Bio

It was the mid-1970s in Southern California when teen-aged Jody May-Chang came out in search of her own identity and a community that would validate her desire for freedom and a sense of acceptance. Her drive for independence, self-awareness, and freedom came at one of the most turbulent times for America’s LGBT community – it was the time of the assassination of San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk.

Jody’s personal struggle seemed to match the challenges of the times. In 1977, she found herself marching in the streets protesting against rightwing anti-gay activist Anita Bryant who promoted the so-called “Save Our Children Crusade” that vilified gays and targeted gay teachers in Dade County, Florida. As the contempt for gays and lesbians spread to California in the form of the Briggs Initiative that would have banned gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools, Jody found herself called to action. She stood up with others to fight the Briggs initiative until it was defeated.

Jody gained a foothold into the world of activism and human rights when she became a member the Gay & Lesbian Resource Center Speakers Bureau. This was an opportunity for Jody to speak to large and small audiences on gay and lesbian issues. She spoke at gatherings at local public schools, community groups, colleges and universities, including the University of California at Santa Barbara and later in Idaho at Boise State University.

During the mid-1980s, Jody produced and hosted a public affairs radio program on KCSB-FM at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The popular program was called “Gay & Lesbian Perspectives” and provided a voice to the gay and lesbian community outside of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

At the time Jody was doing her show, Sean Hannity was doing his very first radio show at the same station, KCSB. Yes, the same Sean Hannity now on Fox News! Back in 1989, Jody went toe-to toe with Hannity on-the-air and in the press over a controversy that Hannity would later use to jump-start his career.

The weekly one-hour show ran for five years offering news, interviews, music and information about local events.  In 1988, the Santa Barbara Greater Business Association recognized Jody with the Community Service Award for her work on public radio. The excitement of the time was surpassed by Jody’s personal excitement of receiving the news she was pregnant. Eight months later, her son was born which opened a new chapter in her life as a parent.

As a lesbian couple raising a child during a time that is now is referred to as the gaby (pronounced: gay-bee) boom, the family worked with other lesbian families to create a large Lesbian Parents network and support system for each other and their children. The group included about 18 families holding regular family events. These dedicated parents met with school officials to educate them about the unique issues facing the children of same-sex couples, as well as the challenges the parents themselves face.

Jody found herself leaving the front-lines of the activist world to focus on raising her son, while building a career in the IT field. These new challenges were compounded by the heartache of a break-up with her then partner of 9 years. She soon found herself faced with being a single, working mom.

In 1996 Jody met the love of her life, Maria. It was a chance encounter during the very early days of internet communications. “When people ask how Maria and I met, I tell them AOL 2.0,” says Jody. “That sure gets a laugh and really places us at the beginning of the online relationship phenomena.”

In 1997, the presence of loving family and friends, Jody and Maria publicly committed themselves to each other in a ceremony in a beautiful botanical garden in Santa Barbara. Two years later the family decided to move to Boise, Idaho for a simpler life.

The conservative cultural and political climate in Idaho did not diminish Jody’s commitment to equality and social justice. She soon found herself active again in LGBT social justice issues. “Living in a more progressive area can make you complacent,” says Jody. “Coming to very conservative Idaho stirred my activist juices. I found myself compelled to get involved again.”

Jody was a member of the board of directors of Idaho Pride and The Community Center as well as performing IT services for the Idaho Aids Foundation.

However, still frustrated with the limited resources of the area, Jody and Maria did what so many of us do when confronted with needs that are not being met; we create the resources we need and PrideDEPOT.com was born in June of 2000 in an effort to support the local and rural outer lying areas of the Northwest.

Over the years PrideDEPOT.com grew into a high profile national, state and local LGBT news and information resource that garnered a great deal of attention by local and national LGBT media and readers world-wide. The most notable features the sites “Editorial Images” and the Jody’s investigative reporting that exposed hate and homophobia in Special Editions; The Aaron Hall Murder “Gay Panic” in Indiana; and Southern Discomfort: The not so Golden Valley, the story of LGBT Camp Lickalotta in rural North Carolina.

Jody focused on important stories closer to home. She was in the forefront of exposing Idaho’s chief operative of the anti-gay industry. Her target was the rightwing bigot, Bryan Fischer who headed the so-called Idaho Values Alliance. Fischer was the self-appointed czar that PrideDEPOT.com exposed as a fraud under Jody’s leadership. The success of her hard-nosed reporting paid off after the posting a piece titled, “Right-wingers, Lies & Videotape; Deconstructing Bryan Fischer.” Soon after this article appeared, Fischer’s funding dried up and he left the state. Many supporters say her efforts in exposing the truth about Fischer was the catalyst that caused him to close up shop and leave Idaho.

Jody also took on the City of Nampa and its mayor in a story about the blatant discrimination of a young lesbian family denied a family membership by the city owned and operated Nampa Recreation Center, because they were not legally married. Her hard-nosed investigative reporting on this issue brought with it recognition from the prestigious Williams Institute, a UCLA Law think-tank on sexual orientation and gender issues. This honor came in the September 2009 Memorandum: “Idaho – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Documentation of Discrimination.”

These stories and her work on national and statewide issues have established Jody as a leader in the community where she is often sought out by the local media for comment on LGBT issues.

Jody is currently working on the Executive Committee of Idahoans For Fairness, a coalition of organizations working to get the Idaho Human Rights Act amended to include Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression in matters of employment, education and public accommodation. She is also working to develop a statewide speaker’s bureau to educate Idaho lawmakers, public officials, educators, media and the public on LGBT issues in Idaho.