Lifetime Achievement Award
Presented to
Courtney L. Sharp
On Saturday, May 20, 2023
by Randy Trahan

Whereas my lifelong friend and compatriot, Courtney L. Sharp has entirely changed the face of PFLAG New Orleans, PFLAG National and indeed my very own life, I do hereby decree the next few minutes are a toast to the Grand Marshall of Hope on Parade.

Whereas, I am risking bodily harm and a lifelong friendship by doing this, I still persevere. You see, our honoree shuns the spotlight and avoids credit, even when it’s way past due. Sorry, darlin! This is your life. So you “kids” on stage better listen! As we walk through the incredible lifetime achievements of this amazing human being, we want the Class of ’23 to use this as a guide to a more engaged life.

Peasant leadership – the notion that you “drive from the back of the bus” and never take personal credit for getting a group to a destination is a great concept. But it’s an overused term. Peasant leadership should be reserved for the mother of peasant leadership. And she sits right here – but she’d rather be in the kitchen – or “driving from the back.”

Her adopted mother Julie Thompson has handcuffed her to her chair and her dear friend Mamie Favor has the smelling salts and a fainting couch out in the foyer. Here goes. Sorry, my friend, but ….

If Mother Teresa and Harvey Milk had a love child, it would explain Courtney Sharp.

If our local legendary civil rights leader Stewart Butler had a twin sister, it would explain Courtney Sharp. If the literal hundreds of families she has helped could tell their stories, it wouldn’t begin to explain Courtney Sharp.

But, we’d be here until the 4 th of July with families waiting in line.

Two of those parents are with us tonight. Like Julie Thompson, the Favor family has adopted our lifetime heroine for the rest of her lifetime. Mamie Favor tells the story that when her family was in crisis, she met Courtney at an event at Tulane Medical. Soon thereafter, Courtney’s wisdom and kindness had changed their family dynamics. And yet, Mamie’s remembrance was as simple as you’d expect. “Courtney looked at me and said ‘I’ll walk with you and your family.’”

Born on Valentine’s Day 1953, Courtney’s journey from diapers to diplomas was pretty unremarkable. That’s if you consider straight A’s in Engineering unremarkable. But it’s what happened after college that leaves an enduring legacy. She leaves an indelible mark on the LGBT community. You see, a peasant leader was born the day Courtney Sharp transitioned.

No one in this room needs a lecture on the challenges of being “othered.” Society firmly plants a foreboding obstacle course in our collective way, along with pretty hateful contrarians. So, I want you to imagine being transgender forty years ago. Imagine how sad and isolating that could be. As a cisgender gay white man who faced my own obstacles, I had no earthly idea how hard it was being so misunderstood and demonized. I could find my “tribe” and under the gaydar, have some semblance of a life. But Courtney was alone.

So, Courtney followed what she thought was the path of least resistance. She headed straight to the gay community. Surely, we gay men know discrimination. Surely, we lesbians will embrace “her broken parts.” That’s when she relied on a quote she’s cleaved to from the start:

But there is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s where the light gets in.

Society had already cracked it’s knuckles on Courtney’s very right to exist. So, how cruel was it for her to find that the crack between the L,G,B and the T. So, how could THAT crack rupture within our own acronym? With rare exception – and Stewart Butler is the epitome of rare exceptions – Courtney was left todo battle alone. It wasn’t for the faint at heart to watch the L-G-B-’s attempt to push the T into an abyss. But, for whip smart Courtney Sharp, “attempt” was the operative word. She was having none of that being pushed into the abyss crap.

And God are we lucky for it. With Stewart at her side, she engaged in molding every new crack in her armor to reflect the light into her heart. Cracks? Bring ‘em on! More light for her. More light for the community.

The fissures she experienced were beyond daunting. Lesser women would have perished. But indeed the cracks are where the light got in. And oh what a light she shined!

Stewart Butler introduced Courtney to PFLAG New Orleans, and she immediately studied the mission of education, support and advocacy. Courtney saw the crack with potential light coming through it, and took the opportunity to educate both the national and local PFLAG leadership on just what the “T” meant.

Surely she needed their support. Together, they could advocate for the trans community in New Orleans and Washington, D.C. So, Light flooded PFLAG National when Courtney triumphed for inclusion for the T’s. The road was rocky.

Then, light also filled City Hall in 1992 when she testified and worked toward a successful ordinance of trans inclusion. A true flash of light occurred in her when a narrow-minded gay man said in an open equality forum that “we in the community shouldn’t be dealing with these trans people.” He didn’t know that Courtney – sitting a few feet away – was transgender. Our peasant leader excused herself from the room, collected her thoughts and quietly and calmly let him know where she stood. The poor soul. The light-filled peasant leader took him down several pegs. She never looks back in hatred. Only light comes through the crack. Did I mention he was a foot taller than she? Or that when they got up to leave, he came over to admonish her, not apologize?

Sharp’s light then got into the vaunted and heralded HRC soon thereafter – but only after they too tried to crack her spirit. She joined other trans folks and allies and picketed the hotel where the HRC dinner was being held. She shone her light. Noticeably, she was the one hugging and kissing her friends who “crossed the picket lines.” She had friends everywhere. But lofty self-important folks don’t interest her. Most importantly to a peasant leader like her is her focus is on the light that is reflected in the eyes of every single parent and child that people have tried to crack.

Her volunteerism is tireless. We at PFLAG dispatch volunteers to go visit those in distress. Courtney has triaged families in crisis from Metairie to Marrero, from the Ninth Ward to Napoleon Avenue. There ain’t no mountain high enough. Ain’t no valley low enough. Ain’t no river wide enough. Her light will flood the entire landscape that Diana Ross so famously sang of.

So, class of ‘23, imagine the cracks in your own life filling you with so much light that you reflect it back like a mirror. How will you take your cracks and reflect them upon the next generation? How will you put spotlights on the next generation’s talents? How will you put klieg lights on their hope? How can you help find the lights hidden under every bushel? That’s what a peasant leader does.

While we at PFLAG try so hard to minimize the breakage and cracks in your young lives, we want you to take the strength you’ve already mustered, and use it as Courtney did. A talented student and ultimately a successful engineer by trade, Courtney’s work-life was turned upside down when she transitioned. Rank discrimination prevailed. She was fired, plain and simple. This crack, folks, was in her livelihood. It was massive – actually a yawning breach, and yet, she found nuns to advise her, a lawyer to plead her case and her first chosen family in Julie Thompson. Thank you Jack Sullivan for being the attorney from heaven and Sisters Rochelle and Luisa for being the nuns from the same place.

Julie tells the story that when Courtney joined the Thompson clan, she became a full-fledged member of the family. Julie’s grandkids call her “nanny.” Her daughter had an in-depth conversation about “cup sizes” when the time came. And I don’t mean coffee cup!

Cracks that let the light in. Wow. If only the late Stewart Butler could be with us. The day Stewart was buried was a glorious crisp one with abundant sunshine. After Courtney delivered his eulogy, and the crowd went home, Courtney texted a few friends “Look up at the sky. Stewart can spread his wings now.”

Stewart’s wings spread even wider when Frank Perez published his biography, Political Animal. Class of 23, this is required reading. It’s the history of LGBTQ civil rights. It’s a history of PFLAG and it’s why you’re able to tap this parade of hope tonight. Courtney’s full story is captured in this book, so I’d like to close with this. While our peasant leader is cited throughout the book, she actually chose an anecdote on page 162 as her favorite. It’s where the gay community and the black community were joined in the hymn “We Shall Overcome.” Here’s how we found out. At one of Brad Leger’s spiritual retreats last year, everyone was devouring Perez’s newly released book. Courtney invited a few close friends down to the lake and read page 162 aloud. It had nothing to do with her. (DUH – she’s a peasant!) The captivating story she found goes this way: Stewart and several PFLAG volunteers were protesting a political candidate who had taken our money and jilted us. He was hosting a fundraiser at the very posh NOMA setting in city park. Stewart knew exactly where to stand for maximum effect on the tony crowd that arrived. The protestors made good loud trouble. The jazz musicians that the candidate had hired were told to “drown out” the protesters. But when the small band of queers stepped forward and sang all four verses of “We Shall Overcome” the musicians immediately stopped trying to drown us out. We were one.

We were the communities that oppressors try to crack. That night, the light of cracked oppressed people sang as one. I think of the Catholic church, where frankly, lots of folks get cracked. But Courtney is always there to shine her light.

Despite the systematic vaunted homophobia, she always says “but the people in the pews are still with us.” She lives the lyrics of “We Shall Overcome” and revels in the inclusion that it signals.

So pretend you’re in the pews. And let me read you this lyric from We Shall Overcome

The world is one great battlefield,
With forces all arrayed.
If in my heart I do not yield,
We shall overcome some day.

St. Catherine Drexel focused on Native American and African American education needs way before the civil war. Imagine Courtney’s delight to meet the president of Xavier in this very ballroom at their recent inaugural GAYLA where inclusion took its logical next step and included the LGBT community.

At no time in history has the assault on inclusion and diversity been so concerted. The LGBT acronym needs to be seamless and crack resistant. And we have a secret weapon. I think of all the families she’s adopted and vice versa – and all the hyphens she uses. Here’s to a lifetime achievement for Courtney Sharp-Thompson-Favor-Trahan-Mundt-Derouen–Sullivan-Melcher.

Now try to fit THAT on a proclamation!

Class of ’23, learn from her. Turn your ‘me’ into ‘we!’ And together, we shall indeed overcome.”