Straight but Not Narrow Coalition records

Collection — Box: 1

Identifier: 109-02-05

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The bulk of the collection is made up of the records of the Straight But Not Narrow Coalition including incorporation records, administrative records, marketing and outreach materials, and information about LGBT legislation at the state government level, including some relevant state-level legislation outside of Rhode Island. There are a small number of additional materials from other local and national LGBT advocacy organizations.

The collection mainly centers around two movements, the push toward the 1995 anti-discrimination civil rights bill, and the push for state-level marriage equality in the 2000s.

Dates

1993 - 2015

Creator

Straight But Not Narrow Coalition (1993-2015) (Newport, R.I. ) (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open to research.

Conditions Governing Use

PPL owns copyright to portions of the materials in this collection. Materials created by Straight But Not Narrow Coalition have been shared with PPL, but materials created by other organizations and collected by SBNNC may be under copyright. Users of this item are responsible for determining copyright restrictions.

Biographical / Historical

The Straight But Not Narrow Coalition was founded by Beth Milham and Marj Stenberg in Newport, Rhode Island in 1993 in response to the Rhode Island General Assembly’s failure to pass a comprehensive civil rights bill for LGBTQ+ people. (At the time, the legislation was commonly referred to as a gay rights bill.) The organization became dormant after the bill was passed in 1995 and revived in 2003 to support the push for same-sex marriage equality in the state. SBNNC was formally dissolved as a non-profit organization in 2015.

The Straight But Not Narrow Coalition (SBNNC) developed “advocacy by heterosexual citizens of RI for civil rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual citizens of RI.” According to its own documents, the organization’s stated purpose was “to demonstrate the support within the heterosexual population of Rhode Island for legislation preventing discrimination against, gay, lesbian, and bisexual citizens, based on the recognition that discrimination against any group of people diminishes all people.”

Beth and Russ Milham were married in 1964 and moved from the Boston area to Rhode Island in 1972 when Russ, a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, was transferred to Newport. Beth Milham was a nurse who worked with the behavioral health care organization CODAC from 1990-2005. Both Beth and Russ Milham were very active in social, environmental, and clean energy causes including the Norman Bird Sanctuary, Channing Memorial Church, and a number of LGBTQ+ rights causes including Project NAMES (the RI AIDS Quilt) and Straight But Not Narrow.