Honorees

2022 Eddy McIntyre Community Service Award

The Gadinsky Family

Liebe, Seth, Naomi and Tashi

The National LGBTQ Task Force is proud to present the 2022 Eddy McIntyre Community Service Award to a family that has championed equality for LGBTQ+ people and broad social justice reform for more than three decades: Liebe, Seth, Naomi and Natasha (Tashi) Gadinsky.

The Gadinskys’ advocacy for the LGBTQ community began when Liebe befriended an LGBTQ congregant at her church and joined forces with him to make the church a reconciling congregation (one that is welcoming to LGBTQ people). Liebe and Seth then became involved with SAVE’s efforts to amend the Miami-Dade County Human Rights Ordinance to include sexual orientation. It was a six-year battle – two years to pass the ordinance and another four to protect it from repeal. During this time Liebe was essentially a full-time volunteer working for LGBTQ equality, and Naomi and Tashi spent much of their childhood in the trenches, helping out by stuffing envelopes, greeting guests at events and being cheerleaders for fledgling activists.

In 2007 Liebe joined the steering committee for the National LGBTQ Task Force Gala (then called the Miami Recognition Dinner) to honor her dear friend Jerry Chasen, and she became the heart of the Gala committee for 15 years. She served 13 years on the Task Force’s Board of Directors, five as Board Co-Chair – the only straight ally to ever hold that position. Seth also became a fierce member of the Task Force family; he performed innumerable tasks to support the Gala, from picking up items donated to the auction to appearing on stage to ask the audience to give more to the organization. His first on-stage “ask” was less than two weeks after the 2016 presidential election, and his speech invigorated a devastated community.

Liebe and Seth have supported almost all of our local LGBTQ+ organizations, donating time, money and, in many cases, both. Their work has been recognized by many of these organizations, including SAVE, the Aqua Foundation for Women and Miami Beach Gay Pride. Their efforts also extend to other social justice and community organizations. Liebe has served on The Miami Foundation Board of Governors in various roles and supported the girls’ school, Ransom Everglades, in many different positions. Seth served as Florida Board Chair for the Anti-Defamation League and chair of the 41st Street Committee for the City of Miami Beach. Both currently sit on advisory boards for Miami-Dade County.

Naomi and Tashi have always been advocates in their own right, providing a safe space and encouragement for their young classmates who wanted to come out. Both girls prioritized LGBTQ diversity in choosing their colleges. Tashi introduced World AIDS Day and a Gay-Straight Alliance to her high school. A therapist, Tashi wrote her PhD dissertation on the topic of helping transgender people who experience anxiety.

The families of our most visible and vocal heroes are often unsung in their support, inspiration, education and sacrifice in service of the success of our champions. We are grateful to Naomi and Tashi not just for their own contributions but also for sharing their parents’ time, love and support with us.

The Gadinskys have always championed LGBTQ equality in every setting: church, schools, the golf course, board meetings… you name it. We are lucky to have them fighting for our community.

2022 National Leadership Award

Jonathan Capehart

Anchor, “The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart”

Associate Editor, The Washington Post

Jonathan Capehart is a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associate Editor of The Washington Post. Since 2007, he has been an opinion writer and member of The Post’s editorial board. He hosts a weekly Opinions podcast “Capehart” (formerly named “Cape Up”) and the weekly Washington Post Live show “First Look,” which is also streamed on “The Choice MSNBC” on Comcast’s Peacock streaming service.

At MSNBC, Capehart is the anchor of “The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart.” His MSNBC special “A Promised Land: A Conversation with Barack Obama” was nominated in 2021 for an Emmy for “Outstanding News Discussion & Analysis.” His MSNBC special “Pride of the White House” won a GLAAD Media Award for “Outstanding TV Journalism – Long Form” in 2022.

At PBS, Capehart serves as a political analyst on “The PBS Newshour” and is featured on the popular Friday segment “Brooks and Capehart.”

Capehart is a regular moderator of panels at the Aspen Ideas Festival and for the Aspen Institute, the Center for American Progress and at the Brussels Forum of the German Marshall Fund. He has also moderated sessions and conversations at the 92nd Street Y and for the Connecticut Forum. Capehart was a Spring 2019 Fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service. In 2022, he received an honorary degree from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y.

From 2002 to 2004, Capehart was deputy editorial page editor of the New York Daily News and served on that paper’s editorial board from 1993 to 2000. In 1999, his 16-month editorial campaign to save the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem earned him and the board the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing. Capehart left the Daily News in July 2000 to become the national affairs columnist at Bloomberg News, and took a leave from this position in February 2001 to serve as a policy adviser to Michael Bloomberg in his first successful campaign for New York City mayor.

2022 Changemaker Award

X González

In 2021, the National LGBTQ Task Force introduced our ChangeMaker Award. This award is intended to recognize someone who embodies our intersectional vision for a society where LGBTQ+ people are free to be themselves, who works to remove barriers for the LGBTQ+ community, and who are committed to transforming society for future generations. We are thrilled to present the 2022 ChangeMaker Award to X González.

X’s work as a gun-violence prevention activist borne of their surviving the Marjory Stoneman-Douglas High School shooting has been instrumental in energizing and mobilizing a generation of advocates. They are a role model for courage and ferocity to all youth and an icon speaking truth to power after their powerful speech “We Call BS”. In 2018, they were instrumental in organizing the historic #MarchForOurLives protest in Washington, DC, the largest student-led demonstration in American history. While in high school, X also served as the President of the Gay-Straight Alliance.

X continues to be at the forefront advocating for gun violence prevention including intersectional issues such as racial justice and LGBTQ+ rights. In the wake of the mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde, and Tulsa this year, X spoke at March For Our Lives’ second rally in Washington DC. Most recently, X graduated from New College of Florida with a major in activism.

Click here to view previous honorees.