6 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE AUGUST 30, 1996

Abel leaves Stonewall Cincinnati for North Carolina Senate campaign

Continued from page 1

ing the campaign's message and developing talking points, something she has had a good deal of success with in her career. She managed Stonewall's successful "Operation Let it Shine" campaign to counteract the efforts of religious political extremists (who had passed the anti-gay ballot initiative Issue 3) to defeat human-rights supportive candidates for Cincinnati public office. Before coming to Cincinnati, Abel was the state coordinator for the "Privacy Project" for the Human Rights Task Force of Florida as well as chair of Floridians United Against Discrimination.

Her new position will also provide Abel the opportunity to develop her skills in the area of community and coalition building.

She will lead North Carolina Mobilization 96's effort to train citizens in each North Carolina county to work with the media to spread their message. Once the effort against Jesse Helms is complete, Abel is excited about the fact that she will have been instrumental in constructing a network of local spokespeople who can then continue to work on other issues as necessary.

Abel has always admired Mandy Carter, campaign manager and co-field director for North Carolina Mobilization '96. Carter, Able said, is one of the most effective women in gay politics today.

According to Abel, too often political campaigns have the single goal of either winning a certain political race, or building community. She and Carter agree that the two goals need not be mutually exclusive.

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Their strong belief in this point is one of the ideas that connects Abel and Carter.

What is Cindy Abel most proud of accomplishing during her two year tenure with Stonewall Cincinnati? First, she cited internal stabilization of the organization as one of her accomplishments. The group now has a written plan in place to reach specific, quantifiable goals.

There is a budget in place which corrected the $20,000 deficit that existed when Abel started as executive director.

Internal improvements aside, Abel is very excited about the positive media coverage Stonewall Cincinnati is able to generate for the gay and lesbian community. According to Abel, the community, represented by Stonewall Cincinnati, has a presence in the mainstream media every two to three weeks.

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These are opportunities to remind the public that a person can still lose his or her job in Cincinnati because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. Many people outside the gay and lesbian community do not realize this, but 80 percent of them think that it is unjust.

Abel is also proud of her work with the Buycott Project, which she says is another step toward building community in an "each one, teach one" way. The Buycott Project identifies human rights supportive businesses in the Cincinnati area. The result of the project is a booklet, the second edition of which is due out in about a week, which lists nearly 200 businesses which do not discriminate.

Two other projects stood out in Abel's mind as noteworthy accomplishments during her time with Stonewall Cincinnati: the Anti-Discrimination Project, and "Operation Let it Shine." The Anti-Discrimination Project has helped area citizens combat discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in a city which affords no legal protection or recourse in that area. “Operation Let it Shine" was instrumental in gaining reelection for three human rights supportive candidates to the Cincinnati City Council.

With successes there are often disappointments and Able has a few. She wishes the Buycott Project were further along. She also wishes the City Charter Change Forum, which Stonewall Cincinnati is an active participant in, had reached a consensus. Most importantly, she is disappointed that given the advances she has seen in Cincinnati, more people aren't more openly involved in Stonewall Cincinnati's efforts.

When asked what advice she has for the Cincinnati lesbian and gay community as she heads off to North Carolina, Abel said, "Tell the truth about who you are to yourselves. Get to a place where you don't operate from a place of shame. Be bold enough to tell the truth to other people."

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