JANUARY 14, 1994

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

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of what eventually became known as the Coalition for Cultural Understanding (minutes of this meeting are available for public inspection at the Center).

Official minutes of subsequent board meetings reveal that the CFCU never formally presented one concrete program suggestion or general finding on racism at the Center to the board. Prior to the creation of the CFCU, board minutes indicate that at no time during her tenure as a board member did Cella formally propose anything with regard to anti-racism work or program planning for people of color at the Center. Cella did raise the issue of parity in selection of board membership at the January 19, 1993 board meeting, and the board unanimously agreed to address parity (race and gender) of future members during the year. Nothing in the minutes suggests that Cella was speaking on behalf of the CFCU, or that the CFCU was still a functioning committee at that time.

It was not until May of 1993 that the Center's Nominating Committee-not the CFCU-actually recommended to the Executive Committee that a board workshop on racism-sexism be planned. One board member expressed reservation about expending energy on this issue, and a heated debate ensued. Thus was born the current racism controversy at the Center, which snowballed throughout the summer and fall, and resulted in the postponement of board elections in late October. Cella reversed herself on the parity issue last summer, claiming that the board wasn't ready for new members of color until it had done its own racism work (see relevant issues of the Chronicle and Cella's article in What She Wants).

Why rehash all of this? Because some members of our community are insisting that Cella worked diligently for years to combat entrenched racism at the Center before the roof blew last summer, and that the board obdurately refused to act on her recommendations. There is simply no evidence on record to support this contention. If Cella or the CFCU had proposed any remedial courses of action and a board

COMMUNITY FORUM

majority had then squelched those proposals, I could see some grounds for resentment. As the record stands, however, Cella got exactly what she wanted an ad hoc committee specifically commissioned to tackle the inclusivity issue—and she never followed through with it.

A second point. If lesbian-gay-bisexual people of color in the Cleveland area are not getting something they want or need from the Center, must we automatically assume that racism is the reason? Blanket statements about the Center and the Chronicle and Stonewall being racist conveniently deflect attention away from other possible explanations for the relative noninvolvement of minorities at these institutions, explanations stemming from realities within the POC community itself-such as chronic apathy; lack of effective leadership; underdeveloped mobilization skills; rampant internalized homophobia; a failure to identify its own needs and to formulate and present practical measures to meet those needs; anti-white prejudice; a do-your-work-butdon't-expect-us-to-help-you-with-it men-

tality.

Cella and SOAR have no qualms about telling whites what kind of "work" they need to do, but I sense a great unwillingness on the POC community's part to hear about their own shortcomings from whites. It's clear to me that all of us have some "work" to do with regard to racism. So why can't we come together and help each other with this work?

Finally, true dialogue is a two-way street. Dialogue implies conversation. Conversation implies listening. Listening implies openness to the ideas and feelings of the speaker(s). And openness thrives in an atmosphere of mutual respect. The September Fishbowl experience was not dialogueit was one-way venting, and many found it abusive and insulting. Threatening to destroy the Center and disrupt scheduled elections if they weren't postponed was not dialogue-it was in-your-face, my-way-orelse intimidation, and Center bylaws were violated when the board caved in to Cella's bellicosity.

Workshops that revolve around the premise that all whites are racist whether

HATE CRIME UPDATE

Cleveland area hate crimes up 137%

by Edward Boyte

Bias motivated incidents of violence and harassment against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered persons rose 137 percent over 1992, according to the Maryann Finegan Project of the Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center of Greater Cleveland.

Sixty-four incidents were reported to the Center in 1993 as opposed to 27 in 1992. The number of offenses also rose dramatically-111 in 1993 versus 52 in 1992, an increase of 113 percent.

An incident is defined as "one or more offenses that occur as a single unit of experience," according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which tracks bias crimes nationally. For instance, one could be physically threatened, assaulted and robbed, accounting for three offenses and one incident.

The Project accounts for the rise in incidents and offenses as due in part to increased reporting by victims. Both the Maryann Finegan Project and the Center's Hotline were short staffed in 1992.

But Cleveland's rise in hate crime echoes

the increase taking place around the country. The anti-gay initiative in Cincinnati, the March on Washington, and the debate over lesbians and gays in the military helped keep media spotlight on gays and lesbians. That a backlash to this attention has occurred in Cleveland is quite possible, according to the anti-violence project.

No other agency in Northeast Ohio tracks anti-lesbian, anti-gay violence (including law enforcement). Recording and responding to this violence by the City of Cleveland is urgently needed, according to the Maryann Finegan Project.

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they realize it or not don't promote dia-

logue they are soapboxes from which the gospels of Blame and Separatism are

preached. Somewhere along the line, SOAR declared itself judge and jury in this whole affair, and anyone who disagrees with them is promptly found guilty as charged. Separatist thinking, intimidation, verbal abuse, presupposition of guilt, unsubstantiated charges, double standards, obstinacy—all are antithetical to healthy dialogue, yet all have been shamelessly employed by SOAR to impose its agenda on the Center and other gay-lesbian institutions in Cleveland. When this negative maneuvering stops, real dialogue can begin.

And then, perhaps, when we've looked in the mirror together and acknowledged what is and is not there, when we decide to let go of the things holding us back, when we embrace the truth in all its plangent, awful simplicity--maybe then we'll begin transforming our Center into the resolute model of trust, enlightenment, co-operation, and justice that so many of us envision.

DOGO

OBFAA

BURGLAR &

HAY ALARM ASSOCIATIO Move

NATIONAL BUROLAR G FIRE ALARM

Member

E.R.C

NETWORK UTLIATE

24 HOUR

David Debick

Surviving without the Center

To the Editors:

I agree with your [Dec. 10] editorial on SOAR. The Center must be brought back to the middle; otherwise it is doomed.

I have survived most of my life without the Center. I am now 53 years old and again will have to survive without the Center.

Timothy E. Leiden

Community Forum

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Address letters to the Chronicle, P.O. Box 5426, Cleveland, Ohio, 44101, orj fax to 216-621-5282 (24 hours). Include your address and phone number so we may contact you to verify the letter.

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