Dennis DeLeon
Dennis DeLeon (1948-2009)
Mexicanos Unidos siente la gran perdida de Dennis DeLeon.
Conoci a Dennis mucho antes de fundar Mexicanos Unidos. Dennis fue una inspiración, un modelo a seguir para mi. El siempre me motivo a continuar en mi trabajo como artista visual, como educador y activista. La Comisión Latina sobre el SIDA siempre nos ha brindado su apoyo. Durante estos 8 años de mexicanos Unidos, siempre hemos tenidos las puestas abiertas para hacer nuestras reuniones en su salón de conferencias. En la parte personal, siempre estuvo dispuesto a escucharme y a apoyarme.
Nuestras condolencias para su pareja de mas de 30 años,
Bruce Kiernan, sus padres y otros familiares.
Siempre lo recordaremos. Descanse en paz.
_Javier Soriano, Fundador y Director de Mexicanos Unidos.
Información sobre el servicio funerario para Dennis deLeon (invita/trae a tus amigos).
Information about funeral services for Dennis deLeon (invite/bring your friends).
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Dennis de Leon
VIGIL/VIEWING - VIGILIA
WHEN - CUANDO
Miercoles, 16 de Diciembre
Wednesday, December 16th
4:00pm – 9:00pm
WHERE - DONDE
Redden’s Funeral Home
325 West 14th Street
(between 8th and 9th)
New York, NY 10011
Map Link - oprime aqui para ver el mapa
MASS - MISA
WHEN - CUANDO
Jueves, 17 de Diciembre
Thursday, December 17th
10:00am
WHERE - DONDE
Parish of St. Joseph
371 Avenue of the Americas
(between Washington and Waverly Place)
New York, NY 10011
Map Link - oprime aqui para ver el mapa
(*) Despues del funeral habrá una reunión para celebrar la vida de Dennis DeLeon. Proximamente se anunciará el lugar.
Post the Funeral there will be a gathering to celebrate the life of Dennis de Leon at a near by Parish – details to follow.
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Thanks to those who have requested information in regards to financial donations and the desire to send flowers.
In response to these requests, the Latino Commission on AIDS and the friends and family of Dennis deLeon have created the “Dennis deLeon Memorial Fund”. The fund will address one of the causes closest to Dennis’ heart, the enhancement of HIV/AIDS treatment education.
If you would like to donate to the Fund, please send all contributions to:
Latino Commission on AIDS
24 West 25th Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10010
Attn: “Dennis deLeon Memorial Fund”
If you would like to send flowers to either the church or funeral home, please send them to:
Redden’s Funeral Home at 325 West 14th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues
Parish of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village located at 371 Avenue of the Americas between Washington and Waverly Place
Please contact Kim Toro, Director of Development at 212-675-3288, if you have any questions. Please forward these to your contacts and networks.
Kim Toro
Director of Development
Latino Commission on AIDS
24 West 25th Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10010
Direct: 646-375-4440
Main: 212-675-3288
Fax: 212-675-3466
ktoro@latinoaids.org
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Nueva York y la Nación entera se visten de luto por la perdida de Dennis deLeon, Activista Pro Derechos Humanos y Luchador por los Latinos afectados por el VIH/SIDA
Nueva York, Lunes 14 de diciembre del 2009 – La Comisión Latina sobre el SIDA se viste de luto por la perdida de su fundador, Dennis deLeon, un defensor incansable de la justicia social y uno de los primeros lideres Latinos en revelar su estatus VIH- positivo en el país. Dennis fue un pionero y visionario, durante su vida busco minimizar y erradicar las disparidades en relación a la salud entre las comunidades marginalizadas. Como abogado y –más tarde- ejecutivo de una organización sin fines de lucro, deLeon creyó firmemente en construir un puente entre las diferencias culturales para alcanzar cambios sociales de forma progresiva.
Por 15 años, deLeon fue el Presidente de la Comisión Latina sobre el SIDA, una organización de servicios y de defensa de derechos tratando con temas referentes al VIH/SIDA y las disparidades de salud en las comunidades Latinas a nivel nacional. En su capacidad como Presidente de la Comisión, deLeon sirvió como delegado por Manhattan ante la Junta de Revisión de Quejas Civiles, la cual se encarga de revisar quejas en contra de la policía por mala conducta, además de formar parte de otras juntas directivas, incluyendo el Grupo de Planeación para el VIH/SIDA de la Ciudad de Nueva York, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Housing Works, y el Federal AIDS Policy Partnership.
Anterior a su cargo en La Comisión Latina, deLeon sirvió como Comisionado de Derechos Humanos de la Ciudad de Nueva York, en donde aseguro el cumplimiento de las leyes relacionadas a los derechos humanos e incremento la cooperación entre diversas comunidades raciales y étnicas. De 1988 a 1990, fue nombrado vice-presidente del condado de Manhattan después de haber servido por seis años como Consejero Principal del Consejo Corporativo, donde promovió el cumplimiento de la ley de derechos civiles y de la representación de oficiales de la policía uniformada.
Antes de trabajar a favor de las comunidades minoritarias en la Ciudad de Nueva York, deLeon trabajo como Consejero Regional para Asistencia Rural Legal en California, donde ofreció sus servicios como abogado a los campesinos Latinos de las comunidades agrícolas de California. Anterior a esto, deLeon sirvió en la División de Derechos Civiles del Departamento de Justicia de Washington, DC entre 1977 y 1981.
“El impacto de Dennis en la epidemia del VIH/SIDA se sentirá en años y generaciones venideras. A través de su carrera y como Presidente de la Comisión, mantuvo firme que todas las comunidades de color necesitan trabajar juntas para tratar no solamente con esta enfermedad, pero también con la injusticia que ha hecho a nuestras comunidades más vulnerables. Su partida es causa de gran tristeza, pero su vida y su legado son causa de celebración”, declaro Rubén Medina, Presidente de la junta directiva de La Comisión Latina sobre el SIDA. “El toco millones de vidas e hizo una gran diferencia en su paso por el mundo.”
“Será una gran responsabilidad continuar el arduo trabajo que Dennis ha dejado como legado, Dennis fue un amigo, mentor, y el mejor ejemplo de lo que un líder nacional debe ser. Su vida es un legado a la fortaleza del espíritu humano y al poder de la perseverancia. Su trabajo y su dedicación por nuestra comunidad no serán olvidadas nunca” destaco Guillermo Chacón, Presidente de la Comisión Latina sobre el SIDA.
“Dennis era una fuerza con la cual era posible contar. Si había un problema de justicia social con el cual se tenía que tratar, sabíamos que queríamos a Dennis de nuestra parte. Su trabajo y su voz fueron respetadas a nivel nacional y no había un campeón mas grande por los Latinos viviendo con o afectados por el VIH/SIDA. Lo extrañaremos muchísimo” declaro Ernesto Loperena, antiguo Presidente de la junta directiva de la Comisión Latina sobre el SIDA.
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New York Times
December 14, 2009
Dennis deLeon, AIDS Activist, Dies at 61
By DENNIS HEVESI
Dennis deLeon, a former New York City human rights commissioner who was one of the first city officials to announce that he was infected with the virus that causes AIDS and who later led one of the nation¹s most influential advocacy groups for Latinos with AIDS, died Monday in Manhattan. He was 61.
The cause was heart failure, said Bruce Kiernan, Mr. deLeon¹s companion for 32 years. Mr. deLeon learned he was H.I.V.-positive in 1986 and had grown weaker in recent years, Mr. Kiernan said.
Mr. deLeon had been human rights commissioner for three years when he disclosed his condition in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times in 1993. At the time, AIDS bore far more of a stigma than it does today, and, he said, he had been struggling for years about whether to go public.
³When I contemplated disclosure,² he wrote, ³I felt that my hope to continue contributing to society as a lawyer and human rights activist was threatened. Would I be evaluated on my merits if I sought to be a judge, a law professor, a law firm member or a governmental appointee?²
In his article, Mr. deLeon commended two other officials ‹ Thomas K. Duane, then a City Council member and now a state senator, and Ronald Johnson, the city¹s AIDS services coordinator at the time ‹ for previously disclosing their H.I.V.-positive status. Until then, Mr. deLeon said, only his mother, his partner and Mayor David N. Dinkins had been aware of the situation.
As commissioner, he had seen hundreds of cases in which H.I.V.-positive New Yorkers were shunned by colleagues and employers, he wrote.
³Often, the person is transferred into a meaningless position, passed over for advancement or fired,² he added. ³Such treatment is often made to appear superficially legitimate but is frequently revealed through investigation to be based on discrimination. Why should I put up with this?²
He would not. A year later, Mr. deLeon became president of the Latino Commission on AIDS, an organization that had a staff of two. It now has a staff of 45, a budget of $5 million and works in partnership with 380 organizations around the county. Mr. deLeon was its president until a few months ago.
Under his leadership, the organization created a national Spanish-language clearinghouse for AIDS information; a network of prevention programs in Spanish-speaking churches; and committees with the mission of mobilizing gay Latinos, as well as immigrants, women and inmates with AIDS. In 2003, the organization sponsored the first National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, a program that is now held annually on Oct. 15 in 40 states.
Dennis Lawrence deLeon was born in Los Angeles on July 16, 1948, one of two children of Jess and Josephine Munoz deLeon, who were of Mexican descent. His father was a schoolteacher.
Besides Mr. Kiernan, his partner, Mr. deLeon, who lived in Manhattan, is survived by his father; his sister, Diane Walden; his stepmother, Louise deLeon; a half brother, Dan; and a half sister, Denise.
After graduating from Occidental College in 1970, Mr. deLeon received his law degree from Stanford in 1974. He later became a trial lawyer for the Department of Justice in Washington, then returned to his home state to work for California Rural Legal Assistance, helping migrant workers.
Mr. deLeon¹s human rights work came to the attention of Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr., New York City¹s corporation counsel, and in 1982, at his recommendation, Mayor Edward I. Koch named Mr. deLeon senior assistant corporation counsel.
Four years later, Mr. Dinkins, then the Manhattan borough president, appointed Mr. deLeon deputy borough president. After Mr. Dinkins became mayor in 1990, he named Mr. deLeon human rights commissioner.
It was a time of heightened ethnic tension in the city. As commissioner, Mr. deLeon worked to calm disputes between blacks and Orthodox Jews in Crown Heights and Williamsburg, Brooklyn; blacks and Korean grocery store owners in Flatbush, Brooklyn; and Dominicans and the police in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.
In 1992, after two black children were attacked by four white men in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx ‹ they were robbed and their faces were sprayed with a white liquid ‹ Mr. deLeon sent in one of the Bias Response Teams he had created two years earlier.
Under Mr. deLeon, a human rights commission study found that many hospitals and clinics in the city were refusing to perform abortions on women infected with the AIDS virus. Investigators posing as patients made appointments at 50 health centers but were turned away from 20 clinics when they said they were H.I.V.-positive.
³To have this service denied to these women is really a crime,² Mr. deLeon said. ³No one wants to deal with these folks. We¹re sending a message to the clinics that this is illegal, and we will pursue you.²
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Listed below are links to articles that reference Dennis:
New York Daily News
CNN
NBC New York
Promesa
Joe My God
Transgender law
Towleroad
AIDS Gov Blog
New York Times
NY1
GMHC
Housing Works
POZ
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