The Paul Rogers Local Activist Award
Do you know someone here in West Texas who has worked towards equality by being active in the LGBTQ+ community? LubbockPRIDE is looking for recipients of the Paul Rogers Activist Award, to be given during the annual Pride celebration.
We are looking for someone who has worked in their local LGBTQ+ community and has demonstrated leadership, passion, and commitment to creating change in the South Plains. We ask that you please submit a short nomination listing why you feel this person deserves this year’s award. If selected, the nominee must be present at the festival.
Previous Award Recipients
2013 - Grace Rogers
Grace Rogers has been a part of the Lubbock community since she came to attend Texas Tech in 1955. She was raised in Levelland and lived in Taos, NM, during the '80s. Grace and Tom are the parents of four children, a daughter and three sons, two of whom are gay. Grace also was a government and English teacher at Coronado High School and on the adjunct facility of South Plains College. She encouraged people to be politically active and to vote for candidates who supported equality and inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community. A longtime member of PFLAG Lubbock, Grace has been a frequent speaker and letter writer who remains active, celebrating and attending PRIDE every year. In appreciation and as a surprise to her, this award was named in honor of her late son, Paul, and her family. Grace was honored to be its first recipient in 2013.
2014 - Betty Dotts
Betty Dotts, a Lubbock Native, spent her life giving to those in need. She and her late husband, the Reverend Ted Dotts, spent many years working in several social rights movements including the Civil Rights Movement, women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ rights. Betty and Ted founded the local chapter of PFLAG which is still active today. They hosted the first meeting on the second flood of St. John’s Methodist Church. She then passed the torch to future leaders.
2015 - Katie Miller
Katie Miller was the president of the Tech GSA for three years. Originally from Arlington, Texas, Katie moved to Tech to pursue a degree in Exercise and Sports Science. Not only did she run the GSA but was part of the Leadership Council and the Diversity Council for Texas Tech. Katie received many awards including Human Sciences honor graduate, Raiders Who Rock, Outstanding Senior from the College of Human Sciences, Feminist Activist award, the President's Excellence Award for Diversity and Equality, and a diversity scholarship. She helped create and pass ordinances on Texas Tech campus for transgender inclusion in dorms.
2016 - Dr. Kimberly Simón
Simón holds a Master’s degree and PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy from Texas Tech. With experience in addiction and recovery, collegiate substance use, relational and sexual violence, and campus programming, Simón has taught courses in the Community, Family and Addiction Sciences department since its creation. She has worked in outpatient treatment programs, inpatient treatment centers and juvenile justice facilities, providing individual, group and family therapy for clients. She also is a trained crisis specialist who worked in a domestic violence shelter. She became the director of RISE in 2015. As of April 2017, she was promoted to director of the Texas Tech University Risk Intervention & Safety Education (RISE) office, has been named as the university’s Title IX administrator.
2017 - Derek Mergele-Rust
Since his first year at Texas Tech Law School, Derek worked tirelessly to establish Lavender Law, a student organization dedicated to advocating for the LGBTQ community. Under Derek’s leadership, Lavender Law was committed to LGBTQ legal issues and student support. In addition, Lavender Law co-sponsored training for student leaders, faculty and staff to receive LGBTQ Allies Training. In his last year of Law School, Derek worked with licensed attorneys in the Lubbock area to provide pro bono legal services for gender-marker and name change services for transgender persons. His legacy in the Law School and Lubbock will have a great impact for many years to come.
2018 - Cadyn Ribera
Cadyn has continuously shown direction and leadership in the community, especially on transgender issues. He has spent much time leading the Gender Spectrum Support Group, not only making it an environment welcoming to the community as a whole but parents and friends alike. In his activism, he has appeared many times in the news talking not only about transgender issues but problems the community faces as a whole. “If me constantly being outed in the community means that I can help one person, be who they are without fear, then I am willing to. If me going to the news and reading the awful comments on Facebook later means that eventually one day no trans person has to feel so alone, like I did, then I will.” He has opened his home to LGBTQ+ individuals who have nowhere to stay, making them feel welcomed and loved.
2023 - Dr. Nick Harpster
Dr. Harpster holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University where he fostered his interests in inequalities and social justice. As a college instructor he teaches about the importance of civil rights for marginalized groups, even adding supplemental resources to the typical one chapter that most criminal justice textbooks have on the LGBTQ+ experience. After deciding to put his teachings into action, Harpster ran for Lubbock County Commissioner in 2018, openly sharing his allyship with the LGBTQ+ community.
After this unsuccessful political campaign, he rerouted his activism by joining LubbockPRIDE as Vice President in May of 2019. He was promoted to Acting President in 2020 and then President in 2021, both years during the pandemic. In 2022, Harpster stepped down from his President role and his current position as Public Relations & Advocacy Coordinator was created, so he could continue his love for advocacy work.
Some of his proudest advocacy moments are his coordination of the first celebration of Transgender Day of Visibility in Lubbock, held on the County Courthouse lawn in 2022; the push for the Lubbock City Council to recognize June as Pride Month, which culminated into a joint ally effort Silent Rainbow Sit-In at Council Chambers in 2023; and his many press releases, interviews, and joint letters of support alongside state LGBTQ+ organizations, such as Equality Texas and Lambda Legal.
Dr. Harpster would like to challenge more allies of the LGBTQ+ community to become accomplices, like he has. As he professed in his statement after receiving this honor: “As allies we need to back them up, we need to be beside them, and sometimes we need to be in FRONT of them. It is our duty to help this community.”
2024 - Tricia Earl
Tricia Earl is an artist, educator, and organizer living in Lubbock as an independent artist working with photography since 1986. Her research is inspired by integrating historical and emerging feminist practices and theories.
Since 2005, she has been an active community organizer in both Lubbock and University communities. She has been instrumental in escalating presentations, lectures, conferences, exhibitions, panel discussions, and multiple film series. The primary objective for her coordinating, organizing, and planning achievements has been to provide an open forum to enhance critical thinking and promoting social justice.
About Paul Rogers
Paul Rogers was the eldest son of Thomas and Grace Rogers. He was born in Lubbock and graduated from Coronado High School. He then went to Abilene Christian University, graduated Magna Cum Laude and later attended graduate school in Dallas and Malibu, California. Paul moved to New York City and worked for the law firm of Chadbourne and Parke.
Paul died of AIDS related respiratory failure in 1999 at the age of 39 and had a memorial service in Taos, New Mexico, the home of his heart. His ashes reside in the Angostura Meadow, high in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico, which he loved from his boyhood.
He was a handsome man who left behind a legacy of laughter and tears, of tenderness of heart and delightful wit, of impeccable good taste, and of living and dying on his own terms. He loved life, particularly fun nights out with friends, children, and his miniature dachshund, Lady. He enjoyed traveling, reading, and movies.
He is survived by his parents, Tom and Grace, his close sister, Sarah Colwell, and his two younger brothers, Joel and Mark Rogers. He had a longtime partner, Phillip Adams, who now resides in Melbourne, Australia.
Paul would be humbled and honored to have this LGBTQ+ Activist Award established in his name. When Paul grew up in Lubbock, our community was not always a welcoming place for a gay young man. Those who have been active in changing Lubbock and instilling a sense of PRIDE to the community of LGBTQ+ residents and allies in our city are to be applauded all. The person honored each year with this award is but one of so many individuals and groups who continue the work of equality and education… and the spirit of celebration!