OCT 1st at 1 PM EST: National Black Justice Collective, AARP Honor Legendary, Black GBTQ+/SGL Men, Elders With James Baldwin Legacy Awards
CONTACT: Jordan Wilhelmi | jordan@unbendablemedia.com
Ceremony to Celebrate Accomplishments and Experiences of Black GBTQ+/SGL Men Trailblazers
WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, October 1, at 1:00 PM (EST), the National Black Justice Collective (NBJC) will host the 4th annual James Baldwin Legacy Awards to honor the invaluable contributions of Black men and masculine elders within the Black GBTQ+/same gender loving (SGL) movement and community. The event, sponsored by AARP, will feature a special guest host, Texas State Representative Venton Jones, and several surprise speakers who will provide toasts to the honorees.
The awards show is an opportunity to honor iconic Black GBTQ+/SGL men who have blazed trails across many fields and careers. The ceremony will premiere live on NBJC’s website, YouTube, and social media platforms.
This year’s honorees include (in alphabetical order):
- Rev. Yunus Coldman is an ordained Interfaith minister. He is the Eastern Regional Minister for TransSaints – a ministry of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries and an Associate Pastor at Rivers of Living Water UCC. He participates in numerous panel discussions, workshops, and speaking engagements to express the unique viewpoint of faith experiences and the intersections of being Black and Transgender.
- Gil Gerald is an Afro-Panamanian activist, essayist, and architect known for his HIV/AIDS activism. He co-founded NMAC and served as the executive director of the Minority AIDS Project. He is also an LGBT rights advocate, having led a sit-in to force SGL inclusion at the 20th Anniversary of the March on Washington. He also co-founded the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays, the first national organization dedicated to Black LGBTQ+/SGL people and a predecessor to NBJC.
- Edward Jones is a social justice, philanthropy, and equality movement leader. He serves as Vice President of Programs and Philanthropic Advising Services at ABFE: A Philanthropic Partnership for Black Communities and Vice Chair for the Weissberg Foundation. He is also a founding member of Benefactors: A Black Giving Collective. Edward is a past board member of Us Helping Us, People into Living, Inc., and former Director of Conference Programming at the Council on Foundations.
- Cornelius Moore is co-director and emeritus of California Newsreel, a distributor of social issues and Black and African diasporic films. He continues to curate film programs for venues such as Philadelphia’s Scribe Video Center and San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora. He appeared in Marlon Riggs’ groundbreaking film essay Tongues Untied and advocated for its worldwide recognition and continuing impact.
- Mayor Ron Oden has an extended history of community activism and political service in Palm Springs, CA. In 1995, he won election as a City Council member. In November 2003, he was elected Mayor of Palm Springs, becoming the first Black, out LGBTQ+ person elected mayor of any U.S. city. Ron championed embracing Palm Springs’ past and its diverse LGBTQ+ community and, as Mayor, focused on expanding diversity while leading the city’s first LGBTQ+ majority on the City Council.
- Rev. Dr. Roland Stringfellow serves as Senior Pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit. He is also the Managing Director of the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion at the Pacific School of Religion, where he founded The Umoja Project, a curriculum for Black church LGBTQ+ inclusion. Roland was the Bay Area Faith Director in the fight against California’s Proposition 8. Currently, he serves older LGBTQ adults with Mi Gen, Michigan’s LGBTQ+ Elder Network, and is helping to open senior housing that will be LGBTQ-inclusive north of Detroit in October 2024.
- Tim Vincent is the President and co-founder of Brothers of the Desert, a non-profit organization focused on empowering and supporting Black gay men through education, advocacy, social networking, and more. They aim to dismantle the barriers of isolation, disconnection, and inequities that Black gay men often face. He has been working to promote health equity, especially for LGBTQ+ Black communities related to HIV and other health-related issues, for over 30 years in direct service and program management. He is currently consulting on a five-year study headed by the RAND Corporation to examine the connection between wellness, isolation, and aging for Black sexual minority men throughout the US.
“Black GBTQ+/SGL elders are too often overlooked, their aging journey erased, and our community’s representation reduced to stereotypical images of what it is to be a Black queer or trans man in a world that connotes age with growing irrelevance. But when we are supported by a caring community and policies that center our well-being, Black GBTQ+/SGL people can grow old and thrive,” said Dr. David J. Johns, CEO & Executive Director of the National Black Justice Collective. “The Baldwin Awards, and its sister Wisdom Awards, are created to honor Black queer, trans, and non-binary leaders, celebrate the beauty of aging, preserve the lessons learned along the way, and foster intergenerational bonds that move us closer to true collective liberation.”
TO ATTEND THE BALDWIN AWARDS, REGISTER HERE: https://nbjc.org/james-baldwin-legacy-awards/
In addition to celebrating the accomplishments, experiences, and wisdom of Black men and masculine elders within the Black GBTQ+/same gender loving (SGL) movement and community, the event will also advocate::
- Protecting Black GBTQ+/SGL Seniors and their dignity as they age in families, elder care facilities, senior living communities, and more;
- Removing the stigma of being Black, GBTQ+, and an elder;
- Providing free home self-tests for HIV/AIDS, such as the CDC’s Take Me Home Program and
- Registering and restoring the right to vote, verifying voter registration status, and using NBJC’s #VoteReady Toolkit.
MORE ON NBJC’S POLICY AGENDA HERE: https://nbjc.org/nbjc-policy-agenda/
Throughout October, NBJC will honor elders and pioneers of the Black GBTQ+/SGL movement on its Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram social media platforms.