Local GLBT community leaders Fred Acheson, Larry Baza, Michael Clark, Phyllis Jackson, George Murphy and Frank Stiriti were inducted into The San Diego LGBT Community Wall of Honor, a memorial display that pays tribute to local GLBT individuals and allies, at the annual Wall of Honor ceremony Friday at The San Diego LGBT Community Center.

Nicole Murray-Ramirez, chair of the city’s Human Relations Commission, proposed the wall in 2004. “… Those faces, those lives, of those present and gone, they must never ever be forgotten,” he said. “[They] paved the way, built the bridges and brought us all to where we are today as a community.”

Located in The Center’s auditorium, the Wall of Honor features plaques with pictures, bios, and summaries of accomplishments of inducted community members or allies. Including the new additions, the wall honors 42 people.

Nearly 200 people attended the induction, which was hosted by Bob Nelson, chair of The Center’s board, and emceed by Sen. Christine Kehoe and San Diego City District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

Acheson was an early investor and later a partner in Update, a newspaper in the GLBT community, and was involved with the Greater San Diego Business Association (GSDBA), Being Alive-San Diego and the San Diego Zoological Society. In 1984, he helped start San Diego AIDS Project. Nelson accepted the honor on Acheson’s behalf.

Baza has served as executive director and administrator of the County of San Diego’s Public Arts Advisory Council, Community Arts of San Diego, California Pacific Theater, Sushi Performance and Visual Art, and the Centro Cultural de La Raza. He is also the vice president of the San Diego Democratic Club.

Clark was an openly gay Republican who served in various boards and commissions and participated in hundreds of fundraisers for HIV/AIDS awareness and other charities. He was a board member of the Log Cabin Republicans from 1984 to 1994 and served as chapter president in 1995. Kevin Beiser accepted the honor on Clark’s behalf.

Jackson is the executive director of Karibu: Center for Social Support and Education. Jackson has spent more than 25 years working in the fields of substance abuse and HIV/AIDS services.

“Initially her HIV/AIDS work focused on prevention, but as she watched the African American community increasingly devastated by substance abuse and HIV, she began to focus on the African-American and LGBT communities,” Dumanis said.

Murphy is a founding member of The Center, a founding member of the San Diego Democratic Club, a founding member of Lambda Archives and a founding member of the San Diego AIDS Foundation. He has also served as a board member, treasurer, member of the senior outreach team and member of the senior housing task force at The Center.

Stiriti is a founding member of the Greater San Diego Business Association (GSDBA) and has been a supporter of and donor to many GLBT and HIV/AIDS organizations. Frank Stiriti has been closely involved in the San Diego LGBT community for decades. “Active in HIV/AIDS fundraising and in raising awareness from the early days of the epidemic, he continues to be an active proponent of HIV/AIDS prevention measures,” Dumanis said.

The honorees were thankful for the recognition.

“It was a wonderful experience, particularly for my family,” Baza said. “You know sometimes our families don’t know all of what we do in our lives, particularly those of us who are LGBT, and I am happy my family was there to experience that.”

Before honoring the new inductees, Dumanis surprised Murray-Ramirez with a separate honor for his longtime service in the local community – and a fake arrest warrant for Murray-Ramirez’s often-flamboyant means of dress.

“For going above and beyond the call of duty,” Dumanis said, holding up pictures of Murray-Ramirez for the audience to see, before presenting him with a certificate of recognition, “as well as violating the standards of good taste from time to time.”