Gil Gerald & Associates, Inc.

Consulting for Community-Based Social Change

GILBERTO (GIL) GERALD

Gilberto Ruben Gerald graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, in 1974, following attendance at the School of Architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.  After ten years working as a professional in the field of architecture, Mr. Gerald became immersed full-time in the Gay and Lesbian movement and in the community-based response to HIV and AIDS. Since 1990 he has worked as a consultant, assisting community-based organizations, with their fundraising, program development and capacity-building challenges through specialized technical assistance services. Over the last fifteen years, proposal writing by Gil Gerald and Associates, Inc. has resulted in millions—more than six million for just one agency in the past two years--in services addressing HIV services, substance abuse treatment, primary outpatient medical care and other services for underserved populations.

Mr. Gerald has more than twelve years of combined non-profit senior management experience in organizations of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and organizations addressing HIV and AIDS.  He is a founding member and was the first paid Executive Director of the now defunct, but historic, National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays. He is a former Treasurer and Vice-moderator of the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington DC, and also held these positions on the Board of the Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles.  He is a former Regent of Samaritan Theological Institute, which in the early history of the denomination served as the educational arm of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. Mr. Gerald was also a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the predecessor of the Human Rights Campaign, and also served on the Board of the historic Gay Rights National Lobby. While a resident of the District of Columbia, Gil Gerald served as the President of the DC Coalition of Black Gay Men and Women and served as the Whip in the District of Columbia, Jesse Jackson Delegation to the 1984 Democratic National Convention.  As a co-founder of the National Minority AIDS Council, Gil Gerald served as the incorporating officer and as the first Secretary of the Board. He also served as a member of the National Steering Committee for the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, in 1987, as the Executive Director of the Minority AIDS Project in Los Angeles, the Board of Directors of AIDS Project Los Angeles, and as the Treasurer of Gentlemen Concerned which in the late 1980s and early 1990s raised money from the Black community for AIDS services in Los Angeles. Now a resident of San Francisco, Mr. Gerald served for two years as the Director of Development for the Black Coalition on AIDS.

Gil Gerald contributed a chapter in the groundbreaking publication “In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology” (Beam J. ed, Alyson Publications, 1986), and has been published in several periodicals, including the “Journal of the National Medical Association” and “Point of View: the Magazine of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.”  His writing was also featured in “Freedom in this Village” (Harris, E L, ed, Carroll & Graff, 2005), and he is the subject of a chapter in Profiles in Gay and Lesbian Courage. Mr. Gerald was also featured in the film documentary After Stonewall.  Mr. Gerald was born in the Republic of Panama and is a naturalized U.S. citizen.