The Manny Correia Youth Speaker’s Fund

The Manny Correia Youth Speaker’s Fund was established in 2012 by Tom Harvey in honor of his husband Manny Correia’s 50th birthday. The fund was launched at a surprise party for Manny that was held at the Artist for Humanity Epicenter in Boston with over 250 guests. Greater Boston PFLAG played a prominent role at the party, with former Executive Director Pam Garramone describing the work of Greater Boston PFLAG and the impact that youth speakers have within the organization’s programs. Pam then introduced 19-year-old Andrew Friedman to the crowd to tell his impactful and heartfelt story as a gay youth recently coming out.

The fund is now an ongoing grant that helps finance the stipends paid to LGBTQ+ youth and young adults participating in various presentations, training sessions, and programs on behalf of Greater Boston PFLAG. The speakers themselves benefit from the opportunity to serve the community without having to worry about out-of-pocket expenses, travel costs, and incidentals associated with actively participating in the programs.

Greater Boston PFLAG benefits from being able to attract top-notch speakers, as is able to fund more support, education, resources and advocacy programs that help foster dialogue, create safe environments, and open hearts and minds. Since the introduction of the fund, more than 100 supporters have donated over $100,000 through summer fundraisers to support the LGBTQ+ youth speakers in Manny’s honor.

More about Manny Correia and Tom Harvey

Manny was born and raised in Hudson, MA as the youngest of six children. He worked for Harvard Management Company for over 25 years starting at age 19 as an input clerk, going to Northeastern at night, and working his way up over the years to his last role as Chief Administrative Officer. In 2008, Manny founded Inclusive Coaching providing a range of services including career, leadership, and management development coaching. Manny came out as gay at age 19.

Tom grew up in Virginia as the youngest of three kids and has lived in four states across the US since graduating from Virginia Tech in 1986. After working at Deloitte and Abbott Laboratories, Tom joined the Waltham-based biotech Alkermes in 2005, where he is currently the Vice President of Information Systems. Tom didn’t come out as gay to himself until age 36 – soon after his 12-year marriage to his former wife ended in 2000.
Manny and Tom met in Provincetown in August 2003 and were married at South Church Andover (UCC) in July 2005. Their marriage holds the distinction of not only being the first same-sex wedding performed at the church but also the largest wedding in the church’s 300-year history. Family and friends are always at the center of what they do.

They were introduced to Greater Boston PFLAG in early 2010 as part of the South Church Andover Open Dialogue committee. The committee was made up of about eight church members (mostly straight allies) who were passionate to identify ways to help support members of the church and provide outreach to the local community regarding LGBTQ topics and issues. They were aware of the great work that PFLAG does and knew that the local chapter had been dormant for a few years. The committee met with Pam Garramone several times during the spring and summer. They helped launch the Merrimack Valley Greater Boston PFLAG Support Group. Manny served as one of the chapter’s founding co-facilitators for the first couple of years.