AS A MATTER OF EQUALITY

June 27th, 2009, was a great day for the LGBTQ population of Fayetteville. We had our parade, we had our picnic; we had had a great week of pride events. And then we had an official proclamation from the Mayor’s office that June 27th, 2009, was LGBT Pride Day in the city of Fayetteville. I recapped that moment in a blog post on the Fayetteville Flyer:

Don Marr, our city’s openly-gay chief of staff, issued an official proclamation of behalf of the Mayor (I saw the certificate; the signature was real) declaring Saturday, June 27th, as LGBT Pride day for the city of Fayetteville. I whooped, I hollered, I cried a bit. I was elated.

After the proclamation, Anthony Clark, the President of the NWA Center for Equality, introduced me to one of the leaders of Oklahomans for Equality, as I had a small part in securing the proclamation. The man, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, told me how incredible it was that we were able to get an official proclamation from a sitting mayor in this part of the country. He said that they have been trying in Oklahoma for twelve years, that they have had no breakthrough in Tulsa, and that the Mayor of Oklahoma City refuses to even acknowledge their organization’s request.

That hit home for me in a way that the proclamation didn’t. I knew that we were a bit different here in Fayetteville. I didn’t realize just how lucky we were, though.

It was a pretty great moment for me; when Act 1 passed in 2008 I felt shunned by my homeland. But when that proclamation was issued, it was like the city that raised me said “don’t listen to them—we want you here.”

I’m proud to announce that we have not only repeated that success; we have multiplied it. In conjunction with President Obama’s declaration of a Nationwide month of Pride, Mayor Jordan has declared an equal, city-wide, month of Pride.

Go out and celebrate. It’s your month.

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