LaNita Gail Mark

is honored with a Brick from Jan Afrank, Marti Farha Ammar, Linda Butler, Sharon Faith Levin, Dorothy C. Miller, Kristi Parker, and Darla Zink.

We honor LaNita Mark in the WSU Plaza of Heroines because she is a heroine in the lesbian and gay community. When she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual GALA Awards Ceremony in 1997, she was introduced as follows:

"The year was 1977 and Wichita was the first city in the country to pass a gay and lesbian civil rights ordinance. But in 1978, a big push to repeal the ordinance had started. Not all would sit back and watch this happen. Tonight's Lifetime Achievement Award recipient was one who would not sit back.

It was a time when gays and lesbians didn't even use their real names in the bars, but she was writing letters to the editor and signing her name. It was in large part due to her activism in the feminist movement that others from the movement got involved in the fight for this ordinance. She even picketed outside Century II in counter protest of Anita Bryant. During her lifetime she has stood up for all people.

Nita is a founding mother of and current treasurer of The Lesbian Celebration, a board member and past president of the Wichita Business and Professional League, and is active in the MS Society. She is currently the Vice President of the Community Council Advisory Board for the Center for Women's Studies at Wichita State University.

Her stand for human rights has created a path we all can walk down as we continue to fight to make a better life for ourselves, our children, and generations to come."

We are grateful to Nita for her courage, initiative, and energy in standing up for lesbian rights and human rights. We are also proud to be her friends.

Submitted by Jan Afrank, Marti Farha Ammar, Linda Butler, Sharon Faith Levin, Dorothy C. Miller, Kristi Parker, and Darla Zink

July 28, 1998