Amid uncertainty about what the new year might bring for members of the LGBTQ+ Americans, members of the BGSU community worked to make Ohio’s longest-running LGBTQ+ event a success, raising money to fund local nonprofit organizations.
The Holiday with Heart Charity Gayla, held at the Toledo Club in downtown Toledo last week, had many Falcon connections. A BGSU student jazz trio played holiday classics during cocktail hour, entertainment for the event was coordinated by BGSU associate professor of music performance/choral activities Richard Schnipke, and the university’s Center for Student Connections & Opportunity’s H.U.E. Program (Honoring, Urging, Empowering Queer & Trans People of Color) was one of the beneficiaries of the event.
An unpaid, all-volunteer committee selected the H.U.E. Program, along with the Catharine S. Eberly Center’s Gender Affirming Support for LGBTQ+ Rockets at UT, the Toledo Queer Black Collective’s Fashion Week Ball, as beneficiaries this year, Schnipke said.
“The committee sits, and they read all the applications, and then we talk about them all. People advocate for things that they think are important on the committee,” Schnipke said. “And then the committee votes and we decide which organizations get funded each year.”
The Gayla has a long history of supporting northwest Ohio nonprofits, celebrating activism and creating a critically important community space amid decades of discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community.
The Gayla began in 1977 when 16 friends celebrated the holidays at the Columbian House in Waterville. Over the years the guest list grew for the grassroots organization.
“For years and years, it was just a holiday party. It wasn’t necessarily a fundraiser, but it slowly evolved into raising funds to give back to the local LGBTQ community,” said committee media contact Rick Cornett.
The event’s founders, Ed Hoffman, Dick Flock and David Hindall, hoped to bring the community together during the holidays. Hoffman, 47 years later, still serves on the committee.
“Ed’s an integral part of this,” Cornett said. “He likes more simplicity with it, but you can’t have a fundraiser and keep it small.”
The Gayla outgrew its original venue, driven by the demand for tickets. This year, more than 300 tickets sold out in just a few short weeks.
“Forty-seven years later, we’re here at the grand Toledo Club, and it’s the premier social event of the Toledo gay community. We’re very proud that we’re the longest-lasting LGBT fundraiser in the state of Ohio,” Cornett said.
Cornett, a floral designer, pinned handmade red carnation boutonnieres on each guest as they arrived at the event—a tradition he’s been doing since 2000.
“It’s basically the only formal event that’s left. It’s nice to kick off the holiday season with something of this grand style and get all glammed up,” Cornett said.
A Toledo native motivated to give back to his community, Cornett joined the Gayla board of directors in 2005. In 2010, he founded the Historical LGBTQ Archives of Toledo, which preserves the city’s gay history and is connected to the event.
“Back in 2010, we lost two of Toledo’s icons: Joe Wicks, who owned Caesar’s Show Bar and various other bars. And then Greg Knott. He was the founder and owner of Bretz bar,” Cornett said. “I saw our older guard falling off and passing away. And as I tried to do research, there was nothing available on the Toledo gay community and our culture and our history.”
This motivated Cornett to amass an archive of pictures, magazines and memorabilia about Toledo’s LGBTQ+ community, including content from the Gayla.
“I have an archive just on the history of this event,” Cornett said. “I maintain a file for each year with everything: the programs, the pictures, posters.”
In 2008, Cornett changed the official event name to the “Holiday with Heart Charity Gayla” shortly after it was granted status as a non-profit organization. The event was previously known as the Christmas dinner dance, Cornett said.
“I said, ‘That’s too generic. We need an official name to tag onto this event,’” Cornett said.
This year’s event included live entertainment from a BGSU student jazz trio and University of Toledo alum Nate Leonard setting the mood on the piano.
The Steinway piano in the Toledo Club’s Red Room had gone unplayed for many years at the Gayla, a note that Committee Entertainment Coordinator Richard Schnipke was eager to change when he first attended seven years ago.
“That was something I advocated for because I thought it was missing when I came to the event. There was a beautiful piano sitting there, and no one was playing it during the cocktail hour,” Schnipke said.
This year’s event was sponsored by companies including Toledo Edison, Buckeye Broadband and Fifth Third Bank.
“And then Monarch Comics, which is an LGBTQ-owned business,” Schnipke said.
The comic book store was affected by a major loss of inventory in a fire that hit multiple businesses at the Colonial Village shopping plaza in South Toledo. A GoFundMe fundraiser is underway to help the store, which will temporarily reopen in January in the Colonial Village Barber Shop.
Under a barrel-vaulted, renaissance-inspired ceiling, the Gayla celebrated those who have made a positive impact on the LGBTQ community.
Gayla committee secretary Sue Carter presented the 2024 Founder’s Award to Richard Meeker, the manager of community engagement and development at The University of Toledo Medical Center.
In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Meeker was a lifeline to Toledo’s LGBTQ+ community, providing information before there was a nationwide education campaign.
“Now think about what that was like in the early days,” Carter said. “You had to find a place that was open to bring you in to test. Richard was going into gay bars, health fairs and even out to the migrant communities to give people free and anonymous HIV tests.”
Surrounded by applause, Meeker accepted the award and highlighted the importance of community involvement.
“I was so shocked when Sue called me. I screamed into the phone,” Meeker said. “Seek (volunteerism) out. Because there are things that you can help (organizations) do that without your volunteer service, they would not be able to do.”
One of those organizations that have been supported by funding from the Gayla is Equality Toledo, whose Food Pantry was one of this year’s beneficiaries.
“The funds that we receive for this are going to go towards improvements for our community pantry that we run,” said Brent Rabie, Equality Toledo’s executive director. “It’s a no-barriers pantry. Anybody can come without ID, without disclosing their gender, [or] their immigration status.”
Rabie said he appreciated reconnecting with people he hadn’t seen in months during the Gayla.
Dinner featured boisterous laughter amongst the dining tables, which flowed into a DJ dance session and a raffle sponsored by Casey’s Bar and Grill, Grindhrs Coffee and Community, Kermit’s Kare and Georgjz419.
Some attendees traveled hours to attend the Gayla, including Robin Walters-Powell, the LGBTQ faculty advisor and chair of the social work program at the University of Findlay. Walters-Powell has attended the Gayla for the past nine years.
“I love Toledo. I think Toledo sets kind of a standard for other communities in this area. Northwest Ohio tends to be pretty conservative. Toledo is kind of like the blue spot of all of that,” Walters-Powell said.
As the advisor of the Gay-Straight Alliance at her university, Walters-Powell said helping her students access Toledo’s LGBTQ+ community is a great resource. Findlay has a Pride parade, though it is smaller than Toledo’s.
“My students love participating in the Pride here,” Walters-Powell said. “They can march in the parade, and that feels good to them. For a lot of them, that’s the first time they’ve ever been openly out and feel comfortable doing that.”
As the new year approaches, many members of the LGBTQ+ community are worried about potential impacts of Project 2025, a series of legislative proposals developed by the Heritage Foundation, as well as state-level anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
With matters still uncertain, Walters-Powell said college students and members of the LGBTQ+ community can protect themselves by accessing their community resources and staying informed.
“It’s not good to live in this community of fear. We have to just sit still for a minute, see what’s coming, and then figure out how to fight that, whatever that is,” Walters-Powell said. “We need to embrace the fact that we have fought for a lot of things in our history, and now it’s not going to be any different,” Walters-Powell said.
On BGSU’s campus, students seeking support can visit the LGBTQ+ Resource Center in room 427 of the Bowen Thompson Student Union.
