GAY PEOPLE'S

Chronicle

Ohio's Newspaper for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

Akron Pride Center to merge with CAN

by Eric Resnick

Akron-The assets of the Akron Pride Center will be merged with the Community AIDS Network in January, essentially ending its existence as a separate entity.

"We have moved the old library and resource room out of the basement of Adams Street, moved all of the other furniture and property out of the Aster location, and put Aster Avenue up for sale," wrote CAN director Dawn Jones in a letter sent to Pride Center supporters last week.

Jones will direct the combined operation, according to the letter.

The Pride Center occupied space in the building that also houses the Adams Street gay bar, on the Akron street of the same name, from its founding in 1999 to 2006 when a building on Aster Avenue was purchased.

Raffaele A. Vitone, who died in 2002, bequeathed over $50,000 to the center's parent Akron Area Pride Collective on the proviso that the money be used to buy or build a new home for it within five years of his death.

The Aster property, in the Firestone Park neighborhood, was purchased for $75,000 in the spring of 2006, and the Adams Street location closed with the hope of opening the new one in 2007 after renovations were completed.

However, sufficient funds were

never raised and the Aster location never opened. Groups that had met at the old Adams location found alternative homes.

"Several of the Pride Center groups are now holding their regular meetings at the new [CAN] office," the letter continued, “and hopes and plans for the future include developing additional groups and convincing others to start meeting here at the building."

CAN developed as an HIV and AIDS service agency which now administers Ryan White funds and housing opportunities for people with AIDS. It has a staff of six and receives United Way money.

Though one of its paid staffers was a member of the Pride Center board, CAN is not an LGBT organization in practice, nor according to its mission statement.

CAN's board chair is Nancy Brennan, daughter of charter school magnate and entrepreneur David Brennan. Nancy is the vice president of her father's White Hat Management, which operates the schools.

The family, including Nancy, contributes heavily to the Republican Party and its local and national candidates, including ones who are openly and aggressively anti-LGBT.

The two groups' boards of directors, according to the letter, are meeting in January to do strategic planning.

Looking back at an amazing year

by Anthony Glassman

Like many years in the past few decades, 2009 had both highs and lows for the LGBT community, victories and defeats, moments of startling violence that shook us to the core and of pure bliss that left us in

awe.

In January, President Barack Obama made history in ways

beyond the obvious. Not only was he the first black president of the United States, but his inaugural parade was the first to have an LGBT contingent.

Among the 177 queer musicians were representatives from Cincinnati's Queen City Rainbow Band, Columbus' Capital Pride Band and Cleveland's Blazing River Freedom Band.

"The registration and elimi-

Inside This Issue

Air show

Volume 25, Issue 14 January 1, 2010

ROBERT OLAYAS

WRIGHTSTER

PANTHERS

The A Division champions Square attempt manslaughter by volleyball in the finals of the North Coast Athletics Volleyball league season.

The champions of the fall 2009 season are Jen Savochka's Team in Division B, Bounce Bumpin' Uglies in Division BB, and Square in Division A.

Awards were given out at Twist on Saturday, December 12.

The North Coast Athletics Volleyball league has been playing in one form or another for nearly 30 years. Members share excitement of competing, camaraderie and a chance to hone their skills. With 250 active members on 25 teams, they are also involved in everything from fundraising to community clothing drives.

For more information, go to www.northcoastathletics.org.

nation process was like being part of a reality TV show, waiting to see if you were going to be voted off the island," said Fred Martens of the Queen City band, one of five musicians from Cincinnati who participated in the inaugural festivities. "I was sweating bullets for two days."

Only half of the 50 LGBT musicians who registered to

Findlay man dies of injuries from a Toledo bar fight

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Community Groups

Charlie's Calendar

Resource Directory

Classifieds.......

Page 6

A changing view of the masculine ideal

march were accepted.

Among the 16 families who accompanied the Obamas and the Bidens on their whistlestop train trip from Philadel phia to Washington, D.C. was Lisa Hazirjian and her partner. Michelle Kaiser. Hazirjian was in charge of LGBT organizing efforts in the Cleveland area for Obama's presidential campaign, but believed that her selection had more to do with having an offer of a university job revoked when she inquired about domestic partner benefits.

“Really, when all that happened to me, I did talk to attorneys and investigated what my options might be, but without employment nondiscrimination legislation, I had no case," Hazirjian said. It was that desire for a change in the law that helped spur her to work for Obama, who has since taken heat for neglecting to push LGBT issues as much as during the campaign.

A month after the inaugura-

-Robert Olayas

tion, a different politician was being feted Harvey Milk, the subject of the docudrama Milk.

The first openly gay member of San Francisco's board of supervisors in 1977, Milk became a martyr when former supervisor Dan White shot him

Sean Penn

and Mayor George Moscone inside City Hall. In 2008, Sean Penn portrayed him in the film, whose screenplay was penned by gay former Mormon Dustin Lance Black.

Both won Academy Awards, Penn for Best Actor and Black

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