Saturday, October 4th, 2008
7p-11p
Ohio Historical Society Main Atrium (I-71 and 17th St)
$50 / $25 students
Theme: History of Columbus Drag / Remembering Berwick

To kick off Gay History Month and the Halloween season,
GOHI’s fundraiser is a costume/drag interactive event with multiple history
displays, performances, speakers, dancing, heavy appetizers and a cash bar,
with an after party at Liquid Night Club.

Displays/Exhibits: Running video of past Berwick Balls, a portion of Neal Raffensberger’s
Columbus Drag Queen photography portrait exhibit, IDKE’s ten years of Drag Kings exhibit,
selections from OHS’s LGBT collection, GOHI’s traveling gay Ohioans exhibit
and a Berwick Ball Exhibit where you can record your own Berwick Ball stories!

Entertainment: DJ Sean Rowe and performances by Mark Martin, Heidi Madsen, Gavin Danger, Sam McCormick, Entertainer of the Year Nina West, Sable Coate, Virginia West, Maria Garrison, and more!

Dress: Event goers are encouraged to dress in costume, as your favorite gay person in history,
or as they did in the Berwick days - in drag or a tux. You can of course, “come as you are.”

For tickets: http://gohi.osuglbt.org

In April 2008 the Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Other Paper featured articles about GOHI’s efforts to obtain historical markers for Ohio sites significant to GLBT history.

Earlier this year GOHI partnered with an OSU Women’s Studies class to collect oral history interviews of several Columbus women who have played a significant role in local GLBT history.  Copies of these interviews along with photographs of the women interviewed have been donated to the GOHI collection at the Ohio Historical Society.

The new GOHI traveling display, Pride of Ohio, premieres at Pride Festivals in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Dayton in June 2008.

Pride of Ohio, a set of three banners, showcases six LGBT Ohioans per banner with an image and biographical information. The eighteen notable LGBT people illustrate the contributions, achievements, and accomplishments made by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Ohioans.

The banner display is the first of a multi-part project to educate Ohioans and raise awareness about LGBT citizens and our place in the fabric of our state. The second phase involves the collection of oral histories from LGBT Ohioans, and “Photo Fairs” to digitize photographs, preserving them in an archive of LGBT Ohio history. Phase three of the project is the creation of a comprehensive touring exhibit that incorporates artifacts of LGBT Ohio history.

To create Pride of Ohio, members of the GOHI Exhibit Committee researched and identified more than thirty notable LGBT Ohioans, narrowing the list to eighteen. Some people profiled will be more familiar than others - Paul Lynde, for example, is a cultural icon from “Bewitched.”  Bibliophiles, though, can learn about Barbara Grier, Mary Oliver, Hart Crane, Jacqueline Woodson, and Michael Cunningham. Jazz lovers may focus on Billy Strayhorn. Philosophers have Judith Butler. Photographers can take note of Berenice Abbott. Architecture enthusiasts have Philip Johnson to admire. And everyone can savor the life of Natalie Clifford Barney, American expatriate and Paris literary salon hosts, who lived and loved as she damn well pleased.

GOHI, the Gay Ohio History Initiative, is working to preserve, archive, and curate the history and culture of the LGBT citizens of Ohio, to tell the truth about our lives, to create opportunities for understanding of both the past and what is hoped for in the future, to share LGBT culture and history with all Ohioans, and to encourage us to savor our existence.  Savoring our lives is something we can forget to do, and something that society has often discouraged us from doing.

With Pride of Ohio, GOHI celebrates LGBT Ohioans, and offers information and education to both LGBT and straight Ohioans.

You can make a donation to support the costs of Pride of Ohio in two ways - by visiting the Ohio Historical Society website at www.ohiohistorystore.com/donation.aspx you can make a donation online using a credit or debit card.  You can also make a donation by sending a check or money order to Ohio Historical Society, c/o GOHI, 1982 Velma Avenue, Columbus, Ohio.  Please note in the memo section of the check that your donation is for GOHI. 

“Ohio’s GLBT history is filled with struggles and triumphs that are worthy of celebration, preservation and permanent commemoration,” Robert Berger, GOHI President said.  

In order to advance this statewide project GOHI is asking for public assistance in two ways:

• Suggestions for who should serve on a Statewide GLBT Historical Marker Committee.
• Nominations of people, places, events and organizations to be considered for commemoration with a historical marker.               

Questions, input and suggestions can be sent to thurber1961@aol.com, submitted on the GOHI website at www.gohi.org or mailed to GOHI, c/o OHS, 1982 Velma Avenue, Columbus, OH 43211.

More information about the OHS historical marker program is available at www.remarkableohio.org. 

A staff of writers provided Lynde with “ad-libs” that introduced a daily dose of gay wit to daytime television:

Peter Marshall:         In “The Wizard of Oz,” the Lion wanted courage and the Tin Man wanted a heart. What did the Scarecrow want?

Paul Lynde:   He wanted the Tin Man to notice him.

In Ohio, the Mount Vernon native is also remembered for his work in summer stock. Motivated, as usual, by money, Lynde agreed in 1969 to appear with the famous Kenley Players in Warren, Dayton, and Columbus. A nervous performer, he hated working on stage, but the response from his fans and local critics kept him coming back. “When I do a show in Ohio it’s Judy Garland time,” he once said. “It’s a very emotional experience.” Lynde broke Kenley box-office records and patiently signed autographs for hundreds of fans each night.

By the time of his last appearance a decade later, Lynde had toured John Kenley’s circuit eight times, more than any other headliner in the company’s long history. He eventually earned a weekly salary that made him “the highest paid performer on stage today, including - God help us all - Laurence Olivier.”

Never that closeted, Lynde stayed true to himself while visiting Ohio. In Columbus, he partied at the Kismet, often accompanied by fetching “bodyguards.” He dressed in a caftan, a ’70s fashion statement that, like the man-purse, some took as code for homosexuality. An oft-repeated story: in a nightly ritual, Lynde returned to the stage at Vets Memorial to take post-curtain questions from the audience. Someone asked him, as they always did, why he’d never married. Clad in his favorite caftan, smoking a thin brown cigarette, Lynde shot back, “Do you live in a cave?” A lesser Lynde witticism, for sure, but one forgiven by the fact that his writers were thousands of miles away.

Lynde died in 1982 and is buried in Amity, Ohio. The Kenley Players, which presented other gay actors, including Tab Hunter, Rock Hudson, and Alan Sues (the “poor man’s Paul Lynde”), left Columbus in 1981.

Joe Florenski, a GOHI board member, is the co-author of Center Square: The Paul Lynde Story. He is currently working on a history of the Kenley Players.

Exhibit Committee will, over the next three years, create a display of notable LGBT Ohioans, develop a project to collect oral histories from LGBT Ohioans, and organize and design an extensive exhibition on LGBT Ohio history for use throughout the state.  If you are interested in this committee you can contact Committee Chair Cory Skurdal at coryskurdal@yahoo.com.

Annual Fundraiser Committee is planning a Halloween-themed party to be held in October 2008 during GLBT history month.  If you are interested in this committee you can contact Committee Chair Chris Hayes at chayes@outlookmedia.com. 

Development Committee which coordinates GOHI finances and leads all efforts to raise funds for projects and the GOHI endowment.  If you are interested in this committee you can contact Committee Chair Jack Miner at miner.10@osu.edu.

GOHI Moving Full Steam Ahead
GOHI Across Ohio
GOHI Elects Board of Trustees and Adopts Bylaws
GOHI Celebrates LGBT Ohioans during Gay History Month
The GOHI Collection at OHS - now accepting donations
LGBT Ohio History: coming soon to a city near you
Giving in 2008
GOHI’s Generous Donors

GOHI Moving Full Steam Ahead

In 2007, GOHI filled a leadership need to protect the history of Ohio’s GLBT community. GOHI is working to preserve, archive, and curate the history and culture of the GLBT citizens of Ohio, to tell the truth about our lives, to create opportunities for understanding of both the past and what is hoped for in the future, to share GLBT culture and history with all Ohioans, and to encourage us to savor our existence.

LGBT Ohioans have reason to be proud of our lives, and to savor our history and culture. Our lives, our history, and our culture are worthy of preservation, and GOHI is working to make that happen.

The Latest News:

On May 9, 2007 the Ohio Historical Society hosted the monthly Network Columbus event with a focus on GOHI.  Over 150 people attended to learn about GOHI, view some historical GLBT memorabilia and learn about the GOHI endowment.  At the event, GOHI founder Malcolm Riggle pledged a $15,000 leadership matching gift and community leader Lynn Greer pledged the proceeds from the auction of a stay at her vacation home to GOHI and the Legacy Fund.  Many others followed suit; to date the GOHI endowment has gifts and pledges totaling nearly $37,000.  Thank you to everyone who gave generously. If you would like to make a donation, visit http://www.ohiohistorystore.com/donation.aspx

GOHI Across Ohio

In 2007, GOHI representatives traveled around Ohio to visit other collections of Ohio-related GLBT materials at colleges, libraries and other sites.  GOHI used these visits to learn about these wonderful collections and explore possible future collaboration opportunities in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Bowling Green.  In the fall of 2007, GOHI board members traveled to the Ray and Pat Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University, The Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland and the Ohio Lesbian Archive in Cincinnati.

GOHI Elects Board of Trustees and Adopts Bylaws

In August 2007 GOHI adopted a set of bylaws to guide its efforts and in September 2007 GOHI elected a Board of Trustees, Officers, Committee Chairs and Committee members.

CLICK HERE for a list of the new GOHI Board of Trustees

GOHI Celebrates LGBT Ohioans during Gay History Month

October was Gay History Month, and GOHI celebrated the lives of LGBT Ohioans in a number of ways. The display, “Ohio Pride,” was shown at the main branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library throughout October. Additionally, a series of articles about LGBT Ohioans, GOHI, and GOHI’s work was published in Outlook Weekly.  These articles are also available at www.gohi.org.

“Ohio Pride” showcases notable LGBT Ohioans, including Michael Cunningham, Barbara Grier, Mary Oliver, Agnes Moorehead, Paul Lynde, Berenice Abbott, Elizabeth Birch, and Natalie Clifford Barney. The display demonstrates the breadth of LGBT talents and contributions; we are photographers, architects, writers, directors, attorneys, activists, philosophers, publishers, actors, and composers.

The GOHI Collection at OHS – now accepting donations

The GOHI collection at the Ohio Historical Society contains a wide range of artifacts.

Recent donations include:

Manuscripts and ephemera related to the H.I.S. Kings drag king troupe based in Columbus and the International Drag King Extravaganza.  The collection includes programs, advertisements and news clippings.

Items donated by the Flaggots Ohio, a GLBTA color guard based in Columbus including performance flags, performance DVDs and photographs.
DVDs of the 2006 and 2007 GLBT Stonewall Columbus Pride Celebration History Panels, the 1982 Pride Parade, and the 1985 Stonewall Columbus-commissioned documentary You Can Fight City Hall.

Do you have photographs, documents and artifacts related to Ohio GLBT Pride events and other aspects of GLBT life?  Potential collections items may include diaries, family photographs or moving images.  Click here to complete the Donate Items Form.

LGBT Ohio History: coming soon to a city near you

GOHI is planning a multi-phase project to educate Ohioans and raise awareness about LGBT citizens and our place in the fabric of the history of our state.

The work of the GOHI Exhibit Committee will include:
a display detailing the lives and accomplishments of notable LGBT Ohioans;
the collection of oral histories from LGBT Ohioans;
“Photo Fairs” to digitize photographs and create an archive of LGBT Ohio history;
a touring exhibition incorporating artifacts of LGBT Ohio history.
The project will need support and assistance to collect artifacts and oral histories, staff Photo Fairs, plan and create displays, and secure funding.  If you would like to get involved please contact Cory Skurdal, GOHI Exhibit Committee Chair, at coryskurdal@yahoo.com.

Giving in 2008

The start of a new year is a good time to think about your philanthropic priorities and making a tax-deductible gift to a charitable organization of your choice. In 2008, we ask that you consider adding GOHI to your gift list and ensure that the history of all Ohioans is preserved for future generations.

All gifts to GOHI are fully tax-deductible and may be sent to the Ohio Historical Society. The Society manages the GOHI endowment and accepts gifts directed to GOHI’s work. Gifts can be sent c/o The Office of Institutional Advancement, Ohio Historical Society, 1982 Velma Avenue, Columbus, OH 43211 or made online at http://www.ohiohistorystore.com/donation.aspx. If you are interested in making a gift in honor or memory of a friend or loved one, or if you are interested in learning more about planned giving opportunities please contact the Ohio Historical Society Office of Institutional Advancement at 800.647.6921.

Your gift to GOHI will ensure that the history of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Ohioans is preserved and protected - not only for those who lived it, but also for future generations who will make history.

Please join us in thanking GOHI’s Generous Donors

GOHI Leadership - Matching Gift of $15,000

Malcolm Riggle

Founding Funders - Gift of $1,000 to $2,500

Kate Anderson and Beth Hingsbergen
Randy Arndt and Jeff Baker
Deb Ballam
Rob Berger and Glenn Rondo
Anne Casto and Susan White
Sheila Clark and Elizabeth Boster
Michael Council
Robert Eblin and Cory Skurdal
Equality Ohio
Lynn Greer
Robert Haverkamp and B. Scott Sanchez
Chris Hayes
Fred Holdridge
Kelly Jaeger
Legacy Fund
Karla Rothan and Linda Schuler
Steve Shellabarger
Jeff Smith

Generous Benefactors - Gift of $100 to $999

Norman Anderson and Tim Gardner
William Brownson and Myron Phillips
Crazy Otter, LLC
Sharon Croft
Theresa L. Carter
Meral Crane
Jim Daley
Steven D. Farrell and Chad Kessler
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Feeney
David Hogrefe
Mary Ann Horton
Orn Huntington
Dr. and Mrs. William K. Laidlaw
Pamela N. Maggied Co., LPA
Andy Miller
Terry Penrod
Stonewall Columbus
Rachel Tooker
Pat Semmelman
Winifred Weeks
Douglas Whaley
Thomas Wilson

Supporting Donors - Gift of $25 to $99

Dorrie and Karen L. Andermills
Kathryn Cooper
Linda Cox
Wanda Ellis
William J. Fillipp
Patrick Gallaway
Suzanne and Theresa Garrett-Bell
Barbara R. Gingras and Cindy Royce
Mary H. Gray
Phillip and Rose Kuceyeski
Stacia Kuceyeski
E. Randall Loop
Mary Martineau
Jennifer McNally and Michael Flamm
Vincent A. Notaroberto
Fred Rector
Jonathan Sadler
Bruce Shalter
Charles Weinsteger

Join these visionary community leaders and make a donation to GOHI.  Donations can be made in two ways – by visiting the Ohio Historical Society website at  www.ohiohistorystore.com/donation.aspx you can make a donation online using a credit or debit card. You can also make a donation by sending a check or money order to Ohio Historical Society, c/o GOHI, 1982 Velma Avenue, Columbus, Ohio.  Please note in the memo section of the check that your donation is for GOHI.  If you have questions or require assistance regarding your donation, please contact the Ohio Historical Society Office of Institutional Advancement at 800.647.6921.

7 day stay at a beach-front St. Petersburg, Florida Condo is available to the highest bidder. 50% of proceeds benefit Stonewall Columbus and 50% of proceeds benefit the Gay Ohio History Initiative of the Ohio Historical Society.

Auction Ends Wednesday December 19th!