SAN FRANCISCO—Minutes after the Honorable Donna Hitchens accepted the Founder's Award here at the 34th Anniversary Celebration, held May 21, the spotlight shifted to National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) clients Desiree 'Dez' Shelton and Sarah Lindstrom. They are the out high school lesbians who successfully challenged their Minnesota school district in January, 2011 so they could walk together as part of the royal court of their school's winter formal.
Generations in time, generations in love. An evening filled with tears of joy and sadness, emotions galore. This was, after all, the night NCLR honored four trailblazers, and others, in the movement for LGBT equality.
Hitchens, the NCLR founder and a retired San Francisco Superior Court judge, was honored for her lifetime commitment to activism on behalf of the LGBT community.
Shelton and Lindstrom were singled out, seemingly spontaneously during NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell's emotional keynote address.
"One of the things I love the most about this organization, and the work we do, is: we really care about, and honor, our history—and we also empower young people," Kendell said in an exclusive interview after the two hour ceremony, held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in downtown San Francisco—with more than 1,700 attending.
"That room showed the full range of who we, NCLR, are to each other and how we rely on each other. This is an inter-generational movement and we need to learn from people who went before us, and we need to empower young people so they can be their own leaders. This night really encapsulated a lot of that energy."
The anniversary celebration also featured three other award winners:
—Voice & Visibility Award, presented to the first-ever openly LGBT country music singer, Chely Wright, and her father, Stan Wright;
—Justice Award, presented to former Belmont University women's soccer coach Lisa Howe; and the
—Spirit Award, which recognized the first-ever openly transgender Division I basketball player, Kye Allums.
"Our anniversary celebration is, always, the most inspirational, meaningful evening of our organizational life," Kendell said. "It's where we bring more supporters and more people who care about the work we do, and who have been benefited by the work we do. The energy, the commitment, the sense of purpose that you feel in that room … I'm higher than a kite for days after the event.
"This year's event was a particularly meaningful evening because, as I started to prepare my remarks, I could see, based on who we were honoring and who was coming, that we were going to have a lot of the parents of the honorees. That theme, people supported by their parents, is really in a new [response], such that a parent's first, immediate reaction is not immediate rejection. Tonight really felt a lot to me like [the evening was] about family and doing it right if you have an LGBT kid, so it felt particularly powerful.
"All [annual] celebrations are special in their own way, so it's hard to compare [events from year to year,] but this definitely felt, for everyone who was here, there was no where else that they wanted to be."
NCLR was founded in 1977 and is a national legal organization devoted to advancing LGBT justice and equality through litigation, public policy, and public education. NCLR has helped more than 5,000 people each year.
"I am so honored to be recognized with Chely and Stan and such incredible clients, who are my true role models," said Hitchens. "Their courage and willingness to stand up for what is right is, and always has been, the real foundation of this organization. I have been lucky to be a part of it from the beginning, and to see NCLR turn 34 is truly amazing."
Howe, formerly of Belmont University in Nashville, was honored for her courage and perseverance to fight for justice and sacrificed to make broad social change for the LGBT community. Howe helped transform the hearts and minds of her community and colleagues, inspiring them to launch an unprecedented public discussion about the place of LGBT people in private Christian colleges and universities, and prompting Belmont to change its non-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation.
"It's a privilege to be recognized with this honor from NCLR, which has provided me with a tremendous amount of guidance and support over the last six months," Howe said in a statement.
"They have literally been at my side, helping me through this process and coaching me through media interviews. One of the most memorable experiences was a conference call I had with them the morning before I gave my first interview. Without saying it directly, the tone of that phone call made me understand how influential I suddenly was, and how many people of all ages in all parts of the country were depending on me to represent the LGBT community. I'm truly grateful for them, as well as my Nashville attorney, Abby Rubenfeld. I am honored to get to work with such an amazingly powerful group of people, and to receive this award."
Allums, who played for the George Washington University women's basketball team this season, was honored for his strength of character, which embodies and invigorates the spirit of the LGBT community.
Allums, ironically, announced days before the celebration that he was retiring and not returning to the team next season.
"I am truly humbled that NCLR honored me with the Spirit Award," Allums said in a statement. "The love, and support from my friends and family, has made my coming out experience an unforgettable one."
