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Nicole Murray-Ramirez (born 1945) is an LGBT activist and frequent San Diego city committee appointee known as "Empress Nicole the Great, Queen Mother of the Americas" within the Imperial Court System of which she is the titular leader. [1]
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Nicole Murray-Ramirez (born 1945) is an LGBT activist and frequent San Diego city committee appointee known as "Empress Nicole the Great, Queen Mother of the Americas" within the Imperial Court System of which she is the titular leader. [1]
Murray-Ramirez has been a Latino and gay activist for 45 years serving in roles as past national board member of the Human Rights Campaign, past National Chair of LLEGO, the National Chair of Stonewall 25, and the only gay activist in the country who has been elected to all four national boards of the Marches on Washington, DC. He was also elected chair of the Millennium March. He is the past State Chair of Equality California and is currently serving a four-year term on the national board of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. He was also appointed by the county Board of Supervisors to the Regional Task Force on AIDS in the 1980s and has served as a county deputy marriage commissioner.
Murray-Ramirez was elected the chair of the San Diego Human Relations Commission (HRC) for four terms. The San Diego Human Rights Commission comprises leaders from the Religious, Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, African American and Native American communities appointed by the mayor and the City Council. Murray-Ramirez was first appointed by then-Mayor Dick Murphy, and reappointed by Mayor Jerry Sanders. When first elected four years ago, he was the first openly gay man elected as chair. Murray-Ramirez was unanimously elected chair by the fellow commissioners. Murray-Ramirez has served the last eight mayors of San Diego, and was elected as the chair of the first mayor's GLBT Advisory Board and the first GLBT Advisory Board to the chief of police.
Murray-Ramirez served as chair of the Chief of Police Advisory Board, has served on other state and national boards, was the first San Diegan elected to chair the board for Equality California, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Diego Latino Coalition, and was presented the Caesar Chavez Humanitarian Award by the widow of César Chávez. In 2012, Murray-Ramirez successfully spearheaded the renaming of Blaine Street in the Hillcrest neighborhood, to Harvey Milk Street.
Within the Imperial Court System, Murray-Ramirez long held a leadership position as President of the Imperial Court Council and 1st Heir Apparent to José Sarria, the Widow Norton. At a Coronation Ball in Seattle, Washington on February 17, 2007, Sarria formally handed leadership of the organization over to Murray-Ramirez. The latter assumed the title "Queen Mother of the Americas". [2]
In 1975, in his drag persona as Empress of the Imperial Court de San Diego, Murray-Ramirez rode in San Diego's first Pride Parade in an open vehicle amid jeers from hostile spectators. He was among the few to take the microphone and speak at the rally in Balboa Park immediately following. Regarding that day he said:
It was a scary and lonely march down Broadway ... Nobody applauded. And most gay people didn't come out to the sidelines because they were afraid.
Murray-Ramirez was grand marshal for that parade on its anniversary 30 years later, was grand marshal in Tijuana's first pride parade.
 | This biographical article is written like a résumé .(August 2014) |
Founder
Public service
HIV/AIDS
Awards / honors
Commissioner Ramirez's nearly 45 years of social justice and charity work has been recognized by countless awards and honors within the countries of Mexico, Canada and the United States, including:
José Julio Sarria, also known as The Grand Mere, Absolute Empress I de San Francisco, and the Widow Norton, was an American political activist from San Francisco, California, who, in 1961, became the first openly gay candidate for public office in the United States. He is also remembered for performing as a drag queen at the Black Cat Bar and as the founder of the Imperial Court System.
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