GOT PRIDE? - OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

[OKC PRIDE]

Nathan Thompson
Press Liaison
P.O. Box 60296
Oklahoma City, OK 73146-0296
Email: Nath...@gmail.com
Mobile: (405) 802-6717

Official Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OKC Pride, Inc. Announces Schedule of Events for 22nd Annual Pride
Celebration

(Oklahoma City – June 9, 2009 --) OKC Pride, Inc. is proud to
announce the schedule of events for the 22nd Annual OKC Pride
Celebration June 20-28. The events are in recognition of the 40th
anniversary of the historic Stonewall Riots in New York City.

Oklahoma City’s celebration begins with LGBT Family Day at the
Oklahoma City Zoo June 20. There will be a special entrance
established where people can gain admission to the zoo as well as
purchase T-shirts and other memorabilia. For more information on the
zoo event, contact Guy Peters at guyp...@gmail.com

On Monday, June 22, the Copa will host the OKC Pride 2009 Opening
Night dinner show starting at 6 p.m. Tickets to the event are $20 and
cover dinner as well as entertainment with proceeds going to OKC
Pride. A cash bar will also be available during the event. Attendees
must be age 21 and over with proper ID required. The Copa is located
within the Habana Inn, the southwest’s largest gay resort, located at
2200 NW 39th Street Expressway. For tickets to the dinner show or for
more information, contact Tammy Ince at tli...@yahoo.com

Other events submitted by the community will be going on throughout
the week, including a showing of “For the Bible Tells me So” at Church
of the Open Arms Thursday, June 25 at 7 p.m. Church of the Open Arms
is located at 3131 N. Pennsylvania Ave. For more information on this
community submitted event, contact Kenny Wright at nypo...@gmail.com

OKC Pride sponsored events begin again on Friday, June 26 through
Sunday, June 28. TV personality and author Miss Ruby Ann Boxcar, this
year’s Grand Marshal of OKC Pride, will kick Friday off with a bang.
Miss Ruby Ann, known as the Diva of the Double-wide, is a highly
successful entertainer and author who got her start in Oklahoma City.
From the High Chaparral Trailer Park in Pangburn, Ark., all the way to
Hollywood and Las Vegas, Miss Ruby Ann has traveled across the country
sharing her down-home humor, stories and recipes with audiences of
thousands. Her side-splitting brand of comedy will be a show stopper.
You can visit her website at http://www.myspace.com/rubyannboxcar

Miss Ruby Ann will make several television and radio appearances
across the metro Friday morning and afternoon before heading to Tramps
for a Meet and Greet at 6 p.m. Tramps is located at 2201 NW 39th
Street Expressway. Participants must be age 21 and over with proper ID
required. Tickets to the event will be available at the door and cost
$10. Miss Ruby Ann will then make her way over to the Naughty by
Nature Block Party located on NW 39th Street Expressway between Barnes
and Lynn.

The Block Party begins at 7 p.m. and runs until 11 p.m. Along with ice-
cold Bud Light, attendees will also be able to cool down with snow
cones, a blow up water slide, a slip-n-slide, while enjoying
performances by Miss Ruby Ann Boxcar, Adrienne Fischer, Sonja
Martinez, Jozlyn Welch, Jak’kay Monroe, Renee Anderson, Erika Curry,
Heather Davis and The Romantic Disaster. The Block Party is for adults
age 21 and over with proper ID required. Sponsors include, Ingrid’s
Kitchen, The Boom, Phoenix Rising, The Park, The Copa, Tramps,
Schardein and Company, Cheral Jaggers, PINKS and Brief Encounters. For
more information on the Block Party, contact Scott Jaggers at
scottja...@yahoo.com

OKC Pride’s two-day, family-friendly festival, voted one of the top 5
events by the Oklahoma Gazette, is once again being held at Memorial
Park at NW 36th and Classen on Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28.
This year’s festival is bigger and better than ever, according to TJ
McKinsey, Festival Coordinator. Highlights of the festival include a
book signing by Miss Ruby Ann Boxcar at the Barnes & Noble booth, the
Bud Light OKC Pride Idol contest on the North Stage at 2 p.m. on
Saturday and the Amazing Pet Contest at 5 p.m. as well as several
local bands performing throughout the event. There will be a dunk
tank, an obstacle course, and an old fashioned photo booth. The Home
Depot will also be leading workshops for kids and adults, and OG&E as
well as Dell will be on-hand to speak about wind energy and green
living.

To help give back to the community, OKC Pride is also including a
canned food drive for the pantries of Church of the Open Arms and
Other Options. Attendees can bring four cans of food or toiletries and
receive a free raffle ticket. The raffle tickets will also be
available for purchase. Items to be raffled include a bicycle, meals,
salon products and services, art, kitchen items and pride items. For a
full listing of festival entertainment, including the popular Amazing
Pet Contest, interested persons may visit http://www.okcpride.org and
click on the Event Details link at the top of the page. For more
information about the festival itself, contact McKinsey at
tjpr...@yahoo.com

The weekend crescendos with the 22nd Annual Pride Parade starting at 5
p.m. This colorful and very popular event steps off from NW 36th and
Classen near Memorial Park and goes to NW 44th and Classen before
making a u-turn back towards NW 39th. The parade will then proceed
west down NW 39th towards Pennsylvania. It will end at the 39th Street
Strip near NW 39th and Barnes, Chris Plante, Parade Coordinator said.

“We are very excited about this year’s parade as more and more entries
are added every day,” Plante said. “Having Ruby Ann Boxcar here for
our event is amazing and we look forward to cresting the hill on NW
39th Street to see the thousands of people who gather at NW 39th and
Penn. That is a feeling that very few people get to experience. It
just swells with pride.”

Sponsors for the 22nd Annual OKC Pride celebration include: ID Lube,
The Copa/Finishline/Gushers, Premium Beers of Oklahoma, Bob Lemmon,
Best Buy, Convergys Corporation, Cricket Communications, Dell, J-
Darling, Oklahoma County Tobacco Use Prevention Coalition, The Home
Depot, The Oklahoma Gazette, Physician’s Choice Hospice, King’s Limo
and Private Jet, Birds Etc., The Habana Inn, Partners, Tramps, The
Wreck Room, Alibi’s, Phoenix Rising, Iguana Bar and Grill, Jungle Red,
Herland Sister Resources, Gay Alliance for Tolerance and Equality,
Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma, NLA-OKC, Epworth United
Methodist Church, First Unitarian Church, Amnesty International #238,
Expressions Community Fellowship, Oklahoma Coalition Against Domestic
Violence & Sexual Assault, St. Steven’s United Methodist Church-
Norman, Oklahoma AIDS Care Fund, PFLAG Norman and the Oklahoma Gay and
Lesbian Political Caucus. For an up-to-date listing of official
sponsors, visit http://www.okcpride.org and click on the Sponsorship
tab at the top of the page.


About OKC Pride Inc.: OKC Pride, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(3)
organization. The mission of OKC Pride, Inc. is to stage a highly
visible forum for the organizations which serve the community both
nationally, regionally, and locally; decrease external homophobia by
generating maximum media coverage to the reality of our community; and
diminish internal homophobia by presenting organizational and
individual role models. Additionally, the Board of Directors believe
that as a civil rights movement, gays and lesbians need an annual
forum where individually and collectively we can consider where we
have been, where we are now and what direction we need to set.