GayOKC.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 9, 2008

GayOKC.com
http://www.gayokc.com
Contact: Rob Abiera
Email: rabiera@gayokc.com

LOCAL ONLINE RESOURCE MARKS 10TH ANNIVERSARY

Oklahoma City - Local website GayOKC.com marks its 10th year online this month, according to the site's founder and editor, Rob Abiera. GayOKC.com first went "live" in October, 1998. The site is located on the Internet at http://www.gayokc.com.

GayOKC.com was founded to be an online resource for Oklahoma City's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Persons. For many years, it was updated with the latest GLBT news headlines - including local stories - several times a week and often more than once a day.

The idea for GayOKC.com grew out of work Abiera was doing for the Oklahoma Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus at the time. One of Abiera's goals was to encourage the GLBT Community to use the Internet as a resource for overcoming obstacles to progress for Gays and Lesbians in Oklahoma City.

Some of the local stories covered by GayOKC.com over the years include the rejection by Mick Cornett of an endorsement by a local Gay rights group, the controversy over the city's banner policy which resulted in a lawsuit by the Cimarron Alliance Foundation after its Gay Pride banners were removed from light poles, the election of openly-Gay political candidates to office in Oklahoma, including Jim Roth and Al McAffrey, the formation of local chapters of the Stonewall Democrats and Log Cabin Republicans, the controversy over Gay-themed books such as King and King in the public libraries, and more.

Such stories required constant updates to the front page of GayOKC.com as new developements occured. To commemmorate GayOKC.com's 10th anniversary, copies of those updates of the front page have been placed back online in a new Page One Archive.

Another important story covered by GayOKC.com was the effort by NW Classen High School teacher Joe Quigley to add protection for sexual orientation to Oklahoma City's school policies. This resulted in an enormous amount of documentation, all of which remains online. A new page has been added to GayOKC.com to make access to those documents easier.

Also highlighted this month are the "State of Our Community" town hall meetings which GayOKC.com presented in 2003, 2004 and 2006.

All of this information can currently be accessed through links on the front - or home - page.

Abiera says he intends to keep GayOKC.com online to serve as a historical resource for Oklahoma City's GLBT Community. Appropriately enough, October is also GLBT History Month.

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