The Stonewall Community Foundation is the largest source of funds for organizations in New York City serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT community).

My own history with Stonewall goes back to 2000, when I submitted the first grant application on behalf of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), a transgender advocacy organization that I co-founded in 1998. Stonewall awarded NYAGRA its first grant nine years ago, conferring a second and then a third grant, the last of these in 2002, and those grants helped establish the basis for the  pioneering transgender advocacy work for which NYAGRA has become known.

Despite this organizational relationship, I was more than a bit surprised — as well as honored — to be informed that I had been chosen to be one of 40 women to be recognized as part of the foundation’s Stonewall Honors 40 event, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots by recognizing the work of 40 women who have been active in the LGBT community:

Dr. Brigitte Alexander

Sandra Benedetto
Stephanie Blackwood
Lauren Blitzer
Jennifer Brown
Karin Buchholz
Annetta Budhu
Yvette Burton
Dorothy Calvani & Dava Weinstein
Connie Cohrt
Lindsay Drucker Mann
Ana Duarte McCarthy
Kim Ford
Maria-Elena Grant
Barbara Glassman
Beth Greenfield
Darra Gordon
Reina Gossett
Natasha Haase
Sarah Holland
Maya Iwata
Ileana Jimenez
RoMa Johnson
Kimberly Kakerbeck
Amy Lesser
Carri Lyon
Honorable Rosie Mendez
Emily Morgan
Mai Nguyen
Kelli O’Donnell
Pauline Park
Oraia Reid
Kate Ryan
Alix Smith
Danielle Sonnenberg
Kimberly Turner
MJ Vineburgh
Sue Wicks

The awards ceremony will be held at the Highline Ballroom (431 W. 16th St. in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village) from 7:30 p.m. to midnight on 3 December 2009.