2025 Honorees
Jason Weinberg & Merritt Johnson
Luminary Award
Jason Weinberg is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated and Tony award-winning producer, talent manager, and founding partner of Untitled Entertainment — an entertainment management firm representing many of the most talented and successful actors, writers, directors, musicians, athletes and artists around. After attending Wesleyan University and the London School of Economics, he returned home to New York and began his career in entertainment. Jason serves on the board of the Professional Children’s School, Hamptons Doc Fest, The Sag Harbor Cinema, The Hamptons Film Festival, and the President’s Council of Wesleyan University in addition to being a long-term advocate and supporter for Avenues: The World School, Family Equality, and St. Jude’s Research Hospital. He is also known to collaborate on film projects with a close creative partner — his husband, Merritt Johnson.
Merritt is a producer and screenwriter, best known for writing the Golden Globe- and Emmy Award-winning Temple Grandin and the HBO series In Treatment, for which he received a Writers Guild Award. In addition to his commitment to Family Equality and St Jude’s, (and being Jason’s +1 at his many, many, many events and organizations - SEE ABOVE!), Merritt also supports Reading Partners, Hudson Guild, 8 Billion Trees, and a robust TV-binging habit. When he’s not working, writing, or hiding from his kids, Merritt likes to read... in peace. He’s a Gemini and a middle child; You do the math.
Exemplifying Family Equality’s mission by tirelessly advocating for our most marginalized families, Jason and Merritt along with their twins, Harry and Jasper, share the belief that everyone deserves to know the unconditional love and belonging of family. For over 15 years, they have proudly supported Family Equality’s advocacy, education, and storytelling that have made it possible for LGBTQ+ families like theirs to exist. Grateful for the progress we’ve made as a community, but acutely aware that progress is fragile and never guaranteed, the Johnson-Weinberg family is unwavering in their dedication to the movement.
Peggy Gillespie
Hostetter-Habib Family Award
Peggy Gillespie is a journalist and the co-founder/director with photographer Gigi Kaeser of Family Diversity Projects (FDP) a national non-profit organization in Northampton, MA. For 30 years, FDP has been devoted to helping eliminate prejudice, stereotyping, and bullying of people who are the targets of discrimination. She is the Editor-in-Chief and interviewer for all of Family Diversity Project’s eight traveling photo-text exhibits and four published books based on the exhibits, including OF MANY COLORS: Portraits of Multiracial Families, LOVE MAKES A FAMILY: Portraits of LGBT People and Their Families, IN OUR FAMILY: Portraits of Many Kinds of Families, NOTHING TO HIDE: Mental Illness in the Family, BUILDING BRIDGES: Portraits of Immigrants and Refugees, and AUTHENTIC SELVES: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and their Families.
By bringing the stories and images of marginalized people and their families into schools (preK-12), colleges, libraries, houses of worship, workplaces, and museums, this work has become Peggy’s way of challenging ignorance and hatred with education and love. Honoring and uplifting families of all kinds is at the center of Peggy's life and career.
Peggy has worked as a freelance journalist for many magazines, including the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. She was the interviewer and co-author of Last Night on Earth, a memoir of renowned choreographer/dancer and MacArthur Award-winning and Kennedy Center Honoree, Bill T. Jones. As a certified social worker, Peggy was the first Assistant Director of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program with Director Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and she was a Buddhist Mindfulness Advisor at Mt. Holyoke College for many years. Her favorite week each year is when she volunteers at the teen retreat at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. Helping to support young people as they become kind and compassionate activists is Peggy's greatest joy.
Peggy graduated from Smith College in 1970 with a degree in theatre, and has performed in political street theatre, plays, and most recently as a Dandy Minion in MacArthur Award-winning Taylor Mac's 24 Decade History of Popular Music, a radical re-telling of American history—the most thrilling theatrical experience of her lifetime. Peggy is still hoping to be cast in politically meaningful films, as her dream final career is to finally become a movie star!
Peggy's partner of nine years, retired NYC school teacher and photographer, Jill Meyers, took most of the photos of the local Western MA families in AUTHENTIC SELVES. And most importantly, Peggy is the proud mom of Jay, who is thirty-eight years old. Peggy, her late husband, artist Gregory Gillespie, and Jay spent many delightful and memorable summers participating in Family Week in Provincetown. Together, Jay and Peggy continue to search for the absolute best Chinese dumplings, a goal that they hope is achievable!