On Saturday, May 17, 2014 Evelyn Bailey, long time community activist, and the Executive Producer of the Shoulders To Stand On Documentary: A History of the Rochester LGBT Community was honored for her many years of service to the Rochester LGBT community.
Upon receiving the Empire State Pride Agenda Community Service Award, Evelyn made the following remarks:
"I will accept this award on behalf of the LGBT Community of Rochester and its Community Service to Rochester.
"Through my activism and volunteerism I have met so many incredibly courageous, passionate men and women fighting for their right to be free to be who they are – whether they be gay, straight, gender variant, or allies. For each one the journey out of their own "closets" was filled with fear – fear of the consequences and rejection and at the same time a greater fear to remain oppressed, unfree and unable to be who they were. The personal courage and risk taken by all of you to be "out", to live your lives openly and honestly as allies, as LGBTQI men and women creates the environment of acceptance and freedom that is still desperately needed.
"Roots are extremely important to me. Being free to be who I am in all areas of my life has been a driving force of integration and growth. Documenting the history of this community has been a humbling experience. Claire Parker – catapulted me into the Rochester LGBT communty, Arnie Pegish showed me how coupons are a way of life for LGBT persons, Bill Kelly encouraged me to begin documenting our history, Kraig Pennel told me to begin again, with the University of Rochester we digitized 40 years of the Empty Closet Newspaper, the Gay Alliance provided the base to work from, Tony Mascioli provided the challenge to begin fundraising for the project, Tim Tompkins, Bill Valenti, the Arts and Cultural Council, NYS Archives Grants, Trillium Health, and the Rochester Area Community Foundation contributed to bring our current fundraising total to over $101,000. In celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Gay Alliance, Emily Jones and Bruce Gorman with a $10,000 Sponsorship from the University of Rochester planned the Producer's Premier for the 90 minute Documentary Shoulders To Stand On at the Dryden last September. Image out provided the stage for the World Premier in October of last year. RIT held the Closed Captioning Premier last month.
"The documentation of the contributions made by the Rochester LGBT community is not over. Audio taping will continue in 3 areas: the Trans and Gender Variant Community, the faith community, and AIDS research. The Shoulders To Stand On Program Committee will focus on developing an Educational Guide to accompany the documentary, social media and a website to spread the word, finally writing a book and working to get LGBT history included in local history curriculums across NY State. I invite you to volunteer to help in any of these areas and become a part of this archival and documentary project.
"All of you in this room, Bob Osborne, Marshall Goldman and many others who have died, the members of the Shoulders to Stand On Committee who are here and those who could not be here have provided the Shoulders to make this unknown undocumented chapter of New York States history visible. The 90 minute Shoulders to Stand On Documentary was brought to life by Kevin Indovino, the Producer, Director and Editor. There are no words to express my gratitude and the gratitude of this community to you for your time, dedication, energy and commitment to this extraordinary community archival and documentary project.
"The challenge for all of us is not to rest on our accomplishments. There is still much work to be done.
"John F. Kennedy said 'There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.'
"So I challenge you to get involved, to become activists to make equality and justice for all a reality in your own lives and in the lives of our brothers and sisters. Thank you for your support. And thank you to the Empire State Pride Agenda for this overwhelming honor!"