DR. STEVE KRANTZ is a member of the Board of PFLAG Los Angeles. He served as Director of PFLAG’s Southern Pacific Region and a member of PFLAG’s National Board from 2007 through 2013. Until mid-2007, Steve was the President of the Los Angeles chapter, after joining in fall 2003.

In June 2009, Steve received the Vanguard Award from the Gay and Lesbian Administrators Alliance (GALAA) of the LA Unified School District for his service to LGBT Youth.

A full Interview Transcript is available to donors by clicking HERE.

In June 2008, Steve received the Rainbow Key Award from the City of West Hollywood for his service to the gay community of California.

In June 2007, Steve founded the Youth Advocates Coalition (YAC; www.lalgbtyac.org), a coalition of the gay youth supportive organizations in Los Angeles County, including the GSA Network, The Trevor Project, Bienestar, the LA Gay and Lesbian Center’s Lifeworks, LA Unified School District, Friends of Project 10, Teenline, the City of West Hollywood, USC and UCLA LGBT Resource Centers, and the LA Children’s Hospital – Connect to Protect. They continue to meet, sharing events, ideas and projects to improve support for LGBT youth in LA County. Steve currently serves on the Board of the LA County LGBT Child Abuse Prevention Council and the RISE Project’s Leadership Council.

In October 2005, Steve founded Jews for Marriage Equality (jewsformarriageequality.org), an advocacy organization, to educate the Jewish population of California in the great need for equal civil marriage rights for gays and lesbians (http://www.jewsformarriageequality.org/ ). With his team of clergy and secular volunteers, Steve gained the support of the majority of California rabbis for equal marriage rights in order to defeat Proposition 8. Over 78% of California Jews voted against Proposition 8.

Prior to moving with his family to California in 2003, Steve was President of PFLAG Ft. Lauderdale in Florida. His family joined the chapter in 1998 after his younger son came out. He assumed the position of President in 1999.

Steve retired from his 39 year career at IBM as a Distinguished Engineer in 2007 and holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science. For the last 8 years of his IBM career, Steve was Chief Architect and Strategy Leader of IBM’s internal IT infrastructure.

Steve was a long distance runner for over 30 years, having completed the NY (2x), San Diego, Las Vegas and LA marathons in the past 8 years. With his wife Annick, Steve is attempting a second sports career as a tennis player.

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