March 7, 2022
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity.
When there were no formalized LGTBQ+ domestic or intimate partner violence (IPV) services in New York City or the State, as Domestic Violence (DV) Program Coordinator, and later as the Director of Client Services at AVP, Diane Dolan-Soto, LCSW, provided representation for the LGTBQ+ community and collaboratively worked to make formal and lasting changes.
When did you first start work[...]
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March 2, 2022
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity.
Shay Huffman is many things, but foremost, she is a profound storyteller. Her abilities led her to the incredible advocacy work she’s done with AVP, from fundraising to policy work, to event planning.
But sharing her story was not just something that helped clients, it was also a mode of healing “that was really the way to shed a lot of the shame.” Huffman is a survivor of intim[...]
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February 23, 2022
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity.
Emerging activist and writer, Melania Brown, has been pivotal in the fight to end solitary confinement. Brown’s life was changed forever when her sister, Layleen Extravaganza Cubilette-Polanco, a 27-year-old Afro-Latinx trans woman, died in a Rikers Island solitary confinement cell after suffering an epileptic seizure. Since then, with the help of AVP, she has mobilized to demand #Ju[...]
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November 30, 2021
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity.
Bea Hanson has been an advocate for victims of violence for over three decades. She served as AVP’s HIV-Related Violence Program Coordinator in the 1990’s, and later worked as the Chief Program Officer for Safe Horizon. Later, she served as the Principal Deputy Director of the United States Office on Violence Against Women for six years. Currently, she is the Executive Director o[...]
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November 24, 2021
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity.
Sharon Stapel served AVP for seven years as its Executive Director, steering the organization through the recession of 2008 and growing programs, including overseeing the launch of AVP’s Legal Project in 2013 and our programming geared to serve transgender and gender non-conforming people. A lawyer, activist, and professor, Sharon was a leader in the fight for an LGBTQ-inclusive re[...]
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November 23, 2021
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity.
A former member of the first neighborhood-based gay and lesbian group in New York City, the Chelsea Gay Association, Arthur Goodman was one of AVP’s founders in 1979. He holds a Masters of Public Administration from CUNY Baruch College, and currently provides financial planning services, specializing in the LGBT community and unmarried opposite sex couples through Good Man Financia[...]
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November 18, 2021
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity.
In 2019, Stevin Bonifacio, a New York City Anti-Violence Project’s client, reached a settlement with the City of New York Department of Homeless Services for anti-transgender discrimination he experienced in the city’s homeless shelter system. His complaint, filed through the City Commission on Human Rights, included financial compensation and important trans specific policy chan[...]
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November 15, 2021
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity.
LaLa Zannell is a Black trans woman with over a decade of experience as a community organizer and advocate for trans and queer livelihood. LaLa’s experience with AVP ranges from seeking support to becoming an intern, then being hired as a Front Desk Assistant, a Community Organizer, and finally, as a Lead Organizer. With over eight years of experience at AVP, LaLa helped found AVP'[...]
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September 14, 2021
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity.
Tom Duane was the first openly gay and openly HIV+ member of the New York Senate and has been integral to legislative reform in the state to better protect LGBTQ+ and HIV-affected people.
A former AVP board member and hate violence survivor, Tom’s legacy includes sponsorship of same-sex marriage legislation and the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) in New Yo[...]
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February 26, 2021
When Chanel Lopez was approached by AVP’s Client Services department, she immediately became interested in the opportunity to work as a counselor with LGBTQ survivors of hate, intimate partner, and domestic violence. Her seven years at AVP empowered her as a survivor herself of domestic violence, learning new ways to cope with her trauma, to support other survivors through theirs.
Now, Chanel is New York City’s first Transgender Communit[...]
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December 17, 2020
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity.
In 1978, Andy Austin moved to New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood and found community in the Chelsea Gay Association (CGA), a social group for gay men. He invited his long-time partner, Michael Sonberg, to join and together, they became founding members of the NYC Anti-Violence Project.
When queer men began to face violent attacks coming to and from the gay bars on the west sid[...]
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March 5, 2020
This interview has been shortened and condensed for clarity.
For a decade, Cecilia Gentili has been an ongoing collaborator and community partner with AVP. Working at the intersections of sex work, transgender women’s rights, and incarceration issues, Cecilia Gentili has helped shape critical forums with AVP. Cecilia is well known for advocating for safe and equitable access to housing, employment, and public resources for the trans and ge[...]
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