Date: Tue, 25 Jan 94 08:51:41 CST From: "Bob Switzer" Subject: Gay & Lesbian Americans (GLA) My husband has asked me to distribute the following Op Ed piece re: GLA Bob Switzer Gay & Lesbian Americans Founded by Richard D. Mohr Hannah Arendt said that power is generated whenever people join together. This thesis could have no clearer example than the founding convention of Gay & Lesbian Americans held in Washington, D.C. over the Martin Luther King weekend. Seventy activists from all across the political spectrum -- conservative, liberal, leftist -- and from all across the country -- San Diego, Colorado Springs, Crested Butte, Bay St. Louis, Montgomery, Columbus, Paoli, Lowell, East Orange, Fort Lauderdale -- convened to establish (in the words of the organization's mission statement) "a diverse, non-partisan coalition of grassroots advocates committed to civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people -- and to a cure for AIDS." Frankly, I went to the convention with low expectations and chiefly as an act of expiation. For I had been attacking in print the other national organizations -- not so much for their cynicism-prompting ineffectiveness but for the moral bankruptcy they revealed in the gay military fiasco. I figured that if I didn't at least drop the bucks for the airline ticket in order to see whether this new organization was one I could stand behind and with, I would properly be branded a hypocrite. What I found was not only an organization that I could support but one that is inspirational. The spiritual catalyst and initial organizing effort for the group came from Michael Petrelis, best known as a spokesman for ACT UP, as the outer of several members of Congress, and as the person chiefly responsible for achieving posthumous justice for the murdered gay sailor Allen Schindler. Petrelis and others now recognize that a gay assertive politics of high profile theatricality needs to be supplemented with permanent political engagement and that only grassroots organizing can fulfill that function. So how is Gay & Lesbian Americans going to be different from NGLTF and the Human Rights Campaign Fund? First, it has different values. It is assertive rather than accommodationist in its vision. It places gay values and needs center stage, and does not pander to the values of the dominant culture in vain hope of acceptance. Second, it has a different structure. Though it will have a small central leadership in DC, its power, energies, and engagements will reside in individual members and in local and state chapters loosely linked through regional coordinators. The purpose of the functionally diverse, democratically-elected, four-member central leadership is to facilitate communication, coordination, and outreach, not to make direct political contacts. That is what the grassroots membership does. In the other national organizations, members are pretty much just viewed as a source of revenue for highly-paid, remote administrators and professional Washington lobbyists. Are you getting your money's worth? And, when was the last time one of these organizations asked you for your ideas and spirit? In GLA, political engagement, whether sited in local, state, or national forums, issues from the grassroots -- through direct action, lobbying, and especially through phone, fax, and e-mail campaigns. And so third, GLA has different tactics. It will lead gay politics into the era of the information superhighway. The conference was overflowing with helpful computer jocks and networking experts. Within one day, the group had an 800 number -- 1-800-889-5111 -- which members chanted repeatedly through the group's news conference, which C-SPAN aired the evening of January 17th. The next day, GLA was up and running with an Internet e-mail address -- gla-join@queernet.org. These tactics provide not only the effective tools of the going political scene but they also enable information and ideas to flow between members and from members to leadership and so work against the tyranny and calcification that characterize the hermetic top-down bureaucracies of other organizations. So join now. Be heard. Spread the word. Start a chapter. Find out that politics can be fun. Find out that gay politics can be a vehicle for building the gay community. Find out that you matter and you can make a difference -- in gay politics and in national life. ___________________ Richard D. Mohr lives in Urbana, Illinois and is the author of Gay Ideas and the soon forthcoming A More Perfect Union: Why Straight America Must Stand Up for Gay Rights (March, Beacon Press).