The Gayly Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 20, No. 10, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 15, 2002 Page: 1 of 24
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tatewide 6LBT News Source since 1983
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gayly Oklahoman
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OKC -Margarita Blue, Miss OK Classic, with Christopher Phillips from
St. Louis who bowled a perfect 300 game during the OK Classic 2002
bowling tournament.
Keith Smith and John Calhoun with the Central Oklahoma Stonewall
Democrats, Tim Galliean and Ken Draper with the Tulsa Stonewall
Democrats and Victor Gorin at the Carl Albert Dinner.
HELP POURS IN FOR RAIN
Read more about it in “Letters ” on page 4
Gay Man Elected to City Council
by Paula Brown
Norman - David Ray, Nor-
man's new Ward 4 council person,
did not enter the world of politics
because of any long-range politi-
cal plans, the perceived glam-
our or the pay. He did it be-
cause he wanted the city to en
force its own laws regarding
neighborhood zoning - his
neighborhood to be exact.
“It all began three years
ago when we got into a zon-
ing battle with the city," he
said. “They were ignoring
their own policies. We ended
up hiring an attorney to force
the city to enforce its own laws.
After that, he began ask-
ing his neighbors to run for city
council. An assistant professor
of Political Science for the Uni-
versity of Oklahoma, Ray de-
cided to take on the part-time
job himself when no one else
was interested.
“I think I'm like most peo-
ple. We don't take city politics
seriously until it directly af-
fects us," he said. “I decided that
if it was as important as I was tell-
ing them it was, I should be inter-
ested in doing it myself. So, here I
am."
Imagine his surprise when
mud slinging by unnamed oppo-
nents before the election accused
him of having little or no regard
for the city's past or its future.
A “beware-of-the-boogie-
man" letter from a person or
group of people called “Normans
For Norman" was circulated
throughout the Ward 4 neighbor-
hoods. The letter accused Ray of
everything from posing a threat
to the McKinley school area to
decreasing the area property val-
ues, all because he is gay.
Editorials, along with letters
from Norman residents printed in
Norman City Councilman David Ray
the Norman Transcript continued
with the opposition theme before
receiving numerous complaints
about the lack of balanced views.
By then, however, it was election
time.
Ray soundly defeated the
other five candidates.
Tim Miller, Ray's life partner
of 12 years, said he believed the
editorials and hate mail campaign
backfired. “It worked for us, not
against us," he said. “We have
been out as a couple from the very
beginning and have always been
involved in our neighborhood.
Our neighbors were really upset
by this. In fact, Miller said hun-
dreds of their neighbors volun-
teered to help with Ray's cam-
paign. “And all those people are
straight," he said.
While Ray and Miller live
their lives openly as a gay cou-
ple, Ray said he did not run as
a "gay candidate" and does
not want to be seen as the post-
er boy for the gay agenda.
“I didn't lie about being
gay," he said, “but that just
wasn't the issue. I ran on spe-
cific values, on issues such as
zoning, that are important for
building a strong neighbor-
hood. 1 didn't run to advance
the gay agenda. The fact that I
did run may have advanced
the gay agenda, but it was not
one of my platform issues."
When asked if he would
propose or support a city hu-
man rights ordinance inclu-
sive of gays and lesbians, Rav
said, “I will always support it
if one is proposed, but I would
have to strongly consider the
political feasibilitv of its passage
before actually proposing one my-
self. There are nine votes on that
council."
Even so, Ray believes an in-
clusive human rights ordinance is
only a matter of time.
“History only spins for-
ward," he said. “Eventually we
will be accepted. I think it will
help a lot when they [the other
council members] get to know me
as a person. I believe we will see
the greatest progress when they
realize we all value and want the
same things."
Ray was sworn in on April 23.
Vandals Hit RAIN Office Again
by Paula Brown
OKC - Still recovering
emotionally from a previous
vandalism incident, staff
members in a iocai HIV/'
AIDS office were not pre-
pared for another attack a
few weeks later.
On April 30, Regional
AIDS Interfaith Network
Program Assistant Jean Felix
was the first one to arrive at
the RAIN office where she
discovered that someone
had used what appeared to
be a piece of gravel to write
a hate message on the wall, just
below their sign.
According to Felix, the graf-
fiti had not been there when she
left work at 5:00 p.m. the previ-
ous evening. The scrawled words
could be washed off, but remov-
ing the vandal's message would
not be so easy, she said.
This is the third vandalism
incident in the five years RAIN
has occupied the office at 1601 N.
Drexel. The first one occurred in
The graffiti message scrawled on the outside
of Rain’s office.
1997, when burglars broke into
the office and stole a computer
and other expensive office equip-
ment from Andy Southam's of-
fice. Southam was executive di-
rector of the now defunct Mariah
Foundation, another community-
based HIV/AIDS service.
The latest two incidents hap-
pened only weeks apart. The first
on March 21 and the second on
April 30.
The police department has
linked the report numbers for
each of the recent vandalism
incidents. If other incidents
continue to happen this would
signal a developing pattern
So far, however, it is believed
the two incidents are unrelat-
ed.
On March 21, a couple of
voung teenage bovs were ap-
prehended after they broke
the glass in several windows
and the back door. Because no
one witnessed the event, no
charges were filed against the
boys.
RAIN has been struggling
with the lack of funding for the
past few months and the repeat-
ed vandalism has been a strain of
their already frayed emotions.
However, a recent appeal to the
local community pulled them out
of crisis mode as financial dona-
tions came pouring in.
RAIN provides non-medical
support services to individuals
and families living with HIV and
AIDS.
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Hawkins, Don. The Gayly Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 20, No. 10, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 15, 2002, newspaper, May 15, 2002; Oklahoma City, Okla.. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc825047/m1/1/?q=%22Business%2C+Economics+and+Finance+-+Communications+-+Newspapers%22: accessed July 8, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.