proud to see a new generation of GLAA leaders carry the struggle forward. In recent years he has spoken to student groups on LGBT organizing, including at Cardozo High School where his father attended high school when it was Central High. His political commentary appears biweekly in the Washington Blade.

Melvin Thomas

Melvin Thomas is a founding member of a national LGBTQIA non-profit sports organization called Stonewall Sports, the leagues of which have now expanded to 11 cities and engage the over 7,500 participants across 13 unique offerings from kickball to yoga. Each year Stonewall Sports is able to raise over $100,000 for community-based non-profits across the country. Melvin currently serves on the Stonewall Sports National Board of Directors.

More About Melvin

Melvin learned from his parents, who are first-generation immigrants, the power and need for community organizing and inclusion. Their hard work and dedication inspire his passion to build diverse communities that value each person for who they are and what their perspective brings to the table. Melvin also strongly believes that organized communities have the ability and responsibly to support others, especially those in need.

This commitment extends to his volunteer service with the Hugh O’Brian (HOBY) youth development program. As an alumnus of the program, he has spent the last 10 years facilitating leadership education for high-school students – guiding them to think locally and act globally. He currently leads facilitation teams at HOBY’s World Leadership Congress, which bring together 400+ students from across the globe to engage in community-based leadership development.

Melvin’s dedication to fostering inclusive communities extends to his professional career as well. He is a dedicated human capital and diversity professional, who enjoys collaborating with clients to develop custom solutions to build the workforce of the future. He has eight years of federal workforce and consulting experience, with concentrations in workforce analytics, diversity and talent management, and policy. Melvin has also dedicated his time to setting up and supporting LBGT Pride employee resource groups at three federal agencies.

He is a proud alumnus of the University of Florida and the Catholic University of America. A resident of Mt. Pleasant D.C., he enjoys running and biking but mostly a good conversation with a nice bottle of wine outdoors.

ENGENDERED SPIRIT AWARD

Each year, Capital Trans Pride, of the Capital Pride Alliance, recognizes individuals who are outstanding supporters, advocates, and activists of the transgender Community. These Engendered Spirits have brought about positive changes to our lives and our community.

Dr. Stacey Karpen

Dr. Stacey Karpen is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Washington, DC resident. She attended New York University, and later went on to study clinical mental health counseling at George Washington University, from which she holds both her master’s and doctorate. Dr. Karpen serves as the Senior Manager of Behavioral Health at Whitman-Walker Health.

More About Dr. Karpen

Dr. Karpen works tirelessly and passionately to build a community where transgender and gender expansive people can live authentically. She provides support to children and adults in all stages of gender exploration. Her clients range in age from five years old up through the lifespan. Dr. Karpen embraces a resilience-based framework, encouraging her clients to not only explore the challenges of transition, but also celebrate the joyful moments with authenticity and courage. Dr. Karpen also works with parents, partners, families, and schools.

As both a clinician and researcher, her work focuses on the application of cultural humility in domestic and international settings, specifically with populations affected by HIV/AIDS and transgender children and adults. Dr. Karpen defines cultural humility as a deeply held commitment to lifelong learning and reflection, and the dismantling of power imbalances in medical and mental health settings. She believes that her clients are the experts in their own lives and of their own bodies. In addition to her work in D.C., Dr. Karpen has provided community and clinical HIV/AIDS care in South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda, Morocco, and Ghana.

Dr. Karpen dedicates her time educating the community and healthcare providers on how to provide gender-affirming care. She leads trainings on how to be more inclusive and welcoming to trans and gender expansive people. Examples include defining gender expression vs. identity, introducing gender-affirming language, and consulting on the Human Rights Campaign and Whitman-Walker Health’s joint “Safer Sex for Trans Bodies” guide.

Dr. Karpen has been instrumental in helping Whitman-Walker Health improve its delivery of care to transgender patients. She helped create systems related to navigating the gender affirmation process, including helping create templates for surgical letters and training providers. Dr. Karpen works to ensure the overall experience, from check-in to check-out, for all people at Whitman-Walker is a positive one. Finally, she helped implement new offerings for the trans community through Whitman-Walker’s Peer Support Program.

Hayden Mora

Hayden Mora grew up in a poor, multi-racial community in East Boston, MA. After college, he went on to serve in leadership and executive roles on campaigns, the labor movement, and the LGBTQ movement. He helped elect some great candidates, built the largest political action committee (PAC) in the United States at Service Employees International Union (SEIU), worked alongside workers to organize unions in the South and built a successful, trans-led consulting firm.

More About Hayden

He is guided by the understanding that the people most directly impacted by the issues have the most insights and smartest strategies to solve those issues. In 2016, he worked with a group of trans women of color, undocumented immigrants, youth, and poor folks to found Trans United (TU) and Trans United Fund (TUF). The goal was to bring a bolder brand of advocacy, led by and for trans folks and with the support of allies, to disrupt the disproportionate fear, pain, and violence that folks with the least amount of power experience. Through TUF, Hayden has produced and co-directed a short video, Meet My Child, which features trans youth and parents pushing back against politicians who advance hateful and dangerous anti-trans rhetoric. He has also partnered with local moms and trans youth in Illinois to design and lead the first ever trans-focused independent expenditure in United States history to successfully beat three out of three school board candidates who had been running on a “hate slate” that was affiliated with a multi-million dollar Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group. Hayden lives in Washington, D.C. with his fiancé Georgie, his amazing dog River, and two fabulous and independent cats, Dwight and Moses.

BILL MILES AWARD

For exemplary contributions to Pride in the national capital region.

Jerry Houston

Jerry Houston has spent life in the Mid-Atlantic, growing up in Baltimore before moving to the Washington, DC area. His career spans 20 years as a radio DJ, Digital Program Director and now Director of Client Services for iHeartMedia. He has been a fixture on HOT 99.5 for over 10 years and has been integral in the creation of PRIDE Radio, the first radio station dedicated to serving the gay community. He has volunteered with Capital Pride’s Entertainment Team for nearly 7 years now and has been instrumental in the rise of the Capital Concert Stage to a truly national celebration.

More About Jerry

As an Entertainment Executive Producer for the past four years, he has led his team to create three distinct entertainment experiences for the Pride Festival, the crown jewel of which is our Capitol Concert Stage. A representative from Columbia Records said that, in his 20 years of experience, Capital Pride was the most professional and positive festival experience he has ever had. Because of Jerry’s skill and tireless dedication to the Pride cause, Capital Pride is now one of the most important and significant Pride celebrations in the country.

Jerry has been a representative of the gay community through most of his career with iHeartRadio. As one of the first openly gay DJs on professional radio in the DC area, his work has helped pave the way for a whole host of openly gay radio professionals, both on the air and behind the scenes. After spending time in Baltimore on a Country music station (iHeart’s 93.1 WPOC), he came to DC and HOT 99.5, one of the most highly-rated stations in the region.

Additionally, Jerry was a moving force behind the transformation of PRIDE Radio as we know it today, America’s first LGBTQ radio station. Jerry helped drive the development and production of the station and helped grow it from a small base to become one of iHeartRadio’s top original stations. With thousands of listeners – gay and straight – PRIDE Radio is also on major market terrestrial stations across the country. You can hear Jerry weekdays from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Larry Stansbury Award

Brother Help Thyself (BHT)

For almost 40 years, Brother, Help Thyself (BHT) has been providing grants to non-profit organizations supporting the many needs of the LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS communities in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. In 1978, its first year, BHT gave $3,162.35 to what was then known as the Gay Men’s VD Clinic. That organization grew to become Whitman-Walker Health. In addition, during that first year, BHT gave $1,355.28 to the Gay & Lesbian Switchboard of Washington, D.C. In the 38 years since, BHT has awarded 1,063 grants totaling nearly $3.1 million to 185 non-profits. The list of grantees is a virtual who’s who of local organizations, both past and present that have provided tremendous grassroots service to the LGBTQ community. Those organizations include: the Carl Vogel Center, the DC Rape Crisis Center, Food & Friends, Grandma’s House, the Capital Pride Alliance, Casa Ruby, the DC Center, the Mautner Project, SMYAL, PFLAG, New Ways Ministry, Us Helping Us, and many more.

More About BHT

Just this year, BHT awarded 30 grants of over $75,000. Many first-time applicants received grants in the higher award category, including: Black, Gifted & Whole, Breaking Ground, Mary’s House for Older Adults, and Project Healthy Living.

BHT is comprised of membership from social/benevolent clubs such as Levi/Leather, motorcycle, and bear clubs that pool their money, along with major fundraising events such as Pride at Kings Dominion and generous bequests left to the organization to provide these grants. In a sense, Brother, Help Thyself is a hero that helps form and sustain other heroes serving the needs of the LGBTQ community. Just as BHT strategically provided crucial funding at a critical time to Whitman-Walker in its infancy, that same scenario has played out many times throughout the years.

In its tagline, BHT identifies itself as “Building Our Community One Grant at a Time.” The members feel it important to note that each grant provides vital, groundbreaking help to LGBTQ organizations touching the lives of countless people in our community. Brother, Help Thyself is legendary in both its history and in its keen ability to help new organizations gain a footing and thrive. It is particularly rewarding, and indicative of their groundbreaking work, that this year they are receiving the Larry Stansbury Award because he was BHT’s longtime Executive Director.

The Ally Award

Braden Holtby

Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby has supported several LGBTQ initiatives in respect for equality for all people. In June 2016, Holtby participated in the Capital Pride Parade in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with You Can Play. You Can Play is an organization that is dedicated to ensuring equality, respect, and safety for all athletes, coaches, and fans, without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity. During the NHL’s Hockey is For Everyone Month in February, Holtby served as the Capitals official You Can Play ambassador, acting as a leader in the locker room and in the community working to promote diversity, equality, and inclusion. This season, as a part of Hockey is for Everyone Night, Holtby sported rainbow colored ‘Pride Tape’ on his mask and stick, which were then auctioned off by the Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation. The autographed gear raised more than $7,000, with 100 percent of the proceeds benefitting You Can Play.

More About BHT

Denis Largeron

Photo Credit: Denis Largeron

Denis Largeron (Due-Knee Lar-Ja-Ron) creates custom photography for fabulous people. Specializing in weddings and events, Denis fuses a photo-journalistic style with editorial flair and a passion for enlightening the emotion of the moment. Learn more at www.denislargeron.com.