2025 Grand Marshals

Kenan is an LGBTQ+ activist/artist and has been working on LGBTQ+ issues for more than 10 years, both in Turkey and in the United States. Currently, he is the Director of Operations at the LGBT Asylum Project. In addition to The LGBT Asylum Project, he is a resident makeup designer for Golden Thread Productions, an active member of Drunk Drag Broadway, and a singing member of San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus.

Tariq bin Aziz is an LGBT Saudi and an asylum seeker to the United States from Saudi Arabia. Tariq got their law degree from King AbdulAziz University and Master of Law from Indiana University focusing on international human rights with a minor in LGBT rights. Tariq was detained in Saudi Arabia for their their stance on LGBT rights before leaving to the United States. He is the first outspoken Saudi advocate of gay rights tweeting from inside Saudi Arabia. He is thankful to MBS as the godfather of the secularization process that revitalized the country. ​​Tariq al-Aziz is from the city of Dhahran and spent a year in jail in nearby Dammam before seeking asylum in the United States.

Jahnell is currently the Associate Director of Trans Services with the San Francisco Community Health Center, and also the current Overall House Mother of the House of Chanel in Ballroom culture. She has helped ignite and expand the culture, fostering a space where self-expression, resilience, and community thrive — a haven for Black and Brown LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly transgender and gender-expansive people.

Alameda County Commissioner of Status of Women, Manager of Community Relations at SFCHC, and changing the narrative. She is a community activist and leader. She has created a one of a kind retention program to connect trans women into healthcare.

Mason J. is a Black Latino and Trans, Queer Femme, Intersex, Jewish, disabled, and low-income, 3rd-generation, native San Franciscan with a background in performing arts, youth education, historiography, public health, and consulting. He has been involved with RADAR Productions, serving as intern, artist, and program manager. Mason's renegade leadership aims to flip the narrative of what it means to create in a time of pandemics, housing and opioid crisis, political uprising, hyper-gentrification, and queer unrest.

JM Jaffe is a non-binary transmasculine trans health content expert. They have 12 years of experience in community health operations at Lyon-Martin, seven years in consulting at TransLine and Trans Health Consulting, and over a decade in policy advocacy, most recently affiliated with the National LGBTQIA+ Primary Care Alliance. JM led and kept the save Lyon-Martin campaign going. They brought about leadership presence during a very chaotic time to keep one of the few TGNCI-centering healthcare facilities based in San Francisco serving thousands of TGNCI folks, especially Latinx, Immigrant, and Black from all around the San Francisco-Bay Area and beyond. JM has now established an organization that can be built on collective leadership and ensured Transgender centering care remains to the core of Lyon-Martin.

Kiki Lopez, a proud transwoman living with HIV, is the Community Engagement Coordinator at San Francisco Community Health Center. A passionate advocate for trans and HIV communities, she’s also a rising drag star, GAPA board member, and Mabuhay Bitches matriarch, honored for her contributions to San Francisco's transgender immigrant community.

Jessy Ruiz is a transgender woman originally from Michoacan, Mexico, and immigrated to the United States in 1996, to flee the violence in her country and particularly her state due to drug cartels. In 2016 she decided to embark on a new journey and move to San Francisco with the hope of being able to live as the woman she always dreamed to be. Since, she has provided support to the trans community by volunteering for the organization and has participated in the El/La TransLatina's self-improvement workshops and other opportunities.

Dr. TerMeer is CEO of San Francisco AIDS Foundation and co-chair of the AIDS United Public Policy Council. He is passionate about improving the health of people living with HIV, ensuring that LGBTQ+ people have access to affirming care, and supporting and empowering Black-led organizations and BIPOC leaders. Dr. TerMeer has been honored by the White House as one of the “Nation's Emerging LGBTQ+ Leaders,” and as part of the “Nation's Emerging Black Leadership.”

Neo Veavea is a San Francisco-based LGBTQ activist of Samoan descent. He's dedicated decades to building community for queer and trans Pacific Islanders. Neo and fellow Pacific Islanders have marched in San Francisco Pride parades to bring visibility to queer PIs and help others feel comfortable coming out. Neo co-founded United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliances (UTOPIA), for queer and trans PIs, in 1998. He also serves through the Samoan Community Development Center and Samoan Wellness Initiative.

AIDS/LifeCycle is a 7 day, 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, co-produced by and benefiting San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. The event raises awareness about the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic and funds services such as HIV testing, prevention, care, and much more. Beginning in 1994 as the “California AIDS Ride,” it was rebranded in 2002 as AIDS/LifeCycle. Participants have raised more than $300 million for the HIV and AIDS-related services of the Los Angeles LGBT Center and San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

Alwan foundation aims to collect evidence-based data to accurately reflect the circumstance and living conditions of the LGBT community in different Gulf countries. Whatever the path is to change, visibility is the first step in that path. Alwan has contributed to direct support for asylum seekers, has produced country conditions reporting for the first time on LGBTQ+ living conditions in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and has been key in amplifying important causes from the Gulf region.

Since 2015, Girls Unite has been creating a positive and rigorous environment to help shape young girls on and off the pitch. They see each of our players through a holistic lens and value their ability to learn and grow. They aim to build soccer skills, character, and community. Empowering young women by way of organized sports, competitive play, and sharing ideas and opinions in a safe environment.

Their mission is to transform lives by advancing health, wellness, & equality. They believe that a sense of belonging is a basic human need. Their work is more than health services, it is the cultivation of belonging for our clients through our comprehensive and integrated services. San Francisco Community Health Center celebrates and attends to the health and wellness of our communities through comprehensive medical, dental, and mental health services. They believe that health care starts with healing justice and meeting the basic needs of our communities.