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By: VAN GOWER
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This weekend’s Human Rights Campaign Dinner will be bittersweet for Ray
Hom and Kent Grogin. After almost a decade of activism in Atlanta — including
Hom’s two years as co-chair of the local HRC dinner — the couple
departs later this month for Singapore.
“There are so many wonderful people that we are going to miss,” Hom
says. “But hopefully, there are enough weeks out of the year for everybody
to come visit us.”
Hom served as co-chair of Atlanta Games, Inc. — the group behind Atlanta’s
2001 bid to lure the 2006 Gay Games — and has worked with HRC in a variety
of volunteer roles, both locally and nationally. As development director for
Radiant Systems, Hom is relocating to build a consulting team in his employer’s
Singapore office. The project is a two year commitment.
After traveling to Singapore to make arrangements, Hom and Grogin timed their
move so they could be in Atlanta to attend the HRC Dinner, where they plan
to say goodbye to scores of friends here.
“I was with Ray so much, many people thought we were married,” says
Margie Archer, Hom’s longtime friend and fellow Atlanta Games co-chair. “I
was proud and always will be proud to be his friend.”
HRC’S MISSION OF ADVOCATING for federal legislation on behalf of gays
first attracted Hom when he attended an HRC Dinner 12 years ago in Houston,
Tex., where he lived at the time.
“I was inspired and realized that the HRC covered what the gay community
focused on and crossed a whole range of issues,” Hom says of the experience,
which sparked his extensive involvement with other Houston-area gay service
groups.
After relocating to Atlanta in 1994, one of the first local organizations
Hom volunteered for was Project Open Hand, which provides meals for people
living with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses.
“Then I looked up the HRC in Atlanta and was kind of thrown into it,” he
says.
Hom went on to serve as Atlanta dinner co-chair in 1996 and 1997. He also
served on HRC’s national board of governors for six years and the board
of directors for two years. He later traversed the country raising funds for
the recently opened HRC national headquarters building in Washington, D.C.
“Ray is one of the most passionate men regarding gay causes I have ever
met,” Archer says. “As an activist, Ray Hom’s picture should
be found in the dictionary beside the word.”
Hom says he is equally proud of his volunteer work with Gay Games teams in
Houston and Atlanta.
After attending the 1998 Gay Games in Amsterdam as a spectator, Hom returned
to Atlanta determined to rally a robust delegation of Team Atlanta athletes
for the 2002 games in Sydney, Australia.
In 2001, when Atlanta Games, Inc., efforts were underway to attempt bringing
the 2006 games here, Hom was asked to jump on board as co-chair.
The local bid was ultimately unsuccessful, but “it was a great opportunity
for Atlanta, and I wouldn’t have traded it for the world,” Hom
says. “Doing the bid itself brought the gay and straight communities
together in Atlanta. It showed what the gay community can do here.”
Grogin supported Hom throughout his involvement with gay organizations and
events. The couple met in Atlanta 21 years ago while both worked for Rich’s
Department Store. Each left Atlanta and moved to other cities, but they stayed
together by visiting often. Work later brought them back to Atlanta.
Now that they are on the move again for the two-year stint in Singapore, both
partners are excited about immersing themselves in a new culture and country — particularly
Hom, who is Asian American and says he has never had an opportunity to fully
explore his heritage.
Grogin, who will be temporarily ineligible to work in Singapore until receiving
a work visa, plans to spend the interim period studying, traveling, “and
experiencing a lot of things I never would have before,” he says.
“It’s a grand opportunity that not many people get in their lives,” Grogin
says.
Hom agrees.
“For us to be able to go together and start this new journey — together — is
exciting,” he says.
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