Next month’s OutFest celebration is a community-focused event — and several individuals and organizations that are community leaders will be honored during the festivity.
A number of awards are given out each year during the Gayborhood festival, to be held this year Oct. 12, and the lineup includes a new award, the Lifetime OutProud Award, which will be presented to Bill Wood.
Wood is the founder of Woody’s and co-owner of Knock. But, Philly Pride Presents executive director Franny Price noted that his influence goes far beyond the two establishments.
“A lot of people acknowledge him for Woody’s or Knock, but we wanted to acknowledge the man behind those places,” she said. “Bill’s been really active in the community for years, especially behind the scenes. Almost every organization in this community has gotten some contribution or donation from Bill, and he makes those contributions with no conditions. I remember back when members of our community started dying of HIV/AIDS and didn’t have funds to pay for funerals, he was the first one to step up.”
Wood said he was honored to receive the award, but joked that it aged him.
“I feel like you get a lifetime-achievement award when you’re on your way out. I feel old,” he laughed. “But I’m flattered. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything without the community. I was very fortunate when I started out in the ’80s that the business was supported at the time by the community. It was a tough time with the AIDS crisis and all, but our patrons and the community supported us and, in turn, I’ve tried to support the community.”
Price noted that the Lifetime OutProud Award will only be given intermittently, when the occasion arises.
Other individual honorees are OutProud Awardee Elicia Gonzales, executive director of GALAEI: A Queer Latin@ Social Justice Organization, and OutProud Friend Awardee City Councilman James Kenney.
“We were trying to think of someone who goes beyond being out and proud in the job, someone who’s out and about in the community, and Elicia is that person. She’s proud, she’s not afraid to say what she thinks is right,” Price said, noting that Kenney takes the same approach in his work as an ally. “This is way overdue for Jim. Anything in City Council that’s LGBT-related, Jim Kenney’s name is always there, and a lot of the times, he’s the one proposing the bills.”
In the late ’90s, when City Council approved domestic-partner benefits, Kenney received a wealth of backlash for his support.
“I was at City Hall and he was getting four or five calls a minute of people damning him for supporting it. It would have been so much easier for him if he wasn’t our ally. But that’s what makes him genuine,” Price said.
The Jaci Adams OutProud Transgender Award will go to Dawn Munro. The award was created and presented last year to Adams, a longtime LGBT and HIV/AIDS activist, who passed away a few months later.
“When we were talking to people in the community about who should get this award, Dawn’s name came up every time,” Price said. “We’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about her.”
The younger LGBT community will celebrate its own leaders with the OutProud Youth Award, presented this year to the Gay-Straight Alliance at Hatboro-Horsham High School.
Members of the GSA have volunteered at Pride and OutFest for the better part of a decade, Price said.
“They’re in the GSA but a lot of them aren’t gay and they come and volunteer every year. They’ve been a huge help,” she said. “I think this group got it before a lot of the other schools, that still need diversity awareness.”
This marks the first OutFest after Pennsylvania became a marriage-equality state. For its efforts leading the lawsuit that brought about marriage equality in the state, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania will be given the Gilbert Baker National OutProud Award.
Price said the organization was the “obvious choice” this year.
“I remember at last year’s OutFest people asking me if I thought we’d have gay marriage in Pennsylvania and I said one day, you know, baby steps. Who knew that a year later we’d have it? So we wanted to honor ACLU for their work; we thought this award was very appropriate and well-deserved.”
More details about OutFest will be released in the coming weeks, but Price did note a few location changes: The flea market will be moved to Spruce Street between Camac and 13th, and 13th Street will now house a sports area, led by the newly formed Out Philadelphia Athletic League. The youth-dance zone will still be at 12th and Spruce streets.
For more information, visit www.phillygaypride.org.