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The 2009 Chancellor’s Award for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and/or Transgender Leadership Presentation Ceremony will be held on Wednesday, June 10, at noon in N225. The 2009 recipients of the GLBT Leadership Award are:

Faculty - Jennifer A. Burnett, MS, MD
Dr. Burnett, an Assistant Clinical Professor in the UCSF Fresno Department of Family and Community Medicine, is beginning her fourth year with the Family Medicine Residency program, working primarily in Selma, a small agricultural community in the Central San Joaquin Valley.

Two years ago, Dr. Burnett opened the Transgender Medicine Practice at the Central Valley Family Health – Selma Clinic and is currently treating more than 50 transsexual patients in various stages of transition. Dr. Burnett’s program allows patients to receive all their transgender (TG) medical care as well as treatment for any non-TG medical problems for less than what they were paying for their medication alone. She provides a low-cost source of good quality cross-gender hormone preparations and ongoing transgender health care and patient education to M2F transsexuals in the Central Valley. Many of these same patients had been using black market hormone preparations and self-medicating at great risk. Her efforts have resulted in a quantum leap in health care delivery to a previously underserved group of disadvantaged Valley residents.

A post-op M2F transsexual herself, Dr. Burnett has first-hand knowledge of the various issues her patients deal with. She offers free telephone consultation services to doctors, particularly in rural areas far from most transgender medical care clinics, and crisis counseling for transsexuals by telephone and email, offering encouragement and support for those encountering severe upheavals in their lives as they go through gender transition.

Dr. Burnett has spoken to UCSF Fresno faculty and residents on GLBT health care issues; has mentored GLBT medical students and residents; and has written extensively on Gender Identity Disorder. She is a member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the International Foundation for Gender Education and is on the Community Action Board of the UCSF Centers of Excellence for Transgender HIV Prevention. She is also the California Academy of Family Physicians’ GLBT Delegate to the American Academy of Family Physician’s National Congress of Special Constituencies, which was held this month in Kansas City, Missouri. She is frequently asked to speak at transgender conferences across the United States and this June will present a paper at the World Professional Association for Transgender Health symposium in Oslo, Norway.

Dr. Burnett’s contributions have ranged from educating lawmakers and other public figures regarding gender identity issues and the plight of the transgendered to providing professional advice and emotional support to people at various stages of their transition and are struggling against ostracism and discrimination.

Staff - Stuart Gaffney
Mr. Gaffney, a policy analyst at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies in the Department of Medicine, is committed to bringing social justice and equality to the GLBT community at UCSF and elsewhere. Over the last five years, he has worked on behalf of GLBT couples seeking the same rights and responsibilities currently reserved solely for married, heterosexual couples. He and his husband, John, were plaintiffs in the lawsuit, California Marriage Cases, which successively challenged the constitutionality of limiting civil marriage rights and benefits to heterosexual couples only.

At UCSF, he has given presentations on marriage equality at the GLBT Wellness Lecture Series and has organized and spoken at two different film events: the UCSF GLBT Film Series as well as a screening of “The Freedom to Marry” at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. He has also presented at the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare’s Social Justice Conference, at Stanford University and at high school and college student organizations.

In 2004, he went on a 10-day trip across the country to rally supporters in other states, culminating in a stop in Washington, DC to speak with our leaders on the importance of ensuring equitable access to all the rights and responsibilities of marriage. With the passing of Proposition 8, Mr. Gaffney has become even more active by addressing rallies at the state capitol and at the California Supreme Court’s hearing of oral arguments.

Mr. Gaffney was profiled in UCSF Today in 2007 when he and John were named Grand Marshals of the San Francisco GLBT Pride Parade. They have also appeared in a variety of local and national media such as The New York Times, National Public Radio and CNN, led marches and have spent their own money and time to meet with leaders in Sacramento and Washington, DC. His publications have included such diverse articles as “Freedom to Marry” in Currents, October 2008, and “Newlyweds After Seventeen Years”, in Hitched! Wedding Stories from San Francisco City Hall, 2005. 

His activism and tireless leadership raises awareness for the whole GLBT community and spotlights the need for social justice and an end to discrimination.

Student/Resident/Post-Doctoral Scholar – Thomas Yi
Mr. Yi, a 4th Year Pharmacy Student, serves as Vice President of Community Health for the Associated Students of UCSF and more recently as a School of Pharmacy student representative.

In his second year at UCSF, Mr. Yi made many presentations about GLBT health disparities and has continued to be active in educating the campus community on GLBT health issues. Last year, he co-coordinated the Issues in GLBT Health elective, a class for future health professionals in all schools about how to effectively treat GLBT patients. Mr. Yi helped determine course topics, selected speakers and acquired funding. This February, he contributed to organizing a successful GLBT Health Issues Forum, the first-ever national conference for graduate health students on GLBT health issues. The conference attracted the interest of health profession students throughout California. 

Mr. Yi has been an active member of the Student Health Advisory Committee, which provides input and evaluates the design of student health insurance plan benefits each year. During his first year on the committee, he successfully lobbied for the inclusion of transgender surgical benefits and he has advocated for this benefit to be expanded this year. In addition, he has helped raise GLBT student concerns and issues in the School of Pharmacy, advocated for more GLBT awareness in the School’s curriculum, and promoted the recruitment and admission of GLBT applicants to the Pharmacy’s doctoral program. 

Demonstrating his commitment to the advancement of GLBT communities at UCSF, Mr. Yi led a petition for a NO vote on Proposition 8, organized a National Coming Out Day at UCSF, and implemented the Diversity Training for new students this year. He has shared his own personal struggles in an effort to empower others and has become a role model for GLBT students, often referred to as someone who genuinely walks the walk.