Final Letter from the former President of LAHR

After ten wonderful years as your President, I have resigned. Our Vice President, Alysa Hodgson, has assumed the role of president. President Hodgson is a vibrant, strong, and respected young womyn. She is the founder of HUES, a community organization of young people as allies and LGBTQ people, thereby spearheading LAHR’s continued future as the longest running LGBT local organization in the state. Stay tuned for other astounding things happening under her leadership of a board of seasoned and blossoming activists. I am confident in their success in sustaining and re-inventing LAHR as we know it and wish it to be.

One of the first new and exciting changes is in your hands, literally, The LAHR Newsletter as an insert in the City Pulse. This opportunity to be in a publication with a readership of many thousands is courtesy of Berl Schwartz, publisher. He stepped in after the devastating loss of Bill Beachler, longtime publisher of the LAHR Newsletter and as a valuable member of the Board.

Now about me! No longer a teacher at MSU, and with my relinquishing my leadership roles in LAHR and other organizations, I take with me so much valuable experience granted to me by your trust and support. Thank you. I look forward to seeing the progress of our organization upon which so many of our hopes and dreams rely.

Having ended my career as a professor at MSU, and my leadership of other organizations I now identify as a writer, and oh yes and as an old, lesbian, feminist! On the edges I continue to support the work of others in pursuit of freedom and equality.

Thank you for the experience and growth I have had with the opportunities you have given me as President of LAHR.

Love and gratitude, Penny Gardner, PhD As my partner says, PhD stands for Pretty Happy Dyke!