SF Pride Names More Marshals, Parade Honorees

A pioneering lesbian activist who worked with Harvey Milk and a trans mindfulness coach are among the people recently named to serve as grand marshals and other honorees in the 2016 San Francisco LGBT Pride parade.

The board of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee selected two additional community grand marshals earlier this month - Mia "Tu Mutch" Satya and Fresh White - along with a handful of Heritage of Pride awardees.

Satya, 25, a rural Texas native, is a trans woman who has survived homelessness and violence to become a leader in mentoring transgender youth. Her achievements include securing free Muni for 40,000 low-income youth and serving on the San Francisco Youth Commission. She is the director of Transitional Age Youth San Francisco.

"As a transsexual teen coming out in a Christian, conservative family in Farmville, America, I never thought I would survive high school and certainly never dreamed I would be able to create a career as a community advocate," Satya said. "What moves me to tears isn't the honor of riding in the parade as a grand marshal, it's that my LGBTQ family recognizes my perseverance in fighting for racial and economic justice for all."

White, a transgender man, was recognized for his work as a healer. He founded the Bay Area's first mindfulness and meditation group explicitly for trans and genderqueer communities. He is an employment specialist at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, where he supports trans and gender variant people in entering the job market. White has volunteered with the SF Dyke and Trans Marches, the Transgender Day of Remembrance, and the Transgender Day of Visibility. He's also a one-on-one life coach who encourages self-love and self-compassion.

White, who declined to state his age, emailed the Bay Area Reporter from out of town, where he was on a retreat.

"As a cross-sectional community member who practices acknowledging and embracing our likes and differences, I'm honored to be seen as someone who helps to make San Francisco a place where everyone can have a voice and be seen," White wrote. "This year I hope to raise awareness to the immensely high rates of suicide in the trans community, especially among our youth and particularly regarding transmen or trans masculine people of color."

White added that he was looking forward to celebrating Pride with his grand marshal peers, as well as with community partners and friends.

Satya and White join previously announced grand marshals Larry Yang and Janetta Johnson and organizational grand marshal Black Lives Matter.

The Pride board also announced that the stars of Fuse's TV series Transcendent will serve as celebrity grand marshals. The show revolves around a group of trans women, including Bambiana, Bionka, LA, Nya, and Xristina, who perform at AsiaSF, one of San Francisco's most popular restaurants and cabarets.

Other Honorees

The Pride board also announced the selection of recipients of various Heritage of Pride and other awards.

The Heritage of Pride, Pride Community Award has been given to St. James Infirmary, a medical clinic that is run by and for sex workers. It offers free medical care, mental health care, HIV services, transgender health care, and other programs.

Stephany Ashley, executive director of St. James Infirmary, said that the clinic was honored by the recognition.

"Over 70 percent of people in the sex industry in the U.S. are LGBTIQ," she said. "Yet the mainstream GLB movement often chooses to ignore this reality, sweeping sex worker rights, and the queer and trans people who need them, under the rug."

Ashley added that she was pleased with this year's Pride theme, "For Racial and Economic Justice."

"We were thrilled to hear that SF Pride chose to focus on racial and economic justice as this year's theme," she said. "Sex worker rights mean rights for trans people, poor people, people of color, people with HIV, incarcerated people, undocumented people, and gay and lesbian people. We are grateful to Pride for recognizing this fight, and for awarding us in this special moment in our organization's history."

Longtime HIV activist Joanie Juster, a straight ally, has received the Heritage of Pride 10 Years of Service Award. Juster's HIV work dates back to the 1980s and includes alliances with the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, the AIDS and Breast Cancer Emergency Funds, Shanti Project, and the San Francisco AIDS Walk. She has also worked with Marriage Equality USA.

Juster, 62, told the B.A.R. that she was grateful and humbled by the recognition.

"This honor has made me reflect more deeply upon the nature of volunteerism, and how working together toward common goals lifts us all up," she said. "Like many volunteers, the majority of my work has been behind the scenes, so it is a bit disconcerting to suddenly find myself in the spotlight. It has also brought up a flood of memories, of nearly 30 years of volunteering within this community, and being part of historic movements."

The Audrey Joseph LGBTQ Entertainment Award was given to queer ally Deana Dawn, 45, who is an accomplished hair and makeup artist and served as Miss Golden Gate 2005, under her legal name, Deana Hemrich. Dawn's performances have raised more than $200,000 for a variety of HIV/AIDS charities, as well as for Transgender Law Center and the San Francisco Night Ministry.

"I'm proud to receive this award named after such an iconic force in the LGBTQ entertainment industry," Dawn told the B.A.R. , referring to Joseph, a lesbian who served as Pride's longtime main stage producer and now sits on the San Francisco Entertainment Commission. "The light of the stage offers me a creative platform to mentor others and support many causes."

Dawn also said that she was pleased by this year's Pride theme.

"As a member of SF Pride I love this year's theme that raises awareness of the broken systems that drive inequality and injustice for minorities in this country," she said. "It's especially important as the November election nears with so much at stake up and down the ballot."

Sally Miller Gearhart is the recipient of the Heritage of Pride, Pride Freedom Award for outstanding contributions to advancing the lives of LGBT people. Now 85 years old, Gearhart was the first out lesbian to receive a tenure-track position at San Francisco State University in 1973. She established one of the first women's and gender studies programs in the country while at SF State, and was a leading LGBT activist throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

She was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk" (1984), having been a friend and colleague of Milk, the late San Francisco supervisor. Gearhart worked with Milk on the 1978 defeat of Proposition 6, a California ballot initiative that sought to exclude gay men and lesbians from teaching in public schools. Gearhart is also an acclaimed author of feminist science fiction.

"As an old timer who was present at our very first gay march I am especially astounded by how far we've come," Gearhart told the B.A.R. via email from her home in Oregon. "And by what we have gone through to get here."

Due to a prior commitment, Gearhart will be unable to attend this year's parade. Parade manager Marsha Levine explained that as a Heritage of Pride recipient, Gearhart is not required to attend the parade.

"We were aware of Sally's situation, and the board wanted to recognize her for her tremendous work in the community," Levine said. "This award is a great way to honor that."

This year's Lifetime Achievement recipient is Mike Shriver, a gay man who brings a resume of 30 years worth of AIDS advocacy to the table.

Shriver, 52, served as a San Francisco health commissioner in the 1990s and was been a special adviser to the mayor on HIV/AIDS policy. Shriver currently chairs the board of directors of the National AIDS Memorial Grove and co-chaired the grove's World AIDS Day observances in 2009, 2010, and 2011.

"To be honest, I am still in shock over the award," Shriver said. "For the past 30 years I have had the privilege of being in the company of many, many dedicated, brilliant activists. All of them are as deserving of this award as I. I'm deeply touched by being chosen."

At press time, Heritage of Pride, Creativity Award recipient Mercedes Munro had not responded to the B.A.R.'s request for comment.

According SF Pride's news release, Munro, also known as Lonnie Haley, considers herself to be "an old school" female impersonator. The Michigan native is a former Miss Gay San Francisco, Miss Gay California and Miss Gay United States.

The Pride parade takes place Sunday, June 26. For more information, visit http://www.sfpride.org