About this year’s SPARK! Honorees:

VANGUARD AWARDS

Victoria Kolakowski is a lawyer and has been a judge of the Alameda County Superior Court since 2011. Before being elected on November 2010, she served as an administrative law judge with the California Public Utilities Commission. She is the first openly transgender person to serve as a trial judge in the United States.

Felicia Alvarado Elizondo, aka Felicia Flames, was born in San Angelo, Texas, and came to California when she was 12 years old. A Mexican-American U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran, she has been involved with the LGBT community since 1964. A participant in the 1966 Gene Compton’s Cafeteria Riot that kickstarted the gay rights movement, she was involved in the 2005 documentary on the Compton’s Riots “Screaming Queens,” which won an Emmy. Felicia has volunteered for several organizations, including the Aris Project in San Jose and the San Francisco Trans March.

ALLY AWARD

Google. Late last year, Google announced it was significantly increasing health coverage for its U.S.-based transgender employees. The company said it recognized the need for broad-based coverage that would include all employees, regardless of gender identity or expression.

With that extraordinary move, Google more than doubled its transgender health care benefits from $35,000 to $75,000, and solidified its reputation as a role model for corporate responsibility in terms of transgender health care – with a policy that includes facial feminization surgery for transgender women and pectoral implants for transgender men, among other surgical procedures.

The honorees will be given their awards on Thursday, Oct. 4th! Purchase your tickets today.