Our Mission

Out Montclair is a nonprofit organization created to raise awareness and provide support and solidarity for the LGBTQIA+ community of Montclair and surrounding area. We offer educational resources and create activities and events to promote inclusivity and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, nonbinary and gender-fluid youth and adults. Additionally, we are a safe space where our community and our allies can come together and celebrate who we are.

Board of Trustees

Bill

William Courson, Founding Member of the Board of Trustees

Bill Courson is a retired health educator, and has been active in the movement for LGBTQ+ equality since his high school days (as well as movements promoting racial and women’s equality and the anti-war movement) and helped to found gay and lesbian student organizations at Brookdale Community College and Monmouth University in the 1970s.

Bill moved to Montclair in 1978. and is a member of Montclair‘s First Congregational Church. He is a member of Garden State Equality’s Older Adults Council, is active in a variety of professional, philanthropic and civic organizations, and is one of the founding Board members of Out Montclair.
Leslie

Leslie Farber, Member of the Board of Trustees

Leslie Farber is an attorney at law practicing in Montclair, New Jersey, concentrating primarily in the areas of employment law and family law, along with estate planning. Ms. Farber received her law degree in 1991 from Pace University School of Law where she was an editor of the Pace Law Review. She has an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Drew University. She is licensed to practice law in state had federal courts in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, and the United States Supreme Court.

Leslie is President of the National Employment Lawyers of Association-New Jersey. She also was the first chairperson of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association, and currently is a trustee of that Section. She also is a past
member of the Board of Trustees of the National LGBT Bar Association.

Outside the practice of law, Leslie recently was co-chair of the Essex County LGBTQ Advisory Board and currently is a member of the Essex County LGBTQ Advisory Board. Personal interests include playing music, golf, and bicycle riding.
Madeline

Madeline Gale, Board Member and Co-Founder

Madeline has been actively leading and participating in civil rights struggles for most of her life. She is a Co-Founder and Board Member of Out Montclair, an NJPAC LGBTQ+ Advisory Council Co-Chair, and is on the Newark LGBTQ+ Film Festival Committee and the Garden State Equality Older Adults Council. She is a Montclair Civil Rights Commissioner and is a Board Member of the Montclair NAACP Executive Committee, and Montclair Mutual Aid.

She has been an Early Childhood and Special Education Teacher, and a Reading Specialist for most of her career.

Madeline was also part of the planning committee for the Boston, MA contingents in the 1993 & 2000 LBGTQ Marches On Washington, and for the 1992 & 1995 National Organization for Women’s marches in DC. She was also an active organizer of Boston ACT UP demonstrations in the 1980s and 90s.

Team Out Montclair

Reubena

Reubena Spence, Co-Founder, Former Chair of the Board of Trustees, and Former President of Out Montclair, Inc.

Reubena Spence is a dedicated Co-Founder of Out Montclair, where she oversaw the organization’s 50+ programming. She also serves as a co-chair of the NJPAC LGBTQ+ Advisory Council for Community Engagement alongside her wife, Madeline Gale. As an active Montclair Civil Rights Commissioner, board member of Montclair Mutual Aid, and a key force behind the inaugural Newark LGBTQ+ BiPOC Film Festival, Reubena is deeply committed to her community.

Reubena is also a talented graphic artist and scroll designer at her company, Inkcurves Design. Her diverse skill set, honed through her background in Human Resources and her academic achievements including a BA in Psychology/Journalism from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and a Master’s in Business and Marketing from Richard Stockton University, NJ, make her an invaluable asset to the organizations she collaborates with.
In her leisure time, Reubena loves traveling, fine dining, art exploration, nature walks, kayaking, bowling, and billiards.

Caroline Dadas – Sports Program
Cathi Flanagan – Bookkeeper

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