Evilu Pridgeon tells her story for Outrageous Oral, Volume 17 on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, in the Rose Room at S4 in Dallas, Texas. Outrageous Oral is a quarterly evening of poignant memories and stories from Dallas' GLBT past. The Dallas Way is committed to our mission to gather, store, organize, and present the complete GLBT history of Dallas, Texas.

Evilu "Pridge" Pridgeon began her professional career as a teacher in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD). Pridge left the district to work for a non-profit inpatient treatment facility for both youth and adults. Pridge volunteered as Oak Lawn Counseling Center (later known as Oak Lawn Community Services - OLCS), creating an outpatient treatment program for the gay community and persons impacted with HIV/AIDS. In the late 1980s, the program, known as OASIS, became the first treatment program for the community licensed by the state of Texas.