Trailblazer Award
Mark Gonzalez is a retired attorney who has lived in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans for 35 years.
On June 18, 1977, Mark participated in the Anita Bryant protest in Jackson Square. Bryant – a pop singer, beauty pageant contestant, and spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission – had just spearheaded the successful “Save Our Children” campaign to repeal a Miami-Dade County anti-discrimination ordinance protecting gays and lesbians. When she traveled to New Orleans to perform a concert as part of the Summer Pops festival, a local coalition known as Human Rights for Everyone (HERE) organized the protest. Although estimates vary, at least 1000 people participated, making it the first mass protest for gay rights in Louisiana history.
Following some smaller Pride rallies earlier in the 1970s, Mark – along with Charlene Schnieder, Richard O’Connor and others – organized GayFest. The event was originally to be held at Jackson Square, but after pushback from the archbishop, organizers secured a suitable location at Washington Square Park. It was a great success, running from June 29 through July 1, 1979, ushering in a long history of Pride in New Orleans.
Beginning in the 1980s, Mark provided legal assistance to New Orleanians living with HIV/AIDS. He testified to the mayor’s advisory committee on lesbian and gay issues in 1989 about clients who were subjected to discrimination and mistreatment by police. One man was arrested for drug possession when police (who entered the home without a warrant) noticed a bottle of AZT. They told Mark’s client “not to worry about the charges—you’ll probably die of AIDS in jail.”
This and other experiences led Mark to co-found the New Orleans chapter of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), a grassroots, direct-action political group founded to combat the HIV/AIDS crisis and government inaction. Key events of ACT UP New Orleans included a protest at the 1988 Republican National Convention, a 1990 protest at City Hall local demanding action and resources for people living with AIDS, and a 1992 press conference at the criminal courthouse calling attention to discrimination within the criminal justice system against LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS.
Mark was also a co-founder of AIDS Law of Louisiana, a nonprofit organization established in the early 1990s to provide specialized legal services, improve quality of life, and protect access to health care for people living with HIV/AIDS.
In 2012, Mark – along with Stewart Butler and Otis Fennell – founded the Legacy Project, a precursor to the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana. Mark was also one of the first board members of the Archives Project, whose mission is to promote and encourage the protection, preservation, and accessibility of materials and information that chronicle the history and culture of the LGBT+ communities in Louisiana.
In addition to his activism and advocacy on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community, Mark has been active in neighborhood organizing, particularly in regard to park issues and off-leash dog areas. He is an ongoing member of Neighbors First for Bywater and the Bywater Neighborhood Association.