On Tuesday, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee announced that longtime bisexual and LGBT activist Amy Andre would become the organization’s next executive director, overseeing the production of its annual San Francisco Pride Celebration & Parade. Andre, who was recently interviewed on GLAADblog during Celebrate Bisexuality Day, brings to her new position over a decade of experience working with LGBT nonprofit organizations as well as an MBA in nonprofit management and a master’s degree in sexuality studies. SF Pride Board President Mikayla Connell stated in BiNet USA’s press release:

We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Amy Andre to the Pride team with her wealth of talent, experience, and history of activism as we continue planning and preparing for the fortieth anniversary San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade in June of 2010.

The Committee’s decision to select an openly bisexual leader represents an important step toward the slow reversal of the type of biphobia and invisibility Andre has discussed in her written work, and most recently in her September GLAADblog contribution:

When it comes to sexual identity, self-identified bisexuals make up fifty percent of the LGB population. And yet, we bisexuals (and our allies) remain in so many ways invisible and marginalized and not quite aware of the extent to which bisexuals are part of the larger LGBT community.

Andre is also the co-author of Bisexual Health: An Introduction and Model Practices for HIV/STI Prevention, a book published by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, BiNet USA and the Fenway Institute, as well as the director of On My Skin/En Mi Piel, the internationally-screened documentary about a mixed-race transgender man and his family. Commenting on her selection, which concluded a national search process that began in March, Andre said:

I’m honored and delighted by this opportunity to be a part of Pride. Celebrating ourselves is one of the most important, courageous, affirming, and, yes, even political, things we as an LGBT community can do. This year’s theme is Forty and Fabulous. But, of course, Pride has always been fabulous, and we’ve got even more wonderful things in store!

We at GLAAD congratulate SF Pride on their selection of such an inspiring leader, and look forward to tracking Amy Andre’s success in her new position.