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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 1995)
IO ▼ January O, 1009 ▼ just out V • ••• • . „ • . . national news . ; ¡ ;iv. K a re.n S w e Ì0 e H > = t .....------------------------------------------------------------w ' * * GLAAD ^ h y s iç ià n and Surgeon O bstetricsand.'Gyjaecology 7 V '« J" ■ reinvents itself Í *%*!•..* . . •••.’i ■' '- * ** l% ^ \. r. * * ‘ Merging of the New York and Los Angeles chapters is a first step toward building a national structure 520 Portland,/Öregon 97210 ▼ by Acupuncture «Chiropractic «Massage Counseling • Naturopathic Medicine (503) 230-0812 CIRCLE HEALTHCARE CLINIC S C r r r " p Brooke Winter, L.Ac. “7! / / i I Kip M. Hard, D C ( i3 " ! t H II Jan Corwin, D C S __ u 1 r — W — Valerie M. Lyon, MS, LMT Suzanne Scopes, ND Elizabeth Carlson, D C, LMT Simone Koos-Gibbs, BS, LMT ► ^ £ i 316 NE 28th Street • Portland, Oregon 97232 DPEIt l«pm -t!:30am eu ertj n ig h t '«Hill SE H a w th o rn e n e a r IHt. Tabor Pub world A P-Touins A fill-the-h uideo FH. beer A A A A A A ...Fridays... leather nights dollar Bud draft all night... ... 232 - 2037 . . . Richard Shumate rmed with a $300,000 grant and a new blueprint for the future, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has become the latest gay and lesbian group to begin the process of rein venting itself. The first step came earlier this year when GLAAD’s chapters in Los Angeles and New York merged their assets to create a national organiza tion large enough to raise serious money and deal with the national media. The next step is to hire a national staff and begin transforming GLAAD chapters in eight cities around the country into groups that can function as grass-roots organiza tions in their regions. “I want GLAAD to have a presence in the backyard of the radical right. Wherever they’re defaming us, I want us to be there,” says Donna Red Wing, GLAAD’s Portland, Ore.-based na tional field coordinator. GLAAD’s mission is to work for fair, accurate and inclusive repre sentations oflesbians, gay men and bisexu als, primarily by moni toring and responding to incidents of defa mation in the news and entertainment media. Until now, the group has been a loose confederation of 10 chapters sprinkled across the country and small groups—called outposts and o u t looks— in small cities and rural areas. An or ganization was estab lished to coordinate efforts among chap ters, called GLAAD/ USA, but it proved in effective. “We were speak ing with 10 different voices,” says Red Wing. Also, many of the smaller chapters were operating on shoe string budgets, with out much outside staff Donna R ed Wing support. Recognizing the problems, GLAAD’s leader ship decided a strong national organization was needed. But instead of adding another organiza tional layer on top of what was already there—and siphoning off money for it from local chapters— the decision was made to create the national group by combining GLAAD’s two largest chapters, located in New York and Los Angeles. “It was certainly a tough sell to the chapter’s board,” says Richard Jennings, one of the founders of the Los Angeles chapter and a principal in the merger negotiations. “But I think it was one of the finest moments that I’ve ever seen in our commu nity. In the end, people didn’t get stuck on owner ship.” “There seemed to be a fear they would lose local autonomy,” Red Wing says. “But I think they collectively realized this was the best way to go.” A The Los Angeles and New York chapters had the largest paid staffs and, because of their loca tions in the centers of the news and entertainment industries, already frequently dealt with the na tional media. With the merger, the two staffs will become part of one organizational structure, with offices in each city, under the direction of an executive director. A search is underway for that executive direc tor, who will be hired in the next few months. There will also be deputy directors in both the New York and Los Angeles offices and a development direc tor. Red Wing will continue as the field director and liaison to the other chapters. Both cities will continue to maintain a local GLAAD council to maintain local media contacts, coordinate volunteers and put on media awards events held annually in each city. During a transition period expected to last about two years, the national board will consist of representatives from the merged chapters and the eight outlying chap ters in Atlanta, Dal las, San Diego, Den ver, Kansas City, San Francisco, Chicago and W ashington, D.C. Eventually, the country will be di vided into regions, with each region se lecting a board mem ber. The local chap ters that didn’t merge will continue to op erate autonomously, with logistical sup port from the national staff. “I think we real ize that having an organization where all the decisions are made in the confines of Manhattan or Los Angeles would not be an effective way of dealing with the heartland issues,” says Carl Lange, ex ecutive director of G L A A D /A tlanta. “But this is going to have a significant effect in terms of providing technical support.” “Our job will be to listen to folks and offer assistance if they ask for it,” says Red Wing. Eventually, GLAAD hopes to strengthen those eight chapters so that they can serve as centers for their regions, providing support to GLAAD groups formed in smaller cities, says Red Wing, who has been traveling to those outlying chapters in recent weeks to develop long-range strategic plans. Each region may also eventually have its own field director to provide similar help to the smaller outposts, she says. In November, GLAAD received a $300,000 grant from the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation to help fund its reorganization— one of the largest grants ever given by a private foundation to a lesbian and gay group.