Distinguished Service Award to Christopher Dyer

Presented by GLAA President Barrett L. Brick

GLAA 37th Anniversary Reception
Washington Plaza Hotel
Thursday, April 17, 2008

According to Wikipedia, our next honoree, once known as Cookie Buffet, is a self-admitted poor lipsyncher with absolutely no dance skill. Still, discussions about Cookie were often capped by the comment: “Yes, but he does such good things for the community.”

He most certainly does.

Christopher Dyer has loved the city of Washington since his childhood days, having come here by way of Ann Arbor, where he was born, and Alexandria, where his parents moved him for a couple of years when he was three. After growing up here and attending college in Ithaca, Chris eventually returned to DC, where his involvement with the Twenties Group and discussions about what 20-somethings could do for GLBT youth led him first to raise money to help the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League. Shortly thereafter, Chris founded the Youth Pride Alliance, which in 1997 held DC’s first annual Youth Pride Day, an event that has established itself and grown ever since.

Professionally, Chris has worked for a variety of non-profit organizations over the past decade and a half, including the American Bar Association, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the American Lung Association. He has served as marketing and communications committee chair for the Crystal Meth Working Group, and also on ten Capital Pride planning committees. He serves as an ANC Commissioner representing Logan Circle, and as a city Human Rights Commissioner. In 2001, Chris received the Gene Frey Award for Excellence from the Whitman Walker Clinic, and in 2003 he was named a Capital Pride Hero for his outstanding contributions to the community.

In 2007, Mayor Adrian Fenty named Chris Director of the Mayor’s Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Affairs. The mayor could not have made a better choice. Chris keeps in contact with a wide range of community members, brings his typical energy and commitment to the job, and shows a clear understanding of what it means to be a liaison. Under Chris’ leadership, the Office works consistently in innovative ways to fulfill its mission to provide constituent service and information to our community, and to advise the Mayor and the government on the needs of the District’s GLBT residents.

It is my great privilege to present GLAA’s Distinguished Service Award to Christopher Dyer.