Doug Braun lives in Cleveland Heights with his partner Brian DeWitt. They have been together since 1989. Doug graduated from Oberlin College, then got his Masters degree in Social Work. Doug has been a social worker for 15 years and works with people over 60 to help them be as independent as possible. Twelve years ago he set up Gray Pride, a social networking group for LGBT seniors. He continues to help with this.

Doug has been active in LGBT issues since 1984. He was a founding member of Cleveland LGBT Pride, and also the North Coast Men’s Chorus. Before becoming involved with Equality Ohio, the most important project he worked on was a grassroots campaign in Cleveland Heights to create a Domestic Partner Registry. This opened his eyes to the power of “Voter ID” – identifying your supporters and mobilizing them into action.

Other DP Registries (over 60 in the United States) were created by benevolent city administrations as a gift to the lgbt community. In Cleveland Heights the Registry was not a gift – it was an achievement. It was created by hard work through Voter Identification. Volunteers with the Registry campaign spoke with over 10,000 voters to educate and garner support. This strategy was also used by Cincinnati to overturn their anti-equality city charter amendment. Doug brings this skill and knowledge to Equality Ohio.

Doug was at the creation weekend when Equality Ohio was formed. According to Doug, “Equality Ohio is vital to creating an Ohio that we can all call home. We have made great strides since we formed several years ago. We need to work together, within the lgbt community, but we must also include our non-lgbt allies.” In addition to his membership in many glbt groups, he is a volunteer for the American Indian Education Center in Cleveland, and is a member of the Cleveland Heights Democratic Club.

Jenny Caden (please note the unique spelling) is called Jenny by her friends and is a 56 year old male-to-female pre-operative transsexual. She currently lives in the Dayton, Ohio area and has two kids, a boy 19 and a girl almost 22, both of whom know all about her and are quite supportive. Post-divorce, both kids lived with her until her daughter got engaged in late 2005 and moved in with her fiance (and recently gave birth to Jenny’s first granddaughter). Her son still lives with her today.

Jenny’s long road to where she is today had many early beginnings, but it really took off in late 1995. While testing the then still-maturing Internet, she found out she was not alone in her gender confusion and soon afterward joined CrossPort, a Cincinnati-area transgender support group. In the spring of 1996, she was named newsletter editor, a post she held for the next 6 and a half years.

Although she tried working out her gender issues while married (and with some support from her spouse), dealing with a deteriorating marriage took a much higher priority. It was only after her divorce in 2002 ended her 24-1/2 year marriage that Jenny was finally able to come to grips with her true gender identity.

In 2004, she was told she had Gender Identity Dysphoria and three months later began the process to become Jenny by starting cross-gender hormone replacement therapy. After some problems with her first endocrinologist, she located a competent one in Cincinnati and remains under her care today.

In early 2006, she got a job as a contract programmer for NCR Corporation in Dayton. She quickly contacted League@NCR, the company-sponsored employee resource group for LGBT employees and was soon asked to be the Dayton Chapter Representative. At the September 2006 Out & Equal conference in Chicago, Jenny was a presenter of a workshop on dealing with transgender employees.

In November 2006, Jenny joined the board of directors for the Greater Dayton LGBT Center and became the first transgender speaker in the 25-year history of the Dayton Pride Dinner in June 2007.

With her daughter long graduated from high school and engaged, and her son about to graduate as well, she filed for a legal name change and officially became Jennette Lynne Caden on May 14, 2007. After a lot of background preparation with NCR and her contract employer, Jenny officially arrived at work on July 23, 2007 and has been living and working as Jenny ever since. Her parents, while somewhat shocked at the news, have been generally accepting and supportive of her transition.

In August of 2007, she was elected to the Equality Ohio board of directors. In July 2008, she was elected board vice-chair. She was also a speaker at the Dayton-area National Coming Out Day rally in October 2007 and at various other community events.

Lynn Calloway relocated to Ohio in 2005 from Charlotte, North Carolina where she resided for 17 years. While in North Carolina she was active in volunteering for the Charlotte Gay and Lesbian Switchboard, as well as the annual Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk. Upon relocating to Columbus, she quickly became involved with volunteerism with Columbus HRC, Stonewall Columbus and Equality Ohio. Lynn is passionate about equality and hopes to continue to work towards making Ohio become more accepting of its residents who happen to be gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.

Lynn is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte where she earned a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice while working full time at a large law firm. She is currently a paralegal at a private equity firm where she works closely with her attorneys in land acquisitions and hotel real estate development across the United States.

In her spare time she enjoys cooking, reading, playing golf and spending time with her partner, Anita. They reside in Blacklick, Ohio.

Chris Dunlap

Kate Lockhart is a resident of Mount Vernon, Ohio located in beautiful Knox County. Kate was raised in a large, loving and supportive family – she’s one of five children – and spent most of her childhood living in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Kate received an A.B. in political science from The University of Chicago in 2001. While in school she worked for the Cook County Public Defender’s office and the city of Chicago’s law department. Shortly after graduating, Kate moved to New York City and worked as a bankruptcy paralegal on such cases as Enron, WorldCom and Asia Global Crossing, Ltd. It didn’t take her too long to realize she didn’t want to be a lawyer, so she decided to go to business school instead. In 2005, Kate received an M.B.A. in marketing with a minor in finance from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. After graduating from business school she moved with her partner to Mount Vernon, which has been her home ever since.

Kate was one of the more than 400 participants at Equality Ohio’s first lobby day in 2006, and has been working for equality for the GLBT community in Ohio ever since. She is a founding member of the North Central Alliance for Equality (“NCAFE”), a regional advocacy group working to bring visibility to the GLBT community in north central Ohio. She is also a founding member of the Knox Gay-Straight Alliance (“Knox GSA”). The Knox GSA was founded to support the local gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and allied community, to educate its neighbors about GLBT issues, and to bring visibility to the GLBT community in Knox County, Ohio.

Kate feels as if she has been called to be an advocate for the GLBT community. She is committed to working to create the change she wants to see in this state and is excited to be working with Equality Ohio to create a state that is welcoming to all people.

Zach Michon Neal is a cornucopic display of the multiplicity of human potential. Nothing about hir life has been static except change. Always in search of knowledge, Zack has devoured books, articles, and information alike from all sources and from a quagmire of subjects. Currently a student at the University of Cincinnati, ze settled on Brain and Mind Studies as a major, and is currently trying to add a Women’s Studies Minor, particularly Sexuality Studies. Ze has been highly involved in many LGBTQ groups as well as supporting and driving to establish a queer center and staff person on campus.

Two states, ten homes, and eight schools later, Zack has finally thrown off the inaccurate labels that have tried to determine the course of hir life. Multiracial, multitalented, predominantly left-handed, genderqueer, and practicing responsible nonmonogamy, ze has never set up walls to block hir path. A few of hir favorite subjects include quantum theory, science fiction, philosophy, religion, movies, music, and dance. This year, Zack plans to publish hir second book in a series about vampires, not as monsters, but almost as a queer group themselves. Besides writing, ze enjoys reading, rollerblading, watching and critiquing movies, dancing, listening to music, walking, and thinking. Ze now lives in Clifton with hir primary partner, David.

Zach Ruppel

Kevin Tyler is proud to call Columbus home. Born and raised on Columbus’ east side, Kevin is a product of the Columbus Public Schoool System - graduating from Columbus Alternative High School in 1996. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Writing from the University of Pittsburgh in 2001, and immediately moved back to Columbus with the goal of finding a job where he didn't have to wear a suit everyday.

Since graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, Kevin has served as an AmeriCorps*VISTA Volunteer, providing basic needs classes to low income residents on Columbus’ west side; has served as the Volunteer Coordinator for the 2002 Columbus Public Schools Bond Levy; Communications Coordinator for Jerry Hammond and Associates for the “Building A Legacy of Achievement” program of the Columbus Public Schools; Special Events Coordinator/Fundraising for several county campaigns; and served as Advance/Scheduler for a recent statewide campaign. Kevin is currently working at the Ohio Department of Insurance as a Legislative Liaison.

One of Kevin’s dreams is to become a campaign consultant.