The names of the new Equality Plaza inductees hang on the wall at Harvey Milk Park in Long Beach, CA, on Saturday, October 22, 2022. (Photo by Tracey Roman, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach’s Harvey Milk Promenade Park, at The Promenade and Third Street, will celebrate its 11th anniversary this weekend — and four local LGBTQ leaders will be inducted into the park’s Equity Plaza.
The 2024 honorees were introduced and honored during the City Council meeting this week.
“(This is) one of my favorite times of the year,” Councilmember Mary Zendejas said during the meeting. “Congratulations to the inductees.”
The Harvey Milk Park Equity Plaza Selection Committee members said they are excited to get the community together to celebrate and honor this year’s four inductees for their contributions to the LGBTQ and Long Beach communities.
“These dedicated, hardworking, community members have been strong advocates, artists and leaders within our LGBTQ community,” Deb Kahookele, co-chair of the committee, said during the Tuesday, May 7, council meeting, “and we would like to honor them tonight and this Saturday by placing their names on the Harvey Milk Park Equality Plaza Wall of inductees.”
The 2024 inductees for the 11th annual Harvey Milk Equity Plaza induction ceremony were honored during the Long Beach City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 7. (Photo by Christina Merino, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
The park’s namesake, Harvey Milk, was a trailblazing politician, gay rights activist and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California history.
He ran for office three times before winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, a position he held for less than a year before he was assassinated on Nov. 27, 1978, by Dan White, a former colleague and ally of Milk’s as a supervisor.
Long Beach’s park was the first in the nation to be named after an openly gay elected official. Long Beach opened the Equity Plaza – which includes a concrete replica of the soapbox Milk stood on to speak to crowds, and a 20-foot flagpole flying the gay Pride flag – in 2012 to pay homage to local leaders who’ve advocated for the LGBTQ community.
Each of the four recipients will be commemorated with a plaque at the equity plaza at the induction ceremony on Saturday, May 11.
Among the 2024 honorees is Gina Smith, who has served on the Board of Directors of the LGBTQ Center Long Beach, and for more than 10 years has served as a liaison between Diginity Health–St. Mary Medical Center and Long Beach’s LGBTQ community, raising awareness and money for both the hospital and its CARE program. In the early 1980s, Smith and her late mother, Dorene, recognized the needs of HIV/AIDS patients and became foundation members of St. Mary’s to advocate for the CARE program.
Honoree Queen Hollinsan is an elder queer Black Indigenous healer and the founder and director of the Earthlodge Center for Transformation, which specializes in providing safe and sacred spaces for healing justice work for marginalized communities of diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. Hollins’ contribution is informed by her long-held ties with many Black cultural and spiritual organizations throughout the Los Angeles community.
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Honoree Sayon Syprasoeuth is an LGBTQ artist, educator and Cambodian refugee. He serves as the program director of the United Cambodian Community of Long Beach and is committed to providing services to low income youth and seniors with social housing and mental health services. Syprasoeuth also serves on the board of the Arts Council for Long Beach.
Honoree Ricky Dockery is a longtime activist in the Long Beach community, serving on the board of the Long Beach Lambda Democratic Club — for which he helped register LGBTQ voters in the city — formerly served on the Long Beach Human Relations Commission and worked to make sure there was LGBTQ representation on the Long Beach Citizens Police Complaint Commission.
The event to honor the four inductees is set for 11 a.m. Saturday, May 11, at Harvey Milk Promenade Park, 212 E. Third St.
