Gayla honors local Changemakers

As a part of Out Boulder County’s annual Gayla, the LGBTQ organization recognizes an individual and a corporation for their Changemaker awards. The Changemaker award recipients are nominated by the community and Out Boulder County staff. Then a committee weighs the nominees and votes on the selections. The corporate changemaker award is now in its third year, after Out Boulder County took over the annual event on behalf of the Open Door Fund, an LGBTQ initiative through the Community Foundation Boulder County.

“This year’s Changemakers were easy choices,” said Out Boulder County Executive Director Mardi Moore. “Changemakers is about recognizing those that have lasting impact on and for the LGBTQ community.”

This year’s recipients are Longmont’s Manager for Community and Neighborhood Resources Carmen Ramirez and medical technology company Medtronic. 

“In the equity work that Ramirez does, she sees the intersecting identities all at once. When you’re having a conversation with her about LGBTQ people, she’s also thinking about people of color, class issues and language differences,” Moore said.

Moore cited the Resiliency for All program that Ramirez worked on in the years after the 2013 flood as an example of how Ramirez has had lasting effects on Longmont and Boulder County. The series of studies, surveys and focus groups helped identify barriers in resources, particularly for the Spanish-speaking communities in the area. 

“It feels good to be recognized, but more importantly I think it’s the recognition that we need to make change. That we need to always be working on changing, especially when it comes to social justice,” Ramirez said.

The city of Longmont works with different groups to facilitate conversations within the community, according to Ramirez. The most active program is the Longmont Multicultural Action Committee, which includes Out Boulder County as well as communities of color. In the past two years, there have been community conversations on equity and race. 

“I think we need to always be open to listening to communities most impacted by inequity and injustice,” Ramirez said, “to be at the table and engage in these conversations not only with deep listening but with the goal of understanding what needs to change to bring equity to our communities.”

Ramirez worked with Out Boulder to facilitate conversations with law enforcement around hate crimes and the LGBTQ community earlier this year, she said. A partnership between the city of Longmont, Out Boulder County and the Latinx community helped drive COVID vaccine outreach and increase access where there were barriers. 

“She brings that richness into every conversation and every thought process or developing strategy, and that serves the entire community well and ensures that LGBTQ people are always part of a larger conversation even if Out Boulder County isn’t directly involved,” Moore said.

For Medtronic, the award honors the medical tech corporation's dedication to creating a healthy work environment that promotes diversity and equity across the board, Moore said. Moore noted that corporations often hold more than governments in driving social change, and that corporations invested in equity and inclusion should be the standard.

Medtronic scored full marks on the Human Rights Campaign’s corporate equality index, Moore said, indicating exceptional policies in place for the Medtronic employees. The policies include workforce protections, inclusive benefits and a company culture that embraces all diverse identities. Moore also referenced Medtronic’s new facility under construction in Lafayette that would bring more job equity to Boulder County.

“Medtronic does much more for the community than just putting a rainbow flag on their logo during the month of June,” Moore said. “They live and breathe this work every day of the year and it's clear in their hiring practices and the work they do throughout their programming that LGBTQ people matter.”