PFLAG Queens Chapter
Parents, Families and Friends
of Lesbians and Gays

Awardees Bio's

23th Annual Morty Manford Awardees

Hon. Joseph Crowley
A native of Woodside, Queens and lifelong New Yorker, Joe has served the people of the Bronx and Queens in Congress since 1998. Before being elected to Congress, Joe received a bachelor’s degree from Queens College, ran a successful small business for nearly a decade and represented the 30th Assembly District in the New York State legislature. Throughout his career in public service, Joe has been driven by a desire to protect New York’s middle class.

As Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, the fifth-highest ranking position in House Democratic Leadership, Joe’s efforts in Congress are focused on building strong communities, creating jobs, increasing access to health care and housing, protecting seniors’ hard-earned benefits, and opening up educational opportunities for working families. His seat on the prestigious Committee on Ways and Means allows Joe to work directly on issues of importance to the residents of the 14th District – keeping Medicare and Social Security strong, improving health care for all Americans and creating a fair and equitable tax code for American families and small businesses.

The 14th Congressional District is one of the most diverse areas in the country. Through his work with a range of local organizations, Joe has enriched his understanding of international affairs and become a leading voice in efforts to promote democracy and human rights both at home and abroad. Rated 100% by the Human Rights Campaign for his stances on issues important to the LGBTQ community, Joe has been a staunch supporter of marriage equality and a tireless advocate for equal protection and anti-discrimination legislation in schools, the workplace, and when it comes to building families and keeping them together.

Both local and national media have recognized Joe for his effective and impressive record of leadership in Congress. In 2010, National Journal magazine named Joe “a rising star” in the Democratic Caucus and The New York Times has noted that his peers consider him to be a “hard working representative” who is “an impassioned advocate for his district.” Joe has been married to his wife, Kasey Crowley, for over a decade and they have three young children.

19th Annual Carmel Tavadia Memorial Awardees

David Kilmnick, PhD. MSW; Chief Executive Officer LGBT Network, Inc.

David Kilmnick, PhD, MSW has more than 23 years of experience working on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities to end homophobia and transphobia, provide a home and a safe space for the community and advocate for equality under the law. David founded Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth (LIGALY) in 1993 and has led the organization through growing and developing substantially in its 22-year history including the purchase of the first LGBT community center on Long Island. The most significant growth was in 2005 when David established The LGBT Network (The Network) to expand services for Long Island’s LGBT community throughout the lifespan. The Network included two other new organizations – the Long Island LGBT Community Center (The Center) for adults and families, and Services and Advocacy for LGBT Elders – Long Island (SAGE-LI) for seniors so that LGBT Long Islanders of all ages have access to needed programs and services. In 2015 LGBT Network expanded its services into Queens, NY with the opening of the Queens LGBT Community Center.

Today, David is the Chief Executive Officer of The Network that serves tens of thousands annually, reaches an additional 80,000 through education and outreach and employs 30 full-time staff members in four Community Centers located in Woodbury, Bay Shore, Patchogue, Sag Harbor, and Little Neck, Queens. The Network in the fall of 2014 announced the first ever affordable housing in the New York tri-state area for LGBT and LGBT friendly seniors in Bay Shore and expanded its service region to include Queens County. With an annual budget of over $3.5 million, The Network service region includes over 6 million people that spans the entire length of the Long Island Expressway from the Midtown Tunnel to Montauk.

David has been widely recognized for his work on Long Island, throughout New York State and across the country. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the New York Civil Liberties Union Equality Award and the Lawrence Timpa Humanitarian Award for Professional Service from the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission. He is past co-chair of the Board of Directors for Centerlink, the national organization that represents nearly 200 LGBT Centers, was appointed to the Suffolk County Hate Crimes Taskforce in 2009, and was named to the 10th Annual Long Island Press Power List in 2012 and 2013 as one of the 50 most influential Long Islanders.

In addition to his innovative work in the LGBT community, David is a professor at several colleges and universities, including University of Maryland-University College in Nonprofit Management, Capella University in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management and at Walden University in the School of Public Policy and Administration. Kilmnick received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York in Social Welfare, where his dissertation focused on heterosexist attitudes and changes following contact with an openly gay instructor.

11th Annual Brenda Howard Memorial Awardee

Dr. Herukhuti (H. Sharif "Herukhuti" Williams)

Dr. Herukhuti is a cultural studies scholar, sex researcher-educator, systems theorist, cultural worker and interdisciplinary social scientist whose work operates at the intersection of race, culture, sexuality and spirituality. He is also a human rights and social justice activist who has participated in the decolonization movement and intersectional politics for three decades. In addition to his grassroots activism, he has been an organizational leader including as founder and chief erotics officer (CEO) of the Center for Culture, Sexuality and Spirituality.

In September 2013, as a member of a group of bisexual researchers, leaders and activists invited to a bisexual community issues and public policy roundtable at the White House, Dr. Herukhuti co-presented on the topic of HIV and bisexuals. In 2015, Dr. Herukhuti co-organized another bisexual public policy forum at the White House and co-authored policy briefs for that meeting.

A poet, playwright, performance artist and stage director; two of his plays have been performed at the New York International Fringe Theatre Festival. He has performed at the Bowery Poetry Cafe and, world famous spoken word incubator, Brooklyn Moon Cafe. His most recent play about Black bisexual men, My Brother’s a Keeper, was developed under fellowships funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Lambda Literary Foundation.

Dr. Herukhuti is author of Conjuring Black Funk: Notes on Culture, Sexuality, and Spirituality, Volume I (Vintage Entity Press). He is the award-winning co-editor of the Lambda Literary Award nonfiction finalist anthology and Bisexual Book Awards nonfiction and anthology winner Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men (Bisexual Resource Center) and Sexuality, Religion and the Sacred: Bisexual, Pansexual and Polysexual Perspectives (Routledge). A member of the editorial board of the Journal of Bisexuality--co-editor of the journal’s special double issue on spirituality--and the Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships, he has written about and lectured on bisexuality particularly among people of African descent.

In 2015, Dr. Herukhuti was a Thought Leader for the Association of Black Sexologists and Clinicians, Camp Pride Educator-in-Residence, Lambda Literary Foundation Playwriting Fellow and Bisexual Book Awards Writer of the Year.

Other Information

We also have an ad journal and YOUR AD DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
For more information regarding our celebration ad journal, see our ad journal webpage at http://www.pflag-queens.org/journal.html

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