Gayly columnist, author featured speaker at East Central University

      (Ada, Okla) The East Central University Gay-Straight Alliance will host a special reading by author, activist and Oklahoma City native Paula Sophia in recognition of National Coming Out Day, Thursday, October 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for Student Engagement, Room 159, Faust Hall on the ECU campus.    Paula Sophia will be reading excerpts from her recently published novel Shadowboxer. The reading will be followed by a discussion with the author and members of ECU’s GSA. The event is free and open to the public.    Paula Sophia Schonauer was a 20-year veteran of the Oklahoma City Police Department and the first openly transgendered officer. She left in 2005 after successfully suing the department for harassment. She’s a graduate from the MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Central Oklahoma whose writing has appeared in multiple online and print publications.    “Paula’s journey of self discovery is extraordinary,” said Dr. Christine Pappas, Advisor of ECU’s GSA. “I think anyone who has ever struggled with being different for any reason could relate to it.”    National Coming Out Day, or NCOD, first began in 1988 on the anniversary of the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay rights, at which half a million people participated. Wanting a way to celebrate the choice of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to live openly and honestly, psychologist Robert Eichberg and then head of the National Gay Rights Advocates Jean O’Leary, founded NCOD and chose October 11 as the day of recognition.    Only 18 states participated in the first NCOD. Today, NCOD is observed across the U.S. and Canada, England, Australia, Germany, Switzerland and many more countries with rallies and parades to raise awareness of the LGBT community.    The Gay-Straight Alliance is a student-run organization at East Central University whose goal is to foster equality and provide support for not only the GLBTQ community but the straight community as well. The group is devoted to fighting homophobia and strives to establish equality while maintaining the wonderful diversity that is the human form. It meets every Thursday at 7:30 pm.  For more information contact Dr. Pappas at cpappas@ecok.edu.