2017 Spirit of Stonewall Awardees
Every year, San Diego Pride accepts nominations from the community for the annual presentation of the Spirit of Stonewall Awards. The awards recognize individuals or groups who contribute significantly to the LGBT community through their leadership, activism, and fundraising efforts.
Click here for a full list of our awardees.
Spirit of Stonewall Award – Inspirational Couple
Awarded to a couple whose love and commitment embodies the humanity of our community.
2017 Recipients – Meredith Vezina and Ellen Holzman
Meredith Vezina and Ellen Holzman have been a couple since 1992 and were legally married in 2013. Meredith also became a publicly visible trans woman in 2013, and the couple has since promoted transgender visibility, primarily through events and videography.
Meredith became active in the transgender community in the 1980s as a volunteer for the Lambda Archives of San Diego. In 1993, she became the first paid director of the Greater San Diego Business Association and advocated for the organization to openly identify as the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
Since 2014, Meredith and Ellen have focused on their campaign for trans visibility and respect by being part of the committee that organized the first Trans March and Rally, founding Trans Elders of San Diego, founding and producing The Trans Oral History Project and the transgender collection for the Lambda Archives. In 2015, they founded Trans Narratives to document and affirm the lives of local trans people and local trans history. They also worked with LGBT Weekly to adopt a policy banning hate speech and personal attacks from its comment pages.
In 2016, they insisted that the city of San Diego include trans history in its San Diego Citywide LGBTQ Historic Context Statement and provided information on trans history dating back to 1936 that is now a part of that document. They also helped the LGBT Center include trans people in the video campaign for an LGBT-affirming housing project. This year, they have joined the organizing committee for the local LGBTQ Equality March held in June of 2017.
Chloe Janda is San Diego Pride's Public Relations Manager and an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. She oversees the media relations and content creation for Pride's festival and parade, and some events and programs throughout the year. She is also the Public Relations & Communications Coordinator at Brown Marketing Strategies. Outside of Pride, Chloe plays Masters Water Polo, is an avid podcast listener, standup comedy fan, beach lover and social media junkie.
