Message from the Co-Chairs
From February 6–10, the National Conference on LGBT Equality held its annual conference, “Creating Change,” at the Renaissance Center in Detroit. Susan Abbott, Director of Youth Programming, and Mike Cochran, OPALGA Co-Chair, attended the conference on behalf of OPALGA. Until OPALGA is able to hire an Executive Director, having a presence at conferences such as this one is vitally important to our organization. It not only allows OPALGA to network with other LGBT organization leaders and their members but it also enables us to keep current on what is happening in political and legal developments around the country and to keep us aware of issues of significance to the entire LGBT community.
The overriding theme of the conference was both direct and challenging—“Demanding Change without Embodying Change Will Never Create Change.” Highlights of the conference are too numerous to mention, but several can be singled out. Kate Clinton, the LGBT movement’s renowned comedic political commentator, served as the MC of all of the plenary sessions, and her topical humor was on point and well-received. Attendance at each of these sessions was always standing room only. The conference sessions covered topics such as fundraising, families, aging, legislative development, diversity, media, youth, sexuality, and volunteerism. Session facilitators uniformly used detailed handouts to ensure an excellence in presentation, and the overall quality of the program was always in evidence.
One plenary session, however, was extraordinarily memorable. Matt Foreman, the Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, had recently announced his decision to leave his position of over five years in order to accept a position in the fundraising world where he feels he has a unique ability to directly impact LGBT individuals and organizations in a major way. His final speech was emotional, passionate, hard-hitting, and eloquent, and it demonstrated at once his incredible commitment to the LGBT community.
Among the numerous highlights of his speech, attendees learned the following:
• 52% of the U.S. population now lives in a jurisdiction that outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation;
• 40% of the U.S. population now lives where people are prohibited from discrimination based on gender identity/expression; and,
• 20% of all Americans now live in states that give broad protection to same-sex couples.
As recently as 1970, all three of these numbers were zero!
Yet lest the LGBT community get self-satisfied, Matt offered up the following:
• Current estimates are that 40% of the homeless youth in the U.S. are LGBT individuals;
• Hate crimes not only continue but in fact now seem to be on the rise in many locales and are often particularly aimed at “feminine” males and “butch” females;
• Around the U.S., in communities where anti-discrimination legislation had previously passed, it has been taking an average of 15 years+ to go back and add gender identity to said legislation; and,
• At the August 9 forum for democratic presidential candidates, which was organized by the Human Rights Campaign and televised on the Logo channel, only Hillary Clinton had agreed to take a stand on the stump on LGBT issues (by August 9, both Edwards and Obama had also done so).
Matt’s main point, which he drove home both forcefully and eloquently, was that the LGBT movement is in fact at a critical point in its development. Now, more than ever, we must each be vigilant of the issues on the table and do our part to secure those basic rights to which we are rightfully entitled. His speech was inspirational and reminded each of us that no matter how much we have accomplished, there is still so much more to do.
Again, this concept of “change” could not be more timely for OPALGA. As you have learned from past issues of Empower, we have spent several months studying the organization and all that we do, and we have now created a three-year strategic plan that will guide us in improving each aspect of the organization so that we are giving you, our members, a terrific value for your dues. As always, we welcome your input. Should any of you have any thoughts or ideas that you would like to share, drop an e-mail to cochram1@nationwide.com. We would like to hear from you.
