GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 24, 1995

Cordially invite you to The 2nd Annual

Human Rights Campaign Fund Northcoast Dinner

Saturday, March 25, 1995 The Metropolitan Cleveland, Ohio

Information & Tickets Call (216) 962•3422

125.00 per perseit Limited Seating

Please respond by March 10

Human Rights

CAMPAIGN FUND

U4ia First Fridays Plus

MARCH

Delicate Balance w/Cyclone Sisters (3

MOTOWN NIGHT Featuring Nightbridge 24

APRIL

Rock Out With the

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AND SAVE THESE DATES: MAY 5, June 2 & June 16

Doors Open 9:00pm Dancing til' close with DJ Sue Marie. $5Cover Presented in co-operation with Omega, Bluefish Productions and Pride, Inc. For More Information call 216/371-9714

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Between Detroit & Madison, East of 117th

(216) 631-7111

COMMUNITY GROUPS

Work within the party for diversity and inclusion

by Richard Oldrieve

Beyond establishing civil rights and ending the Vietnam war, the three rallying cries of the '60s generation were:

1. Don't trust anyone over 30. 2. Question authority.

3. Peace, love, and understanding. Unfortunately, the '60s generation soon discovered that they too were aging; that questioning authority isn't the same as rejecting authority; and that peace, love, and understanding is a lot easier to chant than it is to live.

alignment is too great to pass up. Out of thirty people at an informational first meeting of the DLC, four women members of Stonewall more than doubled the three other women attending.

Back in 1972, George McGovern tried encouraging diversity and inclusion by opening the back-room doors to the broad spectrum of peoples that constituted the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, when massive internal infighting between various groups led to McGovern's overwhelming defeat, party old-timers dropped inclusion from their vocabulary.

STONEWALL

CLEVELAND

A lesbian/gay political organization of Northeastern Ohio

I bring these things up because I was a child witness to the '60s, and I somehow believed that someday the '60s idealism could come true. After the explosive elections last November 8, all sense of '60s idealism seems to have vanished from the political landscape. But do not despair-according to Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science, chaos is the perfect opportunity to reorganize an organization for the better.

The Republicans successfully fought back from their 1992 defeat by becoming even more conservative. After the November 8 congressional defeats, the Democratic Party can go in one of two directions: follow the lead of the Republicans and appease straight white males at all costs, or take the opposite tack towards greater diversity and openness.

In the three intervening months since the elections, I've met proponents of both directions. Fortunately, the power elite of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party seems to be leaning towards greater diversity and openness. County chairperson Jimmy Dimora established a Task Force on Diversity to combat the increasing split between wards on Cleveland's largely AfricanAmerican East Side and largely European-American West Side. Results from the past several elections indicate many West Side voters have stopped supporting Democratic Party-endorsed African-American candidates. Dem leaders fear that East Side black voters will retaliate by refusing to support West Side white candidates.

Similarly, the state Dem leaders fear a split along gender lines after Jane Campbell and Mary Boyle were scorned by Democratic insiders during last spring's primaries.

The state branch of the Democratic Leadership Council seems genuinely interested in spreading diversity and inclusion. At the national level, this policy-writing arm of the Democratic Party is fiscally conservative, but Out Voice's Bill Henderson and myself have been given the opportunity to invite women, minorities, and activist group leaders to become policy writers for this group. Consequently, we both feel that the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of this potential re-

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I believe that McGovern failed because modern psychology had not yet perfected inclusiveness training. In the intervening twenty

years, schools, churches, and even businesses have been developing inclusion techniques. First Japanese, and then American auto factories perfected techniques for valuing and incorporating the input of every person on the assembly line. Now, I believe, whichever party adopts consensus techniques first will become the dominant party.

In Ohio, Republicans have seemingly learned the value of running a diverse slate of gender and race candidates-but I am not convinced they have accepted all the ideological consequences. If you are a Republican, I encourage you to fight from within to keep the party committed to diversity.

If you are a Democrat, I, as a member of the Diversity Task Force, am inviting you to get involved with the Cuyahoga County Democrats. In the next several months, the Task Force will be traveling to various Democratic suburban and city ward clubs to ask for input as to where the Democratic Party should be headed. County Chairperson Jimmy Dimora is sending invitations to registered Democrats to come to these forums-but in case you miss the invitation, or dismiss the sincerity, I am writing this article to encourage you to come and voice your concerns, and more importantly to voice your positive, constructive proposals for improving everyone's lives.

If you like the process, I suggest that you keep going to ward club meetings, and become a precinct committee person. You would thus gain the right to vote on party endorsements and possibly help avert future disasters that left Boyle and Campbell facing uphill primaries.

Or if you want to do more than give suggestions and vote on endorsements, and you have the time and desire to help write new policies that have yet to be dreamed up, then I suggest that you come to the next organizational meeting of the northeastern Ohio Democratic Leadership Council.

I cannot promise anything. I have heard and witnessed many horror stories about the unwillingness of party regulars to accept newcomers. I also know that many people might not include gays, lesbians, and bisexuals in their definitions of diversity. Consequently, I realize that the patience of Jackie Robinson and the love of Martin Luther King Jr. may be necessary to overcome barriers.

Fortunately, the beauty of the U.S. Constitution is that over time various peoples have been able to extract the freedom written into the original document. Likewise, if the leaders of the Democratic Party are inviting diversity, then the time and structure is ripe to extract the real beauty, richness, and power of diversity from the words.

Over the next few weeks, John Nolan will publish the dates and times of various Diversity Task Force Meetings where you can voice your concerns and positive proposals. In the meantime, please call the Democratic's Party's executive director Dona Brady at 216-6219750 for the exact time, dates, and location of your local ward club meeting. Or come to Stonewall Union meetings at the Archwood United Church of Christ on the first and third Mondays of each month at 7:00 pm. Or for Democratic Leadership Council information, call Bill Henderson at 216-651-2341, or this writer, Richard Oldrieve, at 216-892-1994.