My Activism
Star Trek
Yes, it's true. It was as a Trekkie that I was first exposed - via groups such as the Star Trek Association for Revival and the Star Trek Welcommittee - to some of the basic tenets of effective activism: the same principles that Bjo Trimble used to organize the letter-writing campaign that convinced NBC to produce a third season of Star Trek.
Those principles have stuck with me to this day.
Starbase Enid
In the mid-70's I participated in a group of Star Trek fans in Enid, Oklahoma who met every month, published a newsletter - which I edited - and put on two conventions - the first of which was organized largely by me.
Oklahoma Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus - OGLPC
It was in the summer of 1996 that I read that the Tulsa County Republican Party had supposedly adopted a resolution to support the election of judges who would give the death penalty for sodomy. At the time I took it as a direct and immediate threat to my own life, but I didn't have a clue what to do about it.
OGLPC opened the door for me into politics in Oklahoma. It introduced me to the political landscape and brought me into contact with many of the players. On more than one occassion, it brought me to the State Capitol.
Website
OGLPC had a website previously but the people who ran it left the group and the website was abandoned. In 1998 I started a new website for the group and ran it for several years. OGLPC has maintained a website continuously since then. It is currently located at www.oglpc.com.
OGLPC Discussion List
I founded OGLPC's email discussion group and moderated it for several years.
Email list
I also started a list of email addresses to serve as an adjunct to OGLPC's mailing list. Putting out a mailing consumed much effort and money and it was felt that email could alleviate some of the pressure of doing that, as well as enabling OGLPC to get urgent information out more frequently and in a timelier manner.
OutArt 99 - Oklahoma GLBT Art Festival
The OutArt Festival was the brainchild of Tony Francis, who sought to establish an event like the annual downtown Festival of the Arts that would spotlight Gay and Lesbian talent in Oklahoma. When I first became involved with the event, I had no idea that I would end up creating the website for it, much less become the organizing group's vice-chair. I left the project after the first festival.
GayOKC.com grew out of work I was doing for OGLPC at the time. Starting in October, 1998, GayOKC.com provided news and information for Oklahoma City's GLBT Community on a daily basis. The site was updated several times a week - often several times a day in the case of breaking news - until 2006. I'm no longer updating the site but virtually everything ever uploaded to it is still online, where it remains as a historical archive.
- GayOKC LIVE!
Back in the pre-historic days of Internet radio (circa 2000), I attempted to do a weekly webcast which I called GayOKC LIVE! This experiment only lasted about a month, as it was very labor-intensive on my part, the webcasting software was far from perfect and too much for many people's computers back then, and there was no way to find out how many people were actually listening in.
In addition to publishing and editing GayOKC.com, I organized a number of events that were "presented by GayOKC.com".
- Rally for Gay Boy Scouts - August 21, 2000
A group called Scouting for All put out a call for a national day of action after the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America could legally exclude Gay members. Nathaniel Batchelder - director of the Oklahoma Peace House - and I organized a rally in Oklahoma City.
At our first meeting I told Nathaniel that I was not interested in advocating for the government to compel the BSA to allow Gay Scouts, but I was very much willing to educate the public about the BSA's discriminatory policy - which I felt contradicted the BSA's own history of inclusion, as well as the goals of World Scouting. I also felt that the BSA was being dishonest in its portrayal of homosexuality, thereby contradicting their own moral code. And as role models who engaged in dishonesty, I felt they were teaching Scouts to be dishonest.
The rally took place at the corner of NW 63rd and May, a few blocks from the local BSA office. Afterward, letters of support for Gay Boy Scouts were presented to the BSA council, and former Eagle Scouts - including Kent Doss and Jim Craig - returned their badges.
- GLBT History Panel - October 11, 2001
A CELEBRATION of Oklahoma City's Gay and Lesbian History -
This was organized to commemmorate GLBT History Month, and consisted of a panel of Community leaders reminiscing about the history of Oklahoma City's GLBT Community. The event also marked National Coming Out Day by providing a forum where those who wished to "come out" could do so. The event was held at First Unitarian Church, where it was presented in conjunction with the church's "Social Justice" Committee.
- The State of Our Community
This event was meant to provide an opportunity for members of the community to get the "big picture" about how OKC's GLBT Community was doing. To facilitate this, I decided that rather than presenting one person's viewpoint of our Community, I would invite the broadest possible cross-section of community leaders and citizens to present an overview of what they were doing and their thoughts on the Community.
The event was held at Epworth United Methodist Church.
The Oklahoma Capitalist
The Oklahoma Capitalist is no longer online at its original URL, which I no longer own. However, I have uploaded it to this site as an archive for those who are interested. The site is no longer being updated. Many of the links are now out of date.
World Capitalism Day
I served as the Oklahoma City coordinator for Prodos' World Capitalism Day project on two occassions. The Oklahoma Capitalist website was launched in 2002 to coincide with my first Capitalism Day effort.
I organized a rally to protest the grand opening of the Bricktown Bass Pro on November 20, 2003. What I wanted to protest was the corporate welfare I felt it represented: construction of the building was paid for with city funds. This is an example of the political favoritism that government promotion of economic development leads to.
OK Capitalist Yahoo! Group
Email discussion group for Oklahomans who support free markets.
Why I no longer associate with the Libertarian Party
Peter Shwartz, Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty
Separation of Church and State
National Day of Reason/Interfaith Day of Prayer and Reflection
The very first commemoration of the National Day of Reason in Oklahoma City was organized by myself on behalf of an ad hoc group which included members of Oklahoma Atheists and other interested parties. It was a commenter on the OA board who suggested we call ourselves Stop Theocracy in Oklahoma Policy or STOP for short.
The event was a response to the National Day of Prayer, which was observed every year with a proclamation from the Governor's office and a prayer rally at the State Capitol. Among other violations of the separation of church and state, this was a direct violation of the Oklahoma constitution, which expressly declares - in Article II, Section 5 - that no state property or resources may be used for any religious purpose whatsoever.
That first event in 2003 took the form of a rally held across the street from the Capitol, where the NDOP rally took place at the same time. Officers of the Oklahoma chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State observed our efforts, and proposed an event which would take place at the State Capitol and showcase religious liberty on the same day as the NDOP. Eventually they partnered with the Interfaith Alliance of Oklahoma for an event called Interfaith Day of Prayer and Reflection.
Ultimately, however, some - including me - came to feel that this event had come to represent too much of a capitulation to the government endorsement and promotion of religion, as opposed to its original intent of upholding the separation of church and state.
Church/State Separation Meetups
I was an organizer of these in Oklahoma City for a while.
OK Separation Yahoo! Group
Email discussion group for activists upholding the separation of church and state in Oklahoma.
I no longer associate with Oklahoma Atheists.
The specific straw that broke the camel's back was the first reply in this thread on the OA board.
My other Yahoo! Groups
OK Secular
This is an email discussion group that I started basically so I - and others like me - would have a place to let off steam about religion.
OK Objectivists
Email discussion group for those with a serious interest in Objectivism.
Contents © 2009 by Rob Abiera.