On March 4, the Peninsula Group announce the appointment of the first board of directors of the recently-founded Association Michigan for LGBT & Ally Organizations.
The board of directors includes a diverse range of professional experience and interests. The board recruitment efforts were geared towards having a strong racial and ethnic minority base, a range of gender identities and orientations, as well as geographic location and other indicators of the LGBT community's complexities.
The board of directors include Nancy Katz, Reynaldo Magdaleno, Michelle Brown, L. Terri Leverette, Patrick Horton, Steven Gerike, Andre Wilson, Julie Nemecek, Jennie Mills, Shea Howell, Rev. Darlene Franklin and Brian Baker.
The creation of the association resulted from a statewide endeavor by The Peninsula Group. The Peninsula Group was formed as a strategic planning team in the spring of 2005 following the adoption by the Michigan electorate in November 2004 of "Proposal 2", Michigan's Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Since then, more than forty volunteers have worked to provide a strategy to improve the climate for LGBT people in the state of Michigan.
The Association differs from Michigan's other LGBT groups in that its members are organizations rather than individuals. Leaders from 33organizations who attended the 2008 Summit approved the association design and gave suggestions on how to formalize our association. Approximately 30 organizations have joined the association as charter members since 2008.
Next, the association plans to create a sustainable strategic framework to help achieve LGBT equality in Michigan, and will maintain a structured team process to establish and implement statewide initiatives. These initiatives will be developed through collaboration by member organizations at an annual leadership Summit.
For more information on the association or The Peninsula Group, contact
Crystallee R. Crain at [email protected] or at 989-225-0118.
The Peninsula Group's association announces first board of directors
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