The following
people have agreed to participate in the State of Our
Community. Some of them will be on the panel and some
will be featured in the review of events of the past
year.
Paul
Bashline - Paul is the president of the Cimarron
Alliance Group, a political action comittee
dedicated to ending discrimination based upon sexual
orientation through elections, legislation, public
awareness and education. He is also a member of the
board of the Cimarron Alliance Foundation.
Phillippe
Beaudette - 26, Church of the Open Arms ministry team vice-president,
and a church musician there. Very involved in
activism (particularly around politics, and peace and
social justice concerns). Philippe counts among the
formative influences in his life time spent with
Soulforce, and reading the diaries of Fr. Thomas
Merton. Philippe is lucky enough to be able to
dedicate most of his time to social justice concerns,
and can usually be found where there is Ben &
Jerry's Ice Cream, or all things chocolate.
Church of the Open Arms welcomes and affirms all
persons regardless of race, color, ancestry, age,
gender, sexual or affectional orientation, ethnicity,
national origin. Church of the Open Arms is a
congregation of The United Church of Christ.
Joann Bell -
ACLU of
Oklahoma
executive director. Joann Bell came to the ACLU of
Oklahoma in 1981 as a plaintiff in Bell v. Little
Axe, a federal lawsuit concerning religious freedom
that lasted until its successful finality in 1987.
During this litigation her family home was firebombed.
This made her more determined to stick with the issue
until a successful outcome could be obtained. She
became a volunteer with the ACLU in 1981. In 1987 she
was hired as staff Litigation Coordinator until her
promotion to State Executive Director in 1990. Joann
works tirelessly for all issues surrounding the Bill
of Rights. She is especially interested in the areas
surrounding the death penalty, women’s rights
and the rights of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and
transgendered citizens.
ACLU of Oklahoma is an affiliate of the American
Civil Liberties Union, a national not-for-profit,
nonpartisan, voluntary organization founded in 1920.
Its purpose is to protect those rights guaranteed by
the United State Constitution and the Bill of Rights
such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom to
petition the government for a redress of grievances,
freedom of association, the right to privacy, due
process of law and the right to equal protection
under the law. The Oklahoma affiliate was established
in 1964 and opened its first headquarters in 1973.
The current staff include an executive director and a
development director.
Michael
Coffman - Michael is a recent graduate of
Oklahoma Christian University. He is involved in the
Gay Alliance for Tolerance and Equality (GATE) at the
University of Central Oklahoma. GATE is a GLBT
support group designed to encourage and strengthen
students, giving them the encouragement they would
otherwise be hard-pressed to find. While at Oklahoma
Christian, Michael attempted to apply these same
principles, but given the nature of the school, it is
difficult. Michael has a BA in Communication Studies
and plans to attend graduate school in the fall.
Jim Craig
- Jim Craig has been part of the Leadership of Church
of the Open Arms for the past two years, first
serving as Vice President, then serving as President.
He is now the Past President of the Church of the
Open Arms Leadership Council. As such, he supports
three ministry teams: Shalom, Staff/Leadership, and
Shepherds. Church of the Open Arms, 3131 N.
Pennsylvania, is a congregation of the United Church
of Christ that has served Oklahoma City's
marginalized communities for over five years. The
church welcomes and affirms all persons regardless of
race, color, ancestry, age, gender, sexual or
affectional orientation, ethnicity, or national
origin. In addition to his church leadership
activities, Mr. Craig has participated in several
awareness and activism events over the past year,
including the Oklahoma City Gay Pride Parade and the
annual Scouting for All vigil. Most notably, however,
Mr. Craig coordinated a protest of Oklahoma City's
banner ordinances on June 18, 2002 at Civic Center
Park at which he hung a Gay Pride Banner across the
street from City Hall. Mr. Craig will continue being
involved community awareness activities throughout
the coming year. Mr. Craig can be reached via email
at jimcraigokc@hotmail.com. More information about
Church of the Open Arms can be obtained by calling (405)
525-9595 or visiting www.openarms.org. More information about The
United Church of Christ can be obtained by visiting www.ucc.org.
Jacqueline
Gatewood - member of Womyn Of Color, a
support group for Lesbian African-Americans.
Jacqueline is also female co-chair of OGLPC.
Michael
Harned - Mr Sooner State Leather 2002
Edward
Kromer - male co-chair, Pride Network, Inc. Also member
of the boards of the Cimarron Alliance Group and
Cimarron Alliance Foundation.
Tessie
Mandeville - Tessie replaced Kevin McLemore
as pastor of Cathedral of
Hope OKC in
2002.
Ginger
McGovern - Herland
Sister Resources past chairperson
Roosevelt
Milton - Oklahoma City chapter, NAACP
Rachel Morse
- National GLBT Caucus chair, Young
Democrats of America. Rachel is a member of Central
Oklahoma Stonewall Democrats and worked as a
volunteer on Jim Roth's campaign for county
commissioner. She also presented a workshop at
NGLTF's Creating Change conference last year.
Sandra
Precure - Sandra is chairperson of the board
of the Cimarron
Alliance Foundation, an Oklahoma not-for-profit
charitable and educational corporation. The
Foundation was founded exclusively for charitable
benevolent, literary, scientific and educational
purposes. Our goal is to further social welfare and
public education on issues of concern to gays and
lesbians. We believe in equality for all!
Joe Quigley
- Joe is a teacher at Northwest Classen High
School here in Oklahoma City. Joe is an active
Democrat and a member of the board of the Cimarron
Alliance Group.
Joe has this to say about himself: "I was born
Boston Irish Catholic with all its good points and
bad. I went to a junior seminary in the 60's when
they still existed and had teachers from all over the
world.
I have taught since 1973 in California, New York,
Boston, a second time in California, and now here in
OKC.
I am a late bloomer as far as accepting my gayness,
and because of that have decided to do what I can to
let GLBT youth know that there are options and those
weird feelings are really not weird at all.
I was active in the union in Los angeles, The United
Teachers of Los Angeles,when I taught there, was
among the first openly Gay teachers to march in the L.A.
Gay Pride Parade, and was the chair of the Gay and
Lesbian caucus of UTLA when it became a full standing
committee.
Since coming to OKC, I have done art work for the
Gayly, actually started Gay News Break, played sax in
the Banned in Oklahoma Gay Marching Band which
performed with other GLBT bands for Clinton's second
inaugural, have and am serving on the boards of some
GLBT advocacy groups here, serve on the executive
board of the OKC chapter of the American Federation
of Teachers as an openly Gay man, and have been
advocating for GLBT students in the OKC Public School
District."
Bill Rogers
- Bill is one of the founders and a past
chairperson of the Cimarron Alliance Foundation. Long
active in Oklahoma City's GLBT Community, Bill was a
member of Oklahomans for Human Rights, a GLBT Rights
group active in the 80's, and served on the Oklahoma
city Human Rights Commission.
Phillip
Roulain - Phillip Roulain is a native
Oklahoman of Native American and European heritage.
His grandparents raised him in the small rural
community of Anadarko. Phillip works for the
Association of American Indian Physicians. He is the
coordinator of the OKC Two Spirit Society program
here in Oklahoma City. The OKC Two Spirit Society is
a social/support group for GLBT Native Americans in
the OKC metro area. Phillip is active in HIV/AIDS
education, prevention and awareness in the Native
American GLBT community. He is also involved with the
following organizations: the Oklahoma Native American
HIV/AIDS Task Force, the Oklahoma Regional Community
Planning Group, the American Red Cross, the Catawba
Nation of South Carolina, the National Indian Women’s
Health Resource Center and the National Native
American AIDS Prevention Center.
Heidi Ruster
- Heidi Ruster has been director of CarePoint since April of 2001,
attempting to fill the shoes of Kay Holladay. Heidi
has a Masters in Public Administration from the
University of Maryland system and has been involved
with Non-profit Management and HIV and AIDs since
1991, within Oklahoma, Florida and overseas.
CarePoint provides coordinated access to
health care and support services to persons living
with HIV and promotes prevention and education about
the disease. Its vision is to achieve the highest
level of independence and well being for persons
living with HIV, and to equip our full community with
the skills and information to understand and prevent
the spread of HIV. CarePoint, Inc., an
Oklahoma nonprofit organization, was founded in 1992.
It operated as the Oklahoma City Area HIV/AIDS
Coalition until April 1994, when its Articles of
Incorporation and Bylaws were amended in order to
expand its volunteer Board of Directors and
strengthen the organization as a provider of health
care and support services. During its eight years of
operation, CarePoint has grown from a staff
of two and a budget of $90,000 to a staff of twenty-one
and a budget of $1.6 million. CarePoint is located to
1200 N. Walker, Suite 500 with a jurisdiction of 54
counties within the 405 and 580 area code. In order
to provide more efficient care coordination to the 14
counties in southwest Oklahoma CarePoint
also has a satellite office in Lawton. The Lawton
office is located at 1001 SW B Ave. CarePoint
offers a wide variety of HIV services and related
programs which include case management/care
coordination, prescription drug assistance, primary
medical care and laboratory services, medical
transportation assistance, mental health, substance
abuse services, employment services, housing, utility
and rental assistance, emergency housing, nutritional
counseling and supplements, dental care, eye care,
outreach, HIV antibody counseling and testing,
education, and prevention.
Paula
Schonauer - Writer for the Gayly Oklahoman (under the name Paula
Sophia), transgender activist, ordained
minister, Gulf War veteran, Oklahoma City police
officer. Paula was a grand marshall at last year's
OKC Pride Parade.
Paul
Thompson - Paul Thompson is the male co-chair
of the Oklahoma Gay
and Lesbian Political Caucus. He is also a member of the boards of
the Oklahoma City chapter of the NAACP and the Martin
Luther King Jr Festival Committee. Paul has been
active in Oklahoma City's GLBT Community in several
capacities over the years.
Jean Ann Van
Krevelen - Jean Ann is the executive
director of RAIN Oklahoma. Through education and
service, RAIN recognizes and responds to the dynamic
nature of HIV/AIDS and its impact on individuals,
families and communities. In recognizing the dynamic
nature of HIV/AIDS and its impact on clients, their
families, families of choice, friends and the
communities in which they live and work, RAIN
Oklahoma respects their individual human dignity and
worth through nonjudgmental and unconditional love.
In this spirit, RAIN Oklahoma serves all persons
regardless of sex, color, religion, ancestry, age,
disability, sexual or affectional orientation, or
family status. RAIN Oklahoma strives to meet the non-medical
and non-technical needs of its clients through
innovative and highly flexible models of
compassionate care, service and education.
Billie Walsh
- Billie is a member of the Central
Oklahoma Transgender Alliance
Soulforce In
Oklahoma - Soulforce In
Oklahoma is
an interfaith movement committed to ending spiritual
violence perpetuated by religious policies and
teachings against gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender people. We teach and apply the principles
of M.K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
clubliquid -
clubliquid is OKC's newest Gay dance
club. Windy City Bistro in Bricktown becomes
clubliquid every Thursday and Saturday night at 10:30
