2006 Dorothy Awards
By JULIE WEISBERG / Thursday, January 12, 2005
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2006 Dorothy Awards
Saturday, Feb. 25.
For more information,
click here. | In an evening dedicated to saluting the pioneers of the new civil unions law, the New Haven Gay and Lesbian Community Center will present its third annual Dorothy Awards next month.
This year, the center has chosen to recognize Anne Stanback, executive director of Love Makes A Family, civil rights attorney Maureen Murphy and state Rep. Mike Lawlor – all of whom were instrumental in bringing forth last year’s civil unions law. In addition, the center will honor David Knapp, an former Boy Scout Master who has been a frequent and outspoken critic of the scouts’ anti-gay policy.
The ceremony -- an annual fundraising event held to honor excellence in Connecticut’s GLBT community -- will take place on Saturday, Feb. 25 at Fantasia in North Haven from 6 pm to midnight. Connecticut Public Radio personality Faith Middleton will host the awards ceremony, and Sister Funk will once again provide music for the annual event. Tickets for the awards ceremony is $75, with a black tie optional.
“We really need to recognize these people because they have made a big, big difference in the community,” Frank DeMayo, co-chair of the 2006 Dorothy Awards, told Metroline in a phone interview late last month.
DeMayo added that the new law had “been a long time coming”, and the advocates and legislators who supported it “worked tirelessly” to make civil unions legal.
“Let’s help celebrate them,” he said.
According to DeMayo, a former board member and president of the New Haven center, the Dorothy Award were created more than three years ago, as way to not only raise money for the center, but also to celebrate individuals and activists that have positivley affected the state's GLBT residents.
“We wanted to do a fundraiser, but also something that would be relevant to the community we serve,” DeMayo explained. “We wanted it to have some meaning.”
So the center’s leadership decided to “set a precedent in the state,” he said, by officially honoring “people who have made a difference in the community.”
“In April, we ask the community to send in nominees -- who ever you think made a difference – and then we whittle it down to the three or four individuals that we feel best represent what the people at the center would like to honor, as well as the community at large,” DeMayo said of how the center’s board chooses each year’s honorees.
And the awards come at a crucial time for the center. While the Dorothy’s are the center’s largest fundraiser of the year, DeMayo said, the center’s operating costs “are always rising.”
“Funds are short, as they are with all nonprofits,” he said.
And DeMayo said with the addition of several new groups and meetings that serve New Haven’s GLBT community, support for the center this year is vital to maintaining its programming.
“I think that it is important to say to people, ‘We really need you this year,’” he said.
But, with some 300 people attending the awards ceremony the last two years, DeMayo said he is hopeful that this year’s numbers will remain strong.
“Let’s go out there and celebrate who we are,” he said.
For information, email Frank DeMayo at dorothyawards@yahoo.com
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