OKLAHOMA
CITY AREA'S GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDERED
RESIDENTS WILL MEET TO EXAMINE "THE STATE OF OUR
COMMUNITY"
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Persons -
and their families, friends and supporters - in the
Oklahoma City area will convene as "GayOKC.com
Presents: The State of Our Community - A Town Hall
Meeting" at 7PM, Monday, January 27,
2003 at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1901 N
Douglas Avenue here in Oklahoma City. The event is
being organized by Rob Abiera, owner & operator
of GayOKC.com. The "town hall meeting" will
consist of a review of the events in Oklahoma City's
GLBT Community in 2002 - such as the Soulforce In
Oklahoma vigils, Angles' 20th anniversary, the KKK no-show
at the Homosexuality and Scripture conference, the
election of 2 openly-Gay candidates to public office
in Oklahoma, Oklahoma's Stonewall Democrats, the
battle between the Cimarron Alliance Foundation and
the OKC City Council over the hanging of banners on
city light poles - culminating in the ruling against
the City, openly-Gay teacher Joe Quigley's situation
at Northwest Classen High School, and much, much more
- and a panel discussion featuring representatives of
a cross-section of Oklahoma City's GLBT Community.
Guests and panelists currently include:
- Paul
Bashline - president, Cimarron
Alliance Group
- Phillippe
Beaudette - Church
of the Open Arms vice-president
- Joann
Bell - ACLU
of Oklahoma executive director
- Michael
Coffman - Gay student (just
graduated) at Oklahoma Christian University
- Jim
Craig - Church
of the Open Arms past president (Jim was
involved in the banner protest across the
street from City Hall last June: he was the
person who actually hung the banner on the
light pole)
- Jacqueline
Gatewood - Womyn Of Color (support
group for Lesbian African-Americans)
- Michael
Harned - Mr Sooner State Leather
2002
- Edward
Kromer - male co-chair, Pride
Network, Inc.
- Tessie
Mandeville - pastor, Cathedral
of Hope OKC
- Ginger
McGovern - Herland
Sister Resources past chairperson
- Roosevelt
Milton - Oklahoma City chapter,
NAACP
- Rachel
Morse - GLBT Caucus chair, Young
Democrats of America
- Sandra
Precure - chairperson, Cimarron
Alliance Foundation
- Joe
Quigley - openly-Gay OKC public
school teacher
- Bill
Rogers - past chairperson and one of
the founders of Cimarron
Alliance Foundation
- Phillip
Roulain - OKC Two-Spirit Society (support
group for Gay & Lesbian Native-Americans)
- Heidi
Ruster - CarePoint executive director
- Paula
Schonauer - Writer for the Gayly
Oklahoman (under the name Paula
Sophia), transgender activist,
ordained minister, Gulf War veteran, Oklahoma
City police officer
- Paul
Thompson - Oklahoma
Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus male co-chair
- Jean
Ann Van Krevelen - RAIN executive director
- Billie
Walsh - Central
Oklahoma Transgender Alliance
- Karen
Weldin - co-founder of Soulforce
In Oklahoma and OBUPride
- Will
Womack - clubliquid
general manager
- Possible
appearance by Oklahoma
County District One Commissioner Jim
Roth!
Audience members are
also invited to join in the discussion. Event
organizer Abiera says, "Questions and comments
from the audience will be welcome and encouraged. In
fact, it's one of the main reasons I'm doing this
event. I want this to be a true town meeting!"
Explaining further, he says, "The purpose of
this event is to discuss the 'State of the Community'
- the 'Community' being the GLBT Community here in
OKC - á la the 'State of the Union/State/City'
addresses that are traditionally made at the
beginning of every year, except that this won't be an
address made by one person claiming to speak for the
entire Community, but an examination by members of
our Community: organization leaders, activists,
business owners, parents, clergy, just plain people,
of how our Community fared in 2002 and what our
Community needs in 2003 and the future."
"I'm expecting
people like Oklahoma Democratic Party chair Jay
Parmley, Central Oklahoma Stonewall
Democrats co-chairs Karen Parsons
and Keith Smith, Sean
Winders from The Center and Don
Hawkins & Mick Shirron
from the Gayly Oklahoman to be in the
audience, so come join them!"
FORMAT: The meeting
will feature
- a
look back at OKC's GLBT Community in 2002
with some of the people who actually lived
the events of the past year, and
- a
panel discussion on the impact of those
events on our community in 2003 and the
future, what it all means and what we should
be doing about it. What is "the
state of our community"?
- Audience
participation will be invited during the
panel discussion.
WHAT
HAPPENED IN OUR COMMUNITY IN THE PAST YEAR? Visit
GayOKC.com's recap of the year's events in OKC's GLBT
Community at www.gayokc.com/yearinreview2002.htm
WHAT
HAPPENED IN THE REST OF THE WORLD IN 2002? The Advocate has a "day by day"
recap of the last year now online:
GUEST BIOS: Biographies
of the event's participants are online here!
EVENT
LOCATION: Epworth United Methodist Church is
located at 1901 N Douglas Avenue here in Oklahoma
City (not to be confused with Douglas Boulevard in
Midwest City!) Epworth is just a few blocks southeast
of Oklahoma City University: 5 blocks south of NW 23rd
Street & 2 blocks west of Classen Boulevard. Click here
for a map to Epworth!
ORGANIZATIONS:
Tables will be provided at the event for
groups and organizations that wish to provide
literature for audience members to take home with
them. These tables will be set up at the back of the
sanctuary and space will be available on a first-come-first-served
basis. If you wish to provide literature please have
it at Epworth no later than 6:30PM on the 27th.
FINANCIAL
SUPPORT: Contributions in support of this
event have been made by
- EQUAL!
at Lucent Technologies - $200
- Cimarron
Alliance Foundation - $100
- Central
Oklahoma Stonewall Democrats - $50
- ACLU of
Oklahoma Foundation - $50
- Jim
Nimmo - $20
I am proud to have
each of them as my partners in this endeavor and
grateful for their generous assistance in making this
event possible!
NOTE TO THE
MEDIA: Please refer to the GLAAD Media
Reference Guide when reporting on this and other GLBT-related
stories. The 2003 edition of the Guide is available
online. It can be accessed at www.glaad.org/media/guide.
EVENT
ORGANIZER: This event is being organized by
Rob Abiera for GayOKC.com. You can contact me by
email at rabiera@gayokc.com.
