Prominent gay and lesbian rights activist to speak

A prominent lesbian activist is being welcomed to Oberlin this evening.

Kerry Lobel, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), is taking part in several activities today. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Union (LGBTU) and Hillel, the Jewish community organization, collaborated to bring her to Oberlin.

Lobel's visit occurs in the wake of the death of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay college student tortured and murdered in Wyoming last month.

Lobel will talk about how her commitment to activism has been strengthened by her Jewish values.

"She's a very heartening individual who understands the struggles people go through, coming out and fighting the good fight for equality," said Angela Nichols, Multicultural Resource Center LGBTU coordinator. "She is approachable, accessible and one of the greatest leaders of our movement. She has the vision that we need but also has knowledge about organizing and reaching out to people."

Lobel spoke out on National Public Radio in the weeks following the death of Matthew Shepard. "She's a very visible figure in the national community," said Morris Levin, a member of Hillel.

Before becoming executive director of the NGLTF, Lobel was an organizer for the Women's Project in Little Rock, Arkansas, focusing on bias violence, domestic violence, women and AIDS and women in prison. She wrote HIV, AIDS, and Reproductive Health: A Peer Trainer's Manual, "Lesbian Teens in Abusive Relationships" in Dating Violence: Young Women in Danger and edited Naming the Violence: Speaking Out About Lesbian Battering.

Lobel has won numerous awards such as the Compassion Award of the Ryan White Center, the Fanning the Flames Award of the Arkansas Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Leadership Award of the Arkansas Women's Political Caucus.

The NGLTF is based in Washington, D.C. and is a progressive organization which has been at the forefront of the movement through work at local, state and national levels since 1973. Nichols and several Oberlin students attended the 11th annual conference this past weekend along with about 3,000 other activists, scholars and grassroots organizers.

Nichols found the student participation to be particularly empowering. "From my observation between last year and this year, the number of queer college students and youth has doubled. They are the driving force in the movement. Everyone says they're up and coming, but they are there, and they are visible and vocal," she said.

At the conference, Nichols was also elected to the position of secretary or scribe for the National Consortium of Directors of LGBT Resources in Higher Education.

Nichols and Levin were enthusiastic about the renewed cooperation between LGBTU and Hillel in organizing Lobel's talk and the queer pride Shabbat services. "It's very exciting that our two communities are working together to celebrate Shabbat and to celebrate being queer in the Jewish community," Levin said.

He also said that in the past Hillel and LGBTU have often collaborated. "It was not uncommon in the '80s to have queer pride Shabbats," Levin said. He emphasized that "everyone is welcome at the services. It's for the entire community."

Lobel will be giving a talk entitled Transforming the World: Gay Activism at 4:30 p.m. today in Wilder 101. There will also be a Queer Pride Shabbat at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7:15 p.m. at Kosher Co-op, and both are free and open to everyone. On Saturday Lobel will be giving a workshop for queer students.