Rainbow Cincinnati

One of SW Ohio's biggest Pride friendly events has been scheduled for Friday, September 10, 2010. We're talking about "Pride Night at Kings Island" in Mason, Ohio. This marks the 14th year the amusement park has hosted this fundraiser for the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Greater Cincinnati.

The gate opens at 6:00 pm and the event concludes at 12 midnight. Look for more details at Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Greater Cincinnati this summer - when a link will be posted for Kings Island on-line ticket store. Email for Pride Night 2010. KI regular season passes are NOT honored the night or the event and children's rides will not be open.

Cincinnati's Gay and Lesbian Community Center opened in 1993. It offers group space, various programs and shares information on how to contact and connect with the local GLBT community.

A Different Kind of Struggle

When deciding where to put your Haiti relief money, check out the list of charitable organizations active in Haiti on this page from The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. You can go to Charity Navigator to evaluate your chosen charity. Rainbow Cincinnati chose UNICEF.

Or, donate $10 to Red Cross Haiti relief by texting the word HAITI to 90999. From the Red Cross site, "There has been an outpouring of support from the public. To help, people can make an unrestricted donation to the International Response Fund at www.redcross.org or by calling 1-800-REDCROSS (1-800-733-2767). The public can also help by texting “Haiti” to 90999 to send a $10 donation to the Red Cross, through an effort backed by the U.S. State Department. Funds will go to support American Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti."

Rusty Lockett was elected President of the Board of Gay and Lesbian Community Center at the group’s December 16, 2009 meeting. Also elected, John Maddux – Vice President, Teresa Shepherd – Treasurer, and Adam Reilly – Clerk. Michael Chanak was elected to another two year “at large” term. Continuing service on the Board is Michael Hollenbeck who was not up for re-election.

Outgoing President, Bill Abney was term limited per the by-laws, he and the other outgoing board member, Jessica Fogle, who did not seek re-election, will continue as “volunteers” at the Center.

Rusty had been the organization’s clerk for over a year, served as Event Chair for Pride Night at Kings Island this past September and has been a long time Pride and Pride Night volunteer. He also has served on the Vestry of Church of Our Saviour in Mt. Auburn and as convener of the local GLBT Episcopal worship group called Integrity.

Teresa Shepherd, a certified public accountant, has been both on the Board and served as bookkeeper of the organization over the past year. Adam Reilly is also a Men’s Safe Sex educator for STOP AIDS, a local AIDS education and service organization.

Both John Maddux and Michael Chanak are long-time volunteers and activists having served many years in community organizations. Michael Hollenbeck, Board member at large, also volunteers with the Human Right Campaign Cincinnati.

The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Greater Cincinnati opened in late 1993. It serves as a resource to the local GLBT and ally community, offering meeting space and programs. The Center is located on the first floor of 4119 Hamilton Avenue in the Northside district of Cincinnati. The mailing address of the organization is PO Box 23159, Cincinnati, OH 45223.

For additional information, please call the Center at 513-591-0200. Pictured in photo, front row, left to right, John Maddux, Rusty Lockett and Teresa Shepherd; back row, left to right, Adam Reilly, Michael Hollenbeck and Michael Chanak.

Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Greater Cincinnati

Now that Mark Bailey is posting more of the Gay Cable Network videos to YouTube, this was the perfect time for Rainbow Cincinnati to repost this piece and alert you to the GCN-Cincinnati Channel on YouTube.

Historical Note: When originally aired in 1986, a caller to a powerful right-wing AM talk radio show said GCN "sodomized a turkey" on TV. GCN was immediately invited into the station to "answer" this charge. The program became more famous that night to many people who, otherwise, would never have given it a 2nd look.

Become a fan of the new Rainbow Cincinnati page on Facebook.

We hope in the future to move some of the features of Rainbow Cincinnati over to Facebook. In particular, the local Forums here will be closed. They've fallen into disuse and keeping them free of spam is never-ending.

Currently, you'll find the link to our Facebook page in the upper-right corner.

UPDATE 12/10/09: The old Forums have been retired. The Forums link has been replaced by a Facebook link which shows recent Rainbow Cincinnati Facebook posts.

Equality Cincinnati PAC endorses:

MAYOR, CINCINNATI - Mark Mallory

CITY COUNCIL, CINCINNATI - Chris Bortz, Roxanne Qualls, Leslie Ghiz, Cecil Thomas, Laketa Cole, Laure Quinlivan, Nicholas Hollan, Greg Harris, Kevin Flynn

SCHOOL BOARD, CINCINNATI - Eileen Cooper Reed, Jason Haap, Joyce E Hooks, Catherine D. Ingram