GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE® October 1, 1999

community groups

We know who we must fight, and it isn't each other

by Linda Malicki

Cleveland-It has been a very busy year and we're really tired. Equality Begins at Home in March, the Center's relocation efforts, the Power Tour in August and all the usual "Center stuff" have taken their toll on all of the staff of the Cleveland Lesbian and Gay Center. But, for me, what has been even more exhausting is the increasing tone of hostility and division

in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender movemen, and the impact that tone will have upon our goal of equality and justice.

It has been a difficult year. We have all been witness to the effects of the Ku Klux Klan on our political leaders in Cleveland and this overall power of hate groups to cause

burgh last fall, at the Executive Director's Retreat in California this past April, and here in Cleveland every day.

We strike out at each other, enraged at the "other's" difference in thought. We refuse to work together because we disagree. We chastise each other condescendingly when we are not successful. We anticipate opportunities to enact revenge for a previous slight. We act... well, just like human beings.

The Center

chaos has also been felt in the GLBT community. The controversy about the Millennium March on Washington continues to divide our community across this country.

Anti-Human Rights Campaign backlash is alive and thriving in response to the exclusion of transgender people from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. We are angry with each other. We are taking sides. We are dividing our movement.

We need to give each other space in which to disagree. I have seen the dynamics of human nature struggling with diversity throughout Ohio on the Power Tour, at the NGLTF Creating Change conference in Pitts-

It isn't easy to allow someone a difference of opinion when it comes to activism. Heaven knows I find it difficult. Luckily, I have a staff that has the audacity to disagree with me (obviously, I don't punish them for it nearly enough!) when I get on my soap box and do the Linda Malicki version of "My Way."

It is never easy to say, "Okay. I see your point and I have to accept its validity." But if we intend to achieve our goals of justice and equality, it is essential that we struggle through and say it. We are all human beings striving to do the right things. We are gonna make mistakes. Sometimes we'll even be big enough to admit them. But we've got to cut each other some slack. We've got to allow ourselves, each other, and our leaders to make mistakes. It is those very mistakes that allow us to learn and grow.

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There were obvious differences in how our community wanted to respond to the KKK. To stay away or to confront. Wherever

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you stand, it is important to remember that yours is not the only way, and that the pathetic human beings who would preach hate and exclusion win when they divide us.

The Millennium March on Washington; to march or not to march? Is it inclusive? Was

"There is not an acceptable box for all of us to fit into. Stop trying

to create it. We bring an incredible richness and power to our struggle for human rights with all our voices, all our appearances, all our ideas."

-Linda Malicki

it so flawed from the beginning that stopping it is the only answer? The March on Washington in April, 2000 has the potential to create positive awareness and re-energize the GLBT movement in an unprecedented way. I have also seen the incredible human damage that this march has caused, the relationships between our leaders that have been lost, the enormous sense of further isolation and disenfranchisement that this march has caused for members of our community.

What's the answer? I don't know. We have to make room for dissent in our movement. As strongly as we feel at the Center about the importance of including transgender people, we have to leave room

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for other opinions. That has to be okay. We may not like it, but we can't attack each other because we disagree. We will not all agree on the necessity of supporting gay and gayfriendly Republicans. But can we make room for these voices in our movement? We will not all agree on the visible face of our movement.

There is room for all of us in the picture. We cannot vilify those who look or act outside the mainstream they are us. There is not an acceptable box for all of us to fit into. Stop trying to create it. We bring an incredible richness and power to our struggle for human rights with all our voices, all our appearances, all our ideas.

I know it's not easy. It's much easier to know you are right and indulge in the righteous anger that flows from that knowledge. We like things to be clear; more thought means more ambivalence, and we don't know how to deal with that. We want to find the truth and act on it.

But if we are going to succeed in fighting this good fight, then we need to find the courage in ourselves to respect each other. We need to seek ways in which our common ground takes precedence over our differences, and our dialogue seeks less to convince one another of our superior position and more to explore avenues of unity.

It is very clear to me who our enemy is. Those who would force us back into our closets. Those who work to destroy our families, our chances for equality, our very lives. Look sharp!. These are the enemies, and they will succeed if we do not rise together to confront them.

Linda Malicki is executive director of the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center.

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