Category Archives: Activism

Brian and Ted Retire

Happy retirement to two amazing tobacco activists — Ted and Brian — married to each other and wisely retiring on the same day! Congratulations also to Amaya for her taking over LGBTQ Minus Tobacco. I know you’ll do more amazing work as a leader in tobacco control. I’m so happy to be connected with this community in the Bay Area after volunteering in tobacco control decades ago in New York.

Tobacco End Game Presentation at City of Hope’s Pride Health Symposium

After working remotely for more than four years, I finally had a good excuse to fly down and see our gorgeous campus in Duarte, California. I had sometimes waved to the building from the freeway when driving by on my way to vacation in Palm Springs, but on this day I had the privilege of speaking about my pro bono tobacco activism at the Pride Health Symposium!

This is the presentation of my life! In it I summarize decades of pro bono activism in tobacco control that I’ve done, but most importantly it exposes so much of what Big Tobacco continues to do to poison humans all over the world. I also concentrate on the strides that have been made locally in the Bay Area in the last several years, but since I started this in the 1990’s it’s always been about fighting the industry worldwide. My presentation is 50 minutes long and that’s after I had to cut it back. I was so honored to speak at the Pride Health Symposium at my employer’s campus for the Board I joined for LGBTQ employees. I gave this in late June for Pride Month, but I work on this issue all year long. It’s highly personal and I’m very proud of it. I can almost not believe I got through it. Thank you to so many for your support!

Here is the official video of the presentation I gave:

I was also recently asked to join the Board of Pride in the City, which is the LGBTQ employee group. My closest fellow co-workers also came from far and wide to support me, which was so heart-warming. I am very lucky to work with such great people and such an important institution fighting the scourges of cancer and diabetes every day!

Kelly took the beginning of my presentation.
Selfie video on our gorgeous zen campus!

Kitty Visit

This beautiful kitty in the driveway today let me pick her up. She was so sweet and a little skinny. I had to run to another event, but I hope to see her again. She knows she can trust me now. I also noticed her tests were engorged, so she might have a litter somewhere, and maybe she was just hungry. No clipped ear and no collar, of course.

Vallejo Gay Pride Picnic with the Hayden Dogs and Foster Dogs

I love it when my communities/worlds collide. Mei organized this major dog walk on Mare Island which crossed paths with a major picnic that the Vallejo Gay Network has every year. I brought our two fosters who got a lot of serious attention with their “Adopt Me” vests. It was a little stressful with the four dogs, but we had a wonderful time.

More pictures we took at the picnic:

Pictures others took: