Designed to honor an ally of any age who has made significant contributions to improving the lives of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, or Intersex, and Questioning youth and youth who have GLBTIQ family members.
2007 Ally to Queer Youth Award – Awardee
Ralph Alpert
Community Member, ADAM Foundation
Ralph Alpert is a pillar in our community whose commitments of time, intellectual capital, and financial resources have had tremendous impact in support of queer youth. An active and longtime member of the Community Foundation’s Diversity Partnership Advisory Committee, Ralph has been an advocate for supporting activities that increase the visibility of queer youth in schools, public media, health, faith-based organizations, education, and youth-serving groups. Ralph has been a long-time donor to the Queer Youth Task Force, STRANGE, the Diversity Center, Triangle Speakers, and the UCSC Lionel Cantú GLBTI Resource Center. Ralph also supported a Queer Zine Project (The Big Q) based at UCSC, which included the voices of many of the area’s queer youth. In addition to his own substantial financial contributions, Ralph has organized others to form ADAM, a group of individuals who contribute funds to be pooled and used toward queer youth projects.
2007 Ally to Queer Youth Award – Nominees
Laura Garnette
Division Director, Juvenile Probation, Santa Cruz County Probation Department
Laura Garnette works to protect the interests of queer youth in juvenile detention systems. Laura has worked this year with the Superintendent of Juvenile Hall to make sure that safe space signage and diverse family images are displayed in juvenile hall. Laura has also worked for many years training probation staff across the country about queer youth issues in general, as well as the probable over-representation of queer youth in detention systems. This year, Laura has worked to pressure the Annie E. Casey Foundation to conduct a pilot research project to determine whether queer youth are actually over-represented in detention systems across the country, a project that falls within the larger Annie E. Casey Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, which is working to create equitable detention processes and conditions of confinement across gender, race, and ethnicity. Laura is one of three national leaders who is placing pressure on this initiative to also include sexual identity as a source of oppression and inequitable institutional treatment.
Vietta Helmle
Executive Director, YWCA of Watsonville
Vietta Helmle has used her leadership role as the Executive Director of the YWCA of Watsonville to ensure queer youth and their families feel welcome in the broader community. Vietta’s office door is always open, and she always makes an effort to greet youth with a warm smile when they visit the facility. Vietta has supported Latinas Lesbianas y Aliadas (LyLyA), as well as PFLAG en Español, which meets monthly at the YWCA facility. At staff meetings, Vietta makes sure staff are aware of LGBT program activities and progress, and she creates a safe space for LGBT program staff to report comfortably, often prefacing verbal reports with accolades on their work. She also works to make sure queer-related programs have funding to continue providing services to our community. At times when LGBT participants in YWCA programs have shared confidentially with staff about the homophobia they face out in the community, Vietta has advised program staff on ways the YWCA can offer direct support to their members in combating that homophobia.
Valerie Quandt
Assistant Principal, Watsonville High School
Valerie Quandt, as Assistant Principal of Watsonville High School and formerly as a teacher at Scotts Valley High School, is consistent supporter of queer students and their allies. An active supporter of the Watsonville High School GSA, Valerie helps creates a safe environment for queer youth, who know they have her support in standing up against homophobia and intolerance. She is active in enforcing the state law AB 537 and encourages other allies on campus (administrators, teachers, students, and parents) to support the implementation of queer and anti-bias education into the school curriculum. As one of the students at Watsonville High said, “she uses her authority to assist us … around the fight against homophobia.” Valerie has supported programs that spread awareness of queer youth issues and has created a positive atmosphere for everyone. Valerie also facilitates the Equity Team at Watsonville High School and serves on the district’s Equity Team. She truly is an ally who has devoted her time and energy to make a difference in the GLBTQ community.
Glenn Soma
Scotts Valley Community Member, Parent
Glenn Soma is the kind of parent who not only goes the extra mile for his own bisexual daughter, who graduated from Scotts Valley High — he continues to be an active force advocating for GLBTIQ youth in the Scotts Valley Unified School District and surrounding areas. By visiting with School Board members, serving on the SVUSD Strategic Plan Task Force, and serving on committees within the school district, he strives to make sure the schools are safe for all youth. Over the past two years, Glenn has spoken openly of his love and commitment to his daughter, and with his wife Winona, joined PFLAG in order to better understand how to support his daughter and in turn provide support for parents, friends, and family of all GLBTIQ persons. When called upon to participate in the Strategic Planning process, he helps assure that the concerns of GLBTIQ students, staff, and faculty are included in the discussion, advocating for inclusiveness and being a voice in the system for those who deal with opposition and intolerance every day.
Elizabeth Tapia
Community Member, Latinas y Lesbianas y Aliadas (LyLyA)
Elizabeth Tapia understands the importance of close-knit groups and face-to-face interaction as a foundation of the GLBTIQ community. A Mexican immigrant and longtime member of Santa Cruz County’s lesbian community, Elizabeth began actively volunteering three years ago when she began working with the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center. She was a founding member of the first ever Latina Collective to create a Spanish monthly segment of the Closet Free Radio Program at KZSC Radio that reaches queer youth. Last year, she began collaborating with Triangle Speakers and LyLyA to ensure Spanish PFLAG monthly meetings in Watsonville. Last winter, Elizabeth opened her home to create a space for Latina lesbians of all ages to socialize, relax, create, recreate, and learn from one another. Elizabeth has also helped organize meetings of the first ever GLBT Latino Retreat 2007, and is an active member of Latinas y Lesbianas y Aliadas/YWCA of Watsonville and the Líderes Lesbianas Latinas, two groups dedicated to serving the queer Latina communities in Santa Cruz County.
Susy Zepeda
Triangle Speakers, Board Member
Susy Zepeda has consistently made her commitment to making Santa Cruz County a safer place for LGBTIQ youth a top priority. Susy’s initiative as a founding member of the Queer Latina Network (QLN) is a testament to her commitment to creating spaces for young Latina lesbians to share life experiences and grow as both individuals and as a community. Likewise, through her work at Triangle Speakers as both a director and volunteer, Susy shares her life experiences with youth, especially Latino/a youth in Santa Cruz County, in order to reduce homophobia in the Latino/a community and to create a positive space for young Latino/a GLBT people to come together and collaborate. Susy is also a founding member of Latinas y Lesbianas y Aliadas (LyLyA) and Líderes Lesbianas Latinas (LLL), two groups dedicated to serving the queer Latina communities in Santa Cruz County. Some of their work includes planning a retreat for Queer Latinos/as in the county and sponsoring culturally-informed events for all people in Santa Cruz County.