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City Hall tribute to Regina Shavers

LAGIC members joined with family and friends at City Hall June 18 as City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, council member Rosie Mendez and state Sen. Thomas Duane honored the late Regina Shavers.

A council proclamation cited Shavers “for her tremendous contributions to the LGBT community in New York City.” At the ceremony were LAGIC Chair Judith Arroyo, president of Public Health Nurses and Epidemiologists Local 436, and the Rev. Janyce Jackson, Shavers’ life partner.

Shavers, who died in February 2008, was a founding member of DC 37’s Lesbian and Gay Issues Committee, the AFL-CIO’s Pride At Work, and the founder and director of the Griot Circle.

After retiring in 2000 from a long and varied city career in DC 37 locals 1549, 371, and 768, Shavers initiated the Griot Circle to provide a community-based social service organization to respond to the needs of older lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people of all colors. The Circle offered educational forums, social service referrals, health and fitness programs, social outreach and more.

This work was part of Shavers’ lifelong commitment to advocacy, education and activism for her community. The Queers for Economic Justice group called her “a life force and a shining light for many younger activists.”