TSA News February 2020 Volume 38 Issue 2

Pride Prom moved to April 25 Location Upgraded to ONB Events Plaza

The 19tn Annual TSA Pride Prom will be held on Saturday, April 25 from 7pm—12 midnight at the Old National Bank Events Plaza, 715 Locust Street in Downtown Evansville. For years we have had over 1,000 students attend our event, and this upgraded venue holds up to 2,000. In addition, the location has plenty of parking and is a much nic-er venue. The event date and location were changed after the former location closed unexpectedly. Please share the flyer and social media posts about the new location and date for Pride Prom! On Facebook the event can be found under TSA Pride Prom. Our goal this year is to have 1,500 attend!

Owensboro Fairness Ordinance Scheduled for Monday, Feb. 24

The 2nd Owensboro / Daviess County Fairness hear-ing has been scheduled for Monday, Feb. 24 at 6:30pm at at Brescia University’s Taylor Lecture Hall. Owensboro and Daviess County residents who want to speak will be asked to sign up on either the for or against list of speakers, and then the moderators will call a person on one side then the other. At the Jan. 30 meeting each speaker had up to 2 minutes to speak. At the last hearing more people spoke in favor

than against. The event will end by 9pm. We strongly encourage the community to attend in force and show once again their support. Pic-tured is TSA youth group member Alex who spoke at the last hearing.

Please contact EVSC School Board members

The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation has changed their rules so that the public can not complain about issues like how the schools treat transgender students during the school board meeting….unless the school board has put the issue on their official agenda. For three years the Tri-State Alliance has complained about how the schools mistreat transgender students. PLEASE contact EVSC School Board members and ask them to implement policies that PROTECT all stu-dents INCLUDING transgender students!

EVSC BOARD MEMBERS President Jeff Worthington jeffworthington@hotmail.com Vice President Andrew Guarino andrew.guarino@evsck12.com Secretary Chris Kiefer ckiefer@ivytech.edu Ann Ennis anna.ennis@evsck12.com Rev. Terry Gamblin pastorterry@sigecom.net David Hollingsworth david.hollingsworth@evsck12.com Karen Ragland karen.ragland@evsck12.com

School Board Member Ann Ennis Public Forum School Board member Ann Ennis is hosting a Question and Answer session on EVSC policies on Wednesday, Feb. 19 from 4:30—5:30pm at the East Branch Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, 840 East Chandler Avenue, Evansville, IN 47713. We encourage you to attend to discuss policies that impact LGBTQ students.

ALSO: to see the attitudes of some EVSC school board members, check out this

post on TriStateHomepage.com where an EVSC School Board member responds “Cry Me a River” to concerned citizens talking to her about LGBTQ student suicide:

Tinyurl.com/EVSCtransphobia

What TSA Wants from the EVSC School Board

After an LGBT teen committed suicide in front of Central High School in January of 2017, TSA has intensified our push of the EVSC School Board. We were able to persuade EVSC to start GSAs at area middle and high schools, add sexual orientation to their employment non-discrimination policy, and send their diversity director for specific LGBTQ youth worker conference.

The following items are what we are still asking the EVSC to take action on:

(1) Discourse is the first step in addressing any issue. This issue has been a top priority for TSA over the past (3) years. If Ann is truly an ally for the LGBT community, especially in regards to Transgender, she should accomplish adding the following into EVSC Information items to start a public board discussion:

(2) We want gender identity to be added to your employment non-discrimination policy, as was done with sexual orientation. Please, add gender identity. (3) In order to create an equitable, safe environment for all students, in-cluding Transgender students, we want schools to utilize "best practic-es”. EVSC literally just lost a lawsuit because of mistreatment of a transgender student and could face further lawsuits if appropriate chang-es aren’t made.

TSA is re-running the final

article written by TSA

member William Hiett.

May he Rest in Power.

William Hiett Obituary 1962-2019

William A. Hiett, 57, died at home on World AIDS Day on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019. He was born on Oct. 7, 1962 at Evansville’s St. Mary’s Hospital, the son of Billy Joe Hiett and Sandra (Jones) Hiett. He performed in numerous nightclubs under the stage name of Tiffany Sex Jones. His mother survives, along with his siblings Kris Tina Bridges, Billy

(Bennie) Hiett Jr., Scott Hiett, Heather (Terry) Raffidy and Stephanie Williamson; and close family friends David Feldpausch and Carla Poindexter. He is predeceased by his father and by his brother Paul Curtis Hiett. William was cremated. A memorial service was held at the Tri-State Alliance offices on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 with over 65 family members and friends in attendance. Bill asked that memorial donations be made to the TSA Youth Group, PO Box 2901, Evansville, IN 47728 or online at TSAGL.org/donate.html.

Thank You Note from Sandy Hiett

(mother of William Hiett / Tiffany Sex Jones)

Dear Wally,

Words can not express how very thankful to you and your volunteers my family and I are for the caring memorial you did for Bill.

He would have been very pleased to know so many people cared for him. It was a comfort to us to see and hear the words spoken about him by so many.

Thank you for everything you did. It meant so much.

Thanks also for all of your visits. You are welcome here an-ytime.

I will not forget TSA — it may take me awhile but you will be hearing from me.

Love, Sandy

Thank You Note from Carla Poindexter

I would like to thank the TSA and Wally Paytner for the op-

portunity to participate in the celebration of life for Bill Hiett. I

greatly enjoyed speaking. When Wally first asked me to do it

I said no because I have a fear of public speaking, but I

knew deep down in my heart that Bill would have wanted me

to. So thank you Bill for still looking after me and helping me

overcome my fear.

TSA members

and leaders

walked in the

2020 University

of Evansville

Martin Luther

King Jr. March.

TSA members and leaders walked

in the 2020 University of Evansville

Martin Luther King Jr. March and

attended the evening talk by

respected activist Theo Wilson.

The TSA Youth Group meets EVERY Saturday

at 7pm at the TSA Offices, 501 John Street

Suite 5, Evansville, IN 47713. We start every

meeting with supper, and introductions and

pronouns. After a group discussion, we play a

variety of games. These include board games,

Jinga, and sing Karaoke. The group has

LGBTQ middle and high school students at-

tend from throughout the Tri-State region.

Some youth group

members work to ad-

vocate and speak out

publicly in favor of

LGBTQ civil rights.

Most recently, youth

group member / high

school student Alex

spoke at the Owens-

boro / Daviess County

Fairness Ordinance

hearing.

Unity Fellowship, 625 Allen Street, Owensboro, KY 42303 www.unityfellowshipowb.org 270-315-9028

Services are on Sunday at 10:15am

TSA Thanks Lucky Lady for Hosting Drag Heavensville!

Seamus Coffey was crowned Heavensville Drag

Queen by TSA board member LaDonan Dobbs and

Lisa Daugherty was crowned Drag King Heavens-

ville by TSA Trans Group Co-Chair Cameron.

TSA Thanks Lucky Lady for Hosting Drag Heavensville!

TSA Thanks Lucky Lady for Hosting Drag Heavensville!

Unity Fellowship 625 Allen Street, Owensboro, KY 42303

www.unityfellowshipowb.org 270-315-9028

TSA Thanks Piece of Cake for a great cake as we welcome back our volunteer April!

TSA Wish List For the TSA LGBTQ Youth Group

• 12/24 packs of Soft Drinks for TSA Youth Group

• Bottled Water

• Potato chips and desserts in re-sealable containers (i.e. Pringles)

• Copy paper

• A copier / printer (if new an HP Officerjet 8702)

• Gift cards for pizza delivery or fast food restaurants

• Tickets for Laramie Project play at the Civic Theatre.

• Pride Flags, large a small, LGBTQ, lesbian, trans, asexual, bisexual, pansexual, gender queer, polysex-ual, aromantic, greyromantic, demiromantic, poly-amorous.

Donations can be mailed or shipped to the Tri-State Alliance, 501 John Street Suite 5, Evansville, IN 47713. Questions? Contact 3statealliance@gmail.com or 812-480-0204. Online donations can be sent to TSAGL.org/donate.html

Owensboro Fairness Turns Out in Force at Hearing