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JBSA News
NEWS | July 1, 2014

JBSA community supports diversity in Pride Month run

By Jose T. Garza III JBSA-Lackland Public Affairs

Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland celebrated Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month with the Run for Diversity 5K June 27 at the Gillum Fitness Center.

Pride Month is observed across the United States every June to commemorate the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City, an event regarded as the catalyst for LGBT civil rights in the country.

The event brought out a father-daughter tandem who recently discovered running as their new bonding activity.

Staff Sgt. Russell Southard, 344th Training Squadron operations specialist instructor, competed with his daughter Annabelle Southard, 6, who earned first place honors in the Females 30 and under category with a time of 31:34.

After going on a run together three weeks ago, the staff sergeant informed his daughter about the race.

"She liked running so I told her that there was this 5K run coming up, and she asked to come along," said Russell. "I told her that it was going to be tough, but she did it."
With one race under her belt, Annabelle has the urge to compete in more.

Hoisted on her father's shoulders and clutching her first place medal, the six year old excitedly said she wants to participate "in every single one in Texas."

"I couldn't be more proud of her," Russell said.

Besides spending quality time with his daughter, the run allowed the staff sergeant to demonstrate support for equality in the military.

"We can all offer the military a lot of diverse things, and equality lets everyone offer their absolute best contributions to the military," he explained.

Bridget Delarosa-Lopez, who won first place in the women's 30 and over category with a time of 20:10, also participated in the run in support of diversity with her friend Edie Davis, Sexual Assault Response & Prevention Office director of student programs at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston.

She adorned rainbow-colored socks and streaks of purple hair to espouse the cause and display her own distinct personality.

"I have a lot of friends who are in the military or who have served and my father is retired Air Force and my husband, Roger, is in the Army National Guard at Camp Bullis," said Delarosa-Lopez. "I'm also a school teacher so diversity is real important to me because I see it as an everyday thing especially working with children.

"I believe that if people are going to serve their country, it shouldn't matter about their color, gender, nationality etc. As long as we are coming together and working as one to find success in something, those things shouldn't matter."

Tech Sgt. Rebecca Stephens, Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency knowledge operations manager and the event coordinator, said her goal was to give people a platform to be themselves while promoting equality. She revealed that some of her friends were discharged from the military due to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which was repealed in 2010.

Stephens was appreciative of the participation and support for the run from the JBSA community.

"This year we had the JBSA-Lackland First Sergeants Council and JBSA-Lackland Top III organization support the cause and JBSA-Randolph personnel helped as well." the technical sergeant said. "It was phenomenal."