Posted by Karla Rothan

This year Stonewall helped so many people who needed a safe place to be: the young high school student who was bullied every day of his life, the eighty-six year old who just lost her partner of fifty years and the new dads who wanted to have a family picture taken with Santa without a snide look on the photographer’s face.

As we move into the final weeks of 2008, I think it is a good time to review the wonderful year we had at the Center on High, Stonewall Columbus. Our accomplishments were many, from producing the largest Pride celebration in the midwest with approximately 120,000 people in attendance, to the expansion of our health and wellness series of classes. We also hosted several exhibits, conferences and workshops including the Transgender Symposium, the Columbus College of Art and Design’s senior show, the GOHI history panels, “Meet the Candidates” Night and an Evening with Leslie Jordan. New to our website this year was our SWC TV show which offers vital information for our community with a little bit of entertainment thrown in for fun.

Our greatest and most pressing challenge for the upcoming year is fiscal. The economic crisis has affected us all; charitable giving has been reduced across the board. Like many other organizations, we’ve had to make cuts to the budget across all areas. However, we are left with our greatest asset: the excellent staff, volunteers and board and their commitment to the LGBT citizens of central Ohio.

In order to continue the important work we do, we will need your continued support in 2009. We encourage you to give a gift online today. Think about giving the gift of membership to someone you love this year. Contributions to the center go directly to helping LGBT people lead healthier and happier lives.

Click here to become a member of the Stonewall Columbus Center on High.

We look forward to the year ahead, and wish you peace and happiness this holiday season. Thank you, as always, for keeping up with the family here at Stonewall Columbus. Please take a look at our photo galleries so you can see the impact of our center in action!

Warm regards,

Karla Rothan
Executive Director
Stonewall Columbus, Inc.

Posted by Karla Rothan

Stonewall Columbus is buzzing this week with visitors from all over the world including the United States, Nova Scotia, New Zealand, London, France and Rome. This is the 10th Anniversary of the IDKEX (International Drag King Extravanganza). The Center on High is in the midst of a cultural explosion with artists who are at the forefront of artistic gender expression. The Youth Speakeasy turns the mic over to the new generation of performers. Artists ages 4-18 will perform in the Annex on Friday. The conference will last for two days with a showcase event in the Arena District’s Lifestyle Pavilion on Saturday night. Tickets are available at Stonewall Columbus until 5:00 p.m. on Friday and at the performance venue that evening.

Here is a preview of some of the art that will be on display at the Center during this weekend:

View the photos on Flickr

Posted by Karla Rothan

On Thursday, October 2, 2008 Stonewall Columbus hosted another “Meet the Candidates Night.”  Members of the GLBT community of Central Ohio were able to visit with candidates from both the republican and democratic parties. Last year two legislators, Dan Stewart (D) and David Goodman (R) sponsored the housing and employer non discrimination bill. Audience members were very interested find out which of the candidates were behind this bill and which would support future efforts to have it passed and turned into law. Overall, everyone attending the forum seem to feel as if they really knew how each candidate felt about our GLBT issues.

Photos from Forum

Click here to view the photos from the forum.

Posted by Karla Rothan

Last Tuesday, the Center on High hosted “Meet the Candidates Night.” The purpose of the event is to allow the community to meet and ask questions of those individuals in our community who are running for public office. Rob Berger did a fantastic job organizing the event and he also moderated the evening. Attendees wrote questions for the candidates and each had to answer the questions within a minutes time. What was really great about the evening was that so many candidates both Democrat and Republican showed up to speak with our GLBT community. All of them were very interested in our community issues and challenges. As a voter I left the forum feeling very confident and secure about the votes that I will cast in the next month. I encourage everyone to find some time to have some heart to heart and face to face talks with these individuals who are running for office. If you were not able to make it to the center, we taped it for your enjoyment. Although the forum was not intended to be a debate, it did get rather heated so take a moment and check it out. It’s getting HOT in HERE!

Click here to watch the entire forum