she is a u.s. naval academy graduate and gay-rights activists. she is the first and only openly gay person allowed to remain on active duty in the military prior to the end of don't ask don't tell. [applause] in december 2010, she stood beside president obama as she signed the don't ask don't tell appeal. -- repeal. to many in congratulating her. -- join me in congratulating her. [applause] >> good afternoon. thank you for that introduction.

one of the common things we keep hearing about in these profiles is when you love decided to give voice to those who do not have a voice -- who have decided to give voice to those who did not have a voice. women are stepping forward, that is one of the reasons why i chose back in 1993 to come out when don't ask don't tell was being debated. everyone was allowed to talk about the pros and cons, except for those who were gay or lesbian in the military. they were forced to be silent. there was a lot of -- they were all fascinated with the men and showers. there were terrified of gay men in the showers. [laughter] i thought to myself, the

lesbians must be dry cleaned. [laughter] you do not hear a peep about them. i decided that i would come out and tried to enter that voice for gays and lesbians. another thing i am hearing this afternoon, having strong women role models. my mother joined in 1942. was in the second class of women to go through officer candidate school in iowa. i have with me here this afternoon two more strong women, of my two sisters. [applause]

later in her life, she decided to pursue a new career and went back to the veterinary school. she just graduated last may. [applause] i think we are all inspired by women. everyone has the story to tell. everyone of us would be inspired by their personal story. i encourage you to tell your story and to speak on behalf of those who have no voice. go out and kick butt. thank you. [applause]

>> our next award is the community leadership award. this goes to kimberly ellis. executive director of emerge california. [applause] in addition to being the executive director, she also serves on the bridge and community development commission and prior to becoming the executive director, she was the national affiliate's director. kimberly is passionate about empowering women and helping women emerge as leaders in

private industry, government, and d d the non-profit sector. [applause] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> thank you also much. thank you, shelley, for putting together this event. when i did a little bit of research, i found out that this woman was a force to be brought in -- to be reckoned with. she was a young woman who was full of passion and love, and life, she was going places. she had aspirations of being an attorney in serving in elected office. tragically, her life was ended at the tender age of 43. so, when i've thought about some of the common threads and qualities that annie and

i shared, the one that stood out in my mind was passion. she was a passionate woman. passionate about being a community leader, about making changes in helping others, and being that voice for those who do not have a voice. when i think about emerge california and the work we are doing their to give more women -- women involved in the political process, i find that i also share the passion that she had. when i also think about some of the big issues that we are dealing with in our society today, i believe that the only way we are really going to see change is if we give women involved. so, if we are talking about getting this economy back on track, but about ending the war on women's rights, reproductive rights once and for all, making

sure that marriage rights become a reality, the environmental justice, education and justice, none of those things are going to be realized until more women get involved. [applause] so, i challenge that i have a for all of you today is to go back into your respective communities in find any -- and find annie powell. the young woman who needs to be asked to be involved, to be a change agent in our community, this country, and in this world. without women, we will munsey the chains of amino as possible. [applause] i wanted to take a moment to recognize the woman who founded

this organization that i am privileged to lead today. she has the vision, dedication, and commitment to really put thoughts and words on a paper and make them into a reality. she is the founder of emerge california, someone that i greatly respect and appreciate, andrea defield. [applause] and then on this international women's day, i would like to recognize, thank, and appreciate all of the men in the room today. this struggle and fight that continues is not just about women. the men in this room recognize that. this is about women, men, children in families, us as a people. about moving our society forward. how we do that is by getting

everyone involved, having women have a seat at the decision table. on behalf of all of you, shelley, and in honor of annie, thank you for this award. godspeed, god bless everyone. [applause] our next award is the spirit of a quality award. this goes to [unintelligible] did i get that right?

sorry. [applause] she is the commissioner of the san francisco's human rights commission. she is a computer scientist and is involved in many charitable civic organizations and has served on a number of boards. she is the co-chair of the local enterprise advisory committee, with the efforts of the airport commission and psa, the transit lounge was created at the san francisco international airport to host visitors who are under review for citizenship in the u.s.. she worked to start the human trafficking awareness campaign, resulting in the creation of the san francisco coalition against

human trafficking and today it consists over -- over 100 organizations working to end human trafficking. please join me in congratulating her. [applause] >> thank you so much. thank you for this wonderful award. i am truly honored to be in the company of so many of wit -- amazing women who are working diligently to make a difference in give a voice to the voiceless. i had the privilege of working with norma on human trafficking. when we started on that, no one knew what it was. it took a lot of talks and going around to bring a bit of awareness to human trafficking. but through the coalition against human trafficking, we

have succeeded to increase the awareness tremendously, but we are far away from ending this horrific crime. i would like to give a shout to page for the amazing work they have done with exploited women in general and i would like to welcome our international women to this conference today. thank you for coming and for all of the work you have done in this field. i also want to talk about equality in general. the spirit of equality reside in all of us. we all want a better life. for our children, families, and communities, and for the world that we live in. due to global economy and technological advancements, the world has become very small. this has many benefits as -- and pitfalls, as anything else. our geography has tremendously improved. now we know where greece is.

we even know where afghanistan, iraq, and iran are. i remember when i came to the united states from iran to go to school, i had to fill out some applications and they have some boxes. the boxes were caucasian, black, asian, hispanic, etc.. i had to give a bit of thought to the purpose of these boxes in which box by fit in. so, i was born in iran and it is in the continent of asia, a marked agent. so, in asian. you should have seen the look on the administrator when i turned in my application. today those boxes no longer applied. we all live in one world and we are all the same. we are part of the same energy. we can no longer take the attitude of not in my backyard.

in today's world, if someone in china sneezes, we all catch the flu in san francisco. we have seen the impact of such a ripple effect in the recent economic crisis. in today's global economy, peace in the least, the aids epidemic in africa, the world hunger crisis, and making sure that every child has access to a decent education is all -- our responsibility. we have to use diplomacy to prevent war. we have to have compassion for mankind, no matter which continent they are from or which color they are, creed or religion. we all have to do our part to bring peace, harmony, and equality to the world. thank you so much for this

amazing award. [applause] [unintelligible] >> congratulations. before i give the next award, we have about 10 more minutes if everyone could please stay, that would be great, thank you. our next award is the community advocate of the year award. this goes to sandy. [applause]

she is a founding member of [unintelligible] founded in 1971 and served as development director until retiring in december 2009. she's also a founding member of the national pacific research center on aging, based in seattle. she was appointed by the late mayor for the kent -- the commission on the status of women, where she served from 76 until 8. she was the first asian-american woman to chair a city commission in 1979, where she served on the national committee. please join me in congratulating her. [applause]

>> good afternoon, everyone. first of all, i would like to thank shelley and the global arts and education organization. when you do advocacy work, you do not do it alone. i learned most of my values from my parents, especially my mother, who just turned 99. [applause] she still lives in her own home. i want to thank my friends and colleagues who are here today, because they are the ones that i have worked with all these years, supporting senior issues, dealing with japan town cultural preservation issues, we have all worked together and that is what it takes to get things done. this award is very special to me.

not only did i know norma, because she succumbed to the health commission to testify and advocate for her beliefs and goals, also another reason why this is special is because the first person that got this award was one of our health commissioners. [applause] i knew norma as a very inspirational woman who was very committed. you heard so many wonderful things about her, and they are all true. the fact sheet rate -- created this organization and that the interim director took it to another level to where it is today, i just want to say that as we celebrate international women's day today, let's not forget all the women who have gone before us who have done amazing work and brought us to this place where we are today

and have made a lot of progress. thank you very much. [laughter] [applause] >> let's thank our first lady of san francisco for her help in honoring these wonderful people.

thank you so much. i am willing to bring -- there is something very special, a little surprise getting ready to happen. i want to bring kayla up for a very quick moment. >> i wanted to sing a song. ♪ >> ♪ you are an angel an angel with wings -- with no wings

but your feet never touched the ground you have got dreams you make me believe you make me believe you make me believe in angels you taught me to envision so much more

or else be imprisoned in a world too small utah to me to be mightier than the greatest -- you taught me to be mightier than the greatest and no matter how heavy a load i always take the high road end because of you -- and because of you you make me believe you make me believe you make me believe

you make me believe in angels and i am just one more fed their -- one small feather in your dream ♪ [applause] for us, and it makes me emotional, because that song was absolutely perfect for the reason that jules is going to , and so is rose. ladies, get on up here. as i mentioned to you earlier, our fiscal sponsor his women's

in a cultural network. it was started by an angel, and we are all the others in her wings. one of the most incredible women. she has worked for years with planned parenthood. she created women's and a cultural network and another program attached to it called california women's agenda. you will have been all over the state of california, the thousands of women in a heartbeat. she has dedicated her life to it. she just came back from 10 days at the u.n. conference for women advocating for the city of san francisco among others to get the fifth world conference on women here. we cleared a hurdle and are closer to bringing the world conference on women here. we will be hearing more about that.

[applause] for me and for these women, because we have talked about it, we could not have made it without this incredible individual. i want to bring up for a special lifetime achievement award, someone that we love dearly, ms. marilyn fowler. [applause]

[applause] >> a couple of words. shelley is just full of surprises. she is right. i just got back. san francisco is known worldwide as working locally and globally. we are on the move forward. family, where are you? -- emily, where are you? [applause] we have been partnering with the commission on women here from day one, and it has become a model globally. we convened some panels there. i moderated their panel, emily

and the commission's panel. emily moderated the panel we did on merle and indigenous women, which was the theme of the un conference. everyone knows that you cannot do anything with those kinds of partnerships, without governmental and non- governmental women working together. we also did that with secretary clinton in september. she had her aipac conference. one of the meetings i had when i was on the east coast was in the secretary's office with water for foreign policy advisers who said they really need our help and following up the aipac conference with a non- governmental women's. we are pretty sure we will have a world conference on women. and xtech is to hold it here in san francisco. -- the next step is to hold it here in san francisco.

[applause] we have these buttons. you need to be wearing these. thank you for coming, thank you to shelley for putting this together for us. thank you for helping to take women globally and giving them a voice. that is our mission. [applause] >> we have to keep that spirit -- and we had to keep that secret for a long time. like a lot of you, she would rather be on vacation, but she is up doing work, even when she is not feeling well. thank you all for coming. i posted on facebook i would probably sound like they'd been a downer with all the statistics, could you send me some of your favorites of lifting statistics? this one is from eleanor

roosevelt. no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. this is on my car, which i have had for two decades. well-behaved women seldom make history. no offense to the men in this room. this is from an anonymous. women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition. certain men. i thought was funny. speak your true, use your voice, and spread the news. [applause] and if the award is the comeback of to the stage, we would love to get your photos.