Rainbow Community Cares

THE BOARD & OFFICERS

Jenna Rev. J Zirbel - Minister/Executive Director

J comes to Rainbow Community Cares via New York and Iowa. In Iowa J served on the Iowa Gender-Specific Services Task Force of the Iowa Dept of Human Rights. J also spent five years in various levels of grass roots organizing and was a volunteer with a faith-based organization. J's work has also included ministry involvement, including five years in lay and seminarian capacities and four years in professional ministry with the UMC. J served as a full-time British Methodist minister in an ecumenical parish near London.

Prior to J's involvement with the ministry, J was a speech language pathologist in educational settings. J holds a BS and MS in Speech Language Pathology, and two other Masters degrees--one in Divinity and one in Theological Studies. J is ordained in the The Church Within A Church Movement and active in the Trevor Project.

In New York J was an intensive case manager with the AIDS Council of NE NY, and was active in ministry to LGBT individuals. J is also on the board of Rainbow Access Initiative, a non-profit dealing primarily with LGBT health concerns.

Evan Evan Lawrence - Board Member

Evan is a native of southern Connecticut. He is a 1976 graduate of Yale University with a degree in environmental science. He has lived in upstate New York since 1988.

Evan grew up in the Roman Catholic Church but left in 1991, a step he believes was crucial to his coming out as transsexual and bisexual five years later. He belongs to the Episcopal Church USA and the Unitarian Universalist Association. He is also a practicing Wiccan, a Reiki II practitioner, and a trained shamanic practitioner through Spirit Hollow, Shaftsbury, VT (www.spirithollow.org). He has been a member of the Faerie Camp Destiny Radical Faerie Circle in Grafton, Vt. since 1998. One of his dreams is to restore the transsexual’s traditional role as a community spiritual leader.

Evan works during the warmer months as a gardener. He is a freelance writer with several thousand published articles to his credit. He also has a health and wellness business in partnership with Shaklee Corp. (http://healthyevan.myshaklee.com).

When you come out as a transsexual, you give up forever the right to look down on other people for being weird or bizarre. This is very liberating.

Andy Rev Andy Little - Board Treasurer and Website Manager

Andy was a second career Presbyterian minister, and served a church in Schenectady, NY. His first career of 30+ years was as an optician and a greedy, unscrupulous businessperson. As he explains, "After the battle between my relentless need to accumulate and my conscience reached the point where there was nothing left to do but fall down and curl up into a ball, I walked away from the rat race and became poor and happy."

Andy attended Methodist Theological School, Westminster College at Cambridge University, and the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities where he earned a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Liberation Theology and Ethics. Andy is a board member of Rainbow Access Initiative, and is active in The Church Within A Church Movement and in the Trevor Project.

Don Don Laonipon - Board Member

I was born and raised in North Carolina and am a board member of PFLAG in my area and a volunteer at the local LGBT Center. I spent all of my childhood and much of my life as a young adult in the closet, coming out just before I turned 30. I was pushed to come out as my parents wanted me to fulfill certain expectations, one of which was to find a wife. As I was coming out, PFLAG and activities offered by our community helped me to feel more comfortable with being gay. I am hopeful my involvement with RCC, PFLAG, and the LGBT Center will have synergistic effects for the community.

A psychiatrist named David Viscott once said “The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.” I would love to have the opportunity to continue to discover my talents and be able to have more opportunities to contribute to the community.

Loftin Wilson - Board member

My name is Loftin Wilson. I grew up in a small town in Alamance County, NC. I work as Transgender Advocate & Harm Reduction Organizer for the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, and I've been involved in organizing and advocacy work with queer, incarcerated, and youth populations in NC for several years now in many different contexts. As a queer- and trans-identified Muslim, I am drawn to the work of Rainbow Community Cares, and its vision of an open, inclusive, and transformative faith community.

More to Come!

SERVICES

THE BOARD & OFFICERS