Subject: Fwd: Birch responds to critics
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 13:42:13 EST

Special Note: 
I generally forward items like the one below without comment but I think it is
important to put this into more context.  So many complex issues in our
community are dismissed as infighting or petty politics that we often miss the
vital message at their core.

Both NGLTF and HRC (as well as other national organizations) were taken to
task on a number of issues by grassroots activists from around the country
during the Creating Change conference.  In fact many of NGLTF's harshest
critics were given prime time speakers slots to make their arguments.  

Rather than duck those critics, NGLTF leadership created additional venues to
ensure that their board and staff had ample opportunity to hear from those who
were angry, had concerns or challenged NGLTF decisions, board composition,
strategies etc...

In addition, some of the flyers circulated that criticized NGLTF most harshly
were typed into NGLTF's own computers and printed on their machines because
they were committed to giving other perspectives a full hearing.  

Many people were tearful during the Creating Change conference.  It was a
powerful meeting and many difficult and important conversation were had...I
will say this also...this was no turf battle...despite profound differences,
no one stood up for HRC more than the leadership of NGLTF.  When the "maggot"
letter circulated, emotions ran very high. While being clear and principled in
there disagreements with HRC, NGLTF leaders took every opportunity to
encourage constructive conversations with HRC leaders.  

This work often requires a thick hide--as activists we sometimes will be
criticized unfairly and as humans we will also make horrible mistakes that
rightfully provoke outrage.  Our hides should not be so thick that we can't
tell the difference between being personally attacked and having our methods
and strategies appropriately challenged. 

In my mind, NGLTF demonstrated the way to deal responsibly with the concerns
of the grassroots activists that national groups purport to represent and I
hope they will translate their clear concern into action.  Those who spoke up
were not simply venting at national groups, they were calling for a newly
invigorated movement that values democracy; reaches, respects and responds to
the grassroots and builds alliances not simply when they are strategic but
because we have a shared vision of a just society for everyone.  

We have organized on thin ice for years and we have seen those fragile
victories shatter or exist perpetually on the brink of repeal.  Building a
true movement, steadily from the bottom up--supporting the "Hometown Heros"
that stay and fight--is the forumla for creating lasting success on solid
ground.  That message should dismay and disturb the right wing extremists, not
the leadership of our national groups.
Nadine Smith
Equality Florida

Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 12:17:04 -0500 (EST)
From: Margaret  Cerullo <[email-masked]>
Subject: [GLB-NEW] Liz Blows Her Top (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 03:37:26 +1100
From: Paul Canning <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: [GLB-NEWS] [DATALOUNGE] Liz Blows Her Top

Datalounge Gossip
November 15, 1998

Liz Blows Her Top

The backbiting and political infighting at NGLTF's
Creating Change conference in Pittsburgh got a
little hot for the delegation representing the Human
Rights Campaign. Winnie Stachelberg, the HRC
political director, pulled a no show. Though she
was replaced by competent and well-spoken
professionals, several were reportedly reduced to
tears by activists furious at recent political
decisions made by the organization.

Though Elizabeth Birch was nowhere to be seen,
her spirit was much in evidence owing to a
much-circulated "open letter" exchange between
her and Carmen Vazquez of New York's Gay and
Lesbian Community Center.

Vazquez pounded HRC's endorsement of pro-life
Republican Al D'Amato, calling it "complete
capitulation to the right wing" and an "outrageous
slap at grassroots activists." It was a repetition of
complaints made soon after the endorsement
announcement, but Birch apparently had reached
her limit. Saying she had "grown tired of the
misrepresentations and mindless attacks from a
handful of people in our community," she struck
back. Hard.

After calling Vasquez's commentary "destructive"
and "irresponsible," beneath Vazquez and "beneath
all of us," Birch wheeled out the verbal equivalent of
the hydrogen bomb. "Her words, and words like
them, remind me of what maggots do in a barrel of
rice. When they finish consuming the rice, they
begin to consume each other."

By Saturday, the slogan, "Maggots of the World Eat
Rice" was being bandied about the Westin Hotel
lobby, eateries and elevators. "Maggot Faggot" was
scrawled on at least one commandeered tee-shirt.
Plans to mail boxes and bags of rice to HRC
headquarters were well past the planning stages.

Reports of the growing strain on Ms. Birch are
making their way through the velveted corridors of
power, and the storm shows every indication of
growing stronger now that the NGLTF conference
has closed. Batten down the hatches - this may
get a little rough.

--
|: Paul Canning [email-masked]
®  http://www.rainbow.net.au/~canning
>Queers for Reconciliation http://reconciliation.queer.org.au
®  Jan Kneen-McDaid http://www.rainbow.net.au/~canning/jan.htm
>: "I don't tell all and sundry about my private life. Why should [Ministers]?
If we do demand to know, the next step will be for doctors to have to tell
patients if they are gay. Where will it all end? Will the milkman have to say
if he is gay or not before he delivers a pint of milk?"
Pensioner Olive Moreton, 72, of Dagenham, allegedly quoted in the Daily
Mirror speaking 'for the nation's compassion and common sense'

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