Freedom to Marry, Inc. Board of Directors
Barbara Cox | Chair
Barbara Cox began teaching at California Western School of Law in 1987, after four years with a joint appointment in the Law School and the Women's Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at California Western from July 1997 through December 2001.
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John Buehrens | Vice-Chair
Rev. John Buehrens has been a leading religious spokesperson for sexual justice and civil rights. He served as President of the Unitarian Universalist Association from 1993-2001. John was a co-author of the "Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing," a speaker at the Millennium March for Equality, and a co-founder of Progressive Religious Partners. He currently serves as Minister of the First Parish in Needham, MA. John has been married since 1972 to the Rev. Gwen Langdoc Buehrens, a priest in the Episcopal Church.
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Brondi Borer | Treasurer
Since 1997, Brondi Borer has served as an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan College where she has taught Family Law and Public Speaking in the Critical Thinking Department. She is a trustee of The Point Foundation and serves as co-chair of the Founders Council of UCLA Law School's Williams Institute. Brondi also serves on the Family Law Advisory Board for Cardozo Law School. Brondi is married to Dr. Jeffrey Borer. They have two children, Justine and Jon.
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Jennifer Gerarda Brown | Secretary
Jennifer Gerarda Brown is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Center on Dispute Resolution at Quinnipiac University School of Law, and the Charles Mechem Senior Research Scholar and Director of ADR Programs at Yale Law School. She is co-author of "Straightforward: How to Mobilize Heterosexual Support for Gay Rights" (with Ian Ayres).
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Ignacio Castuera
Rev. Dr. Castuera currently serves at Trinity United Methodist Church in Pomona, CA and also as the first National Chaplain for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Beyond his professional duties, Ignacio is the proud father of three daughters and one son, ranging in age from 11 to 32, and loves to read, sing, and play tennis.
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Christine Chavez
Christine Chavez has a made a lifetime commitment to civil rights, the labor movement, and community organizing. She was born in the City of Delano, in the heart of California’s Central Valley where she was surrounded by the farm worker movement. Today, Christine works for the United States Department of Agriculture. She serves as the Farmworker Coordinator. Prior to that she served as the United Farm Workers’ political director where she raised public awareness to protect the civil rights of farm workers and the larger immigrant community.
Tahlib Disney-Britton
Tahlib Disney-Britton most recently was the Program Director of the Voices of Equality Program for Freedom to Marry. In that capacity he helped win the endorsement of the freedom to marry by the US Conference of Mayors and helped create the first ever workshop on marriage equality at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
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Helio Fred Garcia
Fred Garcia has 28 years of experience counseling securities firms, banks, insurance companies, specialized financial and professional service firms, corporations, not-for-profits, and governments. He has particular expertise in crisis management, corporate litigation support, struggles for corporate control, international financial transactions, securities offerings, corporate governance, and business ethics.
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Otho Kerr
Otho Kerr is a Partner and the Chief Operating Officer of EKO Asset Management Partners. Prior to joining EKO, Otho was an Executive Director at Oppenheimer Asset Management. He has worked in the investment banking and asset management industries for over twenty years, having begun with Goldman Sachs & Co., where he worked in the Investment Banking Division.
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Jordan Roth
Jordan Roth joined Jujamcyn Theaters in 2005 and assumed the role of President in September 2009. He produced A CATERED AFFAIR (Winner Best Musical - Drama League, 12 Drama Desk nominations), the Broadway revival of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW (Best Musical Revival - Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations), THE DONKEY SHOW, which ran 6 years off-Broadway with several international productions and THE KARAOKE SHOW. Jordan created Givenik.com, where theatergoers can purchase discounted tickets and give 5% of their ticket price to the charity of their choice. He serves on the boards of The Broadway League, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, The Times Square Alliance and Freedom to Marry. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with degrees in philosophy and theater and is pursuing an MBA at Columbia University. He was named one of Crain's 40 under 40 "Rising Stars."
Frank Selvaggi
Frank Selvaggi is a CPA and Founding Partner at Altman, Greenfield & Selvaggi, LLP, the New York City and Los Angeles accounting firm he co-founded in 1986, which specializes in business management for the entertainment industry. Selvaggi and his firm work with some of the top talent within the entertainment industry.
Cherry Spencer-Stark
Cherry Spencer-Stark is a grandma, nurse, and long-time political activist. Currently president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, Cherry has also served as founding co-chair of Georgia Equality (the political and advocacy voice of Georgia's LGBT citizens and their allies), treasurer of the Georgia Nurses Association, board member at AIDS Treatment Initiatives, and one of the first women members of the Marietta Rotary Club.
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Tim Sweeney
Tim Sweeney has been a leader in lesbian and gay, HIV and healthcare reform activism for more than twenty-five years. He currently serves as the President of the Gill Foundation in Denver. Tim's work there focuses on funding programs in the gay and lesbian community, including major support for organizations implementing a California law that safeguards the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.
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Sam Thoron
Sam Thoron has been actively involved in PFLAG, Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, since 1990, recently serving as National Board Chair. He also sits on the Board of Directors of Marriage Equality USA. Sam and his wife Julia have been married for over 45 years, live in San Francisco where they raised their two sons and daughter, and are now the proud grandparents of five.
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Barbara Cox
Barbara Cox began teaching at California Western School of Law in 1987, after four years with a joint appointment in the Law School and the Women's Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at California Western from July 1997 through December 2001. She is the past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Gay and Lesbian Legal Issues, is Chair of the A.A.L.S. Section on Women in Legal Education, and served on an AALS taskforce on the problems of preventing sexual orientation discrimination in religiously-affiliated law schools. From 1984-1987, she was co-chair of the Madison, WI, Taskforce on Alternative family rights which drafted the city's domestic partnership ordinance (one of the first in the nation), and she helped obtain domestic partner health insurance benefits at CWSL. She has authored briefs for national gay rights organizations on family law issues.
Barb has published numerous articles or book chapters on various issues concerning marriages of same-sex couples and questions of interstate recognition by state courts, and has spoken on the topic across the country. She edited a book manuscript for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, analyzing choice-of-law issues for all fifty states concerning recognition of marriages by same-sex couples. She was a member of the San Diego steering committee for the No on Knight/Proposition 22 campaign.
Barb has been out as a lesbian since 1976. On July 18, 2003, Barb and her partner of over twelve years were married at the Metropolitan Community Church in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
John Buehrens
Born in 1947 and raised largely in the American Midwest, John Buehrens was a high school exchange student in Milan, Italy, completing secondary school at a Jesuit liceo classico. He studied the history and literature of the Renaissance and Reformation at Harvard, earning his B.A. summa cum laude in 1968. He graduated from Harvard Divinity School with the M.Div. degree in theology, magna cum laude, in 1973.
He has been married since June of 1972 to Gwen Langdoc Buehrens, a graduate of Yale Divinity School. She was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church three days after they were married, one of the pioneers among ordained women in her denomination. She has been a priest since 1985, serving parishes in Texas, New York, and Massachusetts, as an officer of the General Convention, as a clergy leader, and as a trustee of the international humanitarian arm of her church, Episcopal Relief and Development. They are the parents of two young adult daughters.
For twenty years Buehrens served as a Unitarian Universalist parish minister in Knoxville, TN (1973—81), Dallas, TX (1981 - 87), and New York City (1987 - 93), during which time he was an active advocate for the homeless and mentally ill, for civil liberties, for poor communities, for interfaith cooperation, and for issues of sexual justice.
Buehrens is co-author, with Forrest Church of A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism (Beacon, 1989, 1998), translated into Spanish as La Fe Que Hemos Escogido. His own most recent book is Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals (Beacon, 2003).
Cited as "scholar, organizer, but above all, pastor," Buehrens was awarded an honorary doctorate in theology in 1990 by the Starr King School for the Ministry and, in 1995, the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Meadville/Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago, and in 2000 another honorary doctorate in theology from the Federated Protestant Theological Faculty in Kolosvar, Romania.
From 1993 to 2001 he served as the President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. In that capacity he was the principal spokesperson for the denomination and was responsible to its Board of Trustees for executive leadership of its programs, including Beacon Press. He was the only non-gay religious leader invited to address the Millenium March for Equality in Washington, DC, in 2000.
Buehrens has served in the leadership of the National Parenting Association, the Foundation for Individual Responsibility and Social Trust (FIRST), the International Association for Religious Freedom, the Progressive Religious Partnership, the Association of Theological Schools in the US and Canada, the World Conference on Religion and Peace, and the Religious Institute for Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing.
He has taught history and theology at Andover Newton Theological School and has been Visiting Professor of Ministry at Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, CA where he has also served on the Board of Trustees.
In 2002 he became Minister of the First Parish in Needham, MA, founded in 17ll. He currently also serves as President of the Needham Clergy Association, as President of the Mass Bay Chapter of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association, and as Senior Advisor to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.
QUOTE:
"But why on earth would we, as a clergy couple, want to deny any loving couple the chance publicly to enroll in the great school for spiritual growth known as marriage? Why would we deny them our support and blessing? Because same-sex relationships somehow challenge "the sanctity of traditional marriage," as some conservatives claim? How insecure! How immature!"
RESOURCES:
What is Marriage For? — A marriage sermon by Rev. John Buehrens, reprinted in Quest, a monthly journal distributed by the Church of the Larger Fellowship (UUA).
Brondi Borer
After graduating from Cardozo Law School in New York City, Brondi Borer opened a family law and mediation practice. The practice was focused on gay family law issues such as donor insemination agreements, child support and co-parenting agreements, domestic partnership and dissolution agreements, and second parent adoptions. She represented many gay and non-gay clients in litigated and mediated divorce actions. Since 1997, she has served as an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan College where she has taught Family Law and Public Speaking in the Critical Thinking Department.
For six years (2001-2007), Brondi decided to branch out into another area of law. She became the Vice President of The Entertainment Software Rating Board ("ESRB"), the self regulatory body for the videogame industry. Throughout her tenure at the ESRB, Brondi remained dedicated to LGBT civil rights issues. She is a trustee of The Point Foundation and serves as co-chair of the Founders Council of UCLA Law School's Williams Institute, a think tank dedicated to the field of sexual orientation law and public policy. She supports The Matthew Shephard Foundation, Lambda Legal, Freedom to Marry, the Progressive Patriots Fund, and Gay USA (TV show) by hosting, chairing, or co-chairing fundraising and educational events. Brondi serves on the Family Law Advisory Board for Cardozo Law School.
Brondi is married to Dr. Jeffrey Borer. They have two children, Justine and Jon. Justine is starting law school in the fall of 2007 and Jon is a financial analyst in New York City. She believes that it is critical for non-gay individuals to reach out to gay and non-gay members of the community to explain Freedom to Marry's work.
Jennifer Gerarda Brown
Jennifer Gerarda Brown is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Center on Dispute Resolution at Quinnipiac University School of Law, and the Charles Mechem Senior Research Scholar and Director of ADR Programs at Yale Law School.
She has organized two symposia on marriage for same sex couples: the symposium in 1996 was one of the first to examine issues of extraterritorial recognition; another in 2004 focused on public policy debates in Connecticut. Both symposia have been published in the Quinnipiac Law Review. She has written extensively on sexual orientation and the law, including three articles on marriage (her 1995 article estimated a $6 billion boost in tourism-related revenue for the first state that celebrates marriage for same-sex couples).
She is co-author of "Straightforward: How to Mobilize Heterosexual Support for Gay Rights" (with Ian Ayres).
Professor Brown holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College (A.B. 1982) and the University of Illinois College of Law (J.D. 1985). She has taught at the University of Chicago, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO)-Cardozo Law Institute, University of Iowa, Santa Clara University, Emory University, University of Illinois, and Yale. In Spring 2006 she will be a visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Her areas of expertise include alternative dispute resolution, economic analysis of sexuality and gender in the law, feminist jurisprudence, and lawyers' professional responsibility.
Ignacio Castuera
Rev. Dr. Castuera currently serves at Trinity United Methodist Church in Pomona, CA and also as the first National Chaplain for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. He is a graduate of the School of Theology at Claremont, where he studied and wrote about the problems of violence and the patriarchal worship of a mother goddess in Mexican culture. After completing his education, Ignacio served at churches in Mexico, as well as in Hawaii and California.
He was also the first Mexican-American district superintendent of the United Methodist Church in the Los Angeles District and went on to become the pastor of Hollywood United Methodist Church. Over his 11 years at Hollywood UMC he transformed the church into a center of the growing movement aimed at creating a positive religious response to the AIDS pandemic. Gigantic red ribbons adorn the church's tower as a reminder to all of the congregations' commitment.
An accomplished preacher and author, Ignacio edited a collection of sermons gleaned from those given by various pastors from several denominations on the Sunday after the infamous Rodney King riots. The book, Dreams on Fire: Embers of Hope: From the Pulpits of Los Angeles After the Riots, became one of the top 10 religious books of 1992. In November 2004, he served as the Jameson Jones Preacher in the Prophetic Tradition at the Iliff School of Theology. Dr. Castuera was the guest preacher at historic Riverside Church of New York on Pentecost Sunday 2004.
Beyond his professional duties, Ignacio is the proud father of three daughters and one son, ranging in age from 11 to 32, and loves to read, sing, and play tennis.
Debate sobre matrimonios homosexuales
Al Punto
June 15, 2008
En el programa Al Punto de Univisión, el Rev. Dr. Ignacio Castuera, miembro del Comité Timón de Freedom to Marry, participa en un debate conducido por el reconocido periodista Jorge Ramos acerca de la igualdad en el matrimonio desde una perspectiva religiosa, tomando en cuenta los derechos legales iguales que vienen con el matrimonio legal.
Christine Chavez
Christine Chavez has a made a lifetime commitment to civil rights, the labor movement, and community organizing. She was born in the City of Delano, in the heart of California's Central Valley where she was surrounded by the farm worker movement. Today, Christine works for the United States Department of Agriculture. She serves as the Farmworker Coordinator. Prior to that she served as the United Farm Workers' political director where she raised public awareness to protect the civil rights of farm workers and the larger immigrant community.
Christine once heard her grandfather say "we don't need perfect political systems, we need perfect participation." Taking it to heart she has come to master the art of modern day campaigning and community organizing. Christine has helped elect numerous candidates to high office from the current Mayor of Los Angeles to the California Assembly Speaker and she is no stranger to presidential campaigns. In 2004, Christine campaigned for the Kerry-Edwards ticket in the State of New Mexico. And most recently she served as a surrogate speaker for then candidate Barack Obama. Christine traveled to Colorado and Texas in the 2008 Primary.
Latina Magazine recently named Christine as one of their top Latinas for her longtime involvement with civil rights issues; particularly, her work on marriage equality. She has been recognized by the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for leadership on helping to end discrimination. Various women organizations such as the Chicana Latina Foundation of San Francisco and the Rhode Island Women's Fund have paid tribute to Christine's dedication and hard work.
Christine's work has not been limited to the United Farm Workers. She understands that solidarity with other unions is labor's lifeblood. Over the years, Christine has joined workers of Service Employee International Union 1877 and their battle against L.A. International Airport, United Food and Commercial Workers strike against California super markets, and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees long fights against L.A. area Hotels and the University of Southern California.
Christine considers her ongoing involvement with the Latino and African American Leadership Alliance as an important project to bring two historically disenfranchised communities together to forge peace and unity.
Christine resides in Washington DC with her husband Oscar and their dogs Boycott and Buddy. Her work is based on the values passed down to her from her grandfather Cesar Chavez...the fight for civil rights, social justice, and labor equality.
Tahlib Disney-Britton
Tahlib Disney-Britton most recently was the Program Director of the Voices of Equality Program for Freedom to Marry. In that capacity he helped win the endorsement of the freedom to marry by the US Conference of Mayors and helped create the first ever workshop on marriage equality at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
He also served as Director of Community Engagement at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. In that role, he had responsibility for local and national educational outreach in 16 states as well as Mazamitla, Mexico and Buxton, Canada. A member of the Freedom Center team for 10 years, Tahlib led the national communications campaign for the Freedom Center beginning in 1998 and culminating in 2004 with 200 million media impressions around the world. Prior to joining the Freedom Center team, he served as Executive Assistant to the President of Northern Kentucky University but left the university after five years to follow the Freedom Center's vision of using Underground Railroad lessons as a bridge for today's racial divide.
Tahlib Disney-Britton is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University where he earned both his BA in Arts Management and MA in Communications, and has conducted doctoral studies at The Ohio State University. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and a practicing Roman Catholic, Tahlib has a son, Kai who is a linebacker for the Wilmington University "Fighting" Quakers. He married his husband, Greg Disney, in Niagara Falls, Canada in January 2008.
Ben Dixon
Benjamin currently serves as the Senior Vice President, Head of Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets (MIRA) Finance - Americas and is a Grant Thornton trained CPA with an MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. After completing his CPA requirements he joined Design Within Reach in 2000 as a catalog retailer of designer furnishings with $2 million in sales. Strong cash flows and over 50 store openings led to a successful 2004 IPO and 2005 secondary offering. During this transformation, Benjamin was Director of Finance and Principal Accounting Officer.
He later joined Columbus Nova as Assistant Controller during which time the investment management firm’s assets under management grew from less than $500 million to over $2.5 billion before joining Macquarie as a Vice President within the Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets (MIRA) division. Benjamin is now a Senior Vice President heading the MIRA Americas Finance team and is responsible for the administration of several private equity and real estate funds, among other MIRA products, in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Benjamin grew up in the Santa Cruz mountains and lived in San Francisco during and after obtaining his Bachelors of Science in Accounting at Golden Gate University. He moved to New York City in 2005.
Helio Fred Garcia
Helio Fred Garcia is the president and founder of the crisis management firm LOGOS Consulting Group, and is the executive director of the LOGOS INSTITUTE for Crisis Management & Executive Leadership. He is widely regarded as a leading expert in crisis management and crisis communication.
Fred is a coach, counselor, teacher, writer, and speaker. He advises and coaches leaders of some of the largest and best-known companies and organizations in the world. In addition to serving North American clients, Fred has had an active international practice, advising clients in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Australia.
Fred has 28 years of experience counseling securities firms, banks, insurance companies, specialized financial and professional service firms, corporations, not-for-profits, and governments. He has particular expertise in crisis management, corporate litigation support, struggles for corporate control, international financial transactions, securities offerings, corporate governance, and business ethics.
Fred has coached nearly 200 CEOs of major corporations, plus thousands of other high-profile people in other complex fields, including doctors, lawyers, financial executives, and military officers. These executives were in industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals, energy, heavy manufacturing, biotechnology, computer software, financial services, law firms, advertising agencies, religious denominations, universities, and not-for-profit advocacy groups.
In the 1980s he served as head of public relations for a global investment bank and for a large public accounting firm. In the 1990s Fred headed the crisis practice of a leading national strategic communication consulting firm.
Fred is an adjunct professor of management at New York University, where he has taught for 20 years. He teaches crisis management in the Executive MBA program of the Stern School of Business. He teaches courses in communication strategy and in communication ethics, law, and regulation in the Master’s in Corporate Communication program in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies. He has received the school’s awards for teaching excellence and for outstanding service.
Fred is also on the associate faculty of the Starr King School for the Ministry - Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, where he teaches a seminar on religious leadership for social change. He is a frequent guest lecturer at the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College, the Center for Securities Studies of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the Brookings Institution, and other universities.
Fred is a frequent speaker and author on topics including crisis management, business ethics, corporate disclosure, and journalist/source relationships. His two-volume bookCrisis Communications was published in 1999 by AAAA Publications(Vol I , Vol II). He is co-author (with John Doorley) of Reputation Management: The Key to Successful Public Relations and Corporate Communication. He was technical editor and editorial advisor for The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Successful Business Presentations (Alpha, 1997).
His article "Effective Leadership Response to Crisis" which appeared in the January/February 2006 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Strategy & Leadership, received the Highly Commended Award at the Emerald Literati Networks 2007 Awards for Excellence. Fred is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America, and received the Society’s New York Chapter’s Philip Dorf Award for mentoring.
Fred has an MA in philosophy from Columbia University, and studied classical Greek language and literature in the Greek Institute of the City University of New York Graduate Center. He has a BA with honors in politics and philosophy from New York University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Mount Saint Mary College.
Fred is immediate past chair and member of the board of directors of the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art. He was named Westchester County (NY) Arts Patron of the Year for 2006 by the Westchester Arts Council. He is a member of the national steering committee of the human rights organization Freedom to Marry. He is also a member of the boards of directors of Disaster Chaplaincy Services and of The Interfaith Alliance.
Books
- Reputation Management: The Key to Successful Public Relations and Corporate Communication (co-author), Routledge, Taylor and Francis, 2006.
- Crisis Communications, AAAA Publications (Vol I, Vol II), 1999.
Otho Kerr
Otho Kerr is a Partner and the Chief Operating Officer of EKO Asset Management Partners. Prior to joining EKO, Otho was an Executive Director at Oppenheimer Asset Management. He has worked in the investment banking and asset management industries for over twenty years, having begun with Goldman Sachs & Co., where he worked in the Investment Banking Division. Throughout his career, Otho has sought to merge his professional career with his interest in social justice. Otho was a co-founder of the Institute for Youth Entrepreneurship in Harlem, and he was a fellow in the Rockefeller Foundation's Next Generation Leadership Program. He has served and serves on several other not-for-profit boards, including the Empire State Pride Agenda Foundation, Empire State Pride Agenda Inc., PAX (Chairman of the Board), Trinity Church of Solebury (Senior Warden), and Volunteers of America – Greater New York.
Jordan Roth
Jordan Roth is President of Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns and operates five Broadway theaters. He was most recently involved in developing A Catered Affair, the new musical by Harvey Fierstein. Jordan also produced the Tony nominated, Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show, The Donkey Show, which ran for six years off-Broadway with several international productions, and The Karaoke Show. He serves on the boards of GMHC, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and the Horace Mann School, of which he is an alumnus. He was named one of Crain's 40 under 40 "Rising Stars."
Frank Selvaggi
Frank Selvaggi is a CPA and Founding Partner at Altman, Greenfield & Selvaggi, LLP, the New York City and Los Angeles accounting firm he co-founded in 1986, which specializes in business management for the entertainment industry. Selvaggi and his firm work with some of the top talent within the entertainment industry.
He served for six years on the Board of the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA), New York's leading statewide LGBT civil rights and advocacy organization. He held the position of Co-Chair of ESPA's Foundation Board for three years and that of Chair of the Agenda Inc. Board for two.
In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, the nation's largest LGBT political action committee and the only national organization dedicated to increasing the number of openly LGBT elected officials at all levels of government. He also serves as Board President of the American Associates of the Old Vic Theatre, an iconic theater company in London with roots dating back to 1818 and currently under the artistic direction of actor Kevin Spacey.
Mr. Selvaggi is a resident of both New York City and North Salem, N.Y. He married his long time partner, Bill Shea in Northampton, MA in May 2004. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting with highest honors from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY in 1981.
Cherry Spencer-Stark
Cherry Spencer-Stark is a grandma, nurse, and long-time political activist. Currently president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, Cherry has also served as founding co-chair of Georgia Equality (the political and advocacy voice of Georgia's LGBT citizens and their allies), treasurer of the Georgia Nurses Association, board member at AIDS Treatment Initiatives, and one of the first women members of the Marietta Rotary Club.
Cherry received the 1996 Human Rights Campaign Community Leadership Award and was a 2002 recipient of the Atlanta Pride Community Builders Award. She is married to James E. Stark, Ph.D, a forensic psychologist and expert in gay/lesbian parenting. Since the passage of the 1993 anti-gay resolution in her home county of Cobb, Cherry has been a continual thorn in the side of Georgia's radical right-wing groups and politicians.
Cherry's proudest moment was taking on then-Congressman Bob Barr about the 1996 federal anti-marriage law he sponsored (the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act") and leaving him sputtering.
Tim Sweeney
Tim Sweeney joined the Gill Foundation as executive director in October 2007, bringing three decades of leadership experience in the movement to advance equality for all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression.
Tim was an early leader in the struggle to confront the AIDS epidemic, a national and state political organizer, and a successful foundation executive. He continues to be in the forefront of the most significant issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.
Tim most recently worked with a progressive family foundation and succeeded in building their efforts into one of the nation’s largest funders of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movement. As program director of the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund’s equality and justice and nonprofit leadership and governance programs, as well as head of gay and lesbian programs, Tim helped the heirs to the Levi Strauss fortune advance equality. He worked to build national efforts to support the rights of lesbian and gay couples to civil marriage and provided support for organizations implementing a California law that safeguards the rights of LGBT students.
What Tim calls his "crucible" came during the early years of the AIDS epidemic when discrimination was rampant, fear was pervasive, and services were almost non-existent. Tim served for five years as executive director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, successfully suing landlords in the nation’s first successful HIV discrimination case. Under his leadership, Lambda also successfully fought health insurance discrimination against people presumed to be at risk for AIDS.
From 1986 to 1993, Tim served as deputy director and then executive director of the Gay Men's Health Crisis, helping to build the largest community-based HIV/AIDS service, prevention, and advocacy organization in the world. Under Tim’s leadership, the organization formed a national coalition to press Washington to pass antidiscrimination legislation. Working with allies, they secured passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Ryan White Care Act.
From his college days in his home state of Montana, Tim has also shown a knack for political organizing at the state level. After his years of AIDS work, he decided to return to state organizing, serving as the deputy executive director for programs of the Empire State Pride Agenda and Foundation. His leadership helped assure passage of New York State’s anti-hate crimes law. Tim also realized that issues such as youth suicide prevention and alcoholism treatment in the LGBT community were of widespread concern. By organizing a statewide coalition, he helped secure more than $5,000,000 in state funding for LGBT health and human service organizations.
In moving to the Denver-based Gill Foundation, Tim is returning to his western roots. After growing up in Billings, Montana, he attended the University of Montana in Missoula and earned a BA with honors in European history. After college, he headed to San Francisco and began his career of putting his organizing and leadership skills to work for advancing equality.
Sam Thoron
Sam Thoron's rich history of dedication both to PFLAG and the GLBT community began in spring of 1990 when he became part of the steering committee for the San Francisco Chapter of the PFLAG, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
Sam and his wife Julia have been married for over 45 years and have lived in San Francisco since 1964. They raised their two sons and their daughter in the city. They are proud grandparents of five. Their eldest, Ben, lives in San Diego with his wife and three sons. The second, Joe, lives in Olga, Washington, with his wife, daughter and son. Liz, the youngest, with her partner, Lisa, is a homeowner in Oakland.
In September 1992 Sam was honored with an invitation to join the PFLAG National Board as Regional Director for the Mid-Pacific Region. This term of board service ended in 2001. In 2002 he was asked to rejoin the National Board of Directors as National President. He served in this capacity through October 2006 and continues to serve on the National Board.
A retired general commercial insurance broker, Sam is a member of the Equality for All Statewide Campaign Committee, which was established to counter attempts to imbed anti-gay discrimination into the California State Constitution. He serves on Board of Directors of Marriage Equality USA.
Julia and Sam continue to build on their proud history of advocacy for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality, working with their deep commitment to justice and fair play for all citizens to realize the vision of PFLAG.
An open letter from Sam and Julia Thoron:
Dear Friends,
We have suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of opponents who waged a campaign based on lies, deception and fear fueled by a deep and mistaken conviction that we, and our families, are inferior to theirs. It hurts deeply. It is cruel that our right to equal protection can be put to a vote.
We need to take time to heal. We also need to remind ourselves of a few very important concepts.
In our fight, we have kept to the high road. We have no need to examine our conscience. We have all given our utmost, freely and with unbelievable generosity and unity. We can and must hold our heads high.
In our loss, in our grief, we must not allow our anger and frustration to divide us. Let us not second guess or stoop to pointing fingers of blame among ourselves. Remember that what we have in common is what brought us together. However passionate we may be, we cannot allow small differences to divide us.
Finally, as we go on with our lives, we must not allow ourselves to become like our opponents. Even if we can neither forget nor forgive them for the way that they have treated us, we must always treat those around us with the same respect and dignity that we deserve and demand for ourselves and for our families. Let us continue to keep to the high road.
It has been an incredible honor and privilege to serve the campaign to defeat Proposition 8. It has been a gift beyond price.
In love and solidarity,
Sam and Julia Thoron