From the editor:

We at O&AN are celebrating our seven year anniversary this month. Though still an infant by industry standards, we’re proud of seven dutiful years spent serving the GLBT community in Tennessee.

That’s seven years of boasting of our diversity in the face of adversity in hopes of stomping out an easier path for others to follow.

Two years ago, O&AN didn’t have an office and the work phone I carried seldom rang. Now, I’m inundated with phone calls in our East Nashville office.

Often, people call to tell me they’ve been wronged because of their sexuality or are looking for a place to volunteer... I point them in the direction of community groups such as the Tennessee Equality Project and OutCentral (who also is celebrating a birthday this month. Read about it on our Web site.)

When “important” GLBT news events make it to mainstream media, local news outlets oftentimes call O&AN for background information or a quote. We know that all GLBT events are significant, so we provide daily news updates on our Web site and a weekly newsletter delivered to your email inbox.

For those reasons, we think of ourselves as more than a news outlet. We are a community resource - a central tool in linking various segments of the community and promoting advancement and equality for us all.

Only seven years into what we hope will be a long, fruitful life, we at O&AN are proud of the accomplishments we’ve made thus far and want to thank our loyal readers and advertisers who realize the importance of keeping Tennessee’s leading GLBT news source alive through the years.

We are confident that advertisers in our pages and on our Web site are putting themselves in front of an economically powerful demographic that is loyal to businesses who support the GLBT community. Without our advertisers, O&AN could not exist. Please support the businesses within our pages, because in a roundabout way they are supporting you.