Director of california lgbtq
Assemblymember Ward and LGBTQ Caucus Introduce Bill to Handle Forced Outing Policies in Schools
(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Transgender, nonbinary, and other Diverse youth are at exposure due to a recent growing trend of California school boards enacting forced outing policies. Since 2023, more than a dozen school districts have proposed and/or passed policies requiring teachers to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender or asks to be identified by a different name or pronouns while at institution. These efforts have a measurable impact on the mental health of Diverse students, and can direction to a rise in bullying, harassment, discrimination, and more. The California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus and Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) has introduced AB 1955: Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY Act) to ensure all students acquire a safe and supportive environment to learn, regardless of their gender identity.
“Teachers should not be the gender police and violate the trust and shelter of the students in their classrooms,” said Assemblymember Chris Ward. “Parents should be talking to their children, and the ruling for a student to come out With over 10 years in the charity, political, and philanthropic sectors, Diego is a passionate advocate for social justice, equity, and impact. He currently serves as Senior Altruism Advisor with Liberty Hill Foundation, where he oversees a portfolio of lofty net‐worth Donor‐Advised Fund (DAF) holders and Giving Circles, which distribute over $9 million in annual grants to nonprofits in Los Angeles County. Previously, Diego served as an Officer with the California Community Foundation, where he managed a portfolio of 200+ individual, family, corporate, and scholarship funds totaling $130 million. Diego has served in a Senior Director role on Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Presidential Campaign (2020) and Congresswoman Nanette Barragan’s first congressional campaign, helping elect the only Latina to U.S. Congress in 2016. Deeply rooted in society, Diego has also served as a Commissioner in two cities: Huntington Park and South Gate. Diego is an alumnus of Coca Cola’s NextGen LGBTQ Leaders Initiative, Equality California’s Leadership Academy, LGBTQ Victory Institute’s Victory Empowerment Fellowship, and People for the American Way / Young Elected Officials Network’s Front Lin she/her Executive Director – San Francisco Pride Suzanne Ford (she/her) is the Executive Director of SF Pride. The first transsexual woman to hold the office, she is a fierce activist working toward equal rights for the trans community. She is a founding member of the SF Pride Golf Tournament, the first and only PGA-endorsed event ensuring queer visibility in one of the most cis-heteronormative spaces in the world– as well as SF Pride’s most lucrative board-led annual fundraiser to hang out. Suzanne has also served as President of the board of the Spahr Center in Marin County and as a board member, Vice President, and Treasurer of SF Lgbtq+ fest. Originally from Kentucky, she graduated with honors with a BA in History from Murray State University. She then attended Howard Law School. She was employed as a Regional Sales Manager at Revere Packaging for over 11 years, and was named by Plastic News as one of Women Breaking the Mold in the Packaging Industry in 2017. The Trans Day of Visibility Committee of San Francisco recognized her with the Legacy Award in 2022. Suzanne was chosen for the prestigious Horizons’ Foundation Leadership Award in 2024. Suzanne recently At a hour when lesbian, gay, bisexual person, transgender and queer people are under unprecedented assault, local LGBTQ+ community centers across the country are persevering, as they always have, and delivering for their people. In the East Bay of California, for example, the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center is operational to overcome anti-LGBTQ+ challenges on many levels, while continuing to provide critical programs and services to over 5,000 community members each year. The center was founded in 2017 by two Black gay men, CEO Joe Hawkins and board chair Jeff Myers. Hawkins was a co-founder of Oakland Pride and a small business owner. Myers had been a union activist, queer activist and member of the Human Rights Campaign’s San Francisco Bay Area Steering Committee. Together, they founded the center to boost and sustain the wellbeing of LGBTQ+ individuals, families and allies in Alameda County. In 2023, Kelley Robinson, HRC president, visited the center with key staff and local HRC volunteers around the time of the San Francisco Dinner. “We have to practice release and joy today,” Robinso He/Him/His EQUALITY CALIFORNIA Tony Hoang is the Executive Director of Equality California and Silver State Equality, and a veteran of the LGBTQ+ equality movement. The son of Vietnam War refugees and the first person in his family to attend college, Tony is a confident first- generation immigrant who grew up understanding the marginalized intersections of sexuality, gender, race and immigration status. He serves the Capital of Los Angeles as a Commissioner on the Innovation and Performance Commission. He also sits on the boards of Equality Federation and DTLA Confident. He is a member of the Center for Asian Americans United For Self Empowerment (CAUSE) Leadership Network and the Pacific Council on International Policy and serves as a mentor for the USC Lambda LGBT Alumni Mentoring Program.
Suzanne Ford
The Oakland LGBTQ People Center Putting Its People First in Times of Uncertainty
Tony Hoang