JANUARY 14, 1994

COMMUNITY GROUPS

A farewell and a look to the future

by Keith Sutton

With the close of a year comes reflections on what has been, what could have been, and of course, New Year's resolutions. My resolution this year focuses on taking better care of myself. And deciding how to do that is often difficult. Especially because it involves choices.

The thing I like to do is travel, both domestically and internationally. My recent trip to Russia with other gay square dancers from across the country has again reinforced my desire to do more travel. And the fun and fellowship I get from dancing with the Cleveland City Country Dancers is pure joy. I've never held an office, and never will. I just love to dance and be with a lot of new found friends. And there're always plenty of opportunities to travel to fly-ins and dance conventions around the country.

And one of the things I need to do more of, and have always found it nearly impossible to do, is to take more time to relax and do nothing. I've never seemed to make much progress with this. A friend of mine once said, "Just because you have some free time, doesn't mean you have to fill it." It seemed so profound.

I began giving myself more time when I resigned from the Lesbian and Gay Community Center about a year ago, after nearly three years on the board. Now, after nearly four years as an officer of Stonewall Cleveland, it's time to resign here too.

This is not an easy choice. I've debated the extent of my role for some time. How can I step away from something I feel so passionately about? How do you quit when there's so much yet to do? If I have some god-given talents that could help make a difference, how can I not continue to offer them? And, how do I do all the things I want to do and still take better care of myself? These questions have never been easy for me to answer. But it takes a considerable amount of time and energy to do the kind of job I expect out of myself, and I need that time and energy for myself now.

Many talented and passionate people now attend Stonewall's biweekly meetings. There's no shortage of people to lead and continue Stonewall's work. As vice president, John Nolan will do no less than an outstanding job, as he has been doing since he joined the board. In addition, there're several real loyal diehards that have given greatly over the past several years. Plus, there're numerous men and women who have joined within the last year that are very passionate about making a difference.

Stonewall Cleveland, I'm proud to say, has made a difference in Cleveland. It has been a voice for Clevelanders on the political scene as well as provided the forum for voices to speak at Gay Town Hall Meetings. And,

what better sign of legitimacy than to be the target of criticism by our own community.

And that leads me to my final words of leadership and perhaps concern. Stonewall must be more "outwardly" focused. Organizational activities can be broadly classified as inwardly or outwardly directed. Inwardly directed activities focus on analyzing and improving organizational issues such as how to write bylaws, in-

crease

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Shortly after one of our community's recent outbreaks of name-calling, I went to my advertising office to work on a pro bono account, Alcohol Services of Cleveland. The meeting consisted of seven volunteers: three women and four men. The men consisted of one gay (me), one priest, one young politically correct hetero and one older bigot and chauvinist. The women con-

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sisted of one politically correct hetero, a more mature sociallynetworked business leader and one very competent black social worker, the sole employee of Alcohol Services of Cleveland. I looked around the room, as the black woman chaired the meeting, and thought how refreshing it was that no one had to be guilted for their shortcomings and no one had to get "fixed" before we could come together as professionals to advance the cause of ASC.

A lesbian/gay political organization of Northeastern Ohio membership, fundraising, and even more broadly, fixing the racism and sexism shortcomings of the gay community. Outwardly directed activities focus more on issues outside the organization such as gay bashing, fair housing, equal employment, military service, access to health care, adoption, choice, AIDS, etc., and the legislative and judicial advancement of these causes. It's as Tim McFeeley, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, said at the last year's Stonewall Dinner, next year let your focus not be solely on bringing another gay person to the dinner, but reach outwardly and bring a straight person next

year.

Stonewall must bring greater focus to legislative advancements in Cleveland. Sexual orientation should never be the basis of discrimination.

Continued marches, press meetings, meetings with community leaders and legislators, petitions, referenda, the submission of proposed legislation, these are the outwardly directed activities that must be pursued with greater fervor. Town Hall Meetings are meant to inform, allow discussion and motivate people to these causes.

Inward activities drain my energy. And I feel I am not alone in this regard. Some people get rewards from working on organizational development issues. Others, like myself, have invested considerable time and energies to this in the earlier years of Stonewall and wish to move on and outward. A couple of years ago, I helped sponsor the founding of The Leadership Roundtable. Its purpose was for our community leaders to network on problems common to us as individuals, our organizations and the community at large. But the effort quickly failed because the last thing leaders want is to spend more time on organizational development issues. The Roundtable was too inwardly focused. The newer members of Stonewall, perhaps most of all, must avoid this same mistake.

And frankly, I don't personally agree that everyone has to be "fixed" before they can work together toward a common goal.

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Our community must learn to come together for a common good, without expecting perfection from all the players. I personally learn far more from working side by side with women, blacks, challenged, and other segments of our community than I'll ever learn from books. No one knows of the progress that another person has made on issues of sexism, racism, ageism, classism, etc. And not only is it not our place to judge, it is not our place to expect perfection, only progress. And who are we to judge if an individual is making progress?

As Dan Geslin, pastor of Liberation UCC,

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said in his Advent sermon, we must come together out of acceptance, forgiveness, grace and reconciliation, rather than continue to choose hate and ridicule.

By all means, let's each do our internal and inward work, and if you wish to help others progress by creating forums for this work, please do so. But let's make some significant outward progress, before it's too late!

Here're a couple of final suggestions for outward work: If Mayor White and Jay Westbrook are our friends, why not call upon them to meet with us regularly? Why not meet with each and every city council member on a regularly scheduled basis? Since organizations like the ACLU, UCC, ACT UP, P-Flag, Log Cabin Club and the Human Rights Campaign Fund are all allies, why not have a couple joint meetings of key officers to determine how to select key "outward" issues and make coordinated progress? How about scheduling a gay question and comment at every one of Mayor White's public open microphone meetings? And, if we want heteros to accept homos, why not sponsor diversity and sensitivity training on a broader spectrum to personnel managers, business owners, reporters, therapists, doctors, moms and dads? As a community, we can help support this kind of workshop at many professional conferences and workshops.

Finally, let me say that you can count on me to still show up when needed. I love this community. And I have such great respect for so many of the people I have been privileged to work with. I wish them and you a very happy holiday season and a more just and safe New Year!

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