April 9, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 61 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
HONORING THE GAY AND LESBIAN ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE OF WASHINGTON, DC; Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 61
(Extensions of Remarks - April 09, 2019)
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[Extensions of Remarks] [Pages E432-E433] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] HONORING THE GAY AND LESBIAN ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE OF WASHINGTON, DC _____ HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON of the district of columbia in the house of representatives Tuesday, April 9, 2019 Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I have the honor of representing the oldest continuously functioning Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) organization in the United States. Today, I rise to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the 48th anniversary of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C. (GLAA). GLAA is Washington's premier LGBTQ organization. Washingtonians know that GLAA champions the District of Columbia's full and equal rights. It calls for stronger enforcement of D.C.'s comprehensive landmark Human Rights Act of 1977. GLAA helped form and marshall the grassroots coalition of D.C. residents and elected officials that resulted in the enactment of the District of Columbia Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act. D.C. recognized same-sex marriages five years before the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. GLAA advocates on behalf of LGBTQ youth and seniors. It demands the right of equal treatment for transgender individuals by the police and access to culturally competent healthcare. GLAA educates local officeholders and office seekers on LGBTQ issues. It also nurtures and builds coalitions with other constituencies to advance LGBTQ causes and to defend the District's autonomy. At its 48th anniversary reception on April 18, 2019, GLAA will recognize the 2019 Distinguished Service Awards recipients: Center Global, a program of the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community. Matt Corso and Eric Scharf co-founded Center Global in 2012. Under their guidance, Center Global supported nearly 300 asylum-seekers through this nation's immigration processes. The asylees come from nations on the African continent, Eastern Europe, Russia, the former Soviet bloc, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. Center Global follows a unique model. It provides access to healthcare, legal assistance, financial support, and most importantly, a safe LGBTQ peer community that is often unattainable in D.C.-area diasporas. Its program includes case-management services; monthly support dinner and volunteers meetings; community and Capitol Hill education and outreach initiatives; partnerships with the Human Rights Campaign and D.C.-area social support and asylum organizations; and the annual May fundraising reception. Center Global is a volunteer-staffed program, led by its executive committee (Tom Sommers, Chair, and Eric Scharf, Vice Chair) under the D.C. Center's administrative umbrella. Compassion & Choices led the lobbying for the D.C. Death with Dignity Act of 2016, which became law in 2017. Compassion & Choices envisions a society that affirms life and accepts the inevitability of death, embraces expanded options for compassionate dying and empowers people to choose end-of-life care that reflects their values, priorities and beliefs. It is a nationwide organization that works to ensure that healthcare providers honor and [[Page E433]] enable patients' decisions about their care. Compassion & Choices works in communities, state legislatures, Congress, courts and medical settings to educate the public about the importance of documenting end- of-life values and priorities and about the full range of available end-of-life care. It empowers individuals with options, information and advice for guiding their care and engaging with providers. Compassion & Choices advocates for expanded choices, secure and ready access to them and improved medical practice that puts patients first and values quality of life in treatment plans for terminal illness, and it defends existing end-of-life options from efforts to restrict access. Diego Miguel Sanchez, APR is Director of Advocacy, Policy & Partnerships for PFLAG National. Mr. Sanchez was Congressman Barney Frank's Senior Policy Advisor from 2009 until the Congressman's retirement 2013. Diego made history as the first openly transgender senior legislative staffer on Capitol Hill. He testified before Congress in the first transgender discrimination hearing. He became the first openly transgender individual appointed to the Democratic National Committee Platform Committee. Diego was Director of Public Relations and External Affairs at the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts and AIDS Action Council (DC). Previously, he was Director of the TransHealth/LGBT Health Access Project at JRI Health in Boston. He led the nation's only government-funded transgender healthcare program. Diego worked 20 award-winning years in global public relations, marketing, and diversity management globally with Fortune 500 companies: The Coca-Cola Company, Holiday Inn Worldwide, ITT Sheraton and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. He did media relations for Burson-Marsteller/NY, then the world's largest public relations firm. Hispanic Business Magazine included Diego among the 100 Most Powerful Latino/s in Corporate America. He has been recognized as a LGBT Latino Hero, one of the 100 most powerful Latino/s (Poderometro), in the Out 100, and in the Inaugural Trans 100. He was a founding member of the Gender Identity in U.S. Surveillance (GenIUSS) group, and Q Street named him ``Best Congressional Staffer''. Diego earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism with a major in Public Relations from the University of Georgia (UGA), serves on the Journalism Alumni Advisory Board and is a member of G-Club, the University's varsity letterwinners' club. Diego happens to be the only male Bulldog to earn his letter playing on a women's team, UGA's women's tennis team. Diego is a Senior Fellow at UMass Boston's College of Management. I ask the House to join me in honoring the recipients of GLAA's 2019 Distinguished Service Award and celebrating GLAA's 48 years of contributions to the LGBTQ community in the District of Columbia. ____________________