The gay marriage debate has shown that when people fully understand an issue, there is much greater consensus than many could have ever imagined. There has been no major issue in recent American history where public opinion has made such a radical shift in such a short period of time. In many cases, when people who expressed homophobic hatreds learned that their son or daughter, brother or sister, niece or nephew, or father or mother was gay, there was some real soul searching and fortunately their good angels prevailed.
The LGBT community has made amazing progress since the early days of the gay rights movement. During the life of the Shepherd Express, since its inception in 1982, we have always stood with and fought for social justice for the LGBT community. More than 25 years ago, the Shepherd was the first and for many, many years the only publication in the Milwaukee area that had gay personal ads. When we first introduced gay personals, the reaction was mean and nasty. We received serious threats and lost advertisers and distribution locations. It took many years for that anger to begin to dissipate. There are still some individuals with hatred in their hearts but each year there are fewer and fewer.
In Milwaukee, as in every community, there have been people both gay and straight who fought for social justice for the LGBT community and in some cases literally have the scars to show for their standing up for what is right.
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The Shepherd wants to celebrate the individuals who in various ways have worked hard, took risks and paid various prices to move the ball forward for the LGBT community. Starting this year, the Shepherd Express will celebrate seven individuals each year who have made a contribution to LGBT progress in Milwaukee with the LGBT Progress Awards. The initial seven are very deserving of this recognition, but there are many, many more heroes both known and unsung.
For our awards going forward, please help us identify and salute those who have contributed to this struggle. We ask you to participate by nominating individuals for next year’s award by emailing LGBTProgressAwards@shepex.com.
Donna Burkett
For Progress in the Struggle for Marriage Equality
Photo by Valerie Kurka
In 1971, Milwaukeeans Donna Burkett and Manonia Evans applied to the Office of the Milwaukee County Clerk for a marriage license. Refused because they were women, they filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, arguing that they had been deprived of due process and equal protection of the law under the U.S. Constitution. It was one of the first lawsuits in the nation on behalf of marriage equality. The case was dismissed in 1972 when the women’s attorney failed to submit a brief.
"That was almost 50 years ago! It was just something I believed in for myself then. I wasn’t trying to make some kind of cause,” Burkett says. “You just do what you feel like you have to do so you can have the freedom you need inside of you. When you believe in something, you can’t let fear smother your belief, your dreams. You got to overcome fear. You got to get past what people think. It’s just taking that first step to be honest with yourself. Once things are out in the open, fear leaves. It’s like living in darkness and stepping into light. I really don’t feel I deserve any type of award for doing something I believed in. I’m thinking I appreciate everyone else because one person can make a step but it takes everybody else to keep it going. You know, 50 years, my goodness!” (John Schneider)
Carl Bogner
For Progress in Arts and Culture
Photo by Rachel Buth
If you’ve ever attended the Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival (it celebrates its 30th anniversary this year), you know Carl Bogner. As the festival director, he’s the man in front of the curtain, a master of ceremonies of sorts. He graciously acknowledges sponsors and then introduces each film with understated yet palpable passion for every frame. But, he’s also the man behind the scenes whose efforts provide a unique cultural experience for the city’s LGBT community.
An instructor in UW-Milwaukee’s film department, Bogner became part of its film festival staff in 1998. He soon became its director. Over the past 17 years he has overseen the festival’s growth and progress.
He’s modest about the challenges. “The festival is hosted by the film department and it is part of my job. It’s remarkable that the UWM film department strives to bring a diversity of films to the community. When I took over the festival it was robust with a very loyal and engaged community following. Its progress is because of the audience response. There are costs, of course. The university has to raise the funds for it. And there’s always work involved in trying to assemble a textured program that speaks to as many aspects of the community as possible. Today there’s a greater quantity of films available with a range that has grown in richness and variety. My challenge is finding and sharing films that might not play here and are representative of the community. But the pleasures outnumber and outweigh the challenges.” (Paul Masterson)
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Tina Owen
For Progress in Equality in Education
Photo by Rachel Buth
Tina Owen came to Milwaukee in 1991 intending to become a lawyer. Then she discovered teaching and has been at it for 17 years. But when she started at Milwaukee Public Schools, she saw bullying of LGBT and other kids who didn’t fit the norm. “Schools didn’t know how to address bullying. It was accepted,” Owen explains. Passionate about making things safe for LGBT kids, Owen, with a handful of other teachers, opened the Alliance School with a grant from the Bill Gates Foundation. First located in the old Schlitz Park building with 100 students, Alliance later moved into an old school building with a gym and actual classrooms on Eighth and Walnut streets. Its roll is now 180, with 50% identifying as LGBT.
As if educating high schoolers weren’t complex enough, additional challenges make Owen’s achievement monumental. “There are the critics of public education and annual budget cuts,” Owen explains. “Then there’s the students’ socio-emotional situations: homelessness, 85% live in poverty, and 35% have disabilities. They deal with hard stuff.”
To overcome these challenges, Owen reached out to her colleagues and the community. “Six of our staff has been here for 10 years,” she says. “For the students, they are their family and mentors. The Milwaukee Area Ursine League ‘Bears’ donate school supplies; the Challenge Party and others help financially. That allows us to offer a competitive education. We just had our 10th graduation. Seeing the kids crossing the stage and knowing where they’ve come from, it’s just beautiful.” (P.M.)
Scott Gunkel
For Progress in Celebrating LGBT Identity
Photo by Alicia Wahl
By all accounts, Scott Gunkel meets the definition of “community activist,” though not in the rabble-rousing, in-your-face sense that the term often connotes. He’s been heavily involved in perhaps the most publicly visible aspect of the Milwaukee LGBT community, the annual Pride celebration, from its inception more than two decades ago. Today, as a board member of Milwaukee Pride, Inc. and president of PrideFest, he steadily works behind the scenes in an often-unsung capacity for the betterment of the community as a whole.
A major recent accomplishment of which he is rightfully proud is the acquisition of tax-exempt status for Milwaukee Pride—not terribly exciting or glitzy but of great import. “By reorganizing as a 501c3—IRS code for tax-exempt eligibility—Milwaukee Pride, will enjoy expanded fundraising capabilities not previously available to us,” Gunkel explains. “Being a PrideFest sponsor or donor now has more favorable financial benefits. We will also be eligible for grants that were previously out of reach. This change is a tremendous investment in the long-term health and wellness of our organization.”
The highest hurdle he faced in years past was simply keeping PrideFest alive. “2003 was the largest challenge to date,” he recalls. “The community really worked together to make sure we were left with an organization to hold the festival.” The challenge for the future will be continuing to develop “the financial and organizational growth” of the festival. As Gunkel has always said, “Forward in Pride, Peace and Solidarity.” (John Jahn)
Michael Lisowski
For Progress in Media and Communication
Photo by Rachel Buth
Most people know Michael Lisowski as the affable, scruffy face of “The Queer Program,” a weekly public access TV talk show for and about the LGBT community. He’s hosted it for more than 20 years. But his jolly demeanor belies his blunt journalistic style, often catching his guests off guard and putting them on the spot. He smiles while they squirm.
But Lisowski’s TV persona is just one of his roles in Milwaukee’s LGBT community. A veteran activist, he worked with Gay Youth Milwaukee and in various capacities in the HIV/AIDS field.
His challenges have changed over the years. “Working with youth during the 1970s and ’80s there were lots of issues. Engaging social services agencies and schools 30 years ago was a problem. There wasn’t any support. Just getting the word out took a lot of doing. It wasn’t until 1991 that we managed to introduce a non-discrimination policy in MPS schools. It was the same for HIV, especially communicating with youth and minorities. Getting beyond Milwaukee’s institutionalized racism has always been and remains a challenge,“ Lisowski says. “The TV show has always had great support, except for the religious show that used to disinfect the studio we used. Today the challenge is competing with the Internet. But we offer something unique.”
Lisowski reflects, “Lots of people say ‘forget it’ when they run into obstacles. I had tenacity and drive. We developed partnerships with key people in schools and community-based groups, looked for opportunities and—like interviewing an evasive guest—remained persistent.” (P.M.)
Ed Seaberg
For Progress Towards Equality in a Corporate Environment
Photo by Aquent Studios
Ed Seaberg moved to Milwaukee with his husband Patrick Smith in 2004. He joined Rockwell Automation in 2007, becoming vice president of IT operations, responsible for IT support services for more than 32,000 employees, contractors and partners globally. In 2013, inspired by Rockwell’s Culture of Inclusion program, he founded ROKout, the company’s first LGBT and Allies Employee Resource Group. This effort resulted in Rockwell’s perfect score of 100% in the Human Rights Campaign’s 2015 Corporate Equality Index, a national survey and report on corporate policies related to LGBT workplace equality. The report praised Rockwell for going beyond the call of duty in making LGBT equality a fundamental company value. Seaberg also co-founded and chairs the Wisconsin LGBT Employee Resource Group Best Practices, a consortium of 19 Wisconsin companies focused on sharing best practices to improve inclusion and engagement for the LGBT workforce in Wisconsin.
“The challenge at Rockwell was building an accepting culture and then ensuring that LGBT employees are included and appreciated so they can bring their full selves to work,” Seaberg says. “Executive support was the easiest to gain, based on the potential LGBT talent we could engage to grow the company, and the strategic imperative that an engaged culture is a powerful edge in successful business. Changing a ‘conservative’ and ‘Midwestern’ company culture to truly be inclusive was the biggest challenge, especially with the older workforce. This award reminds me of my ally responsibility to other diverse groups who need LGBT partnership. No one can succeed when others are left behind.” (J.S.)
Doug Nelson
For Progress in HIV/AIDS Awareness, Treatment and Prevention
Photo by Rachel Buth
Doug Nelson was president and CEO of the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin for 24 years from 1988-2012. He led the development of the organization’s AIDS prevention programs for gay men, including outreach and condom distribution at gay bars and public sex environments and HIV information in Internet chat rooms frequented by gay men. He lead the development of ARCW medical, dental, mental health, pharmacy and social support services including legal assistance, food pantries, housing and case management for gay men and others living with HIV. He credits ARCW’s volunteers, donors and staff for the organization’s success and notes that the response of the LGBT community to the epidemic and the partnerships that developed with others as a consequence profoundly advanced the cause of LGBT equality in Wisconsin.
“A constant challenge was overcoming the indifference of government to AIDS in the early years and winning funding for HIV services from the State of Wisconsin and the City and County of Milwaukee,” Nelson recalls. “Through extensive advocacy, we won bipartisan support and Wisconsin became one of the leading states in funding health and social services for HIV patients. A corollary challenge was building a large private sector donor base. Thousands of LGBT donors came forward to raise an average of $2 million each year. The history of the AIDS epidemic will always begin with a chapter that explains how the LGBT community rallied together at a time of enormous crisis to support gay men who were threatened by this unimaginable fatal disease.” (J.S.)
