Beckles Praises Milk at Dem Club Dinner

An East Bay lesbian city council member addressed guests at a recent LGBT Democratic club dinner and talked about changes that have happened across the bay.

Jovanka Beckles, a black Latina lesbian who was re-elected to the Richmond City Council last November, recalled the uphill battle she faced in her quest for public office as she delivered the keynote address at the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club's annual dinner. She also addressed the changes that have come to her city in terms of greater acceptance for LGBT people.

"We can't thank Harvey Milk enough for the sacrifice he made," Beckles said as she took to the podium at the July 16 event, held at a Chinatown restaurant. Milk, the first out gay person to win elective office in California, served less than a year as a San Francisco supervisor before he and then-Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in their City Hall offices in November 1978.

"He empowered us to shift San Francisco politics," Beckles said.

Beckles acknowledged the challenges she faces as Richmond's first out LGBT elected official. The East Bay city has traditionally had conservative leanings.

"We're a working class town of 100,000," she said. "Forty percent Latino, 25 percent black. Seven years ago a young lesbian was gang raped because of who she was."

Beckles also spoke of Richmond-based Chevron Oil Corporation, which opposed her re-election last year and spent heavily to defeat her and other progressives.

"Chevron spent $3 million sending out mailers filled with lies and negativity," she said. "In spite of that, we beat them."

Chevron, she pointed out, recently held a Pride event, a sign of the changing times.

The 39th annual Milk club dinner and Gayla celebrated recent gains but also looked toward the future. Held at the New Asia Restaurant, the mix of LGBT and ally attendees was in a joyously upbeat mood, still basking in the afterglow of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Attendees included gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and gay former Supervisors Bevan Dufty and Harry Britt. Straight allies such as District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim were also in attendance.

Awards were distributed to several people.

"Our 2015 honorees reflect some of the most inspiring leaders," Milk Club Co-Presidents Laura Thomas and Peter Gallotta said in a statement. "They are centering the voices of the most marginalized in our community and are showing how our community is about more than marriage in our fight for justice and equality."

The Hank Wilson Activist Award was shared by writer, activist, and historian Gerard Koskovich and the #My Name Is campaign, which continues to challenge Facebook over its names policy for users of the social media site. The controversy dates back to last year when a number of drag queens and transgender people reported being locked out of their Facebook pages for not using their legal or birth names.

The entire #My Name Is contingent took to the podium, vowing not to be silenced as the audience cheered.

The Bill Kraus HIV/AIDS Activism Award went to Prevention Point, a needle exchange program that is affiliated with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

The Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award went to Taja'a Coalition, a group of mostly transgender activists who are addressing the escalating violence against trans women of color. The coalition was formed after Taja Gabrielle de Jesus, a 36-year-old transgender woman, was found fatally stabbed in the Bayview district in February.

"As humans our lives are important," said coalition spokesperson Dani Castro. "We demand that the violence ends."

The Sylvester Pride in the Arts Award was given to Shine Louise Houston of Pink and White Productions. The company is best known for producing queer, feminist porn and includes transgender models in its films.

Jane Martin, a longtime advocate for fair wages, took home the Howard Wallace Labor Leadership Award. Wallace, who died in 2012, had been instrumental in building bridges between the queer community and the labor movement.

Tim Redmond, former editor of the defunct San Francisco Bay Guardian, was given the Community Ally Award.

The Harry Britt Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. A veteran of the Stonewall riots and a formerly incarcerated black transwoman, Griffin-Gracy, known as Miss Major, currently serves as the executive director of the Transgender Gender/Variant Intersex Justice Project.

"We should not be living in a country where the government throws people under the bus," Griffin-Gracy said as she accepted her award. "We have to hold our hands together. We have to give people the room to be who they are and who they say they are."

She also addressed the violence faced by transgender women.

"We have to be able to go to the store and know that we're going to get home, not hope we're going to get home," she said.

The audience jumped to its feet as Griffin-Gracy explained why the community has survived.

"We're a tough bunch of bitches," she said.

Beckles said it was an honor to attend the event.

"It was incredibly inspirational to be in the company of the awardees," Beckles told the Bay Area Reporter after the dinner. "What they do for the queer community is phenomenal."

Beckles said that she was seated next to Griffin-Gracy during dinner. "I was honored to sit near this woman who lived through the Stonewall riots and has lived a life of service to the community," she said.

Beckles, who also works in the mental health field, recalled a young trans girl she knew in the rough and tumble Richmond Projects. "Her body still looked male," Beckles said. "She had the courage to dress as she felt. I still wonder where and how she is. I hope she's OK. I hope she's alive."

Milk Club Co-Presidents Thomas and Gallotta were pleased with how the evening turned out.

"We had over 250 of our closest friends and allies from San Francisco's progressive community in one room to celebrate with us," said Thomas. "We drew attention to important and urgent issues facing our community and helped elevate voices that are often overlooked by the mainstream LGBT movement."

Gallotta said the location of the event was no accident.

"We hosted our dinner in District 3, which is a battleground district this year in terms of the future of our city," added Gallotta, referring to the supervisor race between appointed Supervisor Julie Christensen and former D3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin. "There is much work to be done to keep District 3 and all of our city affordable and the Harvey Milk Club is dedicated to that fight."