34 20 666 https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/c1a5802ac6dca9bd08b7fca09a56aae5.pdf 17d3e065fa4820d7052488f601dc33a8 PDF Text Text � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Out Thanksgiving meal today has been provided by: Unity Church of Christianity Parish Church of Saint Jerome [this item is crossed out in pen] Bethany Christian Church College Hill Presbyterian Church Fellowship Lutheran Church All Souls Unitarian Church St. Paul's United Methodist Diversity Christian Fellowship International Whole Foods Tulsa We give thanks for their participation and for your attendance! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. 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Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource ND Subject The topic of the resource Thanksgiving Meal Providing Organizations Poster Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oklahomans for Equality (OkEq) ALL SOULS UNITARIAN CHURCH Bethany Christian Church Diversity Christian Fellowship International Fellowship Lutheran Church OkEq OKEQ donations OKEQ donors Oklahomans for Equality Oklahomans for Equality (OKEQ) Parish Church of Saint Jerome St. Paul's United Methodist Thanksgiving Thanksgiving meal Unity Church of Christianity https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/782be2e06f4196dcf5dadac7d7cbbbe8.gif cbce87eaba9b98cee4e803731486757b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource [Sub-Series] OKEQ > Organizational History > TOHR, OHR Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource [ND] TOHR Logo Subject The topic of the resource Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights Logo Description An account of the resource An image of a graphic icon designed for usage by Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights (TOHR). advertising graphic graphics icon icons logo Logos TOHR Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights (TOHR) https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/b8872e14d622f02cc4f814e29d8d4e9f.pdf e1cf1adf5275a49d1249b69a5da40e8b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Opening Soon Subject The topic of the resource Two's Company Description An account of the resource Flier for Two's Company book shop. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Two's Company Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Brandy Powers Tari Powers Relation A related resource Two's Company Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Flier Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context https://history.okeq.org/files/show/2082 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Two's Company Tari Powers Brandy Powers Gay Businesses Businesses PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource [ND] Two's Company Subject The topic of the resource Gay Businesses Description An account of the resource Documents and items relating to the bookstore "Two's Company." Relation A related resource Other Organizations and Events Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Two's Company Tari Powers Brandy Powers Gay Businesses Businesses Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context https://history.okeq.org/items/show/636 Brandy Powers businesses Gay Businesses Tari Powers Two's Company https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/386e661746689c370ed2778f6c708546.jpg b118be5a890bb797e17cb3d63abb3540 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource {ND] Photo of Drag Performer and Patron Description An account of the resource A photo of a drag performer leaning down to a patron. Undated. Subjects currently unidentified. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unknown photographer Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource N/D https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/e199189b04dd3b5382a5936a1bdfbad8.docx 6fb218697ba809f168f56931cbcff9cc https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/f0fd9c3e465c454796f5af97da81bc9b.jpg 6bffe8058f921370e79a9c1e586050f6 https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/6b2ffab42157492b2e5d4f9ef280df60.jpg ebdb024fc0a0d148084f44c553fed0b1 https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/48dd0df2b9e9c3b568347f8452509afc.jpg df29616c229b8cb3e85bf66c579a3a90 https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/914a0a5d5cb38506eefbb720a230fed1.jpg a9fcdcfe015ffac99079c771fa20ee6b https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/4170ace04ce0c6368b93cdb132bce6bc.jpg 3299b853d201053ee0c086c6dc2a562f Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Oklahomans for Equality History Project For many years in June, which is LGBTQ Pride month, Tulsa’s downtown streets and parks were awash in a rainbow of colors with a sea of the beautiful diversity of humanity assembled for Tulsa Pride. But it wasn’t always that way. Think about a time when Pride didn’t exist – a time when many of you weren’t yet born but when a large number of our LGBTQ community WERE here, trying to live in a world that didn’t acknowledge their humanity. LGBTQ people existed, but pride did not. Being gay or trans meant living in the closet for fear of losing one’s family, job, religious affiliation and home and being ostracized – and even jailed or institutionalized – for living openly. Beyond those outward realities, LGBTQ people often were self-loathing, longing to change their sexual orientation or gender identity so they could fit in with society and live in accordance with what society said their God demanded. But throughout history, some gay and trans people have stood up to challenge the status quo and say, “We’re OK just as we are.” Accepting ourselves was the beginning of Pride. Oklahomans for Equality’s forerunner organization, Oklahomans for Human Rights, was organized in Tulsa as a chapter of an Oklahoma City-based organization in 1980, and a handful of Tulsa’s gay men and lesbians came together in 1982 to organize and produce Tulsa’s first Gay Pride Week. In its May 26, 1982, newsletter, available in the OkEq History Project archives, OHR called it “Tulsa’s first major commemoration of the beginning of gay liberation,” the Stonewall riots of 1969. Events included a picnic and festival at Chandler Park; softball games at Manion Park; beer busts at local bars Tulsa County Mining Co., Tracy’s New Edition, Tim’s Playroom and Zippers; a screening of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Brook Theater; Gay Day at Discoveryland; Gayskate at the Rinky Dink Skating Rink in Sand Springs; and a benefit drag show. The next year’s Pride Week Picnic, held at Mohawk Park, drew about 300 people, according to OHR’s July 1983 newsletter. Records in Oklahomans for Equality’s archives show that the 1983 Gay Pride Week Committee’s total income was $1,910.66, while expenses totaled $1,473.83, bringing the organization a $436.83 profit. Those early Tulsa Pride events didn’t involve parades and were relatively low-key events in out-of-the-way locations. In contrast, it costs anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000 to put on today’s Pride events. OHR became TOHR in 1985, when local activists formed the nonprofit Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights and separated from the Oklahoma City organization. The annual picnics continued, and it seemed that perhaps greater visibility and even acceptance had come to Tulsa Pride in 1994 when then-Mayor Susan Savage proclaimed the week of June 19 through June 25 that year “as Gay & Lesbian Pride Week in our city.” Tulsa’s first Pride march came in 1997. Without closing the roads, marchers traveled one-half mile on Edison Street from Gilcrease Museum Road to Owen Park, where a picnic was held. Participants also listened to music, and community organizations and businesses offered information and merchandise at booths. The second Pride march, in 1998, saw about 150 people march from 15th and Main streets to Veterans Park (now Dream Keepers Park) at 21st Street and Boulder Avenue. The 1999 event was the first parade that involved street closings and police escorts. Tulsa’s first Pride parade went from 38th Street and Peoria Avenue in the Brookside District to 31st Street, then west to Riverside Drive, and then north to Veterans Park. With the political and social environments of the times, it took Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights quite some doing to acquire a permit for the parade. The Tulsa City Council delayed a vote on the permit twice before finally approving it. In the meantime, one councilor, Sam Roop, had proposed and then dropped a resolution stating that the City Council did not endorse the June 12 parade. The Tulsa World reported that Roop had been concerned that approval of the parade permit “might be construed as an endorsement of the ‘gay pride agenda.’” In the end, he joined the other councilors in unanimously approving the permit – but not the “lifestyle.” Tulsa World archives record that Councilor Darla Hall said that "the gay community is not before this council tonight so that we can stand in judgment of their lifestyle. They will appear before God for that, just as we all will answer to God for our lifestyles. I only pray they are as prepared for that day as they are for the parade.” But with the parades came increased visibility. The keynote speaker at a gala hosted by Tulsa Oklahomans for Equality and the Cimarron Alliance, as well as the grand marshal of the first Pride parade, was U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who brought with him increased media coverage of Tulsa Pride. Big names were also included in the next year’s Pride, which showcased as gala speakers and co-grand marshals Olympic diver Greg Louganis and Col. Grethe Cammermeyer, who had successfully challenged her dismissal from the Army for being a lesbian and who later worked for the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. That same year, 2000, the Rev. Dr. Mel White, founder of Soul Force and author of “Stranger at the Gate,” spoke at the Tulsa Pride Week Interfaith Service. Activities related to Pride were growing in number, too, with film festivals, book discussions, high school gay-straight alliance showcases, Council Oak Men’s Chorale performances, PFLAG parents panel discussions, art shows and a NAMES Project AIDS memorial quilt display included along with a parade and festival during Pride Weeks by the early years of the 21st century. By 2001, the parade route had shifted to Cherry Street, with step-off at 15th Street and Utica Avenue and the conclusion again at Veterans Park. Archives show that the annual parade continued along that route until 2009, when it ran through the Arts District and ended at the Diversity Festival’s new location at Centennial Park (now Veterans Park), at Sixth Street and Peoria Avenue. During those years, paradegoers mixed with athletes and the crowd watching Tulsa Tough bicycle races in the Arts District. TOHR changed its name to Oklahomans for Equality in 2006 in advance of the opening of the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center – OkEq’s permanent home – in February 2007, and in 2011, the festival was moved to Fourth Street – Pride Street – and Kenosha Avenue in front of the Equality Center. In 2014, the parade route shifted to start at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, 13th Street and Boston Avenue, still ending at the Equality Center. The annual Rainbow Run’s inaugural year, with a 5K race and a 1K fun run, was 2014. The timing of Tulsa’s Pride parade and festival changed in 2024 to October to avoid the extreme heat of Oklahoma’s summers and to coincide with LGBTQ History Month and National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11. The Equality Gala and other events still take place in June. Inclusion and acceptance have grown along with Pride, with some push and pull, advancements and backlash, along the way. This year’s events this fall are expected to draw nearly 70 parade entries, with a crowd size along the parade route estimated at 10,000 and attendees at the Pride festival projected at 26,000. The Oklahomans for Equality History Project encourages you to learn more about OkEq’s history by visiting our online archives at history.okeq.org. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Article Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource History of Tulsa Pride Subject The topic of the resource Tulsa Pride history Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mary Bishop-Baldwin Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 23, 2026 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright (c) 2026 Oklahomans for Equality Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/4adebf0d44994d369d09f3575feec61d.jpg ad72637811113670aa330f4ea33f8595 https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/64c74821b30c649886ad68d44b69d1dd.docx d71e856583f6992983ed003cff45e0a6 https://www.history.okeq.org/files/original/7c2883bf7ed6d734cf5f7159d6a5724f.jpg 0667fe995ad8830d0ee5454a0496092b Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Article Text Any textual data included in the document The Oklahomans for Equality History Project remembers with pride the U.S. Supreme Court opinions handed down on June 26 in various years that made monumental strides in the quest for equality for LGBTQ people. We think June 26 should be National Equality Day! • On June 26, 2003, the Supreme Court struck down state sodomy laws across the nation in Lawrence v. Texas. • On June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court killed the Defense of Marriage Act in U.S. v. Windsor AND overturned Prop 8 in California. • On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land in Obergefell v. Hodges. • On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that all states must provide married same-sex couples the same "constellation of benefits" and recognition afforded to heterosexual couples. The OkEq History Project’s archives remind us of how Tulsa acknowledged all those cases and rulings. June 26, 2003 The Spring 2003 edition of the TOHR Torch, the publication of Oklahomans for Equality’s forerunner, Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights, noted that Oklahoma was one of only four states that still specifically criminalized same-sex sodomy at that time. The others were Texas, Kansas and Missouri. The Arkansas Supreme Court had overturned that state’s same-sex sodomy law the previous year. The U.S. Supreme Court was expected to issue a ruling in Lawrence v. Texas in June, and an article in the Spring 2003 Torch announced that Lee Taft, Lambda Legal regional director in Dallas, was to discuss the case at Fellowship Congregational United Church of Christ in Tulsa on April 14. Lambda Legal had represented the two defendants in a criminal sodomy case and led the case through appeals. “Battling for years in the Texas courts, we sought to overturn the criminal convictions (which made the two men registerable ‘sex offenders’ in several states) and to have Texas’s law declared unconstitutional,” Lambda says on its website. “When the highest court in Texas eventually refused to even hear our arguments, we convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case. In a stunning victory, the highest court in the land found the “Homosexual Conduct” law unconstitutional and established, for the first time, that lesbians and gay men share the same fundamental liberty right to private sexual intimacy with another adult that heterosexuals have.” The ruling overturned the June 30, 1986, precedent of Bowers v. Hardwick, in which the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that states had the right to criminalize sodomy on the grounds of public morality. The TOHR Torch noted that “sodomy laws (were) used to justify discrimination against lesbians and gay men … in every day life; they’re invoked in denying employment to gay people, in refusing custody or visitation for gay parents, and even in intimidating gay people out of exercising their free speech rights.” The Lawrence ruling set the stage for later advances in the struggle for equal rights under the law, with each case building on those that had come before. The Summer 2003 TOHR Torch included an article from the History Project outlining the history of sodomy laws, with a focus on Oklahoma, where in 1890 the pre-statehood territory’s Legislature had codified its sodomy law with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. The relevant statute, Title 21, Section 21-886, refers to the crime as “the detestable and abominable crime against nature.” State courts made consensual heterosexual sodomy legal in 1986 but retained the right to prosecute consensual homosexual conduct. That Summer 2003 article noted that “Oklahoma’s law has become legal justification for firing gay and lesbian teachers, administrators and school personnel, nursing home workers and others. These Oklahomans and other gays and lesbians are therefore required to choose between their livelihoods and their ability to be open about who they are. As a result, gays and lesbians in Oklahoma are deterred from seeking political and social change.” With repercussions like those, it’s no wonder so many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Oklahomans continued to live in the closet. The Lawrence ruling made it possible for many to come out of the shadows and was a major building block for the legal victories that came later. June 26, 2013 Ten years later, two huge advances in the quest for marriage equality came out of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26, 2013. The July 3, 2013, OkEq eNews reported that on the evening of Wednesday, June 26, 2013, more than 400 celebrants gathered at a Decision Day Rally at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center to celebrate that morning’s Supreme Court rulings on both the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, making same-sex marriage legal in California again. The group heard from attorney and OkEq board member Mike Redman and the plaintiffs in the Oklahoma marriage equality lawsuit, Mary Bishop & Sharon Baldwin and Sue Barton & Gay Phillips. “There was a champagne toast and a fabulous wedding cake from Merritt's Bakery,” the article says. The eNews article shares photos from the Decision Day Rally. Oklahomans for Equality Board of Directors President Angela Sivadon, center, and her now-wife, Mary Robinson, serve wedding cake to the crowd at the Decision Day rally in 2013. The overturning of DOMA meant that the United States government would recognize any marriage – including same-sex marriages – recognized by any state. It did not, however, force states to recognize same-sex marriages. That fight was left for other cases, but, like Lawrence v. Texas, United States v. Windsor was a fundamental building block for those that followed. In California, the nation’s largest state, marriages of same-sex couples had been legal since June 17, 2008, after a May 15 ruling by that state’s Supreme Court. But a group of people, known as the proponents of Prop 8, gathered enough signatures to put Proposition 8, a proposed state constitutional amendment, on the ballot. Prop 8 was to define marriage as between only a man and a woman and to stop the same-sex marriages. When they went to the polls on Nov. 4, 2008, more than 13 million Californians voted 52% to 48% in favor of the state question. No more same-sex marriages were allowed – at least for the time being – but about 18,000 had already been solemnized. The resulting amendment was challenged in court in Hollingsworth v. Perry, and on June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the proponents, who defended the constitutional amendment after the state of California refused to do so, did not have standing – or the legal right – to defend the case. Therefore, the Aug. 4, 2010, ruling of U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker that Prop 8 violated the U.S. Constitution was upheld. Same-sex marriages began again in California on June 28, 2013. June 26, 2015 Marriage equality was achieved for all the land on June 26, 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that marriage is a fundamental right that is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution to everyone, including same-sex couples. Oklahoma had achieved marriage equality through the courts a year earlier, but all the states that still did not have marriage equality were required at that time to authorize and recognize marriages of same-sex couples. Oklahomans for Equality proclaimed in its June 30, 2015, eNews that “at long last, there is no such thing as ‘gay marriage’ – now it's just MARRIAGE!” The eNews article shares photos from the Marriage Equality Celebration Rally that OkEq held at the Equality Center that evening. Attendees at the Marriage Equality Celebration Rally on June 26, 2015 – the day the U.S. Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land in the Obergefell case – give attorneys Don Holladay and Joe Thai, front left, a standing ovation. Holladay and Thai, along with attorneys James Warner III and Jeffrey Fisher, represented the plaintiffs in the Oklahoma marriage equality lawsuit, which they had won the year before. June 26, 2017 The U.S. Supreme Court followed up exactly two years later with a ruling that clarified for states that didn’t yet get it what it had meant by marriage equality in 2015. Its ruling in Pavan v. Smith would establish that all states must provide married same-sex couples with the same benefits and recognition they afford to heterosexual couples. The plaintiffs were two legally married Arkansas same-sex couples, the Jacobses and the Pavans, who had conceived children through anonymous sperm donation. The state refused to list the wives of the birth mothers as co-parents on the children’s birth certificates, citing a state law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the law was “inconsistent” with its Obergefell ruling. “When an opposite-sex couple conceives a child by way of anonymous sperm donation – just as the petitioners did here – state law requires the placement of the birth mother’s husband on the child’s birth certificate. … And that is so even though (as the State concedes) the husband “is definitively not the biological father” in those circumstances. … Arkansas may not, consistent with Obergefell, deny married same-sex couples that recognition,” the Supreme Court wrote in its decision. The Oklahomans for Equality History Project encourages you to learn more about OkEq’s history and the history of our rights by visiting our online archives at history.okeq.org. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource June 26 Supreme Court rulings Subject The topic of the resource LGBTQ civil rights cases Description An account of the resource This article looks at the very consequential U.S. Supreme Court decisions handed down on June 26 in various years that furthered LGBTQ rights. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mary Bishop-Baldwin Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Oklahomans for Equality History Project Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 26, 2026 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright (c) 2026 Oklahomans for Equality Angela Sivadon birth certificates co-parents Defense of Marriage Act DOMA don holladay Gay Phillips Joe Thai Lawrence v. Texas marriage equality mary bishop Mary Robinson Obergefell Pavan v. Smith Prop 8 sharon baldwin sodomy Sue Barton Windsor