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National prizes go to four community activists
by Jann Gilbert
Mina " 1
Barbara
T
he 1994 Stonewall Awards, given in
become a drill sergeant. Like Kameny, she fought
April, honor four activists, each a pio­ her discharge. She won reinstatement 11 years
neer in lesbian and gay rights who
later but was not allowed to re-enlist. At that time,
found a need in the community and
she launched a second court challenge, which she
filled it. One of the honorees has been
won. The case was eventually lost on appeal. Ben-
a gay and lesbian civil rights activist since
even has been a speaker on behalf of gay men
Shalom
before the Stonewall Riots.
and lesbians in the military, has lobbied in Con­
The four recipients are Miriam Ben-Shalom, of
gress for civil rights, and has counseled thousands
Milwaukee, Wise.; Franklin “Frank” Kameny, of
of gay men and lesbians in the military services.
Washington, D.C.; Rick Osborne, of San Diego,
Currently, she is a lifetime board member of the
Calif.; and Barbara Smith, of Albany, N.Y. Each
Gay People’s Union in Wisconsin, one of the
receives a cash award of $25,000. The Stonewall
oldest queer or­
Award is given in recognition of outstanding ser­
ganizations in the
vice to the gay and lesbian community.
U.S.; vice-presi­
Award-winner Frank Kameny, 68, began his
dent of Pridefest,
professional life with a degree in astronomy from
Inc., a two-day
Harvard in 1957. He was ousted from the U.S.
pride festival; and
Army Map Service, after only a few months, when
a member of the
it was learned he was gay. He was the first to fight
Stonewall 25
such a dismissal and has been fighting injustice
Armed Forces
ever since. During his career, Kameny helped
Veterans Coali­
found the first militant gay rights organization, the
tion.
Mattachine Society; became a leading national
Rick
O s­
authority on security clearances for gays and lesbi­
borne, 43, moved
ans; initiated the fight to lift the ban on gays in the
to Southern Cali­
armed forces in 1962; and began a 30-year cam­
fornia in 1990 in
paign to repeal a Washington, D.C., sodomy law in
search of better
1963, which ended successfully when he wrote the
healthcare for his
text of the repeal law, which was enacted in Sep­
lover, who had
tember of last year. One of the plaques found on a
AIDS. He turned
wall in Kameny’s home is a Mayoral Proclamation
a painful experience into a cathartic one, with the
from the District of Columbia stating that April 9,
opening of an unusual coffee house called David’s
1981, was “Franklin E. Kameny Day” in Washing­
Place. David’s Place was intended to be a social
ton, DC.
center for people with HIV and AIDS. It has since
Miriam Ben-Shalom, 45, now a high school
become a community center, with free art classes
English teacher, was discharged from the U.S.
and a volunteer crew that makes flower arrange­
Army in 1976, following her disclosure that she is
ments for hospitalized people with AIDS. It is a
a lesbian. She is one of the first women to have
non-profit business, whose revenues support HIV­
positive people and whose staff is largely made up
of people with HIV or AIDS. The coffee house
serves as a site for commitment ceremonies for gay
and lesbian couples and memorials for people who
have died of AIDS, and as a meeting place for
queer activists and AIDS-related organizations.
With coursework for a Ph.D. in English com­
pleted, and a career as a college administrator on
hold, Osborne devotes most of his time to the
coffee house. He also writes poetry.
Barbara Smith, 47, a feminist writer and activ­
ist, initiated
black women’s
studies at the
college level 20
years ago and
was a political
organizer for
black lesbian
fem inists in
Boston, Mass.
She
co­
founded, and is
currently pub­
lisher
of,
Kitchen Table:
Women
of
Color Press, the
only U.S. pub­
lisher specifi­
cally for women of color. Smith established a
number of firsts as an educator. She was the first
African American on the Modem Language Asso­
ciation Commission on the Status of Women, in
1974. With two co-editors, she published a land­
mark collection of African American women’s
writing in 1982, All the Women Are White, All the
Blacks Are Men, but Some o f Us A re Brave: Black
The Stonewall Awards were
established in 1990.
They are named for the riot that
took place June 27,1969, when
the defiance o f the gay and
lesbian patrons o f the
Stonewall Inn in Greenwich
Village against police that raided
the bar sparked weeklong
demonstrations.
Women’sStudies. That work was followed in 1983
by Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. Smith
is now at work with several co-editors, including
Gloria Steinem, on The Reader’s Companion to
U.S. Women’s History, and is writing the first
book-length black lesbian and gay history.
The Stonewall Awards were established in
1990. They are named for the riot that took place
June 27, 1969, when the defiance of the gay and
lesbian patrons of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich
Village against police that raided the bar sparked
weeklong demonstrations. The event is generally
recognized as the turning point that led to the
formation of a national gay and lesbian rights
movement.
The Stonewall Awards are given out by the
Anderson Prize Foundation, established and en­
dowed by the late Paul A. Anderson. Anderson, a
Chicago futures trader, died of AIDS-related com­
plications in 1992. His companion of 13 years,
Allen A. Schuh, a Chicago attorney, is current
president of the foundation. Award candidates are
first nominated anonymously. A committee of
foundation directors and previous winners then
selects award recipients representing diverse geo­
graphic areas of the United States. Winners are
selected regardless of sexual orientation, race,
ethnic origin, age or gender.
Past recipients of the Stonewall Award and
their associations at the time they won are: Amy
Ashworth, director of N.Y. Parents and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays; Howard Cruse, gay and under­
ground cartoonist; Suzanne Pharr, community ac­
tion strategist who worked to defeat anti-gay leg­
islation in Oregon; and Urvashi Vaid, executive
director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force.