Judy Vaughs, public affairs manager for Planned Parenthood in the Pacific Southwest, is honored as the Friend of Pride. This award acknowledges that Vaughs is not a part of the LGBTQ+ community but she has nonetheless been a stalwart supporter of the community for years and made a contribution to LGBTQ+ rights this year.
Vaughs is a community organizer advocating for healthcare equality and access. She noted that while the healthcare system is broken in general, there are also many different specific barriers to receiving care, whether they be financial, physical, transportation issues or gender inequities.
“You really just have to be there,” she explained. “My approach is holistic because I really am thinking through the different barriers.”
When attending events, she does not just show up and speak, but rather shows up and listens to the community needs. Vaughs said organizing needs to be “rooted in centering the most marginalized people.”
Under the Trump administration and then the pandemic, it became more difficult to access reproductive care. The Dobbs decision overturning Roe V. Wade was something she had prepared for but still impacted Planned Parenthood locally and at a national level.
“She really played a pivotal role in ensuring that the messages here in San Diego highlighted the intersection of the LGBTQ community and abortion and reproductive justice,” Pride Executive Director Fernando Lopez said, noting that the Dobbs decision tore down the legal framework from which marriage equality, contraception, and even the decriminalization of gay sex were enshrined as rights.
She urged other allies not just to think about LGBTQ+ rights during Pride month, but to keep that energy and focus throughout the entire year.
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