Will Trinkle, a longtime advocate for LGBT civl rights, joined Faith in America’s board of directors on October 1, 2010.
Trinkle, is past chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA) in New York and a former national board member of GLAAD.
In addition to serving as ESPA’s past chair, Trinkle serves on its board and is also past co-chair of the board of the Empire State Pride Agenda Foundation; recently finished nine-year terms on each of the board of trustees of Hollins University and as an appointee to the Virginia Commission for the Arts; and has served on numerous other arts, business and educational boards.
Trinkle is president and CEO of C.W. Francis & Son, Inc., a real estate management and development firm founded by his maternal great-grandfather in 1910, with offices in Roanoke, Va. and New York City. His late paternal grandfather, the Hon. E. Lee Trinkle, served as governor of Virginia. He received his bachelor degree from the University of Virginia and a graduate degree from New York University.
In 2000, Trinkle was awarded the Community Service Award by The Task Force at their annual Creating Change Conference and in 2001 he was awarded the Lambda Award for Community Leadership by the local organization Pride in the Park of Roanoke for his community organizing work in the aftermath of the shooting there of seven people at a local LGBT bar.
He was featured on a week-long series on ABC’s Nightline with Ted Koepol entitled “A Matter of Choice?” The series concluded with a 90-minute Town Hall meeting at which Trinkle served on the forum’s panel.
He and his partner Juan Granados, originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, have a young son named Oliver Lee Trinkle-Granados and a Golden Retriever named Maggie; they make East Hampton, NYC and Roanoke home.