Lisa Mata says her work with the LGBT community has been extremely rewarding and she is so proud of how much progress the community has made since she came out at 17 years old. Lucky to have a supportive family, Lisa grew up in Texas and never imagined finding such a large LGBT community until moving to San Diego almost 15 years ago.
The San Diego Pride Parade and Festival was Lisa’s first experience with the community, where she recalls being in shock seeing such a wonderfully diverse community. At that Pride festival, Lisa became a member of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and a few years later, starting inquiring about having an HRC presence in San Diego. She credits her friends and mentors Brian Lacklen and Stampp Corbin for helping her build the HRC community locally. Lisa says that HRC is important to her because she wants to help people in places in the country that are not as openly diverse as California.
She also became in the Lambda Archives, helping organize their first two galas, the GSDBA Charitable Foundation, and the No on Prop 8 campaign. Lisa says her work has led her to cross paths with some of the most wonderful human beings, who have since become like family. She urges anyone who wants to make a change to get involved in any of the groups working toward equality for the LGBT community.
Finally, Lisa says she is extremely lucky to have had the greatest support in this journey from her son Bryant.
Fernando Lopez is the Executive Director of San Diego Pride. Lopez’s years of LGBT advocacy, nonprofit management, public education, diversity consulting, media relations, guest lectures, and organizing have made them a consistent presence ensuring the struggles of the LGBT community are ever visible.
