Distinguished Service Award to Bob Summersgill

Presented by GLAA President Kevin Davis

GLAA 32nd Anniversary Reception
Radisson Barcelo Hotel
Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Bob Summersgill is immediate past President of GLAA. He served three years in that position, which ties the record for longest serving GLAA president. He has also served as Secretary and Vice President, and is now Treasurer -- which means he is seeing that the bills get paid tonight.

Bob's tenure as President was a productive one. In 2000, GLAA succeeded in persuading then School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman to issue an anti-harassment directive for DC Public Schools to protect all students including sexual minority youth. When this proved insufficient, Bob worked with PFLAG and GLSEN to persuade the Board of Education to amend school policies to prohibit harassment and sexual harassment. This was complemented by the Human Rights Amendment Act of 2002, which GLAA helped draft, and which makes harassment a form of discrimination under the Act. That law also makes explicit the right of persons to sue the District government for violations under the Act.

During Bob's tenure, the District also began registering domestic partners after ten years of being prohibited from doing so by the U.S. Congress. Bob's testimony on these and other matters before various DC Council committees provided hours of wholesome entertainment for cable TV viewers.

As President, Bob took a special interest in the discrimination suffered by intersexed persons. At the request of Charles Holman, then Director of DC's Office of Human Rights, Bob brought members of the Intersex Society of North America to brief OHR staff on intersexuality and its medical, ethical and legal dimensions. Bob has also worked with the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, and highlighted the ludicrous implications of the ABC Board's anti-flagellation regulations.

Bob has also worked on Sodomy Law reform, condom availability in DC prisons, candidate ratings in elections, a unique identifier system for HIV epidemiological surveillance, training for police and fire departments, adequate funding for the Office of Human Rights, and Equality Begins at Home. He has represented GLAA in the Federation of Statewide GLBT Political Organizations.

In Maryland, earlier in his activist career, Bob worked to protect gay-themed books in the Montgomery County Libraries, lobbied to repeal an anti-gay law, and served as campaign manager for an openly gay candidate in Baltimore. During a four-year stay in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he created and published the New Mexico Rainbow newspaper, founded an annual Coming Out Day Celebration, organized annual statewide conferences, and lobbied for civil rights and hate crimes laws -- which have now been signed into law.

Outside the District, Bob is perhaps best known as owner and editor of the website sodomylaws.org, a comprehensive online resource for people trying to eliminate laws that prohibit consensual, non-commercial, non-reproductive sex between adults in private. He extensively researched DC's own sodomy law prior to its repeal ten years ago. In fact, many of Bob's friends call him Mister Sodomy.

Bob is also a gay history buff, and has an extensive collection of early gay magazines including the Mattachine Review and ONE Magazine. Recently he made the first presentation on a gay topic at the D.C. Historical Studies Conference.

Bob's dedication, his scrupulous attention to detail, his initiative in reaching out and forming new alliances, his effective use of the Internet as a tool of activism, and his sense of humor -- all of these qualities have made Bob an enormous asset, not just to GLAA, but to all sexual minorities in the District and wherever there is access to the World Wide Web. Speaking personally, I am especially grateful to Bob as my immediate predecessor for handing me the reins of such an effective organization.

I am therefore proud and delighted to present this Distinguished Service Award to Bob Summersgill.