New York Newsday - Thursday, December 29, 1994
GAY LEADERSHIP: WELCOME TO THE CLUB
by Gabriel Rotello
	New York - The press release was a dead giveaway. The National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force, one of the oldest and largest gay rights groups in the
country, was announcing its appointment of Melinda Paras as its fourth
executive director in two years, and the announcement was accompanied by a
bizarre litany: Page after page of "community endorsements" of Paras, signed
by the executive directors of almost every significant gay, lesbian or
gay-run AIDS group in the nation. 
	"We look forward to continued work with the Task Force and Melinda," the
statement read, "as we all press forward toward liberation, justice and full
equality." By presenting such an unprecedented, Kremlin-like united front,
the Task Force was inadvertently drawing attention to the fact that the
appointment was sure to be hugely unpopular.
	It's not hard to see why. Paras was forced to resign as a top director of
San Francisco's Shanti Project after that AIDS service group misspent almost
half a million dollars in public funds. She was also in the middle of some of
the most divisive episodes in recent San Francisco gay politics. For example,
although a former Marxist-Leninist who still refuses to take a position
against the Tiananmen Square massacre, she has nonetheless worked closely
with conservative Mayor Frank Jordan as he slashed San Francisco's health
budget. Such contradictions have earned her the bitter enmity of scores of
AIDS activists, African Americans, mainstream Democrats, and grass roots
lesbians and gays. She is widely considered a divisive politico who picks
sides based more on self aggrandizement than political affinity. Hardly the
kind of unifying leader the gay and lesbian world needs.
	Paras blames her problems on others, but her excuses smack of self
justification, even deception. She told me, for example, that "no money was
misspent at Shanti," though a government audit clearly shows otherwise. She
insisted that she was not forced to resign from that group, but left because
of a "major flareup" of Chronic Fatigue syndrome. She alleges that enmity
trails anybody out of the partisan labyrinth of San Francisco gay politics,
an asserion belied by Roberta Achtenberg and others who have emerged from
that city with little but praise.
	Task Force board members defend her as, quite simply, the best candidate for
the job, but that seems wildly implausible, and theories abound as to why she
was selected. Some point to her personal ties to board members, others to the
fact that the organization is in such disarray that nobody of national
stature wanted the job. But even more troubling than Paras' appointment is
the "community endorsement" of her selection. As a public relations ploy it
couldn't have been less saavy, but as a measure of the clubby nature of gay
leadership in America it was highly instructive. Not one of the several
endorsers I interviewed had conducted even a cursory investigation into
Paras' past. Several leaders privately told me that they feel so beleagured
by what they consider unfair criticism of their own performances that they
assumed the criticism of Paras fell in the same category. Some, when
approached by the Task Force for their "endorsement," felt that if they
didn't sign on, they'd be frozen out of national leadership circles. This
sort of pack mentality is, sadly, par for the course among gay leaders. 
	Some angry activists are now urging lesbians and gays to withhold donations
from the Task Force until Paras is replaced. While tempting, this could
easily lead to the demise of the organization, and the sad fact is that the Ta
sk Force is simply too important to sacrifice over this questionable
appointment. But gays and lesbians should let both the Task Force and their
local groups know that in a movement built on openness and diversity, an old
boy (or old girl) leadership network whose first priority is collective self
protection is the last thing we need.