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    LGBTQ Columbus
    LGBTQ Columbus
    LGBTQ Columbus
    Ebook172 pages47 minutes

    LGBTQ Columbus

    By Ken Schneck and Shane McClelland

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Throughout the decades, Columbus has been a central gathering place for Ohioan LGBTQ individuals, creating a timeline of milestones--both big and small--all showcased within the Buckeye State capital. From the hidden joy of the underground Berwick Ball of the 1960s to the unrestrained opulence of the Red Party in the 1970s to the sense of community displayed at the first Columbus Pride in the 1980s, the city has played host to celebrations, struggles, and history. Through the bar raids at the turn of the millennium to the Black Pride 4 in 2017, the LGBTQ Columbus community has steadfastly marched forward, using their voices to proclaim their undeniable presence, their demands for equality, and their passion for this city they call home.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJun 3, 2019
    ISBN9781439667002
    LGBTQ Columbus
    Author

    Ken Schneck

    Ken Schneck is an author, radio host, and professor at Baldwin Wallace University, where he teaches courses on antiracism, ethical leadership, and creating community-based change. He went from house to house to gather images and stories from the advocates, rabble-rousers, and change-makers who have fought for decades to bring LGBTQ visibility and equality to Cincinnati.

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      Book preview

      LGBTQ Columbus - Ken Schneck

      www.hottomatopinupacademy.com

      INTRODUCTION

      The same city council that voted unanimously December 14 to include unmarried partners in city workers’ health-care benefits packages unanimously revoked those benefits February 8.

      Four speakers at the meeting asked the council not to repeal the ordinance. Chris Cozad, a member of Citizens for Health Care, a collation of groups which had backed the measure, asked council members to be leaders by taking a stand in support of the ordinance.

      If you vote to rescind this ordinance today you send very dangerous messages, Cozad told them. To LGBT citizens of Columbus you say, ‘We can only support you if it is comfortable.’ To the radical fringe in this community you say ‘You can control us with your threats.’ To every citizen in this city you say ‘Bigotry and hatred are acceptable community values in Columbus.’

      No one was present at the meeting to speak in favor of the repeal.

      —Gay People’s Chronicle

      February 12, 1999

      When the Columbus City Council passed domestic partner benefits in December 1998, Columbus became the first city in Ohio to extend benefits to LGBTQ couples at a time when the national marriage equality debate was still in its nascence. For context, this was a year and a half earlier than Vermont began granting civil unions, 10 years before voters eliminated the rights of same-sex couples to marry via Proposition 8 in California, and 17 years before the US Supreme Court declared that marriage equality became the law of the land. For Columbus to take this action in 1998, it was trailblazing.

      Then the opposition coalesced. At a public debate of the measure after its initial passing, Baptist minister Rev. Fred Marshall said the measure was promoting humanity’s sinful sexual sensual nature and that we should be as obedient to God as our dogs are to us. Linda Harvey, the president of Mission America (a central Ohio religious right organization) said that the ordinance legitimizes homosexuality and bisexuality by force of law and gives it legitimacy it should not have. Various groups came together and vowed to place the domestic partner benefits on a voter referendum thus submitting the rights of a minority to a vote of the majority. Fearing a negative outcome, the Columbus City Council caved and repealed what they had just passed. For Columbus to take this subsequent action, it was less than trailblazing.

      With this one turn of events, you have LGBTQ life in Columbus throughout the years: bold strokes that lift up the voices of those not at the table coupled with disappointing—and sometimes quite community-damaging—setbacks that mirrored what was going on both nationally and, more distinctly, in the Midwest. In speaking with so many Columbus LGBTQ individuals to put together this book, this push and pull is something they have come to expect. The prevailing sentiment in the Buckeye State capital seems to be an endless loop of inspiring advancement followed by unsatisfying lows, which then activates more energy to create more movement forward. Rinse and repeat.

      On the achievement side, the LGBTQ work that has been done in Columbus over the years is nothing less than remarkable, not just for central Ohio, nor for the Midwest, but for truly anywhere in the United States. The underground Berwick Ball that began in the late 1960s gave Central Ohioans a place to go unlike any other out there, even as the Red Party in the 1970s became a destination for LGBTQ people from around the world. The gay student group at The Ohio State University was one of the earliest documented LGBTQ student groups in the country who then sponsored the first gay rights rally ever held in central Ohio. Stonewall Union had a booth at the Ohio State Fair when LGBTQ people were simply not represented at other state fairs in our neighboring states. Events like Bat-N-Rouge, Art for Life, the Dr. Robert J. Fass AIDS Walk, Camp Sunrise, and the International Drag King Extravaganza all represent pioneering gatherings providing opportunities for the LGBTQ community to joyously gather, raise critically needed funds, and amplify issues that were being given short shrift within the wider culture at large. Columbus has never been a city sitting back waiting for something to happen; LGBTQ advancements were taking place in ways that were just not happening elsewhere.

      But that is not the full story. Throughout the decades, the Columbus LGBTQ has encountered crushing obstacles, some from outside of our community and some significant ones from within. HIV/AIDS devastated the Columbus community as it did to our siblings across the country; there were countless precious lives that were snuffed out by the raging epidemic that we will never get back. Discrimination in housing, public accommodations and employment have

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