Roots
Michael Chanak Jr. has long-term roots in Cincinnati. He came to the Queen City in the spring of 1978 from northeast Ohio, where he was raised. He grew up in Massillon, the son of first-generation Greek American parents, and graduated from Washington High School in 1967 and from Kent State University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Science in Fine and Professional Arts (Speech–Journalism). He holds insurance designations from the American Insurance Institute and an applied science degree from Cincinnati State and Technical College (1983).
He became involved in the LGBTQ+ community in the early 1980s through New Spirit Oasis Metropolitan Community Church, then Cincinnati’s oldest LGBTQ+ group (closed July 31, 2021), and its host, Church of Our Saviour. He has volunteered with local organizations for 40 years.His essay on May 4, 1970 describes what it was like to be gay at Kent State.
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble employed Michael for nearly 20 years, from 1985 until he retired in 2003. There he came out to take part openly and honestly in Cincinnati’s LGBTQ+ community. In June 1986 he attended a downtown Pride parade and rally at Fountain Square. A local television station filmed him kissing the late Dr. Bob McNee of the University of Cincinnati, and the video aired for three nights, effectively outing him at P&G.
In January 1987 he was transferred to a prescription brand, Peridex, an oral rinse that was indirectly reaching people with HIV through dental professionals. For five years he made the case that gay and lesbian people belonged in the company’s equal employment policy as valued customers and employees. It is said that he put a public face on the LGBTQ+ community in the 1980s inside P&G, and his community work connected the company to the HIV/AIDS community. On September 15, 1992, P&G changed its equal employment statement to go beyond then-federal requirements by including “sexual orientation.”
To confirm: The old site spelled the archivist’s name “Greg Mccoy.” Confirm the spelling.
Nearly a quarter century later, P&G realized the history of how it came to embrace this diversity had never been documented. Working for a year with CNN’s Great Big Story, the company released a 19-minute film in April 2018 called “The Words Matter: One Voice Can Make a Difference.” Michael hopes it offers a history lesson and shows the value of personal advocacy, then and now. Brent Miller, P&G’s global LGBTQ+ equality program leader, was the film’s executive producer. Also in it are Anne Harbison, Tom Jones, Lynwood Battle (died August 29, 2021), Ed Offshack, Delaine Adkins and John Pepper.
In August 2017, ahead of the film, P&G’s chief diversity officer, William Gipson, wrote to Michael to thank him for his leadership. The letter says his courage led to the company’s inclusion of the LGBT community in its diversity statement 25 years earlier, and it invited him to a panel discussion for employees on October 17 and a recognition dinner marking 25 years of LGBT inclusion.
P&G’s affinity group GABLE created the Courageous Leadership award in his name in October 2018, and honored Lyn Battle, the company’s former EEO officer, for Effective Allyship. A follow-on P&G and CNN film, “Out of the Shadows: Risking Their Careers in the Name of Equality” (2019), also featured him. His last corporate film with CNN, “They Will See You: LGBTQ+ Visibility in Advertising” (2020), was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in January 2021.
Pride
Pride committees were his first love. From 1985 to 1994 he handled publicity and the election of the pride marshal and emceed the Pride Rally. He was Cincinnati’s gay pride marshal in 1993. In 2000 he served as Senior Advisor to Chris Good in bringing the Pride Parade back to Cincinnati after a five-year absence, and he continued in many of the same roles until 2015. In 2009 he recognized that Pride had outgrown its Northside venue and successfully advocated for a move downtown, finding a new partner to lead the event.
As early as 1984 he was part of the annual ecumenical and interfaith service committee that offered a public service during Pride Week, and he still serves on the Pride Interfaith Committee. He has also worked with local AIDS charities to present a public Remembrance Day for those lost to HIV and for those still living with it, and he remains a member of the World AIDS Day Committee.
Community and honors
Michael has held membership in New Spirit Oasis Metropolitan Community Church, PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), Stonewall Cincinnati, the Imperial Sovereign Queen City Court of the Buckeye Empire, and the Greater Cincinnati Gay Community Center. The Court honored him with the International José Julio Sarria Civil Rights Award and the Lydia Grant Humanitarian Award in 2014. In December 2015 he received the Tri-State Leather Forbearer Award. In 2018 the City of Cincinnati recognized him during Pride month for his lifetime commitment to equality, and in March 2019 Human Rights Campaign Cincinnati gave him the David C. Crowley Leadership Award.
The press and references page lists the coverage: HuffPost, Kent State Magazine, WKSU and WVXU public radio, the Cincinnati Enquirer, WCPO-TV and more.
Archives and retirement
Before this site existed, he was already helping preserve the record. He was a longtime supporter of the Ohio Lesbian Archives and served on its board for two and a half years, beginning in August 2021, to help the group find a permanent home. That goal was met with the grand opening of the Ohio Lesbian Archives on October 22, 2023. In 2023 the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County marked the 50th anniversary of the first Pride event in the area (April 1973) with an online archive, and he is an ongoing contributor.
Since the P&G films were released he has been invited to share his history with P&G, PFLAG, Duke Energy, the City of Cincinnati’s LGBTQ+ employee resource group, church groups and a Northern Kentucky University honors course in queer activism. In retirement he still gives interviews, helps with research projects on Greater Cincinnati LGBTQ+ history, and periodically talks with students.
Contact Michael about interviews, talks or research.