I lived for a number of years in the “Heartland”, the fly over part in the middle of the continental United States, the centerfold in the old Rand McNally Road Map book that had the binding staples in it.

Previously I had lived in Boston when GLBT rights were getting a political foothold in a rather liberal state, and then in Los Angeles which was not where they should have been, but were getting. When I returned to Massachusetts, the equality that was a mere seedling when I left had been in near full bloom for many of the years I had been away.

On both coasts and in the middle I had been involved in GLBT rights activism, and am happy to say I experienced a good degree of success.

In all places, I had the privilege to meet and work with some very heroic people. Perhaps they were not nationally known. Perhaps even locally they worked tirelessly but largely in obscurity to get things done. And, sadly because many have passed on and it has been years since they fought and won their battle, those who have benefited from their work and are their beneficiaries, while experiencing what was gained, are forgetful of those who fought the fight or even that there was a fight that had to be fought.

Recently I read something by a present day activist who has made much progress, but being relatively new to where he is making it, asked why nothing had been accomplished before he got there by asking, “What progress did they make when it was being done their way?”

It revealed a disconnect with history.

And it both surprised and hurt me.

There was progress, and like any progress the initial steps were made small by conditions and the people imposing them, but grew easier once the initial steps were taken.

The initial steps to push a car out of the mud are made slow by the thickness of the mud, while subsequent progress is made easier by those initial steps as the car has been moved to where the mud is thinner.

I was recently asked by a young Gay man,

“ I went to a marriage equality rally one time and within months we had marriage equality. It was easy. What did you old guys do?”

To which I replied,

“ Fought in our youth so you would only have to go to one rally.”

Bill Rogers fought for many years for the rights of members of the GLBTQ2 Community in Oklahoma. He was the lawyer in a case that eventually protected Gay teachers from losing their jobs simply for being Gay with few teachers paying attention to what he did and how he had benefited them. He had to convince a large GLBT organization to file a lawsuit against the mayor of Oklahoma City when he removed Pride Month banners legally hung from the light poles on Classen Boulevard because there was going to be a convention of Baptist ministers in the city during the time the banners were to hang and the mayor did not want to offend the attendees, and then had to accept that the group who opposed him on this took credit for the victory while his name was never mentioned in connection with it.

Keith Smith was a tireless advocate and lobbyist responsible for GLBT progress both nationally and locally, and was responsible for getting pro-GLBT candidates, including a governor, elected. When he died, a memorial service for this openly Gay advocate was held in the rotunda of the state capitol of one of the country’s reddest states.

Paul Thomson refused to play the standard game of paying a fine to be released from jail after a raid on a Gay bar, and fought his arrest for lewd behavior that consisted in kissing a man in a Gay bar in the presence of an undercover vice cop. The standard procedure was arrest, jail, having your name and address published in the newspaper which could ruin your career and place in the community, or pay a fine to prevent all of that. He refused to pay the fine and took the city to court after which two Gay men kissing or holding hands inside a Gay bar out of public sight was no longer an arrestible offense.

He fought tirelessly for years and got involved in many community organizations so that through networking he could help the GLBT Community. He was a White Gay man who was on the board of OKC’s NAACP. He was everywhere in his fading pink shirt, and politicians knew he was where he was to advocate.

When police were raiding Gay bars just to raid them or so that a politician could claim to be the champion of morality, the owners of Angles, a local Day bar sued the city for the harassment to their customers who had the right to peaceably assemble and the freedom of association. When they won in court and could have gotten money from the city, the owners settled for a one dollar financial settlement but with mandatory sensitivity training of all present and future members of the police department. In subsequent years the political use of police raids on Gay bars were halted when the settlement in that case was pointed out.

Paula Sophia Schonauer was a decorated and highly respected police officer until she transitioned to be her true self, and then had to prove herself to the very people who had been her colleagues. She was still that highly decorated police officer, but she had a new battle to win back that respect. She had to deal with rejection and mistreatment, and won her lawsuit so she could go back to working on the street and not behind a desk. She won the withdrawn respect for the most part becoming a resource for educating her fellow officers and the city at large on who Transgender people are. She is now an author, educator, and community icon.

These are just five examples of people who bettered the lives of the Oklahoma GLBTQ2 Community.

Three have passed into history. Three are still with us.

They are part of a history that is either being ignored or forgotten by those who are benefiting from what they had done and continue to do, but either being new to the community or having not paid attention to the fighting in the background, there are many unaware of the good they have done,

Beyond these examples there are many who fought tirelessly as individuals for the benefit of the GLBTQ2 Community in Oklahoma and have moved on by choice, force, or circumstances.

And there are those still there who have passed on the baton hoping the fight would not just end.

Most progress in GLBT rights history did not come about through the actions of large organizations with anagrammed names, but through the actions of individuals who saw a need for change and did what they could to bring it about.

.