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When: Saturday, April 18, 3:00–4:00 pm
Where: San Martin Room
Joan Sheldon, Rebecca Stake, Donna Freeman and Diahanna Pulido have between them over one hundred years of transgender activism. Come and listen to their reminiscences of decades of community involvement—the people they've known, the organizations they've helped to found—and lots of gossip.
This year's seminar will include a historical video presentation.
Joan Sheldon has been active in the Bay Area TG community since the late 1960's. She was a participant in the Dream conventions on the Oregon coast in the early 1980's and is one of the co-founders of ETVC (now TGSF). Joan is a recipient of both the IFGE's Trinity Award and the Cal Dreamin Alicia Lichy Spirit of California Award. She organized over 50 Pajaro Dunes weekend retreats and many Tahoe Femme Flings as well. But her greatest legacy may well be the hundreds of TG's that she has helped step out of the closet and into our community.
In 2006, Joan was the first recipient of the Joan Sheldon Outreach Award.
Becky Stake, along with corn, comes from the Great Plains of America. She is one of the founders of the Rainbow Gender Association (RGA) in San Jose, CA. In the early 1980's she was a member of the Gateway Gender Alliance—an international gender organization with an extensive outreach through many chapters, and the forerunner of RGA. Becky published the RGA newsletter for a number of years before a coup declared her president. Eight years ago, Becky became the Hostess Extraordinaire of the annual High Sierra Femme Fling at Lake Tahoe. More recently, she has been hostessing the Pajaro Dunes weekend retreats on the beach of Monterey Bay. In her free time Becky and her beloved Loyola relax at their two favorite places, Ben Lomond and Tuscany, reminding each other that it doesn't get much better that this.
Donna Freeman has been active in the Bay Area transgender community since 1988. She was Secretary of ETVC (now TGSF) for two years and was their Member of the Year in 1993. Donna is a co-founder of the Diablo Valley Girls and has been leading the group since its founding in 1991. She has attended over 20 TG conferences, including over 10 California Dreamins, both as a participant and a presenter, and is also a recipient of the Cal Dreamin Alicia Lichy Spirit of California Award. Donna has facilitated a TG support group at the Rainbow Community Center of Contra Costa County since 1993 and received a Volunteer Award from them in 2003. Donna is also the 2007 winner of California Dreamin's Joan Sheldon Outreach Award.
Diahanna Pulido has been active in the gender community since before there were any gender organizations. So it was natural that she would be in the forefront when the founders of Educational TV Channel (ETVC) were forming San Francisco’s first cross dressing organization. Diahanna had already been doing outreach through her professional photography. Some of the results of her early work, a multimedia presentation entitled “Transformations,” will be shown as part of the Transgender History seminar at California Dreamin 2008.
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