Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins and State Senator Dede Alpert are among the seven San Diegans receiving top honors at the San Diego Democratic Club’s 23rd annual Freedom Banquet, which takes place Friday, Dec. 3, at the Hyatt Islandia, Regency Pavilion in Mission Bay. The event is one of the club’s largest fundraisers and is an opportunity for the club to publicly recognize progressive Democrats.

Atkins will receive the SDDC’s highest honor, the A. Brad Truax Human Rights Award, named after the founder of the SDDC, an advocate for the civil rights of the GLBT and HIV/AIDS communities. Atkins, who is District 3’s city council representative, will be honored for her service to the GLBT community and District 3. Atkins is being honored for her fight against the Boy Scouts’ preferential lease in Balboa Park, her efforts to expand the city’s needle-exchange program to slow the spread of HIV and AIDS, and her help in getting transgender protections added to the Human Dignity Ordinance, to name a few.

“Toni has represented the district, including the GLBT community, with passion and integrity and has been tremendously effective,” said SDDC President Stephen Whitburn. “She is entering her last term on the city council, but a lot of people would like her to run for county board, or mayor, or Congress at some point, so Toni will hopefully be there for us for many years to come.”

State Senator Dede Alpert, who will shortly hand over the reigns of the 39th State Senate District to Assemblymember Christine Kehoe, will receive the R. Herb King Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Dede has represented us in the legislature for 13 years, and she has been a steadfast supporter of GLBT rights during that time,” Whitburn said. “We are privileged to honor her for her many votes in support of our community. We are going to miss her in the Senate, and we are very glad that Christine Kehoe will be taking her place.”

The California Journal named Alpert the senator with the highest integrity in 2000 and 2002 and named her “Senator of the Year” in 2004.

The first Freedom Banquet was held in 1981 and was a roast of the club’s first president, Robert Lynn, Whitburn said. Previous honorees included then-mayor Roger Hedgecock – who has since found himself an audience on the airwaves as a conservative, anti-GLBT talk radio personality – former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, and Abigail Van Buren, the renowned “Dear Abby” columnist.

Longtime activists Midge Costanza and Nicole Murray-Ramirez were featured at one of the first Freedom Banquets roughly 20 years ago, Whitburn noted, and will be participating this year as well. “The banquet has captured a lot of local GLBT history over the years,” he added. “It really makes you appreciate all of those who were fighting years ago for our most basic civil rights so that we can be talking about marriage equality today.”

Founded in 1975, the SDDC is the local chapter of the National Stonewall Democrats, a national organization of GLBT Democrats that has over 90 chapters.

Attorney Bruce Abrams will receive the J. Douglas Scott Political Action Award for his generous philanthropic contributions and civil rights activism locally and nationally, including serving on numerous GLBT and Democratic boards and performing pro bono legal work throughout his career.

The Gloria Steinem Communications Award goes to The Pacific Beach United Methodist Church, which voted to publicly welcome openly GLBT members in the early ’90s. Since then, Whitburn said their congregation has grown from 75 to 270 members, and they won the award for “Most Original Float” in this year’s Pride parade.

“Churches that support the GLBT community can be every bit as influential as churches that oppose us,” Whitburn said. “Pacific Beach United Methodist Church has thrived as a GLBT-inclusive congregation. We hope that more religious leaders will start to recognize, appreciate and advocate for their members who are GLBT.”

Other award recipients are: Murray and Elaine Galinson, who have earned the Eleanor Roosevelt Community Service Award for over four decades of financial support for Democratic candidates who support equality and human rights, and have helped many GLBT-friendly candidates currently serving in office; and Martha Elaine Graybill, who will be given the R. Steven Pope Award for Volunteerism. During this year’s elections, Graybill walked precincts in San Diego, Arizona and Colorado, helped organize three of SDDC’s largest events and raised money for several Democratic candidates.

Whitburn will reveal the recipient of the President’s Award at the celebration.

The event, themed “A True Blue Celebration”, kicks off with a reception at 6:30 p.m. featuring live music and a silent auction. The dinner and program begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to the dinner are $75 if purchased in advance or as part of a table of 10. For reservations, contact Larry Baza at (858) 405-9903 or email him at vpdevelopment @sddemoclub.org.