Louise Young and Vivienne Armstrong tell their story for Outrageous Oral, Volume 9, January 30, 2014, in the Rose Room @ S4 in Dallas. 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.

Louise and Vivienne have been active in gay and lesbian civil rights since 1971, when they joined the Gay Liberation Front while the University of Colorado. Shortly after moving to Dallas in 1976, they joined the Dallas Gay Political Caucus, which we now know as the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance. Louise and Vivienne worked tirelessly to build political relationships between the LGBT community in Dallas and other political organizations that, to this day, have been steadfast allies in local, statewide, and national politics. In 1993, they represented LGBT Americans in President Clinton's Inaugural Parade on the "Family of America" float. Their 42-year relationship has been featured in many books and they are recipients of numerous awards, including the Black Tie Kuchling Humanitarian Award. Louise has been especially active in the workplace equality movement. She retired after a 33-year career with Raytheon Company where she was instrumental in Raytheon becoming the first aerospace and defense company to score100 percent on the HRC Corporate Equality Index. Vivienne retired after a distinguished career of more than 30 years with the Visiting Nurse Association, including leadership in HIV services.