[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 61 (Tuesday, April 9, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E432-E433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   HONORING THE GAY AND LESBIAN ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE OF WASHINGTON, DC

                                  _____
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 9, 2019

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I have the honor of representing the 
oldest continuously functioning Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and 
Questioning (LGBTQ) organization in the United States. Today, I rise to 
ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the 48th 
anniversary of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, 
D.C. (GLAA).
  GLAA is Washington's premier LGBTQ organization. Washingtonians know 
that GLAA champions the District of Columbia's full and equal rights. 
It calls for stronger enforcement of D.C.'s comprehensive landmark 
Human Rights Act of 1977. GLAA helped form and marshall the grassroots 
coalition of D.C. residents and elected officials that resulted in the 
enactment of the District of Columbia Religious Freedom and Civil 
Marriage Equality Amendment Act. D.C. recognized same-sex marriages 
five years before the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.
  GLAA advocates on behalf of LGBTQ youth and seniors. It demands the 
right of equal treatment for transgender individuals by the police and 
access to culturally competent healthcare. GLAA educates local 
officeholders and office seekers on LGBTQ issues. It also nurtures and 
builds coalitions with other constituencies to advance LGBTQ causes and 
to defend the District's autonomy.
  At its 48th anniversary reception on April 18, 2019, GLAA will 
recognize the 2019 Distinguished Service Awards recipients:
  Center Global, a program of the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community. 
Matt Corso and Eric Scharf co-founded Center Global in 2012. Under 
their guidance, Center Global supported nearly 300 asylum-seekers 
through this nation's immigration processes. The asylees come from 
nations on the African continent, Eastern Europe, Russia, the former 
Soviet bloc, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean.
  Center Global follows a unique model. It provides access to 
healthcare, legal assistance, financial support, and most importantly, 
a safe LGBTQ peer community that is often unattainable in D.C.-area 
diasporas. Its program includes case-management services; monthly 
support dinner and volunteers meetings; community and Capitol Hill 
education and outreach initiatives; partnerships with the Human Rights 
Campaign and D.C.-area social support and asylum organizations; and the 
annual May fundraising reception. Center Global is a volunteer-staffed 
program, led by its executive committee (Tom Sommers, Chair, and Eric 
Scharf, Vice Chair) under the D.C. Center's administrative umbrella.
  Compassion & Choices led the lobbying for the D.C. Death with Dignity 
Act of 2016, which became law in 2017. Compassion & Choices envisions a 
society that affirms life and accepts the inevitability of death, 
embraces expanded options for compassionate dying and empowers people 
to choose end-of-life care that reflects their values, priorities and 
beliefs. It is a nationwide organization that works to ensure that 
healthcare providers honor and

[[Page E433]]

enable patients' decisions about their care. Compassion & Choices works 
in communities, state legislatures, Congress, courts and medical 
settings to educate the public about the importance of documenting end-
of-life values and priorities and about the full range of available 
end-of-life care. It empowers individuals with options, information and 
advice for guiding their care and engaging with providers. Compassion & 
Choices advocates for expanded choices, secure and ready access to them 
and improved medical practice that puts patients first and values 
quality of life in treatment plans for terminal illness, and it defends 
existing end-of-life options from efforts to restrict access.
  Diego Miguel Sanchez, APR is Director of Advocacy, Policy & 
Partnerships for PFLAG National. Mr. Sanchez was Congressman Barney 
Frank's Senior Policy Advisor from 2009 until the Congressman's 
retirement 2013. Diego made history as the first openly transgender 
senior legislative staffer on Capitol Hill. He testified before 
Congress in the first transgender discrimination hearing. He became the 
first openly transgender individual appointed to the Democratic 
National Committee Platform Committee. Diego was Director of Public 
Relations and External Affairs at the AIDS Action Committee of 
Massachusetts and AIDS Action Council (DC). Previously, he was Director 
of the TransHealth/LGBT Health Access Project at JRI Health in Boston. 
He led the nation's only government-funded transgender healthcare 
program.
  Diego worked 20 award-winning years in global public relations, 
marketing, and diversity management globally with Fortune 500 
companies: The Coca-Cola Company, Holiday Inn Worldwide, ITT Sheraton 
and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. He did media relations for 
Burson-Marsteller/NY, then the world's largest public relations firm. 
Hispanic Business Magazine included Diego among the 100 Most Powerful 
Latino/s in Corporate America. He has been recognized as a LGBT Latino 
Hero, one of the 100 most powerful Latino/s (Poderometro), in the Out 
100, and in the Inaugural Trans 100. He was a founding member of the 
Gender Identity in U.S. Surveillance (GenIUSS) group, and Q Street 
named him ``Best Congressional Staffer''. Diego earned a Bachelor of 
Arts in Journalism with a major in Public Relations from the University 
of Georgia (UGA), serves on the Journalism Alumni Advisory Board and is 
a member of G-Club, the University's varsity letterwinners' club. Diego 
happens to be the only male Bulldog to earn his letter playing on a 
women's team, UGA's women's tennis team. Diego is a Senior Fellow at 
UMass Boston's College of Management.
  I ask the House to join me in honoring the recipients of GLAA's 2019 
Distinguished Service Award and celebrating GLAA's 48 years of 
contributions to the LGBTQ community in the District of Columbia.

                          ____________________