Melissa Knight is the owner of Knight Consulting, an organizational consulting, training and development company specializing in capacity building for nonprofit agencies. A nationally certified trainer (National Center for Nonprofit Boards and Achieve Global), her expertise includes diversity, strategic planning and communication, public relations, marketing and fund development. Melissa earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism - Public Relations from California State University, Fresno, a Masters in Organizational Behavior from California School of Professional Psychology, Fresno, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Organization Development at Alliant International University. A partial listing of clients includes Centro La Familia Advocacy, Inc., Fresno West Coalition for Economic Development, The Wellness Community Valley/Ventura – Central Coast Affiliate and WestCare California, Inc.

Melissa is a faculty member of the Women’s Studies Departments at California State University, Fresno (since 1999) and Fresno City College (since 1996). She teaches a number of courses, including Introduction to Lesbian and Gay Studies at both institutions. With an emphasis on being the change you want to see in the world, she challenges her students to get involved in community organizations as an integral part of each course. Her students, along with members of FCC’s Diversity Club planned and hosted the first-ever gay pride event at Fresno City College in May 2006 because the concept of an FCC Pride event was a group project option on her syllabus. The recent 2007 event attracted even more community and campus-wide support, with her student’s projects – The Marriage Ceremony; The Panel of Community Speakers and the Gay Trivia Game serving as central components for the 2007 event. With financial support from the Women’s Studies Program and the College of Social Sciences, she and several of her CSUF students worked on the 2006 Transgender Day of Remembrance along with several community members, including Planned Parenthood Mar Monte staff and volunteers. TDOR 2006 at the Pearl Gallery downtown garnered the largest turnout in the event’s history in Fresno.

Melissa has been a community activist her entire life, fighting for the rights of all, especially those marginalized in our society. The mother of children with special needs, her volunteer and activist work has focused on issues important to us all: rights and access for persons with disabilities, breast cancer research, education, support and treatment for lesbians, women of color, poor women, women in rural areas and young women, marriage equality, community development and empowerment. Over the years she has volunteered in various capacities with several LGBTQ organizations, including Gay United Services/Central Valley AIDS Team/Central California AIDS Foundation, REEL Pride, Central California Alliance, and United Student Pride at CSUF. In 1999, Melissa was honored by the Imperial Dove Court which bestowed an honorary Court title her community work.

Melissa and her life partner/wife, Terri, have two children – the Diva, Marissa, 18, (who’s graduating from high school this year!) and Joshua, 10 (the athlete in the family!).

Bill Bassett was born in Hanford, CA, raised in Armona, and went to Hanford High. He moved to San Luis Obispo to study at Cal Poly. He realized he was gay as a young teenager, but he was a late bloomer and never “played around in high school.” In college, in SLO there was a place you were allowed to be gay in - "right by a bus stop" - and it was the first gay hangout he'd ever been.

After coming back to Fresno, around 1977, someone talked him into running for Mr. Red Lantern. During the contest he had to "stand there and look somewhat decent". "Somehow," he says "I won and didn't have to do anything as a titleholder," but for his step down he did strip tease on the pool table. The Red Lantern back then was only one-half of the current building and the pool table was basically the stage. Someone in the crowd came up to him to tip him a couple bucks into his leather shorts that had snaps, and the strip tease nearly ended in full “monty.”

When he first came out in Fresno, the Pinelake Lodge on old Hwy 99 and Ashlan was the popular hang out in the 70s. He recalls other bars, such as Orange Ogre coffee house downtown - that's where Bill saw for the first time Mother Billy doing a drag show. He got shortly involved with the IDC because of a monarch he was "chasing", around the time IDC was just forming. He was also representing IDC at the San Francisco Coronation in mid-70s, and he remembers the Empress wore an outfit made of long quail feathers.

Then he met John Alsup at the Red Lantern, found out there was a new club in town, the Golden State Bears. Bill decided to run for Mr. Golden State Bear, which was a new contest set up to celebrate the anniversary of the GSB. He was the first ever winner, in 1995. After winning the title he got involved in the club's affairs and the following year he represented Fresno at International Bear Rendezvous contest in San Francisco. He's been a GSB member since, and most years he has been on the club board - holding the office of President for 4 years, then also Treasurer and Secretary. This year he is the President again.

Under Bill's guidance as President the Golden State Bears started to raise funds and goods for charity more so than before. He had brought organization into the club that was very loosely formed and almost too laid-back. He says of it: "I didn't want it to be like work, but it IS work." He is the face behind over $10,000 in donations, checks and boxes of canned goods given to a myriad of local charities. He’s also Santa Bear every December (first at the Cave, now at the Den) in his red hat and jockstrap, sitting on his throne, handing out candy canes and hugs in exchange for canned goods and photographs. Still, he considers his involvement in the community very much in the background - watching the events and coming out to support them rather than be an activist in the spotlight. He says: "I like to try to have fun [with the club] and I probably put passion into it. As with anything, when I'm doing it, I don't like to do it half-heartedly."

These days, Bill is a happy homeowner with his partner John (they shared their garden with the community one year as part of Community Link's Fall Garden Tour), enjoys gardening and their "weenie babies": Koenigen and Herzog.

Bill has an ambitious plan for the future. He would like to talk to anyone who has any knowledge of history, documents, photographs, posters regarding past and current gay bars in Fresno. His dream is to publish a coffee-table book on the subject!

After four, tireless years, the GSA @ Madera High was finally officially recognized! For their perseverance, stamina and pride, the student activist of Madera High Schools GSA are honored as Creating Change Grand Marshals.

It all started back in our second semester of our sophomore year where Martha Caballero gave us the idea of starting a GSA at our school. So after some thought we decided to start the Madera GSA.
We were informed that the district administration would take up to 6 months before the GSA would be officially approved. So instead we started our group at the Pan-American community center here in Madera.
As time passed we attended a youth summit here in Madera and participated in a workshop led by Robin McGehee and 2 of her youth. They told us more about the GSA Network and how to get more involved. This information led us to join their youth council. It was at this point that we decided again to have the our group be recognized on campus as a GSA. At first, during our 2nd semester of our junior year, our group became a campus "interest group".
As we waited, and waited, for the board to hear our case on their consent agenda, I made calls and went personally to the Madera Unified School District office. Our group was being ignored.
Finally by our 1st semester of our senior year, after going back and forth from one person to another in the administration, we got tired of being treated unfairly. With the help of the GSA Network and an Attorney from the ACLU the board finally came to a conclusion and approved our GSA Club.
We were all excited to have made this great accomplishment. We have started a path for the rest of our peers and hope that we can continue to highlight the diversity that for so long has been suppressed.
Having a safer campus for our LGBTQ and our straight allies is so important. By stopping hate we are stopping intolerance and ignorance.

by Thalia Arenas

Pictured from left: Alberto Medina, President-Thalia Arenas, Vice President-Alisia Lopez, Jose Arellano

Cinthia Covarrubias, a student at Fresno High, was a candidate for Prom King as a female!

A transgender candidate for prom king made an elegant appearance to the Fresno High School dance in a tuxedo, but missed winning the title, school officials said. Cinthia, 17, identifies as transgender. Gay youth advocates believe it was the first time in the U.S. that an openly transgender student had run for prom royalty. A prom is a high school dance held in the spring for students who are about to graduate. School officials added the teen's name to the ballot for prom king Thursday although she is biologically female, reversing a previous district protocol allowing only males to run for king and only females to run for prom queen. The district's lawyers had recommended the change to comply with a state law protecting students' ability to express their gender identity on campus. Covarrubias' peers, however, elected one of her six male competitors, Dan Abril, as prom king on Saturday at an outdoor reception hall festooned with Chinese lanterns Saturday night, Fresno Unified School District spokeswoman Susan Bedi said. School officials did not announce runners up, or the number of votes received by any candidate. Supporters still hailed Covarrubias' campaign as a major victory for gender expression on campus. "I hope this opens up something new," Covarrubias said before Saturday's crowning. "I've been really excited about it and feeling a lot of hope."

Johnny “Crystal” Vera is the winner of the Prom Queen title earlier this year at Roosevelt High School for Arts in Fresno. That event made national news, because Crystal considers herself transsexual. Here’s what she wrote for our program:

“My name is Crystal Vera and I am a true believer of the power of making a difference. I try to be a positive role model to the people that surround me. I am someone very caring and someone that carries herself with respect and dignity. I have a very positive outlook on life. I am more concerned with helping other people before myself. I am determined when I set myself goals and I never stop until I accomplish them. One of my biggest dreams is to become a famous fashion designer. I am very thankful and grateful for any advice or help that people give me. My dream in life is to help by making it easier in any way that I can for other transsexuals and just teach them to love themselves for who they are, but at the same time to teach myself self-acceptance and respect. With that said, I want to take the time to thank every person and organization for making my goals easier to reach. Thank you!”

Marriage Equality USA (MEUSA) is a chapter-based national grassroots organization solely devoted to securing marriage equality for same-sex couples. The MEUSA Chapters located in the Central Valley (San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Fresno and Bakersfield) have done an exceptional job of raising local visibility and outreach in their local communities. The Central Valley MEUSA Chapters have put a local face to the issue of marriage discrimination through events such as the annual marriage counter actions on Valentine's Day, which are covered in the Fresno Bee, Modesto Bee, Central Valley Report and other local community TV, radio and newspapers. MEUSA Central Valley Chapters have attended community festivals like Earth Day and Fourth of July parades, organize counter-responses to Fred Phelps protests and several of the volunteer MEUSA chapter leaders have played crucial roles in establishing the Stanislaus County LGBT Center, the San Joaquin Pride Festival and providing LGBT News updates on the local cable stations.

Kristopher McDowell is cofounder and Producing Artistic Director for the Central California Cabaret Series and Executive Director of California Cabaret which are nonprofit organizations dedicated to the art form of Cabaret and the preservation of the Great American Songbook. The Central California Cabaret Series produces shows in Merced and California Cabaret produces events in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Kristopher is also an acclaimed cabaret and stage performer with a recent Dean Goodman Award for Leading Actor in a Musical in 2006 and a nomination from Manhattan Association of Cabaret in 2001 among honors from other performing arts related organizations. In addition to a solo debut CD, Faces of Love and a single Love Lights Your Eyes, Kristopher has been featured off-Brodway in TORCH SONG TRILOGY, KRISTOPHER AT CHRISTMAS, THE PRODIGAL SON and EVERYBODY'S GETTIN INTO THE ACT and is also featured on two cast albums and various compilation recordings that benefit various causes. His undergraduate studies include a combination of schools with programs at Empire State College, NY; American Music and Dramatic Academy, NY and Fordham University and Lincoln Center, NY. Before heading to the big apple in 1997, he attended Roosevelt School of the Arts in Fresno and also was featured in various productions at Roger Rocka's Music Hall and Fresno Playhouse.

These days he appears frequently as a guest on ComCast's OUT TV in the San Francisco Bay Area with hosts Donna Sachet and Tim Gaskin and is a proud member and participant at the GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco. National television credits include appearances on NBC's Law & Order SVU and as an instructor in two fitness dvds as well as a SHOWTIME documentary about Mind Body Fitness.

Twenty-eight year old McDowell will perform at the 17th Annual Fresno Pride with Dave Dobrusky on piano (another Bay Area resident and Award winning Musical Director) mainstage Saturday, June 2 at 12:30 p.m. Dobrusky and McDowell have been working together for over a year and thus far in 2007 have played the Empire Plush Room in San Francisco, The Gardenia Room in Los Angeles, as well as theaters in Modesto, Merced, Sacramento and Napa. In addition to the special appearance at Fresno Pride 2007, Kristopher will serve as the opening act for Luba Mason (B'way: JEKYLL & HYDE, CHICAGO, HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS) in her SF debut June 21, 22 and 23 at the EXIT Theatre in San Francisco and as a guest artist in CAST PARTY at Merced College Theater Sunday, June 24 at 3 p.m in Merced.
 

Thanks to everyone who came out and helped EZ & slEZ raise $1,050 for Pride! Here are some photos from the event!

ENTERTAINMENT LINE-UP: