Biography

Miriam Hennosy became a board member of the Human Rights Project in Kansas City, MO, in September, 1994. Prior to that Hennosy served as Vice-President of the Heartland Chapter of the Professional Conference Managers Association, provided logistical assistance for the HRP/NGLTF community building conference in April 1994, and coordinated the HRPac phone bank operation for the Show Me Equality campaign of 1994. Later, Hennosy served as Secretary of HRP, until it disbanded in December, 1997.

The Human Rights Ordinance Project (HROP) began in November of 1989, under the leadership of David Weeda, as a grass-roots coalition supporting the passage of a civil rights ordinance in Kansas City, MO, aimed at tackling discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations, based on an individual’s sexual orientation or HIV status. After working on the language of the proposals with Kansas City Councilmember Katheryn Shields, HROP continued to lobby and work through many rejections by the Council, until their final passage on November 8, 1990. On that day the Council passed an ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on HIV status, and a resolution without the force of law was passed, also prohibiting discrimination based on an individual’s “actual or perceived sexual orientation.” This meant more work was to be done to achieve full civil rights for the LGBT community, and shortly after the resolution and ordinance were passed, The Human Rights Ordinance Project expanded to become The Human Rights Project (HRP), promising to “endorse the inclusion of sexual orientation as a protected category and HIV disease as an example for definition of handicap in Kansas City, Missouri’s civil rights ordinance.”

In September of 1991 the HRP Board of Directors decided that in was necessary to delineate between the political and educational sides of the organization, and voted to create a political action committee: HRPac. The PAC served to support HRP in the political realm, fundraising, offering endorsements, and performing candidate screenings to help ensure that the candidates most supportive of civil rights would get elected at the local and state level.

David Weeda continued to lead HRP until 1994, when Tobie Matava took over as Executive Director. Matava resigned the post in March 1997, and Nancy Bader took over as President in April of that year. On December 17, 1997, HRP officially shut down operations, finding it “longer possible to continue at an acceptable level of activity.”

Sources: HROP and HRP Newsletters and Correspondence, and the Kansas City Star (November 9, 1990)

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