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Home Community

“Champion of Pride” keeps on winning

11/03/2023
in Community, Cover stories, Feature, Featured, Featured News, Features, News, News & Features, Top Story
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“Champion of Pride” keeps on winning

Christynne gives a passionate speech after receiving her Diogenes Award. (Courtesy PRSA - SD/IC)

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Public Relations Society of America, San Diego and Imperial Counties Chapter (PRSA SD/IC), presents Christynne Lilli Wrene Wood with the Diogenes Award

By Morgan Hurley

The local trans woman who very publicly took on hate in her community last January – first by herself and then with the help of the ACLU – continues to be honored around the country.

In July, Christynne Lilli Wrene Wood, 67, was selected as San Diego Pride’s “Champion of Pride.”

On Thursday, Oct. 26, the Public Relations Society of America, San Diego and Imperial Counties Chapter (PRSA SD/IC), presented Christynne with the Diogenes Award at their annual Bernays Mark of Excellence Awards, held on the SDSU campus.

PRSA SD/IC has over 200 paying members and supports the entire public relations industry within the two counties with guidance, career development and various networking opportunities. The awards are named after Edward L. Bernay, considered by PRSA to be the “godfather of PR,” and the entries are judged by third party PRSA chapters. This year’s nominees were reviewed by the South Carolina Chapter, along with PRSA volunteers. 

Christynne said she learned of the award just two days prior to the event. She normally would have been at the YMCA for her water aerobics class, but she decided to skip it that morning, preferring to relax with “Skippy,” her beloved Min-Pin instead. She said she was having a cup of coffee when the call came.

“It was a shock,” she told LGBTQ San Diego County News about the moment she learned about her Diogenes Award. “You could have knocked me off my chair.”

She did admit to having to look up the name of the award. 

“At first I thought it was named after a crab, but once I realized it had to do with Plato and Athens, I thought, ‘I love you already.’ I was absolutely honored.”

The PRSA SD/IC website states, “The Diogenes Award is named after the ancient Greek philosopher who carried a lantern through the streets of Athens, searching for an honest man. This award recognizes a local newsmaker who has demonstrated a remarkable and commendable understanding of the need for candor when dealing with the public and the news media, regardless of any potential negative outcome from the resulting publicity.”

“This year’s Diogenes Award submission shows that LGBTQ+ representation impacts us in many ways, and how we need our allies to stand up for all members of our community, personally and professionally. It is part of our work to guide organizations through challenges like the one the YMCA of Santee faced, with Christynne embodying the definition of the special Diogenes Award. We are honored to have recognized her for being her amazing self, as it sends a larger message about the intersectionality of our work and our impacts to our community.”

Board of Directors, PRSA San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter

Of course they are referring to events which took place back in January, when a young girl at the Cameron Family YMCA in Santee crossed paths with Christynne in the bathroom and lied about the experience. The young girl accused Christynne of being “a naked man in a women’s locker room.” A media and community firestorm ensued.

But Christynne, the Cameron YMCA and her many friends, as well as hundreds of others supporters throughout the county, stood up to the hate and the girl later tearfully admitted to lying about what she saw.

“Please understand that the words of a White girl are taken so seriously by our society that they have led to the beating and lynching of people of color, such as Emmett Till in 1955, and this reality is always in the mind of people of color” she wrote on the Union Tribune OpEd page in March of this year.

Christynne, a retired and award-winning 29-year veteran of the County Health and Human Services Agency, officially transitioned “socially and medically,” she said, on March 25, 2016. That is the day she came out to her family, her work, her doctor and her loved ones and she began taking hormones shortly thereafter. She retired in 2018 and her vaginoplasty was completed in 2020.

But this dustup in Santee was not her first rodeo.

“I’ve been a devotee and unabashed enthusiast of the health benefits of water aerobics since 2007 and credit it with saving and adding extra years to my life,” she wrote in the UT.

She and a group of women she affectionately calls her “aqua sisters” took classes together at the local Chuze Fitness for years, where she admits to losing over 130 lbs. Unfortunately, management of her long standing gym were not supportive of her 2015 transition and began refusing her access to the women’s amenities.

She filed a lawsuit against Chuze and eventually they offered to settle, which she said she agreed to. But to add salt into the healing wound, the gym soon just did away with the entire water aerobics program, which she feels was done to spite her.

Christynne and her aqua sisters were not deterred, however, and began hosting their own classes at the gym, since they knew all the routines and had their own music. But after continued harassment, she and a dozen other women quit Chuze and moved over to the Cameron Family YMCA.

“Why should we continue giving them our money?” Christynne said. “And we even got to bring our instructor with us.” 

Christynne Lili Wrene Wood, of Lakeside, California, speaks at a Trans Youth March in Central Florida last month. (Courtesy Christynne Wood)

That was January of 2022 and the locker room incident occurred one year later. The ACLU got involved because it became clear this phenomenon — young girls claiming “naked men” were in women’s locker rooms, started happening across the country.

“It was anti-vax, anti-education, religious bigots pretending to be churches” who were putting the youngsters up to it, Christynne said. “It was their 9/11 against the trans community. But love and truth always wins out.”

The Cameron Family YMCA has stood by Christynne since day one, and she’s become quite a celebrity in the greater Santee and Lakeside area where she resides. She said she regularly gets approached at Von’s and the post office, and the younger women who belong to the Y (whom she calls her surrogate grandchildren) rush to hug her whenever they see her. The positive feedback she’s received far outweighs the hate, she said. 

“I’ve also noticed more trans people and more people of color joining the Cameron YMCA,” she added.

Her most steadfast supporter is Laura Newbre, a retired teacher who was the first to greet and welcome Christynne to the Cameron YMCA when she joined. Laura, along with her husband, helped hand paint 26 signs for the city council meeting that was convened in the wake of the “naked man in the women’s restroom” hysteria.

Laura, who is white and taught in Compton and Watts in the many years when others would not, continues to accompany Christynne to public events where she’s been honored, including Dodger Stadium’s controversial Pride Night earlier this year, and the PSRA SD/IC Bernays Awards last week. Christynne and the PRSA chapter both made sure to recognize Laura in their remarks, and the PR team for the San Diego YMCA was also presented with a Silver Excellence Award for “Crisis Communication: Solving the YMCA Crisis: Controversy and Transgender Rights.”

When asked how she feels being so fully embraced by the national LGBTQ community at this stage in her life, Christynne grew quiet.

“I am still overwhelmed,” she said. “I just wanted to work out.” She added that she does come from a long line of social activists, with relatives who worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King and even helped arrange rides for the Freedom Riders. “I was called to advocate and this was my chance to do the same.”

Earlier in October, Christynne spoke in Central Florida at a march for trans youth organized by a 17-year old girl, where she said she got to meet Ms. Major Griffin-Garty, a Stonewall survivor. But she said her most important work was performed upon her arrival to the state.

“As soon as I landed in Miami, I went right over to the women’s restroom, to stall number four, and left my regards for Ron DeSantis.”

To read about the Bernays Mark of Excellence Awards, visit bit.ly/40mg5nF. 

—Morgan M. Hurley is the editor-in-chief of this newspaper. You can reach her at editor@lgbtqsd.news.


I hope you enjoyed reading this article and hope you will also consider supporting our independent news organization. LGBTQ San Diego County News is one of California’s last LGBTQ print newspapers. But we are in danger of going out of print. During times of crisis, celebration, and mourning, crucial information about our community comes from local reporters and writers. LGBTQ San Diego County News needs your help and support in order to continue printing.

Please consider supporting LGBTQ+ San Diego County News. We are one of just five California based LGBTQ+ newspapers that are still in print. Donate. Subscribe. And if you have a business that’s able to, advertise with us. Your support is critical to sustaining the dedicated journalists serving our communities. 

Our local LGBTQ+ newspaper helps keep us safer. We keep an eye on city hall, on corruption, and shady business practices. Together we can ensure our local news is covered for years to come.

-Eddie Reynoso, Publisher

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Join us Sunday, March 30th, from 6–9 PM at @TheR Join us Sunday, March 30th, from 6–9 PM at @TheRailSD for a night of Latine trans and nonbinary performances! Enjoy free food, get access to free HIV testing, and take part in exciting raffles—all while supporting the @translatinacoalition.

🎤 Hosted by @MissWhorchata

✨ Featuring performances by:
@la.alanina | @amoreenvy | @chichifuera | @lachikavara | @hansebarr | @prince_iridescent | @killkarmakill | @laladyblanca | @lunavonnoir_ | @thesarafine

🎟️ RAFFLES & GIVEAWAYS! Over $2,000 in prizes from local queer-owned businesses and community sponsors.

📍 Where: The Rail (3796 Fifth Ave)
💸 Suggested Cover: $5 (No one turned away for lack of funds)

Let’s pack the house, uplift our trans siblings, and celebrate resilience, art, and community. Spread the word & see you there!

Special thanks to event sponsors: @fka.tif @iamtinklebelle @harleygray92103 @donna_aphrodite @escondidodrag @tikis.treasures @number_one_fifth @urbanmos @leparties @djjohnjoseph @humanitysd @vidaorg @officialjlau @impulsesandiego club_sandiego @crestcafesd @babycakessandiego @colorbarsd @surjecoffee @ecatco
LGBTQ San Diego County News is Updating! After a LGBTQ San Diego County News is Updating!

After a necessary pause for my healing, I am making important adjustments and updates to the company and website. These changes are vital for the survival of our community’s only LGBTQ newspaper.

I appreciate your patience and support. Stay tuned for more updates, including a relaunch of the website, and the return of our print edition in the near future. Give and help us survive hate by visiting: LGBTQSD.news/Support.

Still here, still fighting. Onward! 

 -Eddie Reynoso, Publisher & Survivor.

LGBTQ San Diego County News
🏳️‍🌈🎉🌴🚴‍♀️ City and local 🏳️‍🌈🎉🌴🚴‍♀️ City and local officials broke ground this morning for @fabuloushillcrest’s long awaited Pride Plaza!  Funding for the park comes from @accesshillcrestsd - parking district funds, @sandagregion, @cityofsandiego, and private fundraising by the Hillcrest Business Association.  WATCH the ground breaking above and DONATE to the park or READ our full coverage via the link in our bio or at: https://lgbtqsd.news/groundbreaking-set-for-normal-st-promenade-hillcrest-heroes-banners-unveiling/ 

#PridePlaza
🚧✨ Big changes coming to @fabuloushillcrest! 🚧✨ Big changes coming to @fabuloushillcrest! The long-awaited Normal St. Promenade breaks ground Feb. 16, transforming Pride Plaza into a vibrant gathering space. 

🌳🚲 Join us at 10 AM for a historic ceremony, speeches from local leaders, & the unveiling of Hillcrest Heroes banners! 

🎉 Stick around after for a champagne toast at @hillcrestbrewingcompany. Let’s celebrate this new chapter for our community! 

Details and story via the link in our bio or at: https://lgbtqsd.news/groundbreaking-set-for-normal-st-promenade-hillcrest-heroes-banners-unveiling/

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🚨 New Policy: Protecting Trans Youth 🚨 Eddi 🚨 New Policy: Protecting Trans Youth 🚨

Eddie Reynoso, Publisher of LGBTQ San Diego County News announces new media policy to remove names of trans youth from our reporting to safeguard them from rising attacks. 

As we relaunch our website and print newspaper after a period of transition and healing, we remain committed to ethical journalism that puts community safety first.

🔗 Read the full story via the link in our bio or at: https://lgbtqsd.news/lgbtq-san-diego-county-news-to-remove-names-of-minors/
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