..Read my column "Mother Says" at GLBT News Cincinnati!..
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Old Royalty, the Mayor of the Dowagers (2005-2006), Ms. C! (after my first initital of my last name), all these reveal something about me!
I grew up in NE Ohio, the home of the Tigers, Massillon Tigers that is. That is where it all went wrong or very right? All boys were to receive a football in their crib, the girls a tiger puppet...gosh where is my tiger puppet? My mother claims that Kent State University "ruined me" by turning me into a liberal. Oh well...someone has to do it! Yes - for the historians, I was on the campus of KSU May 4, 1970 - that's a life changing experience. I lived in Moulton Hall before it was condemmned, then repaired and turned into an administration building.
My insurance work took me to Milford in 1978 and I went to my first "gay place" the Golden Lions, that is where I met Peaches LaVerne the very first time. The image of Peaches singing "Put your ass against the wall..." stuck. We had a wondeful friendship until her death in November 2004.
My "gay" career began at MCC in Cincinnati, to All Saints Chapel, to the Greater Cincinnati Gay Coalition and then Greater Cincinnati Gay and Lesbian Coalition, through WAIF/Alternatings Currents, Gay Cable Network, then Out Front TV. Along the way, I volunteered for all sorts of glbt groups, Stonewall (now dead), AVOC, Lavender Lights (now dead), Men of All Colors Together and currently The Community Center (GLBT Center Cincinnati).
I made a lot of friends, and lost a lot of them to HIV. I still tinker around with helping out with publicity for different groups, and oddly, even finding lost friends. Along the way, I was a media slut, having made the rounds of local, national newspapers, radio and TV. All great fun! I learned the local GLBT community as an outsider and from the ground up. I will be the first to admit the coming to Cincinnati with a "non-German" last name wasn't always the easiest. But somehow a group of those of us who didn't fit the traditional gay mold of Cincinnati found a way to have some fun, and make new friends. Hard to imagine now 26 years that the ex and serveral friends used to host those monthly socials both at MCC and All Saints Chapel. After all, churches are bars in the slow lane.
I worked at P&G for nearly 19 years before retirement. Although some consider my work towards inclusion of sexual orientation in the Company's Equal Employment Opportunity policy as my most important, I'd say - the most important thing I did was be myself, openly gay and going to work every day. Surely, there were others who were gay at P&G long before I started, but the historians tell me that I was the first employee who openly self identified and was extremely active in other arenas of GLBT volunteerism which brought me and my story to a very public place for P&G. I can recall in 1985 going to gay pride, being on the evening news (actually for 3 days running) kissing the late Dr. Bob McNee. When I went to work the following Monday - 30 folks came into my cubicle at Sharon Woods Technical Center and said "we love it, but you are crazy." Crazy indeed, but we make change happen! Oh, sure I was written up at least 3 times by management, investigated and interrogated by HR - those friendly folks. But in any organization that thrives on "sameness" and "consistency" there is always a price to be paid. I always like to say - as I look back on the various charges made against me from "sexual harrassment" to "talking in meetings" that the difference between sexual harrassment and not sexual harrassment has a lot to do whether you are "straight" or "gay identified." But, net if change is important to you - and you need to make the "place liveable for you" then there will always be consequences. For me, it worked...at least, I got out of there with a retirement package and bennies. After all, surviving 3 internal purges and layoffs is a feat at P&G. Ever notice that while the bottom of the rung is squeezed for productivity and enough work for any 3 people - the management is busy taking a wine and cheese cruise on the Rhine River?
Before I forget, like many, I have been a devoted minion of GLBT Pride. I suppose going back to 1986-1994 I always volunteered to part of it. Pride rallies/parade sadly vanished 1995-1999, but I was honored to be asked by Chris Good in mid 1999 to try to bring back a Pride celebration in Cincinnati in 2000. And so, with help from everyone - it got off the ground. Again, I volunteered from 2000-2004 when Ken Colegrove did a super job of further expanding pride. Through those 5 years, Peaches LaVerne was our Parade Marshalette, if you will. When she passed in November 2004, I was asked by Bruce Beisner of 2005 committee to say a few words about her life and her passing. While this turned out to be the most difficult public speaking task emotionally, I am forever grateful to the 2005 Pride committee for giving me the chance to honor her. As I said at the pep rally event, I will never forget taking Lady Peaches down MLK in full drag with the top of the VW down. These are such fond and wonderful memories that I am blessed to have experienced.
My brand preferences: I currently drive a 2006 VW Golf GTI MkV, my 4th VW since 2000. My computer is an Apple iMac 24" Core 2 Duo, 2,16 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, R+/- DL DVD burner - which allowed me to render myspace videos!
Oh, before I forget - I live in a mobile home, hence, trailer trash!
Orson Welles the orator and creator of the Mercury Theatre, circa late 1930, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and their pooch "Fala." Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, Madame Curie, Plato, Alexander Bell, Thomas Edison, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Stalin, Lenin, Hitler, Sappho and my next instant husband!
I would like to meet again - in the next incarnation, dear friends now gone, Peaches LaVerne, Barron Wilson, Dr. Robert McNee, Robin Bohnert and the list could go on. Bet you, we'd have just as much fun as we once had.....
