Doughty to Be Honored by Openhouse

Roger Doughty, longtime president of the Horizons Foundation, will receive the Founders Award from Openhouse at its annual Spring Fling benefit Sunday, May 15 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 5 Embarcadero Center in San Francisco.

Openhouse is a nonprofit founded in San Francisco in 1998 to address the needs of LGBT seniors. It is currently nearing completion on the first phase of the 55 Laguna senior housing complex.

Seth Kilbourn, the outgoing executive director of Openhouse, said in an email that the agency is honoring Doughty "because of his tireless, visionary work on behalf of us all."

"As president of Horizons Foundation he has championed Openhouse with facilities, advice, networking, credibility, and funding," Kilbourn said. "More broadly, Roger has created a powerful incubator for the Bay Area LGBT community, especially by advancing LGBT visibility and community coherence and resourcefulness. He tirelessly works to keep valuable LGBT assets in the community, most recently with a campaign to raise a permanent fund at the foundation. We're grateful to him and want the whole community to know it."

Doughty, 55, who has led the Horizons Foundation since 2002, told the Bay Area Reporter in an interview that he was "deeply honored and humbled" to be selected for the award.

"Openhouse has a vision for the community as well as a willingness to take risks to achieve it," he said.

From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, Doughty, a gay man, served in several volunteer leadership positions and worked as an attorney specializing in LGBT refugees and asylum. In 1997, he got his first job as what he calls "a professional homosexual," becoming the director of programs at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Soon after, he served as executive director of Chicago's LGBT community center - now known as the Center on Halsted - before returning to California and the Bay Area in 2002.

Since 2002, Doughty has led Horizons Foundation, which he said is the world's first LGBT community foundation.

In Doughty's time at Horizons, the foundation has grown nearly 10-fold, and brought millions of dollars to community organizations, Kilbourn said.

Doughty has also led the foundation in developing a long-term strategy based on planned giving to secure and protect the rights, meet the needs, and celebrate the lives of LGBT people permanently, Kilbourn added.

Doughty said he got to know Openhouse's staff and board when the two agencies shared office space for several years in the Flood Building in the early 2000s. Beginning in 2000, the Horizons Foundation has awarded Openhouse with grants totaling almost $400,000, Doughty said.

"We're incredibly proud of the partnership we've had and to see how far they've come," Doughty added.

"So many people - starting with the founders themselves - have brought Openhouse to where it stands today. My role has been modest relative to that of so many, and all of the visionaries, volunteers, and staff have my admiration and gratitude," said Doughty in a statement.

Doughty also talked about the needs of LGBT seniors.

"LGBTQ elders face - and will face - every one of the challenges that confront all elders in this country. And then some," he said. "More worryingly, neither society at large nor the LGBT community is prepared to help elders sufficiently to meet these challenges. If we are to do so - as a society and as a community - it will take not only significantly greater financial resources but the kind of moral commitment that fuels all great social undertakings."

At the Spring Fling, Openhouse is also honoring Diana Nyad, who at the age of 64, in her fifth and final attempt, successfully fulfilled her lifelong dream of completing the 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida on September 2, 2013. Nyad, a lesbian, was considered the world's top long distance swimmer in the 1970s. She declined an interview request.

Spring Fling takes place from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $200. For more information, visit https://openhouse-sf.org/fling