Miss Pride 09 Benefit
Our 2009 Miss Pride, Akasha Lapre Karmichael, has scheduled her next benefit for Saturday, October 10, at the Polo Club in Huntington, beginning at 9:00 pm. We’d like to see as many members as possible turn out and support Akasha as she raises awareness (and cash!) for Rainbow Pride.
We Need You for our Pride subcommittees
Preliminary meetings for some Pride subcommittee meetings have been set. We would like to have all of them meet as soon as possible in order to elect chairs and begin operating independently. As required by our bylaws, much of the “nitty-gritty” organizational work is to be performed by our subcommittees, which then report to the Board of Directors and the full committee. We want all of our members to feel that they have a vested interested in Pride, and through our subcommittees, we hope to allow everyone to have a greater voice in our organization.
Times and dates for subcommittee meetings announced thus far:
Bylaws and Policy Evaluation – Sunday, Sept 13 @ 2:30Community Development and Public Awareness – Sunday, Sept 13 @ 3:30Technology – Wednesday, Sept 16 @ 7:00 pmMembership Development – Sunday, Sept 20 @ 2:30Fundraising – Sunday, Sept 20 @ 4:00Pageants – Sunday, Sept 20 @ 6:00 pm–
meeting announcement
Rainbow Pride of West Virginia will be holding a full committee meeting on Tuesday, September 1st, at 7:00 pm in the Community Office at 501 Elizabeth St., Room 11, in Charleston. We would like to invite all members and concerned allies to attend. This will be the first formal meeting with the newly elected Board of Directors and we are all very excited about getting down to work. Among other business, we will be getting an update on the annual Pride Picnic which is coming up at Coonskin Park on October 11, receiving a financial report from treasurer Chris Bostic, and discussing possible fundraising opportunities. Please attend if you can. We hope to see you all there.
Congratulations to our new Board of Directors
Rainbow Pride of West Virginia, Inc., would like to congratulate the winners of our 2009 Board of Directors election. We would also like to extend our gratitude and appreciation to our outgoing BOD members, especially Chairman Charlie Rouse, who has dedicated many years of service to our organization. A full committee meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 7:00 PM at which the new BOD will take their seats and get down to work on the future of Rainbow Pride.
The new Board of Directors are:
Christopher Kimes, President
Martina Dezarea and Jeff Crist, Vice Presidents
Chris Bostic, Treasurer
Dan O’Neal, Secretary
Scott King, David Epp, William Salyer, and Kelly Wills, Members-at-large
We would like to thank everyone who took the time to vote in our election and we hope that you will continue your involvement with our organization in the future. Pride’s brightest days are yet to come.
Tri-State AIDS Task Force picnic & softball game
We would like to encourage all of our members to participate in this fabulous event if you can. Please contact the Tri-State AIDS Task Force at tsatf@aol.com if you have any questions. Press release follows:
Tri-State AIDS Task Force is bringing back to the community Mama Queen Bee’s Pigroast and Softball Game at Rotary Park. The date is September 27, 2009, gates open 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm.
This will be a day of fun filled activities for the community with door prizes to be given away every hour. Food will be served at 2:30 pm, ball game will begin at 3:30 pm. This years theme is Cartoon/Superhero Characters, guy softball players are encouraged to dress as their favorite female cartoon character or super hero and female softball players are encouraged to dress as their favorite male cartoon character or super hero. We already have commitments from Rainbow Bright and Hong Kong Fuey, so get excited and plan to attend. Monetary prizes will be given for the best costume.
We need help selling raffle tickets for the big giveaway at 5:00 pm that day: The prizes are a 22″ flat screen television, a Compaq laptop computer, a Nintendo Wii, a digital camera and a piece of unique stained glass. The tickets are $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00. A monetary prize will be given the person who sells the most tickets.
We need 60 people to sell 25 tickets, so please call 304-417-1272 to arrange to assist with our ticket sells.
Thank you
Lisa Cremeans
Volunteer
Covenant House benefit at Long Fork Campground
On Saturday, August 15, 2009, beginning at 3:00 pm, Long Fork Campground and the Mountain State Knights are hosting “The Red Party: A Party for the People” to benefit the Covenant House Food Pantry. If you plan to come, simply bring along some nonperishable food items to donate. But if you can’t make the party, there are several drop off points in Charleston where you can make a donation. These are: Visions Day Spa, Bluegrass Kitchen, Tricky Fish, and, of course, Covenant House.
Covenant House was created in 1981 by Charleston citizens and groups committed to helping those with the fewest resources. Their mission was to work for justice by offering direct services for West Virginians in need while creating social change through advocacy and education. Covenant House provides assistance to the homeless population of the Kanawha Valley and to people living with HIV and AIDS. They’re on the web at wvcovenanthouse.org.
Long Fork is a clothing optional retreat for the gay community located in the lush hills of West Virginia about 40 minutes north of Charleston. Visit them on the web at www.longfork.com for more information. Bring your own refreshments, but remember: no glass bottles around the pool.
Outrage in Texas
Maybe we were wrong …
Forty years later, when reading about the events surrounding the Stonewall riots, we’ve all thought something like, “boy, we’ve come a long way …” Police don’t raid gay bars for no good reason anymore, do they? Police don’t beat up gay people without any apparent fear of repercussion, do they? And the police chief wouldn’t use the gay panic defense to support the actions of his officers, would he?
Apparently so. Recently, in this season where the world’s gay community is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, that’s exactly what happened in Fort Worth, Texas. And one man is still in the hospital with brain injuries as a result.
You can read more about it in The Daily Dish from the Atlantic
And be sure to check out columnist and activist Dan Savage’s take on the issue
The good news is that internal affairs has launched an investigation into the raid and the Fort Worth PD has suspended joint operations between Fort Worth police and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission for the time being. This article from the Fort Worth Star Telegram details some of the events that have been happening in the wake of the raid.
I guess we still can’t let our guard down. These cops, based upon the eyewitness accounts, were no less brutal and no less homophobic than their bretherin from 40 years ago. Sure, this probably wouldn’t have happened today in New York or California, but what about West Virginia? If the police should happen to come into your bar in a manner such as this, you should stay out of their way, do exactly what they tell you to do, and don’t give them any reason to want to hit you. On the flip side, get out your phone and take plenty of pictures and videos. You may not be able to fight back in the moment, but you can make sure people know that in this day and age, the whole world really is watching.
08/11/09 — an update: In light of TABC report, raid at Fort Worth gay bar looks uglier
Meet Miss Rainbow Pride of West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Akasha Lapre Karmichael came bounding into the Pride offices Saturday, looking a bit run down, but still all smiles. The night before, he’d won the Miss Rainbow Pride of West Virginia pageant, a drag competition held at the Clay Center as part of Gay Pride Week in Charleston.
“We didn’t get home until four this morning,” …
We want your photos!
Rainbow Pride would like to encourage everyone to bring their cameras to the Pride Parade & Festival on Sunday, June 7. We will be setting up a gallery here on pridewv.org to display all of your pix from the parade & festival, as well as from other events during Pride Week. Please submit your photos to contact@pridewv.org
2009 Power of One Award Recipient: Reverend Jim Lewis
Jim Lewis was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a graduate of Washington & Lee University and Virginia Theological Seminary. Jim has been actively engaged, over the past 40 years, addressing the social issues in local communities he’s served as an Episcopal clergyperson. Serving churches and dioceses in Maryland, West Virginia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Delaware, he has organized parishes and communities around such issues as health care for women, child care, AIDS, prison and criminal justice issues, capital punishment, antiwar organizing, GLBT rights, housing issues, and racial equality. Jim has been active in war and peace issues since coming out of the U.S. Marine Corps where he was an infantry officer.
In 1976, as the rector of St John’s Episcopal Church, Charleston, Jim opened the church to the first gay and lesbian support group. He also performed two gay blessings at the church which brought gay and lesbian issues to the forefront of the church’s life in the community. In North Carolina, Jim helped organize the Raleigh Religious Network for Gay and Lesbian Equality and lobbied the legislature in support of GLBT issues. For the second time in his ministry, he was threatened with an ecclesiastical trial for his willingness to perform gay blessings.
Of particular note is the work that Jim conducted on the Delmarva Peninsula (the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia). It was there that poultry process plant workers, chicken catchers, poultry farmers, environmentalists, unions, and community churches came together to form the Delmarva Poultry Justice Alliance, an organization addressing the injustices and abuses in the poultry industry. That work was featured in a 1999 “Sixty Minutes” piece with Mike Wallace. This work in the Delmarva also involved the creation of a Latino community center, a health clinic for the poor, a shelter for battered Latina women, and a program to assist men coming out of prison.
Jim received the West Virginia Governor’s Martin Luther King, Jr. “Living the Dream” award in 1991 and was honored in Delaware by Pacem in Terris in October, 2001, as a “Peacemaker Among Us.” He holds an honorary doctorate from Virginia Theological Seminary.
Jim is the author of West Virginia Pilgrim (Seabury Press); The Gulf War: The Churches & Peacemaking (North Carolina Council of Churches); and has contributed to Strike Terror No More: Theology, Ethics, and the New War (Chalice Press) and Workers Rights as Human Rights (Cornell University Press). Jim also writes a regular online newsletter, “Notes From Under the Fig Tree.”
Active in anti-death penalty work in West Virginia, Michigan, North Carolina and Delaware, Jim was one of the founders of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty in North Carolina. Jim has done civil disobedience around coal mine issues, U.S. involvement in war in Central America, and poultry labor issues. Over the years, he has made peace and justice trips to Libya, Israel and Palestine, Jordan, Cuba, Central America, and Iraq. Since returning to Charleston, he has been actively involved in organizing West Virginia Patriots for Peace.
Jim is married to Judy Graham Lewis. They have a son, three daughters, and nine grandchildren.
Please join us 6:00 PM Saturday evening, June 6, at the Charleston House Holiday Inn for the Power of One Award Dinner. Tickets are $35 per person, which also gets you free admission to the Rainbow Party at the same location immediately following the dinner. Please click here to purchase tickets online using Paypal or else write to contact@pridewv.org for more information.