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Laura Petri (AKA RESIN REBEL) she/her, Paducah

Use one Queer slang word to describe Kentucky!

Paducaaah is Leztopiaaah! Who knew?

How did you activate and organize your community for equality?

I have spent my life as an activist…a feminist…and an organizer. In 1993, I was selected to serve on the inaugural statewide steering committee for the Kentucky Fairness Alliance. In the mid-1990’s I published a local LGBTQ+ newsletter called “A Common Thread” which announced networking opportunities, community organizing events and LGBTQ+ social events in and around Paducah. In the 1990’s I was a recipient of a Kentucky Foundation for Women grant for “Grassroots Women Present,” and served as site producer for a traveling play about Belinda Ann Mason, a Kentucky writer who contracted the AIDS virus through a transfusion.

I served on the Paducah Pride committee, and was instrumental in helping initiate and organize the very first Paducah Pride events in the 1990’s. Because of my community organizing skills and my passion for LGBTQ+ work (although I do not identify as Christian) I was recruited to serve as a founding board member of the LGBTQ+ friendly Metropolitan Community Church of Paducah.

Serving as a worker at lesbian and women’s festivals for over two decades has given me the confidence and vision to plant my “acorns” locally. When the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival ended in 2015, after 40 years of providing a safe space for women, we were tasked to “sprout our acorns” in our home towns to create women’s community and events.

In 2016, I sprouted my “acorn,” Cinema Systers Film Festival, a four day women’s cultural festival in Paducah. In addition to screening lesbian produced films, we have filmmaking workshops, Q&As, LGBTQ+ musicians, comedians, spoken word artists, open mic, karaoke, DJs, dancing, catered parties, networking opportunities, art displays, silent auction and more.