Pride Talks - Recovering from COVID-19 & Impact of Systemic Racism
The first Pride Talks will include leaders from LGBTQ+ organizations to discuss how the community recovers and moves forward from the COVID-19 pandemic and addresses the impact of systemic racism within and toward its community. It will be a webinar that will include question and answers. It will also be streamed live on social media.
Please RSVP to be able to participate in the Q & A. Information to join via Zoom, will be provided after 6:00 PM.
*ASL and Spanish to English translation will be provided.
MODERATED BY:
Natalie Thompson, Vice President of the Capital Pride Alliance & Board Member of InterPride
Rehana Mohammed, Co-President of The DC Center for the LGBT Community
SPECIAL GUESTS:
CYNDEE CLAY, HIPS:
Cyndee Clay has worked for over 30 years as an advocate for the human rights, safety and health of folks engaged in street economies, especially those working in the sex trade. She believes that decriminalization of sex work and full sex worker rights are critical to the end of sexual exploitation and exploitative sex trafficking. She believes #BlackLivesMatter. She has served as the Executive Director of HIPS (Honoring Individual Power and Strength) for the past 25 years – striving to center the voices of those most affected by criminalization and stigma. She is a graduate of the UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Executive Program at UCLA Anderson School of Management, and was a 2019 Advocate-in-Residence for Global Health Studies as the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.
JUNE CRENSHAW, Wanda Alston Foundation:
June Crenshaw is the Executive Director of the Wanda Alston Foundation. The Wanda Alston Foundation provides 18 months of shelter, case management, connection to medical and mental health care, development of life skills and support with employment and school for LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. Since joining the Wanda Alston Foundation, June has worked to increase awareness around the prevalence of homelessness among LGBTQ youth and the trauma LGBTQ homeless youth experience. She fights for resources to be allocated to programs that create a safe and welcoming environment for LGBTQ youth who are experiencing homelessness. She has worked to stabilize the organization by completing outstanding financial audits, renegotiating contracts, restructuring programs, hiring staff and implementing processes and procedures to improve successful outcomes for the youth the organization serves. She oversees all operations of the homeless shelter, which serves LGBTQ youth between the ages of 18 -24. She has doubled the budget of the organization and after 12 years of operations will be expanding services to a new location.
June is the Chair of the Board of the Rainbow Response Coalition (RRC). RRC was organized in 2007 by a group of activists, organizations and agencies who were concerned about the lack of resources, education, and outreach to victims and survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the LGBTQ communities. She is also a member of the Violence Prevention and Response Team (VPART), which tracks, monitors and responds to Hate Crimes and IPV cases reported to MPD.
June is a Board member and emeritus Chair of Whitman Walker Health (WWH). She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Campaign where she is a co-chair of the National Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) sub-committee.
June is a graduate of the University of Tulsa and is PMP certified.
RUBY JADE CORADO, Executive Director of Casa Ruby & D.C. Humanist-Transgender woman
Ruby was born in San Salvador, El Salvador. She fled a civil war when she was 16 years old. She has lived in Washington, D.C. for the past 35 years, where she has devoted the last 25+ years to advocating for the inclusion of transgender, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming gay, lesbian, and bisexual people in main stream society.
She is a self-made, tireless advocate and leader for social justice, and her hard work has helped gain legal protections in Washington, D.C. She has fought for LGBTQ human rights, transgender liberation, immigration equality, and access to healthcare, and fought against hate crimes/violence and many other disparities and issues facing the communities that she represents.
Ruby is a bilingual inspirational speaker and nationally recognized sensitivity trainer focusing on social justice issues facing transgender, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming people, both in English and Spanish.
SULTAN SHAKIR, SMYAL:
Sultan is the Executive Director of SMYAL (Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders), an organization that works to support and empower lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in the Washington, DC, metro area. Sultan works to expand opportunities for young LGBTQ people through youth empowerment. Prior to joining SMYAL, Sultan worked at the Human Rights Campaign where he served as a director of the DC and Maryland marriage equality campaigns, and in his most recent role, led the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Project, working to make campuses safer and more inclusive of LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Sultan is the son of teachers. He is a graduate of Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University, with an emphasis on double bass performance. His earliest thoughts of community organizing were about sharing his passion for classical music with other young African-American males in Baltimore at a time when as many black males were dropping out of high school as graduating. “I decided it was more important for me to change the world than to be an entertainer,” he said.
Sultan has been honored with the Community Circle Award by Baltimore Black Gay Pride, named Jewel of the Month by the National Black Justice Coalition, and won the DC Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance Distinguished Service Award.
