Honor 2004 is over. Please join us at this year's Honor!

The Honor Awards

DIRECTIONS

Directions to the Somerset Marriott LINK
110 Davidson Avenue
Somerset, New Jersey 08873
Phone: 1-732-560-0500

From the South:

1. Take NJ Turnpike to Exit 10 (I-287).
2. Take I-287 NORTH to Exit 10 (Easton Ave).
3. Exit 10 puts you onto Easton Ave, go towards Bound Brook.
4. Turn LEFT at the first light onto Davidson Ave.
5. Hotel immediately on LEFT.

From the North: (Morristown)

1. Get on Rt 287 SOUTH towards Somerset.
2. Take Rt 287 Exit 10 (Easton Ave).
3. Exit 10 puts you onto Easton Ave, go towards Bound Brook.
4. Turn LEFT at the first light onto Davidson Ave.
5. Hotel immediately on LEFT.

Maps and directions here.

REGISTRATION OPEN

On-line registration is now open for Honor 2004! For the first time NJLGC/PLF is able to offer on-line registration. Visit www.njlgc.org/honor to register or click here.

• Register online: GO »
• Printable registration form: GO »
• Purchase ad space: GO »

HONOREE BIOS

Come HONOR those who have worked tirelessly to improve the quality of life for New Jersey's GLBTI community. These folks are in part responsible for mainstream media reporting that New Jersey is seeing a surge of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and intersexed people moving into the state. Acknowledge the great work done by these great activists. Attend the dinner in their honor. If you can't make it, consider taking out an ad in the program book telling them, and everyone, how grateful you are for their efforts.

Honor 2004, New Jersey's Annual Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Intersexed Awards Banquet, including dinner, the awards, dancing and a silent auction, will be held on October 16, 2004, at the Somerset Marriot. Richard Skipper, as Carole Channing, will emcee the evening. The doors open at 6pm for cocktail hour; dinner and awards begin at 7pm. The dinner, Tastes From Around the World, will feature cuisine from the Far East, Mexico, and Italy.

This year, six remarkable individuals will be recognized for their contributions to NJ's GLBTI community. These are leaders. People who helped shape laws, organizations, people and society. New Jersey is a better place because of their work.

Assemblyman Loretta Weinberg

The D. Bennett Mazur Award, established in 1992 and first awarded at Honor 1993, recognizes those individuals who, at extreme risk to themselves, have nevertheless made sustained and profound contributions to transforming our society. Receiving the D. Bennett Mazur Award this year is Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg, the prime sponsor of NJ's groundbreaking Domestic Partnership Legislation, and successor to the Assembly seat of Assemblyman D. Bennett Mazur himself.

Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg started as a staffer for Assemblyman Mazur.  Since becoming Assemblywoman, she has been one of the state's fiercest fighters against homophobia, racism, sexism, hate crimes, and workplace discrimination.  Prime sponsor, and chief advocate, of the historic domestic partnership legislation that was signed into Law this year, she is not one to rest on her laurels.  The Assemblywoman continues her efforts in the Assembly, currently working to establish syringe exchange in NJ. 

Established in 1988 and first awarded in 1989, the Honor Achievement Award recognizes people who have worked for the betterment of the LGBTI community through a single significant effort or a sustained period of transforming work. The recipients of this year's Achievement Award are: Barbra "Babs" Casbar, Steven Goldstein, Sally Blakely-Komar, Steve Mershon, and Gary Paul Wright.

Babs Casbar

Babs Casbar, along with her late spouse Carol, first became active in the early 1990's in the Monmouth Ocean County Trangender Group (MOTG).  When the NJ Stonewall Democratic Club started, Babs became an active member as well as Vice President for Legislative and Political Affairs.  As a founding member of the Gender Rights Advocacy Assocation of New Jersey in 2000, Babs quickly became actively involved in the fight for transgender equality in NJ.  She is also a liaison to numerous state organizations, serving as a Board member of the New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Coalition, and a critical member of its Domestic Partnership Task Force.

Steven Goldstein

During 2003, Steven Goldstein worked tirelessly on the Marriage Equality Program in New Jersey for Lambda Legal.  Lambda Legal's Town Hall Meeting Series on relationship equality, as coordinated by Steven, was attended by over 5,000 New Jerseyans.  While advocating for marriage equality rights as a consultant to Lambda, Steven also provided his public policy expertise and knowledge to the NJLGC Domestic Partnership Task Force. Steven has worked with the media to provide continuing coverage of the relationship equality story, getting editorials, features stories and news stories throughout the year.  Steven has long been an advocate for the GLBTI community.  As co-manager of Senator Corzine's election campaign in 2000, he helped bridge the divide between a national election campaign and the GLBTI community.

Sally Blakely-Komar

As a licensed therapist, Sally Blakely-Komar provides counseling to all age groups and family types who are having difficult in this seemingly straight world.  She spends her time helping to network gay women and gay children with New Jersey resources.  She is actively involved in supporting custody awards for gay parents and initiated a bereavement program for children in Hunterdon County who lost a parent or significant other to HIV/AIDS.  And she is the founder of the Fennimore Initiative, the lesbian health care program that focuses on education for lesbians with cancer.

Steve Mershon

Most recently the architect of his hometown of Maplewood's historic Domestic Partnership Celebration commemorating the first day of DP registration in NJ, Steve Mershon has been agitating on behalf of the GLBTI community for decades.  A founder of one of AT&T's local GLBTI employee organizations, League North Jersey, Steve followed suit as Lucent's EAGLE co-chair when Lucent was spun off from AT&T.  This natural leader has been instrumental in the successful efforts to add sexual orientation to the state's Law Against Discrimination, pass the Domestic Partnership Act, and promote the Safe Schools Bullying Act.    Helping to pave the way for the future generations, Steve has been active with Gay and Lesbian Youth in NJ (GALY-NJ) and with Rainbow Families in Maplewood.

Gary Paul Wright

Gary Paul Wright has been an AIDS activist serving the GLBTI community since the beginning of the epidemic.  He originally began volunteering in NYC with Gay Men's Health Crisis, where be eventually became a coordinator of People of Color Prevention Programs. HIV/AIDS became Gary's career.    After leaving GMHC, he went to the Balm in Gilead where he was responsible for promoting the Harlem Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS, a program focused on bringing HIV/AIDS awareness to the Black churches.  From there he went to work for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amFAR) and then, in 1996, he came to work for the New Jersey AIDS Education and Training Center at UMDNJ in Newark, NJ.  In October, 2001, Gary Paul founded the African American Office of Gay Concerns in Newark and became its first Executive Director. Gary presently serves on the City of Newark's Municipal Councils' Health Committee, the New Jersey HIV Health Fraud Task Force, the New Jersey Statewide MSM Support Task Force and New Jersey Performing Arts Center's LGBT Advisory Board.   He is also a member of the New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Coalition's AIDS Advisory Committee

Please join the New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Coalition and our Personal Liberty Fund as we honor these individuals at this event. For more information about the evening, for advertising information in our Program booklet, or to get tickets for the event, contact NJLGC at mail@njlgc.org or 732-828-6772, or visit our website at www.njlgc.org.  

HONOREES ANNOUNCED

Honor 2004, New Jersey's Annual Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Intersexed Awards Banquet, including dinner, the awards, dancing and a silent auction, will be held on October 16, 2004, at the Somerset Marriot. Richard Skipper, as Carol Channing, will emcee the evening. The doors open at 6pm for cocktail hour; dinner and awards begin at 7pm.

This year, six remarkable individuals will be recognized for their contributions to NJ's GLBTI community.

The D. Bennett Mazur Award, established in 1992 and first awarded at Honor 1993, recognizes those individuals who, at extreme risk to themselves, have nevertheless made sustained and profound contributions to transforming our society. Receiving the D. Bennett Mazur Award this year is Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg, the prime sponsor of NJ's groundbreaking Domestic Partnership Legislation, and successor to the Assembly seat of Assemblyman D. Bennett Mazur himself.

Established in 1988 and first awarded in 1989, the Honor Award recognizes people who have worked for the betterment of the LGBTI community through a single significant effort or a sustained period of transforming work. The recipients of this year's Honor Award are: Barbra Casbar, Steven Goldstein, Sally Blakely-Komar, Steve Mershon, and Gary Paul Wright.

Please join the New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Coalition and our Personal Liberty Fund as we honor these individuals at this event. For more information about the evening, advertising, or to get tickets for the event, contact NJLGC at mail@njlgc.org or 732-828-6772, or visit our website at www.njlgc.org.

About The Awards

Established in 1988 and first awarded in 1989, the Honor Award recognizes people who have worked for the betterment of the LGBTI community through a single significant effort or a sustained period of transforming work. The D. Bennett Mazur Award, established in 1992 and first awarded at Honor 1993, recognizes those individuals who, at extreme risk to themselves, have nevertheless made sustained and profound contributions to transforming our society. Since it began, with these awards, the Annual Achievement Awards Banquet has acknowledged the extraordinary volunteer work done by more than 125 local activists.