Tulsa Pride: Gearing up for a dazzling show

by Toby Jenkins
OkEq Executive Director

Creating a more sustainable Pride Festival and expanding the outreach for the LGBTQ community of northeast Oklahoma are top priorities for Sarah Miller, this year’s Tulsa Pride Director. The largest LGBTQ gathering in the Tulsa metro-plex is bringing to the stage the Battle of the Bands. With more emphasis on local and regional entertainment, Sarah Miller is coordinating the day long music-fest where bands compete for a $2000 grand prize and headliner parade performance slot. This year’s bands include FM Pilots, Siamese Spots, Fool Me Twice, La Lune and Sleepwalking Home. For more information go to www.okeq.org/tulsa-pride.html

The Tulsa Pride Idol winner and club titleholders will also be performing representing LGBTQ community bars, clubs and venues. In 2013 Tulsa Pride launched the Pride Idol contest under former Tulsa Pride Director Patrick French, with the winner performing on the Pride Stage. A special treat this year will be a headlining performance by 1980’s pop idol Tiffany, brought to the Tulsa Pride stage by Area 18 Ultra Bar and Lounge. Tiffany, known for her top 40 hits I think we are alone now and All this time will perform right after the parade.

With 75 vendors registered and a 100 parade entries, this is gearing up to be another great year for taking the message of inclusion to the streets. The parade steps off at 6pm in the shadow of the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church at 13th and Boston. Once again the most recognizable art deco structure in Tulsa will be the staging area. Floats and decorated vehicles and marching contingents will head north on Boston Avenue and travel through the Deco District and Skyscraper canyon making its way to the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center located at 4th and Kenosha to the Tulsa Pride Street Festival.

Then on Sunday June 7 Tulsa Pride takes over the East Village at 9am with the Tulsa Rainbow Run a 5K certified race in the East Village, home to Oklahomans for Equality Tulsa for more than a decade. To register for the Rainbow Run go to www.okeq.org/store.html and click on the Rainbow Run logo. To finish out pride weekend Tulsa Pride will host the Pride Picnic that afternoon at 6th and Peoria. Mindy Bartlett, a local Tulsa musician, will be performing. Bring your lawn chairs, blankets, sunscreen and ice chests of food and beverages.

The grand marshals for Tulsa Pride 2015 are the legal minds behind the Oklahoma Marriage Equality lawsuit, which secured marriage rights for LGBTQ people in Oklahoma in 2014. Led by Don Holladay, adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma law school and litigator for 40 years, he worked for six years as lead attorney representing the plaintiffs Sue Barton and her wife Gay Phillips, and Sharon and Mary Bishop-Baldwin.

He admits he had a dog in the fight, with a gay son and his wife the incredible Kay Holladay, being the regional director for PFLAG (Parents Family and Friends of Lesbian and Gays). Don was joined by co-counsel James Warner III and OU law professor Joseph Thai, who gave the seamless support that the marriage equality plaintiffs needed for their decade long fight against the gay marriage ban in Oklahoma.

With zero support from national LGBTQ advocacy groups the plaintiffs and their attorneys prevailed on January 14, 2014 when Federal District Judge Terence Kern ruled that Oklahoma’s gay marriage ban was unconstitutional. In April 2014, Don Holladay, James Warner III and Joseph Thai represented the plaintiffs at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Circuit Court upheld Judge Kern’s decision, which guaranteed Tulsa County, would appeal to the US Supreme Court. On October 6, 2014, the US Supreme Court chose not to hear the Oklahoma case and similar marriage cases making same sex marriage legal in Oklahoma on October 6, 2014, nearly 12 years after the initial filing in November 2004.

The Gayly – June 5, 2015 @ 11:40am.