Portia cantrell
Portia Cantrell is a retired Trauma Nurse and moved to Dallas, TX from Chicago IL.
Upon arriving in Dallas, she quickly became engaged in numerous civic and outreach activities including the Mayor’s LGBT Task Force, the Dallas Senior Task Force, was appointed as a Dallas Municipal Library Board Commissioner, and is a member of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee for the Alzheimer’s Association and a member of the Senior Advisory Board for Texas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson.
Portia is a SAGE certified cultural competency trainer.
Believing that “sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of," Portia, along with friends Larry Derrick and Phil Gabera created Silver Pride Project, which is an organization dedicated to providing safe social spaces and LGBT Senior Specific programming for the elders of the LGBTQ+ elders within the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
In her spare time, she is working on an online directory of LGBT informed Physicians and Healthcare Providers in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area.
Portia and her lovely wife T’Anya Carter have been together for more than twenty years, and happily married for five years.
Rochelle glenn
Rochelle Glenn, a native Texan is the owner of LESBIAN HAPPY HOUR DALLAS, a party with a purpose social movement. Rochelle has been instrumental in providing much needed supplies to local women’s shelters and organizations thru her clothing, book and toy drives, as well supplying school supplies for children and homeless teenagers.
She has been a World Geography, Health and Physical Education teacher for students ranging from early childhood thru 12th Grade. An avid athlete, Rochelle has coached Softball, Track, Volleyball, and Basketball, and remains actively involved as a player with a Women’s Basketball league in the DFW area.
Rochelle has served as a panelist for an AFFIRMATIVE THERAPY with LGBT CLIENTS class at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Plano, sharing her journey to a place of resilience and strength in the LGBT Community.
Rochelle’s passion is community building and realizing social events may not solve all the challenges faced by LGBTQ Elders, she uses them as a tool to fight the isolation faced by this vulnerable group. Rochelle is a frequent organizer of Silver Pride Project events, most notably planning the organization’s annual SILVER PRIDE PROM.
Rochelle resides in Addison with her lovely wife Kelli, and their adorable fur-babies Jager Dog Glenn and Sydney Cat Glenn.
Tosha MoorE
Reverend Tosha Moore, a native of Arlington, TX is an entrepreneur and Founder/CEO of Azarel Outreach Inc., a 501c3 non-profit youth outreach program that teaches stewardship development to single mothers and teenaged girls through mentorship and career training, providing them with the guidance needed to lead stable and productive lives.
Tosha has over 20 years’ experience in the healthcare industry and has worked with some of the top healthcare staffing companies in the industry. Utilizing her experienced in payroll, marketing, employee recruitment, and office management, she subsequently became owner / operator of Amazing Hearts Home Health Service with a focus on proving home health care to members of the LGBT Community in North Texas. In addition, she is a certified CPR instructor.
No stranger to hard work, Tosha is a CDL over the road truck driver and has worked in the oil fields of Texas.
Concerned by the fear expressed by patients in the community of not being treated with dignity and respect by healthcare professionals led her to Silver Pride Project seeking solutions. After several months of volunteering with the organization, she was asked to become a member of the Board of Directors.
Tosha and her amazing life partner of 11 years, Amelia Hutchinson currently reside in Jefferson Texas. They share 5 adult children and 7 grandchildren.
David Hill
David Hill grew up in Blooming Grove, TX and received a BA in Theatre from the University of North Texas. He has worked in various theaters throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area as an Actor, Director and Stage Manager, including New Theater Company, Bravo Productions, Water Tower Theatre, and the Shakespeare Festival of Dallas.
From 2012-2016, David was Director of the Corsican Children’s Company at the Warehouse Living Arts Center. In addition, he has been acting coach for the youth theater program as well as directed A Christmas Carol, Disney’s the Little Mermaid Jr., The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Return to the Forbidden Planet and James and the Giant Peach Jr.
David was also the Executive Director of The Henderson County Performing Arts Center, where he directed A Texas Tragedy- The New London School Explosion, The Carpetbagger’s Children, The Fantasticks, The Skin of Our Teeth and Roald Dahl’s The Twits.
Concerns regarding the unique challenges faced by LGBTQ older adults, led David to involvement with the Silver Pride Project where he serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.
David also serves as a Member of the Board of Directors for the Texas Nonprofit Theatres, Inc. (TNT), and is a member of the Strategic Planning Committee and the Youth Conference Commission Task Force.
David is an avid reader and enjoys the Theater, especially musicals. He is a proud and doting Papa to his beautiful cats.
Marion Hayes
Marion Hayes was the first female member of Texas's first homophile organization, The Circle of Friends. The Circle of Friends was started in the mid 60’s by Phil Johnson, Tom Peters, and Paul Russel. Years before LGBT became a commonly understood acronym, gay and lesbian activist pushed for acceptance of the "homophile" community; by using "-phile" activists hoped to educate people that they were about more than the sex in "homosexual."
In 1966, Marion was one of the Texas delegates to the first North American Conference of Homophile Organizations. This national gathering of representatives from all the major homophile organizations was 3 years before Stonewall. Today a historic marker commemorates that meeting site in Kansas City.
Marion's first love was her horses. She was active in gay rodeo from its beginning. With the horror of AIDs on everyone’s mind, she took her old black quarter horse out of retirement, westernized the look of the Kennedy riderless horse, and created an AIDs riderless horse for Pride parades and gay rodeos.
Marion is now in her 70s. She has worked in the beauty industry over 50 years. She says she chose it because she knew in her youth that it was one of the few safe jobs for LGBT. Today Marion is aware of problems facing older members of our community. She hopes she can help make a difference.
Jeffrey Karl Banks is a multi-hyphenated community leader does a little bit of everything. Professionally he works in leadership for Southwest Airlines, managing a team of internal helpdesk professionals. During his time at Southwest Airlines he has overseen national charter operations, created and facilitated a leadership development program, serves on the Diversity Council, is a culture ambassador and serves as councilman for a network of black airline professionals called "TRIBE".
By night he serves as a local musician and music producer under the alias "So Sique". His music has been played on 97.9 The Beat, he performed at K104's 150 annual Juneteenth festival, and has worked with Grammy Award winning artists throughout his 10 plus years in the music industry.
Jeffrey also served as executive producer for several local podcast including Black Taught and Uncomfortable Conversations. His Podcast episode on Covid was featured at the University of Hawaii for it's nursing program at the beginning of the pandemic.
He is a lifelong community activist, advocating for the marginalized and disenfranchised with a focus on the BLM, LGBTQ+ and Women's Right to choose.