In 2011, Stonewall Columbus celebrated 30 years of service to the Central Ohio LGBT community! And with more than 200,000 people in attendance, we made Stonewall Columbus Pride 2011 the second largest Pride Festival in all of the Midwest! The Pride Brunch was also the largest to date. Among the dignitaries in attendance were the former Governor of the State of Ohio Ted Strickland and Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown.

The theme for Pride 2012 will be “Allies & Equality” and we look forward to recognizing and celebrating our partnership with our Central Ohio Ally community; the support of which has been essential to our continued progress towards LGBT equality.

This year we also added a new full time Program Coordinator to our staff and have greatly increased our roster of programs, classes, seminars and events.

Our intake and referral desk received over 30,000 calls and emails throughout the year and thousands of people were directed to helpful resources and assistance.

The Lavender Listings website was enhanced and several new features were added for advertisers including the Showcase listing which enables businesses to upload articles and video.

We would like to thank all of our members, supporters, sponsors, volunteers and all of those who participated in our programs and events. Some additional highlights of 2011 include:

Events

• Our annual “Pride Night with the Blue Jackets”
• Our Fusion Friday events grew in 2011 with an average of 200 students attending nine events throughout the year. Programs focused on coming out, financial matters and community building.
• “Calling To The Coven” Halloween Party with hundreds of costumed guests and a
• dance party in the parking lot.
• “LGBT & Allies Business Community Happy Hour” in partnership with CD102.5 and Belvedere Vodka with over 100 guests from the business community in attendance.
• Our first annual “Merry Membership Mingle” sponsored by Eleven Bar and JP Faulkner Realty. Stonewall Columbus ended the year with over 550 members!
• Stonewall Columbus sponsored the opening night of the “Columbus International Film+Video Festival” with an evening of LGBT shorts. Directors and actors from the films were present at a pre-screening reception and after screening Q&A.
• Kick-Off reception with Honorary Chair NBC4 anchor Colleen Marshall for Stonewall sponsored “Pantry Drive” to benefit Project Open Hand/LifeCare Alliance.
• Participated in “National Latino AIDS Awareness Day”.
• Stonewall Columbus was a community partner for events by other organizations in the community including: A Reason to Dine (ARC), Woofstock, Transgender Day of Remembrance (TransOhio), Transgender Symposium (TransOhio), Sandra Bernhard (Nat Productions), Highball (Short North Business Assoc.), Short North Stage, Hot Times,
• Imagine Productions, African Famine Relief/CARE and OSU Community Service Day.
• The Trailblazer Program (50+ LGBT Seniors) went on two “OUTings” to BalletMet Columbus and CATCO and then attended an early happy hour at Union.

Classes and Seminars

• “LGBT Legal Literacy” Seminar Series focusing on the laws affecting LGBT parenting and relationships.
• “Trailblazers (50+ LGBT Seniors) Seminar Series” – “Medicare 101” & “Free Flu Shots”
• Salud Italiano Cooking Class at Whole Foods
• “AFTER DADT; LGBT Veterans Town Hall” – with representatives from the offices of Mayor Coleman, Senator Sherrod Brown, Franklin County Veterans Services and former U.S. Representative Mary Jo Kilroy. LGBT Veterans received important information about their benefits and available services.

Service

• Our Executive Director, Karla Rothan, attended over 15 speaking engagements throughout the year at local colleges, high schools, hospitals and other businesses focusing on LGBT advocacy and education.
• Stonewall Columbus partnered with United Way to drive applicants to the Pride Leadership Program which is a training program for professionals in the LGBT community who wish to serve on boards.
• Stonewall also received funding from the Legacy Fund of the Columbus Foundation for a new program for our LGBT seniors called “Stonewall Trailblazers”. In 2012, we are rolling out a comprehensive and robust program that will serve them with social opportunities, computer literacy programs, a quarterly newsletter plus eldercare workshops, financial seminars and much more. We look forward to serving and supporting our trailblazing generation that stood up and paved the way for our progress.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Officiates the Wedding of One His Aides on Sunday

Christiane Amanpour Interviews New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg about start of Same Sex Marriage on Sunday

The Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, passed both the House and the Senate in 1996.

Feinstein said she is one of only 14 senators who voted against the legislation at the time. “I thought even then, this is unconstitutional and wrong. Well, today it’s unconstitutional, I believe, and wrong,” she said in a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington.

She said her bill would “strike the Defense of Marriage Act from law and would free the government to allow for the same type of benefits they allow for married couples to also be applied to same-sex couples.”

Read the Full Article Here

Obama Supports Repeal of Gay-Marriage Ban

President Obama is throwing his support behind the Respect For Marriage Act – the bill to repeal the 1996 Defense Of Marriage Act, which banned the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage even for couples married under state law.

The president has “long called for a legislative appeal for the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which continues to have a real impact on families,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at Tuesday’s briefing. He said the president “is proud” to support the Respect For Marriage Act, “which would take the Defense of Marriage Act off the books for once and for all.”

Read the Full Article Here

The Ohio Supreme Court has a message for gays and others hoping to continue raising a child if their relationship with the biological parent should end.

You’d better get it in writing.

In a 4-3 decision yesterday, the justices upheld lower-court rulings that a Cincinnati woman did not agree to shared legal custody of her daughter, now 5, despite planning the in-vitro pregnancy with her partner and naming her a “co-parent” in power-of-attorney documents.

Read the Full Article Here

Columbus may soon beat out San Francisco and Minneapolis as America’s gayest city, according to a published report.

In the Best of GayCities:  The World According to Gays, Columbus was named the Up-and-Coming Gay City of 2011.

According to the publication, Columbus demonstrates something of an Eastern sensibility and the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population has $7.5 billion in purchasing power that has helped the community as an integral part of the culture.

The magazine also mentioned Columbus’ surrounding liberal arts colleges and gay-friendly business like Limited Brands and Abercrombie & Fitch, which are based in central Ohio.

Read More

Ohio’s capital city, known as one of the most gay- and lesbian-friendly destinations in the U.S., is making final preparations for its Columbus Pride Festival, which attracts more than 100,000 visitors. One of the 10 largest gay pride celebrations in the country, this year’s festival is slated for Fri., June 17 through Sun., June 19, while June is filled with Pride-related events around Columbus. Complete travel information is found at experiencecolumbus.com/glbt and Pride Celebration event information is available at columbuspride.org.
With the support of various Columbus patrons and Stonewall Columbus, the Columbus Pride Festival celebrates 30 years this summer, having debuted in 1981. Stonewall Columbus uses the event to raise funds to support its pursuit of fairness, equality and safety for the GLBT community.
The annual event includes a festival, rally and parade, which takes place at noon, Sat., June 18, beginning in downtown Columbus and finishing at Goodale Park in the nearby Short North Arts District. June 19 features a Pride Brunch and the Columbus Lesbian and Gay Softball Association’s wildly colorful and popular Bat n’ Rouge softball game, pitting the Drag Queens against the Dykes.

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Columbus discovered America. Then, gays discovered Columbus. This cool Ohio city stakes claim as the third-most-welcoming GLBT town in the land (after—duh!—San Francisco and Key West).

Columbus boasts three-dozen gay bars. A gay men’s chorus. A gay hockey league. Gay tennis and bowling clubs. Creative positions with the big-name fashion brands headquartered here, from Abercrombie to Victoria’s Secret.

And who restored all those glam brick homes, the pride of German Village? Who keeps the Short North retail/entertainment district ahead of the curve? Who populates Franklin Park Conservatory, whose flora comes adorned with Chihuly glass? Who’s posing in the topiary garden, amid Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon…done in clipped shrubs?

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“I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being — to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame.” – Elizabeth Taylor

The lights on Broadway will be dimmed tonight in honor of Elizabeth Taylor. Elizabeth was not only a Hollywood icon; she was a friend and champion for the LGBT community. A bold humanitarian, she spoke out in the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis, and helped to lead the fight to end this terrible epidemic. Let us remember that she stood up for our community in a time when her position was not popular. Even in death, the Westboro Baptist Church is tweeting that Elizabeth is burning in hell for being a friend to our community. So even in death she stands with us, a loyal and brave ally.

This year Columbus celebrates our 30th Pride Parade. This year Pride will honor those who lived through the days when people were regularly arrested and fired for being who they are. Thirty years ago many who marched did so in disguise or wore paper bags over their heads. Many more were afraid to march or even to watch the parade from the sidelines. A brave few in our community organized and banded together to march down High Street to celebrate our community. This year we hope that all of our community and our allies will march together to celebrate how far we have come, to honor those who lived through the last 30 years and who championed our cause and to let the world know that we still fighting for equality.

Click here for more information about participating in the pride parade.

Karla Rothan, Executive Director

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering tsunamis that caused widespread devastation and crippled a nuclear power plant. More than 27,000 people are dead or missing. The leadership of Stonewall Columbus reaches out to you in the hopes that you can help. Please visit http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/japan-earthquake-tsunami-relief/ and give what you can. We are all in this together and Japan needs our support.

Daily Beast Ranking Page

The Daily Beast ranked Ohio as one of the least tolerant states on gay rights. We’ll talk about how Ohio compares to other states as welcoming or not welcoming to gays, with Daily Beast Reporter Lauren Streib, Outlook Media Co-Publisher Michael Daniels, Real Living HER Founding Partner/Realtor Terry Penrod, and Family Policy Network Policy Analyst Alexander Mason.

46, Ohio
Tolerance score: 40 out of 100
Hate crime score: 15 out of 40
Discrimination score: 16 out of 40
Gay rights score: 1 out of 10
Religious Tolerance score: 8 out of 10
Hate crime incidents per 100,000 residents:: 3.1 (33 out of 50 states)
Discrimination cases filed per 100,000 residents:: 24.2 (44 out of 50 states)
Population in support of same-sex marriage:: 45%
Population that believes many religions lead to eternal life:: 76%

Thanks Terry Penrod and and Michael Daniels for expressing your views!

Watch the Show Here