2010 PrideFest Grand Marshals -- Honoring our Leaders Through the Decades
To celebrate 35 years of PrideFest in Denver, The Center is honoring people from the last four decades by naming them Grand Marshals of the 2010 PrideFest Parade.
Although we couldn't possibly honor all the people who have advanced LGBT Colorado over the years, these people have all been key players in and supporters of the LGBT community in Colorado from the 1970s to today. We're proud to have them represent us in the parade, which steps off from Cheesman Park Sunday morning (June 20) at 9:30 a.m. and marches down Colfax Avenue to Civic Center Park.
The honorees from the 1970s and 1980s are on this page. Please click here to read about the honorees from the 1990s and 2000s.
1970s
Donaciano Martinez
Donaciano was well into his activism by the 1970s. He was part of Colorado’s gay underground in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His activism began in 1964 with the peace movement and expanded to other causes. He co-founded the Gay Liberation Front in Colorado Springs in 1969, just a few months after the Stonewall riots. In 1976 he was a board member of Unity, the ad hoc committee that started The Center. In 1990 he co-founded La Gente Unida, a nonprofit that educates the public about GLBT Latinos. In 1991 he served on the state committee that worked against anti-gay Amendment 2. From 1994-1998, he served on the GLBT committee that advised Mayor Wellington Webb. He continues to work for La Gente Unida today.
Gerald Gerash
Jerry Gerash is one of the co-founders of the Gay Coalition of Denver in 1972, and is credited with founding UNITY, the organization that would eventually establish The Center. He served as the interim president of The Center’s first Board of Directors, and helped select the first Executive Director. Gerash also of the board of The National Gay and Lesbian Task force from 1974 to 1981, and co-founded Gay and Lesbian Legal Workers in 1975. He is retired and living in Santa Monica, California.
Bill Olson
Bill Olson was a member, in the mid-1970s, of both The Gay Coalition of Denver and Unity, two organizations that led to the planning and establishment of The Center. Additionally he was the fifth emperor of the Imperial Court of The Rocky Mountain Empire, and served on their board for 26 years. He served on The Center’s board of directors from 1982 – 1983. He is retired and living in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Phil Nash
Phil became The Center’s first paid staff member in 1977, establishing the first services and programs that The Center offered to the community. He was also instrumental in transforming the Colorado AIDS Project from a program of The Center to an independent 501(c)3 organization when it became clear that AIDS crisis required a much larger response that originally anticipated. He served on the Board of Directors for a number of years in the late 1990s, and presently serves on The Center’s capital campaign committee. Today Nash works for the Rose Community Foundation as Vice President of Communications.
Robert S. Garner
Robert was a major figure in the Denver performing arts world for over 30 years. Founder of Robert Garner Attractions, a theatre production company, he brought Broadway to Denver. He would later merge his company with The Denver Center for the Performing Arts to form Denver Center Attractions, which presents major Broadway tours and cabaret acts. Now retired, Garner splits his time between Denver and Santa Barbara.
Kate Bowman
The Gender Identity Center of Colorado opened in the 1970s, and Kate has been associated with it since the mid-1990s. She currently is the Gender Identity Center's board chair, and her passion is to do anything within her power to help the transgender community and families of that community. She is also actively involved in the overall GLBT community and sits on three other non-profit boards: Harmony Chorale, Look Both Ways, and One Colorado. She also is part of the Trans Advisory Committee at The Center and is co-chair for the Denver Metro Parent & Youth group called Trans Youth Education and Support.
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Nina Montaldo
Nina, aka James Martinez, has been performing in Denver and across the country since 1969. She served on the board of directors of the Imperial Court of the Rocky Mountain Empire for 14 years, and has helped raise thousands dollars for various charities including HIV/AIDS organizations, PFLAG and those fighting breast cancer. Montaldo has held numerous titles including Ms. Gay Colorado America 1980, Ms. Gay Pride 1989-90, and Empress XXIV of the Imperial Court.
1980s
Tea Schook
Tea Schook first joined The Center’s board of directors in 1977, less than a year after opening, and served for a second term from 1999 to 2003. She has been very active in the LGBT community producing "The Leaping Lesbian Follies" for 20 years (starting in 1980), co-founding the Equal Protection Ordinance Coalition in 1988, and even running for governor in 1990 to bring more light to LGBT issues on a statewide level. Today Schook is a certified EcoBroker and Realtor and a member of the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce of Colorado.
Johnn Young
Over the years, Johnn has served The Center as a volunteer, a member of the Board of Directors, a staff member and a technical advisor. He was also active in working with AIDS organizations and patients for many years, with both LifeGUARD and Denver Public Health. Today Young works still works for Denver Public Health, educating minority populations about the dangers of tobacco and how to quit smoking.
Carol Lease
Carol Lease was The Center’s second executive director. Under her leadership, The Center developed a number of programs that are now separate outside organizations, including Colorado AIDS Project and Urban Peak, the homeless youth shelter. Lease now serves as the executive director of The Empowerment Program, which provides services to disadvantaged women.
Wayne Jakino
The late Wayne Jakino owned Charlie's Denver, a popular Capitol Hill bar, since 1981. He was a no-nonsense and to-the-point kind of guy who helped form the International Gay Rodeo Association in 1985. He gave generously to many charitable organizations, including the Colorado AIDS Project. He was also instrumental in pushing for the revitalization of the Colfax business district in Denver.
Click here for the Grand Marshals representing the 1990s and 2000s.