About NWA Pride

Jennifer and Kristin Seaton-Rambo met in 2010 and quickly became inseparable. On May 10, 2014, they made history in Eureka Springs as the first same-sex couple legally married in Arkansas - one of only a few before the courthouse doors closed again. Legal battles continued until the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. Jennifer and Kristin remained active in supporting LGBTQ+ youth, helping them embrace and celebrate their true identities.

Dick Titus and Zeek Taylor were the first male couple to be married in Arkansas and the entire South. Dick is a retired master electrician, and Zeek is a professional artist and author. Native Arkansans, the couple met in Memphis, and as of 2025, they have been together for 53 years. The couple lives in Eureka Springs, where they are out and proud.

Sandra Kurjiaka was named the 2024 NWA Pride Grand Marshal in recognition of her decades of civil rights advocacy and her lasting impact on LGBTQ+ life in Arkansas. During her tenure at the ACLU in the 1980s, Sandra led a landmark federal discrimination lawsuit on behalf of the Gay and Lesbian Students Association at the University of Arkansas. The case permanently advanced LGBTQ rights in Arkansas and profoundly impacted LGBTQ and minority students nationwide. Sandra’s legacy continues through the UA’s Sandra Kurjiaka Diversity & Inclusion Award, presented annually to a graduate student for their outstanding commitment to DEI initiatives on campus and in the regional community. Her recognition as Grand Marshal honored both her historic role in Arkansas LGBTQ+ advocacy and her continued connection to the Northwest Arkansas community.

In 2023, NWA Pride honored the parents of the children involved in the lawsuit challenging Arkansas’ 2021 ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth. These families stood at the center of one of the most important LGBTQ+ civil rights battles in Arkansas history, speaking publicly and taking legal action to defend their children’s access to medically necessary care. Their recognition as Grand Marshals honored their courage, their love for their children, and their role in a case that brought national attention to the lives and rights of transgender young people in Arkansas.

The 2022 NWA Pride Parade Grand Marshal was Norman Jones. His decades of LGBTQ advocacy impacted hundreds of thousands of people across the country. In 1973, Jones represented Arkansas as the first Miss Gay America. In 1975, he assumed ownership of the pageant and ran it, along with other contests, for the next 30 years. Starting in 1979, Jones operated Discovery and Trinity Nightclubs in Little Rock, the state’s longest-running queer establishments, and in 1989, he created the Helping People with AIDS network to provide direct financial assistance to people living with HIV/AIDS. Jones crossed picket lines, knocked down barriers, and provided support during a time when there were few advocates for the LGBTQ community, and helped launch the careers of many professional actors, television personalities, and dancers. 2022 commemorated 50 years of the official Miss Gay America and Miss Gay Arkansas Pageants.

In the 1980s and 90s, AIDS advocate Ruth Coker Burks cared for hundreds of Arkansas' LGBTQ community members who had the AIDS virus. She tirelessly fundraised for medications and expenses, provided palliative care, and selflessly gave final resting places to the virus's victims in her family's cemetery. During President Clinton’s administration, she served as an advisor on AIDS education and safe-sex practices to prevent future infections. Ruth advocated for AIDS patients when so many caregivers and educators refused their call of duty. June 2021 marked the 40th anniversary of what became the AIDS epidemic. Ruth Coker Burks' story is chronicled in the book All the Young Men.

Evelyn Rios Stafford was named a 2021 NWA Pride Grand Marshal after making Arkansas history in the 2020 election, becoming the state's first openly transgender elected official. A Fayetteville resident, small business owner, Emmy Award-winning former television journalist, and community advocate, Stafford’s election marked a historic moment for LGBTQ+ representation in Arkansas. Her recognition as Grand Marshal honored both that milestone and her continued work to support civic participation, visibility, and inclusion in Northwest Arkansas.

In 2020, NWA Pride honored healthcare workers as Grand Marshals in recognition of their service during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pride was held virtually that year, during a time when healthcare workers across Arkansas and the country were caring for patients, supporting families, and facing extraordinary public health challenges. Their recognition as Grand Marshals honored the dedication, sacrifice, and essential work of healthcare professionals during one of the most difficult periods in recent history.

On September 14, 2018, we lost one of our own. Norman Hadley helped formally establish the organization of the Northwest Arkansas Pride Parade in 2007. He ran parade logistics for over a decade helping grow the celebration from a handful of participants and spectators to one of Arkansas' largest parades. "Ask Norm" was a pretty standard response to most parade questions.

Norm was an inspirationally out and proud gay man. He wore nail polish while driving a dump truck, seemed to always have a rainbow or glitter on somewhere, tackled and won sobriety, and protected those he loved and who loved him. He was the definition of pride. He was our friend. He was your friend. He was pride in Northwest Arkansas.

ACLU of Arkansas, PFLAG of NW Arkansas, Anthony Clark, Noah C. Meeks, and Liz Petray

2018's Northwest Arkansas Pride Grand Marshals were honored for their commitment to defending equality and fairness for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identified people across the State of Arkansas, and especially the legal rights of our LGBTQ family, friends, neighbors, and allies.

The ACLU of Arkansas joined the court case challenging the constitutionality of Arkansas Act 137, a law intended to strip away local civil rights protections for LGBTQ Arkansans. The ACLU acted on behalf of PFLAG of NW Arkansas and three Fayetteville residents: Anthony Clark, Noah C. Meeks, and Liz Petray. Act 137 was passed in 2015 by the Arkansas legislature in an attempt to nullify Fayetteville's anti-discrimination ordinance. However, this Arkansas law violates the constitutional right to equal protection and would leave LGBTQ people vulnerable to discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations.

We honored these people for standing up for the will of the voters who approved Fayetteville's civil rights ordinance, and for the rights of other Arkansas communities who want to do the right thing and protect their LGBTQ residents from discrimination.

We honor the For Fayetteville Executive Committee, Kyle Smith, Laura Phillips, Danielle Weatherby, and Fayetteville Councilmember Adella Gray for completing an eighteen-year goal of Fayetteville's LGBTQ rights leaders by leading the campaign for the passage of Fayetteville Ordinance 119 of 2015, the Uniform Civil Rights Protection Ordinance. After the repeal of a previous ordinance just months earlier, they never gave up on our need to be protected as employees, as customers, and as residents of Fayetteville. Today, as the For Fayetteville PAC, they champion citizen involvement, progressive political initiatives, and recruit local candidates valuing diversity and inclusion, citizen engagement, our natural environment, and smart development that advances Fayetteville's unique quality of life for all residents.

For our 10th anniversary celebration of the official NWA Pride Parade, Northwest Arkansas Equality, Inc. recognizes the founders of the organizing body NWA Pride, Inc.,  Ken Boyle, Norman Hadley, Joney Harper. These individuals organized and operated the annual Northwest Arkansas Pride Parade from 2007-2014. Their endeavors paved the way for what has grown into a multi-day event, and Arkansas' largest LGBTQ pride celebration.

Attorneys Cheryl Maples and Jack Wagoner represented plaintiffs in the historic case that struck down Arkansas Amendment 83, the 2004 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage in Arkansas. Their passionate plea in 2014 on behalf of couples who wanted to marry, adopt, or have their out-of-state marriages recognized in Arkansas led to a court finding the ban unconstitutional.

Bruce Gillispie, Sandy King, Jason Viator, Sharon Wibben, David Yates

Leaders of Walmart Pride Associate Resource Group who influenced their company's decision to implement domestic partner benefits and other LGBTQ policies. They continue to work for equality and fairness within their company.

Chris Christoffel has been a cornerstone of the local LGBTQ community since she moved to NWA in 1986. She has served on the Aids Task Force, HIV Arkansas, the annual AIDS walk, ACT-UP!, GLAD, BGLAD and other diversity endeavors, and she is a founding member of Northwest Arkansas's PFLAG chapter. In past years Chris has been an organizing part of the Women's Library in Fayetteville, the National Organization for Women, the Arkansas Women's Project, a recipient of the Alliance for Women's Concerns Award, and a monitor for the NAMES Quilt when it was shown in Washington, D.C. Chris is an outspoken incest survivor who founded support groups in Westchester County, NY, and Washington, D.C. Chris has played trumpet in the NYC Gay Marching Band and was a founding member of Lambda Squares in Washington, D.C. - the first gay square dance group recognized by the National Square Dance Association.

Linda Wilson

Linda and her wife, Deb, helped grow the annual Diversity Weekends in Eureka Springs, cementing Eureka Springs as the LGBTQ tourism capital of the south.

Linda and Deb moved from California where Linda was the physical therapist to the Stars. Linda continued her work in Northwest Arkansas with children and geriatric patients in Green Forest and was a reliable NWA Pride Parade volunteer for as long as her health would allow. Linda had to hide most of her life from her co-workers, but she was a shining example of Pride, riding on the bike that lead our parade year after year.

Art Beeghly

On October 16, 2011, the NWA Center for Equality lost an activist, board member, benefactor, and dear friend. Arthur Beeghly worked as an openly gay journalist in San Francisco before retiring in Northwest Arkansas with his beloved cat, Mildred Beeghly, in 2005.

Art's generosity of time and money empowered the NWA Center for Equality during a period of rapid growth that saw the opening of their first permanent office in downtown Fayetteville. He continued to support the Center upon his passing with a generous gift. In January 2012, the NWA Center for Equality posthumously recognized his leadership by dedicating their resource center in his honor.

In addition to the NWA Center for Equality, his philanthropic efforts were known by the Fayetteville Animal Shelter, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and the Fayetteville Public Library Foundation.

Award-winning writer, editor, and newspaper columnist Michael Walsh authored the 2007 ordinance for the City of Eureka Springs that established the first Domestic Partnership Registry in Arkansas. In 2010, he wrote a city resolution that eventually enabled municipal workers with domestic partners to have equal access to health care insurance, another precedent-setting first for both the city and state. He has also worked to promote Eureka Springs as a gay-friendly travel destination, generating widespread regional and national media coverage for the city's annual Diversity Weekends.

11-year-old Will Phillips made national headlines when he sat down in protest of the Pledge of Allegiance at his West Fork school in support of the LGBTQ community. Will stated, "I really don't feel that there's currently liberty and justice for all," when thinking about the pledge. He was referring to LGBTQ people who don't have the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts. Despite peer pressure from his classmates, he refuses to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance until there are liberty and justice for all.

UPDATE: Will returned to the stage at the 2015 NWA Pride Festival to lead the crowd in reciting the pledge of allegiance just days after the Supreme Court of the United States issued its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, guaranteeing equal marriage rights to same-sex couples across the nation.

Daniel Karslake is the producer, director, and writer of "For the Bible Tells Me So," an award-winning documentary featuring the Reitan Family of Mankato, Minnesota. Randi and Phil Reitan have four children. When their youngest son, Jacob, came out to them as gay their eyes were opened to the discrimination the LGBTQ community faces. They became active members of Soulforce, where Phil is on the board of directors and Jacob was the first young adult director. Jacob also founded the organization's Equality Ride and Right to Serve Campaign.

Daniel Karslake is an award-winning producer for the highly acclaimed newsmagazine, "In the Life," which airs nationally on PBS. Recognition for his outstanding work for the show, which has centered primarily on issues regarding religion and homosexuality, includes an Emmy nomination, and praise from GLAAD and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Chris Hannon is an unsung hero in the Northwest Arkansas LGBTQ Community. He works tirelessly for the Northwest Arkansas GLBT Community Center through the NWA Positive Links Buddy Program and as a board member. Chris started the Buddy Program Support Group in August 2006 to provide people living with HIV/AIDS with the latest health information, food bank resources, help with chores, transportation, companionship and other resources for living a happy life. A 25-year survivor of HIV himself, Chris demonstrates what can be done with a bright outlook.

Randi is the co-founder and executive director of the Center for Artistic Revolution (CAR). Under Randi's leadership, the Little Rock organization has been a leading advocate for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) community's fairness and equality issues, removing the use of American Indian imagery as a mascot for Arkansas State University, youth support and leadership development, support of immigrant communities and creating an entity to receive and determine civil rights complaints in the state. Randi has worked in the southeast for over 20 years on a variety of issues including; LGBTQ rights, immigrant communities, pesticides, farmworkers, HIV/AIDS, youth/young adults, workers, and women. Randi is also a poet, spoken word artist, writer, visual artist, bookworm and loves the outdoors.