Doing business in OKC provides that alternative. “I always wanted to be a really positive gay role model, but in this state, you can’t do that because of job security,” he says. Prior to becoming a full-time photographer, Stegall was a band teacher in rural Oklahoma. “It’s safety in numbers,” says AJ Stegall, photographer and founder of the Oklahoma Rainbow Collective, an LGBTQ+ wedding vendor directory for the state.
We've got this large population of queer 2SLGBTQIA+ Oklahomans seeking safe spaces that they'll travel for.” Folks from rural regions in Oklahoma increasingly sought refuge in vibrant OKC. We're in the middle of a queer-led renaissance right now thanks to a handful of folks paving the way and inspiring others to live authentically. “It's still not okay to be gay in most places in Oklahoma,” she says. The exterior of OSO Paseo, a taco restaurant in the Paseo Arts District OSO PaseoĪs Rachael Leonhart, an Oklahoma transplant and executive director of the Plaza District, puts it, adversity breeds community.
