Tonight, as always, we’re joined by some wonderful friends and supporters, but also some such as Jose Smith-Mulave, who represent the people we seek to help every day; they were recently attacked in Sea Cliff, Long Island and are fighting back to receive justice in their case.  Anyone like me who is an avid viewer of Top Chef should remember Josie from the show’s last season. 

We’re also joined by Sherie Weldon, who has spent the last year working on a documentary about anti-LGTB violence called “Coming Out Against Violence,” which we’ll preview later tonight.

There are also some wonderful people who are here in spirit.  Those of you who were at last year’s Courage Awards might remember being introduced to Denise and Zeke Sandy, the parents of Michael Sandy, who last year was lured to a remote beach in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn by four young men who decided to rob and beat him because he was gay.  Michael attempted to escape, ran onto the Belt Parkway, was struck by a car, and later died from his injuries.

The Sandy’s so wanted to be here tonight, but as some of you may know, the sentencing for the final two defendants in the murder of their son is tomorrow, and our thoughts are certainly with them tonight. 

In the last year, we have spoken about Michael Sandy’s murder and his friends and family quite frequently. 

This makes sense in that our staff  have spent the last year doing some of what we do best - providing support and guidance to the Sandy’s and Michael’s friends. 

Staff from all over the office have sat with the family and held their hands through months of pretrial motions, through the actual trial of the defendants and will stand watch with them tomorrow as they learn the fates of some of those who took their son from them.

This is what we do: we make certain that those in need in our community are supported.  But we also do our best to make certain that as many people as possible know about the violence facing our community from without and within. 

When we were scheduling this year’s Courage Awards, we quite honestly didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into by having it the week of Thanksgiving. 

But in the confluence of preparing for this annual public sharing of our work, anticipating the holiday many of us will observe with family and friends in three days, our standing vigil with the Sandy family as they awaited justice, and working with Sherie on just what small part of her tremendous documentary we would show tonight…

We found a renewed clarity around our work and our purpose…we found the beauty of this community’s strength, and by community, I don’t mean just those of us who call ourselves lesbian, gay, transgender or bisexual; I mean in addition: our friends, our families - all of those who embrace us.

However, something has also happened to us through our work with the Sandy’s…it’s something that has happened to us a number of times when we’ve met the parents of the victims of violence - in Sherie’s video, you’ll see Desiree Brazell, another outstanding mother who has been inspirational in her response to her son Rashawn’s death…

You see, when we must gather here in the year 2007 in the twenty-first century acknowledging people who’ve been abused or murdered because some feel it’s ok or even proper to do so simply because of who we are, when just today the FBI releases statistics indicating that hate crimes against LGTB people rose 18% last year, we need our families; we need our friends; we need our community; we need all of you here as testament to the fact that those violent individuals are not all there is, or even mostly what there is. 

We need parents such as those of Michael Sandy, Rashawn Brazell, Matthew Shepard, and Gwen Araujo shouting out loud to everyone and anyone who will listen that they loved their children, not despite who they were when they were alive, but because of and in addition to who they were. 

Not all of us have that type of relationship with and support from our parents and families, and therefore their existence is even more important to those of us who have had to fashion families purely of choice, not relation. 

This week begins a season of thanks and reflection, and as we move through this evening and the remainder of this season, I hope that we can all give thanks for our community’s strength and resilience, for people like those who staff the programs and services of the Anti-Violence Project, for people like all of you who believe that it is essential to support those programs and services and the belief in a time when there won’t be a need for them. 

On that note, I hope we can also reflect on the advancements we have been able to make - 27-years ago when we were founded, no one, not the police, the district attorneys, not even our neighbors wanted to hear about what was happening to us, clearly not all of that has changed all of the time, but it is indeed changing…and I also hope we can reflect on the work there is yet to do to keep it changing.

Before we move into our program, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the outstanding staff of the Anti-Violence Project.  Would the staff please stand?

As the Executive Director of an organization you get a lot of the attention and credit for things, but in truth, I’ve always only seen my job as doing my best to make certain that these people have whatever they need to do the amazing and wonderful work they do every day, and it has been both my honor and pleasure to do so. 

So thank you!