LGBTQIA+ LEGACY VIDEOS

Dr. Grace Dammann, a physician who was honored by the Dalai Lama for her extraordinary work with AIDS patients, was a resident of Green Gulch Farm (also known as the San Francisco Zen Center) for many decades. Her life changed radically after experiencing a head-on collision on the Golden Gate Bridge. Following 48 days in a coma, Grace miraculously awoke. Once the thrill and euphoria of survival had passed, the hard, painful work of rehabilitation and caregiving began for Grace and her caregivers. Her recovery journey was documented in the film, “States of Grace”, produced by Helen S. Cohen and Mark Lipman. Her harrowing experience was also written about by KQED and the Sangha News, which documented her advocacy work for a safer Golden Gate Bridge. It is because of Grace, and her fight, that the Golden Gate Bridge has the mobile zipper to make driving to Marin a much safer experience. Today, Grace runs the Pain Clinic at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center from a wheelchair.

Note: Grace is one of the elders of this exhibit who participated in the course out of which these legacy videos emerged, is LGBTQIA+ identified, and has a religious history that isn’t Jewish.