“under the table, kind of quiet relationships” with women and years later she came out to her mother, calling it “not a fun experience.” In the interim, Jester found her tribe at San Diego’s only lesbian bar, The Apartment in Mission Beach during the early ’80s and also became involved in politics. The jumping off point for her career in activism, which includes being the first openly gay person appointed as a San Diego City Commissioner, was “motivated by the wrongdoing that I saw going on.” “I had access to a different part of politics and
the political world, so, I could go to places that other leaders in our community could not,” Jester explained. “It created a balance in those early days in our community, especially as the AIDS epidemic struck.” In fact, Jester was instrumental in organizing the very first AIDS Walk San Diego in 1986. “I turned most of my attention to raising money any which way we could, for just basic needs of human beings.” She moved to the opposite coast in 1991, but
her tenacity to fighting for the LGBT community and what we believe in, did not get left behind in California’s golden sun. She went on to work for The Human Rights Campaign and was the execu- tive director of New York City’s “Stonewall 25” in 1994. It was the international march thatdrew two million marchers, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, an event that was used as a platform to raise awareness on LGBT issues. For her, receivingThe Spirit of Stonewall
Susan Jester For Susan Jester, the road out of the closet, definitely had its potholes, having been raised in a very staunch evangelical household. In fact, the 74-year-old didn’t “come out” until 1983 at age 40, for fear of reprisal from her family as she explained. “It was a long and agonizing process, like it is for so many, especially in my age category back in the day,” she described. “I was extremely conflicted from the time I was a child, really. I was always attracted to
girls...Although I ended up marrying a guy and having a child at 16.” After becoming a widow in her adult life, she embarked on a few
Awardis an emotional full circle moment. “In my heart, I definitely have the Stonewall spirit, because there’s no injustice that I will not stand up for when I see wrongs being done to people over who they are.” Lucky for us, Jester returned to San Diego in 2011 and has served on the boards of many community-minded endeavors, such as being the Cochair of the Mayor’s LGBT Advisory Council.
Russell Roybal Roybal, like Jester and all the other Spirit of Stonewall award recipients, has sought to make a difference within the community. He has amassed quite an impressive resume of causes that he’s taken on the leadership role for: The Gill Foundation, at which he taught thousands of LGBT leaders and allied activists around the U.S. how to resource their organizations, as well as a staff member at The National Latina/o LGBT Organization, the San Diego LGBT Center and San Diego Pride. His most
recent role is serving as Deputy Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force. He explained the roots of his activism, which
began in high school and college at SDSU and took hold in 1995 by attending the Task Force of Youth Leadership Training Institute. “I’ve always felt a calling toward justice work,” Roybal said. “Going to that week-long training completely transformed my life. I figured out that week that I wanted to do this work because this was where my heart and my soul was…And that I wanted to do everything I could to pursue justice for LGBTQ people.” Roybal is “deeply honored” to be receiving his
award and to be a grand marshal. In the community, he now serves at his new home of Washington, D.C. and around the country, he sees continued progress, but stressed that the battle is not over. “You can get married on Saturday but still get fired on Monday for getting married, in many parts of the country,” Roybal said. “And, I think we’ve seen that elections matter; whoever’s in power has the ability to roll back gains that we’ve made. As our community has evolved with great strides, there’s still a ton of work left to do.” Looking forward, we can only know where
we’re going by remembering where we came from. The march we do is indicative of the Pride Parade itself—there’s a beginning, an end and there’s always miles to go—but the distance is shortening as we reach our destination of true equality once and for all. Happy Pride! For more information on all things San Diego Pride, log onto
sdpride.org.
JULY 2017 | RAGE monthly 37
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