Katherine Beck was born to a couple of closet-case Grad students in the mid 80s. She grew up as witness to her parents' personal journeys as they came out and faced disapproval from family and friends, which helped her develop a passion for social justice. She is currently studying for a B.A. in Psychology, with a focus in sexuality and gender. The rest of her time is spent presiding over SPRITE-an LGBTQA group through Residence Life at the UA-and napping. She credits her mother for teaching her that life is a series of "coming outs", and that closet doors always look better from the outside.
OCTOBER 7, 2008 - "Coming Out: All Ages All, Stages", University of Arizona
Rae Strozzo is a southern born happy transplant to the west. Growing up a "girl" in Georgia has colored his life as a man in Arizona. Rae is a recent grad of the University of Arizona MFA program in photography. He is a gender queer painter, photographer, writer, and educator. He is currently teaching, making art, and looking toward the next horizon.
Bobbi Prebis: I was raised in a Roman Catholic family, the youngest of ten children. My mother worked in the home and my father a steelworker. We were a poor family only that we did not have a lot of material things. Love and fun was plentiful. I think I was always a lesbian. When I was a kid nine or ten I remember being in love with my sister-in-law and being jealous of my brother.
My first sexual experience was with a girl my age when I was 13. We remained lovers through High School. She died and I thought, I would get over my attraction to women but that was not to be. I had crushes on women my whole life. My jobs were many. I worked at any job where I could be myself. I worked in factories, drove a coffee truck and a taxi. Then finally they opened the Steels Plants to women; I worked for Bethlehem Steel for 17 years and then for the Buffalo Erie County Library from where I retired--always out on my jobs. In the 1970s I was an activist for gay liberation. In 1998 I moved from buffalo, N.Y. with my partner Liz Kennedy to Tucson where we have a happy life with out new dog, Charlie.
Oprah Jrenal Revish is a loose canon with the odds stacked against her and nothing to loose! Everyday she fights the good fight for equality, equal rights and equal representation! With so many equals, its no wonder why this girl is highly regular. Oprah is a Creative Writing Senior with an emphasis in Poetry. After graduation, she plans to stop wallowing in her privilege and help the next generation of young writers, activists, philanthropists, peacemakers, allies, and heartbreakers rule the world. Currently, not only is she the only straight person in the University of Arizona's PRIDE ALLIANCE, but she just so happens to be Co-Director! If she was Paul Revere she would scream, "THE HETEROS ARE COMING!" She really likes provolone cheese and extra pulpy orange juice.
Justin Howes, also known as Susan Meyer, was born in Seoul, South Korea before moving to sunny Tucson, Arizona, where he currently attends the University of Arizona. A former oboist and current cunning linguist, Justin finds a way to work "that's what he said" into every conversation and a smile into your heart. Among his many obsessions are bowling, Futurama, double entendres, and Romance languages and the people who speak them (and particularly Spanish, and particularly the men who speak it). He will soon be coming to a classroom near you teaching English as a second language and advocating for a more equitable society through equitable education.
Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy is Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson. She received her Ph.D. in social anthropology from Cambridge University, England in 1972 based on her research with the Waunan of the Choco province, Colombia. Kennedy was a founding member of Women's Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo where she taught for twenty eight years. Her research pioneered the study of lesbian history, a subject on which she has published widely, including the prize-wining book, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: the history of a lesbian community (Routledge, 1993)(with Madeline Davis). She has also written about the development of women's studies as a field, and is co-author of Feminist Scholarship: Kindling in the Grove of Academe, (Illinois University Press, 1985) (with Ellen DuBois et al.) She recently edited the collection, Women's Studies for the Future: Foundations, Interrogations, Politics (Rutgers University Press, 2005) (with Agatha Beins).She is currently writing, Searching for Julia: class, lesbianism, and marriage in 20th century America. She was one of ten scholars who contributed to the historian's brief that was influential in the Supreme Court decision striking down sodomy laws in Lawrence vs. Texas. She lives with her beloved partner, Bobbi Prebis and her dog, Charlie, and searches for ways to find time to combine enjoying her family and friends, participating in movements for social justice, cooking, hiking, and pursuing research and teaching.
ODYSSEY STORYTELLING PHOTOS and BIOS
