Subject: South Dakota Coming Out Tour 9/27
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 12:11:22 -0400

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National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
NEWS RELEASE

Contact:       Robert Bray         (415) 552-6448
                       [email-masked]
                    Beth Barrett       (202) 332-6483 ext. 3215
                      [email-masked]   

2320 17th Street NW   Washington, DC   20009
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FIRST EVER GAY & LESBIAN TOUR OF SOUTH DAKOTA SLATED FOR NATIONAL COMING OUT
WEEK

VISIBILITY, GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING ON TAP
FOR MT. RUSHMORE STATE

San Francisco, CA -- September 27, 1995 -- A gay photo-op at the famous Mt.
Rushmore presidential monument, a coming out prairie bonfire, press
conferences, video screenings, workshops, university classroom teach-ins and
much more are scheduled for South Dakota's first-ever organized celebration
of National Coming Out Week (NCOW),  October 7 - 15.

 NCOW in South Dakota will be celebrated with a statewide tour by national
and local activists and a week of educational events.  Robert Bray, National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) field organizer, and Barry Wick, leader of
the newly formed Free Americans Creating Equal Status (FACES) of South
Dakota, Inc., will travel from one end of the state to the other in an
unprecedented -- and local activists say historic -- organizing, education
and visibility tour.  The tour will make scheduled stops in Rapid City,
 Sioux Falls, Vermillion (University of S.D.) and Brookings (S.D. State).
 The NCOW tour is sponsored FACES of S.D., Inc., in conjunction with the
Sioux Empire Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Sioux Falls, plus campus groups,
including Together Augustana, the Sons and Daughters of SDSU, and Gay,
Lesbian & Bisexual Association of the University of S.D.

 More than a dozen events are scheduled, including:

Rapid City --  a "coming out" story circle, press conference, people of faith
ceremony at the local Unitarian Universalist Church, community meeting on gay
and lesbian civil rights, coming out pot luck, and a NCOW photo opportunity
at Mt. Rushmore;

Vermillion -- Information table at the University of S.D., NCOW picnic and
bonfire, candlelight vigil, community dinner, dance;

Brookings -- Dorm meetings at SDSU, luncheon with campus officials and
community leaders, classroom teach-ins on gay and lesbian sexuality and
political issues, a panel discussion on gay rights, information table at the
Student Organization Fair and a NCOW reception;

Sioux Falls -- Convocation, NCOW "blue jeans" day, classroom teach-ins and
information table at Augustana College (a religious school), a people of
faith education session on gay rights, a NCOW reception/party at Touche'z --
the state's only gay bar -- a press conference, a movement-building and
leadership development activist training session, NCOW brunch, a ceremony at
the local MCC, and the first-ever strategy session to plan for ongoing
activism in the state.

 "South Dakota chose Pat Robertson over George Bush in 1988...If there ever
was a state where gays and lesbians needed to organize it would be this
state," said Barry Wick of FACES South Dakota, Inc..  "Many people who live
here are extremely isolated, fearful and closeted.  This is the first
visibility and organizing tour in South Dakota that will attempt to reach out
to individuals and organizations, create safe spaces to come out in, educate
the press and larger society, and strategize for the future of our
community."

 Bray and Wick will speak at each stop, conduct training sessions, and help
organize local activists.  The tour is the result of activism around a battle
for same-gender marriages that erupted in South Dakota earlier this year.
 Local activists, working with NGLTF and Lambda Legal Defense and Education
Fund, defeated an attempt to proactively ban civil marriage for same-gender
couples, including those that may be granted in other states, such as Hawaii.

 For more information contact Barry Wick, FACES of South Dakota, Inc.,
(605)343-5577, [email-masked]; or Robert Bray, NGLTF, (415)552-6448,
[email-masked].

###

Note to reporters and editors:  Robert Bray of NGLTF will file a daily email
"Dispatch From South Dakota" diary for members of the press.  To receive a
copy, make certain your email address is with NGLTF's Beth Barrett, who will
upload the dispatches.  Barrett can be reached at [email-masked],
(202)332-6483 ext. 3215.  Traveling with Bray and Wick on the tour will be
nationally known gay and mainstream media photographer Rick Gerharter,
(415)824-5300, who will have photographs of the tour available.