SAN DIEGO — The San Diego LGBT Community Center honored local activist Jeri Dilno with a Celebration of Life Sunday afternoon.
Dilno played an essential role in LGBTQ advancement throughout her life during her time as a veteran, Pride organizer and journalist. She died February 24 at age 87.
She joined the Air Force after attending San Diego State University. She was dishonorably discharged — along with eight others — for being gay. Dilno was the only one to fight the charges and later had her dishonorable discharge changed to honorable.
This was the catalyst for her work in the LGBTQ community.
She returned to San Diego after living in Philadelphia for a brief time and soon helped found the first San Diego Pride march in 1975. Dilno was active in local and national politics from this year until 2000, holding leadership roles in the San Diego Democratic Club, the LGBT Caucus and the National Democratic Convention.
"She would ask me often. Why do people find me important or interesting or someone special in the community? I would go through the litany and she'd say it doesn't make sense for me," said her friend Judy Scharm.
She was the Editor at the Gay and Lesbian Times newspaper in the thick of the AIDS crisis.
Dilno once posed as a straight couple alongside another LGBT activist for journalistic purposes — the pair attended a conservative church meeting being held to discuss the overturning of the Human Dignity Ordinance.
"It's amazing and the thing is I knew Jeri after all of this had happened in her life. I just knew her as Jeri," said her neighbor Gary Coover.
In 2006, San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor declared March 25 "Jeri Dilno Day."
"I'm just gonna miss her a lot because we talked about anything and everything," Coover said.
Dilno was beloved and respected among the LGBTQ community and earned myriad accolades during her life including the Harvey Milk Award, and the Susan B. Anthony Achievement Award from the San Diego chapter of the National Organization for Women.
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