|
EN LA VIDA
|
|
|
Vicky DiProva remembers
2003-08-01
|
|
This article shared 5671 times since Fri Aug 1, 2003
|
|
It is hard to imagine that such a big personality is gone … I first met Gerardo over 10 years ago in the course of doing volunteer work in the LGBT community. Over the past 2-1/2 years I had the fortune to get to know him closely through our work at Rape Victim Advocates, and the long hours we spent taking numerous road trips to and from Springfield as we did statewide sexual assault coalition work.
Gerardo is and will be terribly missed by his fellow staff and the volunteers in the RVA family. His was a voice of strength and reason through the grind and drama of 24/7 crisis work. No doubt about it, Gerardo contributed to the field of sexual violence services and prevention in significant ways—he was an exceptionally skilled educator and spoke the many languages of our diverse, targeted audience. And as a champion of oppression and privilege training, he implored people to just do the right thing. I admired his ability to expect (and sometimes demand) the best of people long after I would lose energy and give up. But above and beyond, we are going to really miss the little things we came to associate with Gerardo—his welcoming attitude, his love of gadgets, pop Divas and Pikachu, our shopping trips to Ikea and Cost Co, and the chocolate-filled stress drawer.
As a very vocal advocate for the under-represented, Gerardo recently complained to me that he was often frustrated that people would role their eyes or 'tune out' when he'd begin to speak during meetings. He expressed the wish that people would hear the message and not just the messenger. For certain, quite a few meetings around town will be shorter now, but I doubt they'll be as challenging and meaningful.
Vicky DiProva , Executive Director, Rape Victim Advocates |
|
|
|
This article shared 5671 times since Fri Aug 1, 2003
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
|
| | LGBTQ Catholic group mourns the passing of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton 2024-04-05 --From a press release - April 5, 2024. DignityUSA joins members of the Archdiocese of Detroit and millions of people around our country and the world in mourning the death of Detroit Bishop Thomas Gumbleton. Bishop Gumbleton received DignityUSA's Risk Taker/Justice ...
|
| | Ella Matthes, award-winning publisher, editor of Lesbian News Magazine, dies at 81 2024-04-05 --From an ILDKMedia press release - Los Angeles, CA - Ella Matthes, longtime publisher and editor of Lesbian News Magazine, passed away from a heart attack on March 16, 2024 at The Little Company of Mary hospital in Norwalk, California. She was ...
|
| | PASSAGES Dorothy Elizabeth McGroarty 2024-03-14 - Dorothy Elizabeth McGroarty, 82, of The Breakers at Edgewater Beach, and a former resident of Andersonville, passed away Feb. 16 surrounded by her loving family. Born in Dearborn, Michigan, Dorothy was raised on Chicago's South and ...
|
| | PASSAGES Bryan Dean Wilson 2024-03-14 - Bryan Dean Wilson, 64, of Chicago, passed away March 11. Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Bryan graduated from Washington High school in Cedar Rapids before earning his B.S. in Biology from Mount Mercy University, also in ...
|
| | PASSAGES: Former Chicago Commission on Human Relations chair Clarence Wood 2024-03-13 - LGBTQ ally and former Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR) Chair and Commissioner Clarence N. Wood died March 5. He was 83. Wood was born April 14, 1940, in Alabama. While primarily raised in Alabama, Wood ...
|
| | Longtime LGBTQ+-rights activist David Mixner dies at 77 2024-03-12 - On March 11, longtime LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS activist David Mixnerknown for working on Bill Clinton's presidential campaign but then splitting from him over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT)died at age 77, The Advocate reported. ...
|
| | LGBTQ+ Victory Fund remembers co-founder David Mixner 2024-03-12 --From a press release - Today, LGBTQ+ Victory Fund President & CEO Mayor Annise Parker released the following statement on the passing of LGBTQ+ civil rights activist and LGBTQ+ Victory Fund co-founder David Mixner: "Today, we lost David Mixner, a founding ...
|
| | PASSAGES Charles R. Tobin 2024-03-03 - Charles R. Tobin, 81, peacefully passed away on Dec. 23, 2023, in the company of his husband, after living with Lewey body dementia for several years. Charlie was born and raised in the Fernwood neighborhood on ...
|
| | PASSAGES Trailblazing judge and attorney Patricia M. Logue passes away 2024-02-26 - The Honorable Patricia Logue ("Pat" to her friends, Trish" to her family) was a brilliant lawyer, a trailblazing jurist and a hero to the LGBTQ community. Pat's legacy includes numerous landmark cases she litigated over her ...
|
| | Oklahoma non-binary student dies after being assaulted 2024-02-21 - Officials acknowledged there are unresolved questions about a 16-year-old non-binary Oklahoma student who died one day after a fight in a high school bathroom, NBC News noted. Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, ...
|
| | GLAAD remembers Cecilia Gentili, transgender Latina, actress, activist, health care activist, journalist 2024-02-06 --From a press release - (New York, NY - February 6, 2024) GLAAD, the world's largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, is responding to the death of transgender actress and advocate Cecilia Gentili and elevating voices of transgender and political leaders honoring ...
|
| | More information emerges about death on Atlantis gay cruise 2024-02-04 By Lu Calzada - Further details have emerged following the death of a Chicago man on a Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas Atlantis cruise targeted towards gay men. Following a Reddit post by the man's sister which has ...
|
| | PASSAGES Imperial Court's Scott Archer remembered as selfless, devoted 2024-02-04 By Alec Karam - As the old saying goes, we all have an angel on one shoulder, and a devil on the other. Well, Scott Archer was all angel, his best friend Herman Coen believes. "Everybody wanted to talk to Scott, because Scott was Scott," ...
|
| | Broadway star Chita Rivera dies at 91 2024-01-30 - Chita Riveraa Broadway legend with more than seven decades of creditshas died at age 91 after a short illness, People Magazine reported. "It is with immense personal sorrow that I announce the death of the beloved ...
|
| | PASSSAGES Chef Michael Thomas Zito 2024-01-02 - Chef Michael Thomas Zito, 55, ("Chef Bear Italia" and "Big Chef") passed away December 12, 2023, unexpectedly at home in Chicago's Belmont Gardens neighborhood. Born in Kentucky to Pentecostal missionaries from New York, Mike began cooking ...
| |
|
|
|
|