Honorees

Honorees

Dr. Henry Kuharic – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2023

Pioneering HIV physician Dr. Henry Kuharic was at the forefront of the race to understand HIV and care for patients from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. A dedicated internist, Henry volunteered on the first Project HOPE voyage in 1960, which provided medical care in Indonesia. Dr. Kuharic was also heavily involved in efforts to eradicate tuberculosis (TB): he provided training to the Peace Corps and volunteered in their effort to combat TB in Bolivia, and they were able to virtually eliminate the disease in those villages. He has also worked on TB eradication in the Olympic peninsula.

Honorees

Emil Hawk Brandon – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2023

Emil Sparrowhawk Brandon, also known as “Hawk”, has been a member of the Seattle area leather community and Sex Positive Community and a volunteer advocate for over a decade. Hawk has been out and proud as Queer since the late 70’s, and has been actively engaging with the Queer and Leather communities for decades. An educator, he has given his “Transgender 101” workshop, “where people can ask all the un-PC questions,” He has presented in many diverse areas: from the Leather and Sex-Positive community to church.

Honorees

Dyke Community Activists – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2023

Dyke Community Activists was a group of lesbian social justice activists who worked together in Seattle for around 21 years, hosting numerous community events to bring lesbians together to learn about and support progressive political movements, both locally around the globe. The group arose during the late 1980s as part of a women’s response to the first Palestinian Intifada (uprising). Using the name Palestine Panel Project, a mixed group of Jewish and non-Jewish lesbians organized events, displays, and demonstrations to educate people about the roots of the uprising.

Honorees

George Dicks – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2023

George Dicks has been devoted throughout his life to expanding health literacy in the African American and LGBTQIA+ communities. He currently works as Lead Geriatric Mental Health Specialist in Harborview Mental Health and Addiction Services, Geriatric Psychiatry Services. George moved to Seattle in 1978 after a short career in the Civil Service. In his words: “I came here specifically to discover who I might be after a lifetime in the US military as an Army Brat, then a DoD Civilian [Alcohol and Drug Control Officer] at Ft Eustis and Fort Story. I accepted who I was and decided to move to live a …

Honorees

Norma Timbang – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2023

Norma Timbang is known for supporting skill building towards effective working relationships among community activists, organizers, and policy makers. Norma has been instrumental in community campaigns that focus on human rights, LGBTQ+, and immigrant issues, including a current campaign: “Mandatory Reporting is Not Neutral” (MRNN), seeking to transform advocacy practices towards reducing systems harm.

GenPRIDE, Honorees

Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2022

Fredriksen-Goldsen, Ph.D., a professor and Director of the Goldsen Institute at the University of Washington and is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar and activist addressing health inequities across underserved, resilient communities.

Karen is the founder of GenPride, Shanti Seattle, and Rainbow Research Group of the Gerontological Society of America.

Characterized as an international leader in health, aging, and longevity research, Karen is the Principal Investigator of multiple landmark federally funded studies, including Aging with Pride: National Health, Aging, and Sexuality/Gender Study (R01) the first national longitudinal study of LGBTQ+ midlife and older adult health designed to identify health and wellness trajectories.

She …

GenPRIDE, Honorees

Bill Thieleman – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2022

Bill is a founding member and has always brought his cheerful spirit and empathetic heart to their work and community of members of all ages. He has engaged and gently educated younger singing members helping to enlarge the circle of acceptance and appreciation for our history within our chorus. Even now, Bill is involved in working on a Historical Archives project for SMC. 

Bill’s “Gay Life in a Nutshell.” 

Growing up in a middle-class family on Long Island, New York, there was, from a very early age, a sense that my shoes were on the wrong foot. I was quite a sissy …

GenPRIDE, Honorees

Lynda Greene – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2022

Lynda Greene, the Executive Director at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center located in one of the most diverse zip codes in the nation, 98118.

Lynda has been a pioneering, proactive, and powerful ally for the LGBTQ community. The Southeast Seattle Senior Center is celebrating over 60 years of providing services, activities, and support to promote self-sufficient and fulfilling lives for aging adults in our multi-cultural community.

As the Executive Director, Lynda is responsible for the development and implementation of the annual and long-term fundraising and strategic plan, program planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, budgeting and financial monitoring, management of people and volunteers, oversight …

GenPRIDE, Honorees

Domenico ‘Nic’ Minotti – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2022

Domenico ‘Nic’ Minotti is a longtime supporter of Gay City and is in his eleventh year as a member of the Board of Directors of Gay City.   With more than a decade of service on our Board and as a volunteer, Domenico has provided endless support to Gay City. Whether hosting dinners at his home with homemade Italian meals or offering his expertise in designing health services, Domenico has been an incredible asset to the organization and an influential leader in our communities. 

With Gay City he has served as secretary, chair of the community connections committee and on task forces to review …

GenPRIDE, Honorees

Joel Aguirre – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2022

Joel’s role as the PrEP Navigator is to help members of the Latino Community to access available health services with an approach to people at high risk of getting HIV. Additionally, He is the host of the radio program “Mucho Gusto” transmitted every Sunday at 2 pm on 99.3 FM. Joel works at EH because he believes that involving yourself in the struggle is the key to create a socially just world where everyone has the same opportunities. Joel was nominated for this honor by Entre Hermanos because of his widespread recognition in the Latino LGBTQ+ community since the 90’s, and for being …

GenPRIDE, Honorees

Aaliyah Messiah – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2022

She is a Community Leader, a trailblazer, and an advocate for both the African American community and the LGBTQIA+ community. As a fierce representation of the LGBTQIA+ community, she and her partner maintain the last standing African American Book Store (LEM’s) for more than 20 Years. For 31 + years, she has worked at POCAAN, providing services for people on the margins, including those affected by and with HIV/AIDS. Currently, she manages POCAAN’S SAGE Senior Medical Mobile Services program, providing services to senior citizens at Senior Centers across King County with mobile Health Services designed for those with barriers to traditional Medical Services. …

GenPRIDE, Honorees

Arnaldo Inoncentes – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2022

Arnaldo Inocentes, Ambassador for Pride ASIA. Arnaldo is a pillar within our community. As an ambassador with Pride ASIA, his history spans decades of advocacy and leadership for the LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities.  

Arnaldo started as a soloist with the Seattle Men’s Chorus (SMC) and has performed with SMC in some of the major concert halls in the US, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia.

In 1995, Arnaldo started a group called Cabaret Q where the “drag chanteuse” persona began.
In 1999, Arnaldo began his solo cabaret shows in Seattle’s Capitol Hill and has since performed his one-person cabaret in Portland, Las Vegas, …

GenPRIDE, Honorees

Martha Zuniga – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2022

Martha Zuniga,

the Deputy Director of Entre Hermanos. She has worked there for more than 10 years, first as a volunteer, then as a Medical Case Manager, and Prevention & Care Program Manager. Her main goal at Entre Hermanos, and in her life, is to support, educate, and advocate for the people affected by HIV, especially those from minority communities. Martha was chosen by Entre Hermanos for her role as one of the founders of the organization. Like Joel, she has been in the community and part of Entre Hermanos since the beginning and is fondly recognized by all.   

About the nominating organization:

GenPRIDE, Honorees

Malie Tiare Chanel – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2022

Malie Tiare Chanel, who was chosen by Utopia. Born in Fagatogo, American Samoa, Malie was raised in Saleufi, Apia & Seattle. Her passion stems from the cultural upbringing in her village setting, as well as values instilled in her by her grandparents. There were always village events that required participation or contributions. She was taught about sharing with her neighbors, inviting passersby for meals, or helping distribute food to families in her village surroundings during any environmental or health disasters. It became a natural thing for her to do back home. At a young age, she became accustomed to giving as well as …

GenPRIDE, Honorees

Dr. Peter Shalit – Pillars of Pride Honoree 2022

Dr. Shalit was born in New York City and raised in New Jersey and Massachusetts. He went to college at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, then moved to Seattle where he obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Washington in 1981. Realizing in his mid-twenties that he wanted to be a physician, he enrolled in the University of Washington Medical School, from which he graduated in 1985. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington in 1989.  His involvement in HIV care started in the early 1980s while still in medical school. 

In 1990 Dr. Shalit …

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