PRIDE & Equality - PRIDE 2016: Featured Stories: 2016 Models of Hope

​PRIDE & Equality celebrates another year of Models of Hope. Celebrating their 8th year, the Vincent R. Johnson Models of Hope Awards honors individuals and organizations making a difference and can be seen as role models in the community. Models of Hope has created a roster of quality honorees over the past seven years and this year’s nominees are no exception. Take a look at who we will be honoring on July 22nd at the UNM Student Union Building.

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®Max Woltman Photography

Community Honoree
Mauro Walden-Montoya
Professional Volunteer/President ABQ LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce

How did you get involved with your organization(s) in the GLBTQ community?
I have always been an activist, including working on political campaigns in high school and college.  After graduation from law school, I wanted to do something good with my law degree, so I started volunteering for an AIDS clinic in Washington, DC in 1985.  In 1986 they hired me as their first legal director and I have been involved in AIDS and LGBTQ matters since then.  Having been diagnosed with HIV in 1991, I never thought I’d live to see the 21st Century and I just turned 58 and will hit 25 years this year living with HIV.  I have been on at least 50 boards, about 95% LGBTQ, I have been president of several organizations, and I have been president of for 2 years, and involved with, the ABQ LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce for 5 years now.  I am also on the board of the SW G&L Film Festival, the WHEELS Museum and am one of the heads of the ABQ Leather Daddies.

What are some of your achievements and/or awards that you’ve received for your service?
I was just honored in DC in May for starting the AIDS legal program 30 years ago.  I have been honored as a leatherman, as an attorney, and as an LGBTQ advocate, including being Grand Marshall of the 1988 DC Pride Parade, and several other honors.

Tell us about your history. What was life like when you were a youth?
I grew up in Albuquerque, went to a catholic school until 10th grade, and am from a big Latino family.  Family was and is always very important to me.  I knew I was “different” since the time I was 6, but I thought everyone was like me then.  Starting school I quickly realized that I was different.  Also having an unusual name, it was sometimes challenging.  But what was more challenging was being called a sissy and being made fun of for not being good at sports or for playing the piano.  It was difficult at times, but that was in the 1960s  (pre-Stonewall) and 1970s. The term gay didn’t even exist back then for homosexuals.  My extended family would make fun of gay people, calling a gay man “one of those” and doing a weird hand motion.  I went along with the crowds, not wanting to be different, but always had my same-sex attraction.  I was set back by being abused by a priest when I was 10 and 11.  But I didn’t let it interfere with my accepting being gay once I got to college.  However, I didn’t officially come out as gay until 1982, when I met my ex in law school.  Telling my parents in 1982 was very difficult and caused rifts in my family for a while.  But everyone got used to it and now my husband and I are accepted by my entire family.

What was the changing moment in your life that led to you wanting to make a difference and live life as the real you?
I think finding my ex-lover in law school is what prompted me to finally come out of the closet.  We told some friends, but not others.  Some had adverse reactions, but no one really stopped being my friend.  Some were surprised - which surprised us given that we were together virtually 24/7.  But when I truly came into my own I found my calling was volunteering. Then being hired to be the legal director for AIDS with a population that was under attack, was being totally neglected and the only ones helping was ourselves.  I became a soldier, then eventually a “general” in the war on AIDS and the fight for LGBTQ rights.

What piece of advice would you give today GLBTQ youth?
Know it gets better.  Know you can live through this.  Know that you will be happy about being yourself someday and if you’re in a tough situation where it feels no one accepts you, know there are people who will WHOLEHEARTEDLY accept you and take you in.  Know how to protect yourself from bullying and from AIDS and other diseases.  And know that we, your elders, are here for you anytime you need us, to talk to and unburden yourself, to help out if you need a hand, or just to give you a hug and say YOU ARE LOVED.

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®Albuquerque Pride

Community Honoree
Gwen Cannova-Kinkie
Albuquerque Pride

How did you get involved with your organization(s) in the GLBTQ community?
I became a member of the Albuquerque Social Club in 2002 (I believe), and then continued with getting involved with Albuquerque Pride and Come Out Come Out/Sinatra Devine.

What are some of your achievements and/or awards that you’ve received for your service?
I have received the Rick Diamond Heart Award, Outstanding Award for stylist and salon, Miss Gay New Mexico USofA Newcomer Contributor, and Cheyanne Pretty Hospitality Award.

Tell us about your history. What was life like when you were a youth?
When I was a youth I lived in a Kansas town (even though I was born and raised in New Mexico) that it was expected that you went to school, graduated, went to college, found a husband/wife, got married, had kids, and lived the American dream. There was no talk of any kind of “alternative” lifestyle. I kept my thoughts and desires to myself and as a result did not “come out” until my late 30’s.

What was the changing moment in your life that lead to you wanting to make a difference and live life as the real you?
After I married my wife and our youngest moved out, she asked me,  “Who is Gwen? “ It made me think. It made me question who I was.

What piece of advice would you give today GLBTQ youth?
LOL!  My favorite question!
Do not take advantage of the rights you have as a GLBTQ person; people died for you to have these rights. People die every day in some countries just because someone suspects they are GLBTQ.
Be respectful of others,  know your own history,  know how we got to where we are and continue to fight and vote for equal rights for all human beings.

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®Albuquerque Pride

​Community Honoree
Marshall Martinez (AKA LaRhya Daniels)
Public Affairs Manager /Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains-New Mexico

How did you get involved with your organization(s) in the GLBTQ community?
I became involved with Equality New Mexico after moving to Albuquerque for school when I was 18 years old. But my work in the LGBTQ Community began when I was about 14 years old, I signed up for a voluntary HIV/AIDS Awareness class and eventually became so interested in the work that I was the first Peer Educator in my school in Alamogordo. My work evolved in Alamogordo and I eventually helped open the first Teen Drop-In Center in the community, specializing in creating a safe space for LGBTQ Teens to talk openly and honestly about their struggles.

What are some of your achievements and/or awards that you’ve received for your service?
I’ve reigned as Empress of the United Court of the Sandias – which is an elected position based on service and ability/desire to serve a specific role for one year. I have also been honored to be voted ABQ Pride’s OUTStanding Social Influencer. In High School, I was honored to receive multiple awards from local, county and state organizations for my dedication to community service.

Tell us about your history. What was life like when you were a youth?
I don’t enjoy the fact that I’m not considered a “youth” anymore – for starters.   I grew up in the late 90s, a time when Apps didn’t exist and even Internet access was sporadic at best.  I grew up in a small town and even though I thought I was gay at a very young age, I had no way to be sure and certainly no examples to help verify this idea.  The only support I had was through the Peer Education and HIV programs where I did a lot of volunteer work but was not out. The fear with which I lived each day until coming out is still inexplicable to others.  Mathew Sheppard was beaten and eventually died within months of my “planned” coming out to my family and friends, which only scared me even more into secrecy.  I am so grateful to a loving and respectful family who treated me with kindness and compassion and understanding when I came out, but even today I am shocked by how far we have come as a community – victories I never truly thought I would live to see.

What was the changing moment in your life that lead to you wanting to make a difference and live life as the real you?
My younger sister was born when I was 12 years old.  Seeing her as a baby, and knowing that there was more to come, had the biggest impact on my desire and dedication to make my communities better.  I began waking up each day wondering how my life and my role, not only as a bigger brother, but also as a citizen of the world so to speak, could lead to her life being better, and through that the lives of so many other young people.

What piece of advice would you give today GLBTQ youth?
My advice to all youth, is to consider themselves part of something bigger, to find something bigger than themselves to be part of.  The feeling of inclusion and acceptance is a social need, but the outcome of that is the ability to be influential.  While I believe naturally that “it gets better” and that we should hold on through those tough times, there is no greater way to get through struggle than to have a ‘responsibility” that pulls one through the darkest hours.   Joining organizations, clubs, social groups that are working for a common good will steel the spine in a way that has lasting impact – get through your hard times by making less hard times for others. It works.

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Not present: Business / Organization Honoree: UNM Queer Student Alliance and Youth Honoree: New Mexico GSA Network.
Vincent R. Johnson Models of Hope Awards is on Friday, July 22nd, 2016.
Learn more at http://www.myprideonline.com/models-of-hope.html