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 November 15, 2000 Wednesday Loss of A Friend - - - And Much More Debra (Debbie) Ann Shaw passed away on Tuesday evening, October 31st after a long struggle with physical illnesses and a brief bout with pneumonia. Debbie is well known throughout ther Western Mass. GLBT Community. She was President of The Sunshine Club for 4 years (03/97-03/00), an active speaker with the "Stonewall Center Speakers Bureau", and recently became very active with "The GLBT Community Center Project of Western Mass." Debbie was the recent recipient of the 1st Sunshine Club Sunlight Award in August for her tireless work within The Sunshine Club and within the GLBT Community as a whole. No job was ever too small or too large for Debbie when it came to forward progress of the GLBT community. Debbie, her unique presence, tireless work, and her solid devotion to the community and teachings of tolerance for all & to all will be missed by a great many throughout Western Mass and the GLBT community. I received this message today. I still remember the first time I met Debbie at the Stonewall Center. I was asking about the Sunshine Club and she asked me what my interest in it was. I said that I was FtM, had been on hormones since November of 1996, and had my top surgery just that past July. She did a quick double take and said "Oh! You're FtM!" Turns out she had been thinking I was MtF and was thinking about how much work I had to do. ::grin:: We moved on from that little snafu to have many disagreements about the trans community and trans identities. But although we disagreed a great deal I had a lot of respect for her and all the work that she did. Her death is a great loss for the community. This is one time where I wish I did not live in Boston. I wish there was some way for me to attend her memorial service. |
