Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1999)
march 5. 1999 • J u s t o u t 1 g Leading Edge What shapes culture and moves society? These are characteristics com mon to effective leadership, as identified by 16 leaders of all ages. The gay rights movement has come a long way since Stonewall . Organizations and activists have both flourished and failed . There's still important work to be done . It's 1999, do you know who your leaders are? L eaders T ake R esponsibility “She’s willing to do that for which she’s calling.” —Kathleen Saadat L eaders A r e L earners “It’s a fun, exciting growth process. Everyone can increase their lead ership capacity.” —Cliff Jones L eaders S hare P ower “It’s a more-the-mcrrier impulse.” —Cathy Siemens L eaders D eal with D ifferences “You have to be open-minded in dealing with lots of different kinds of people.” —Tusaya Dunn L eaders A re I nspirational “Inspire people to move beyond their comfort zone.” —Deke Law L eaders A re R esourceful “You work with what you have, and take what you can get.” —Cathy Siemens L eaders F ind C ommon Q round “Get people together, get them talking, and they’ll change their minds about each other.” —Kathleen Saadat L eaders H ave P assion “We need to expect great things of ourselves and everyone around us.” —Cliff Jones L eaders H ave a P ersonal S take “You do it because you don’t know what else to do to make sense of the world." —Deke Law L eaders S erve “It’s about service, not attention, power, control.” —Cliff Jones L eaders T ake R isks “Leaders are seeking lives that are always dynamic, questioning their role, ethics, abilities.” —Cathy Siemens L eaders O rqanize P eople “You work to build the constituency and give people meaningful roles that aren’t destructive to them.” —Suzanne Pharr L eaders A re C ritical T hinkers “Leaders frame issues in a way that touches people’s lives.” —Deke Law L eaders A re C ommitted “It’s hard for many leaders to have a life.” — Don Powell L eaders R eap R ewards “It’s a joyful thing to do work that matters and be in a position to influence things, connect people, turn them on to each other." —Cathy Siemens L eaders T ake S tands “You need to rock the boat. Pm not afraid to speak up.” —Tusaya Dunn L eaders H ave F ollowers “It’s an important skill, to know when to drop something if no one wants to work on it or pay for it.” —Cathy Siemens L eaders A re A llies “You need to pay attention to what other groups are doing and sup port them, too.” —D°n Powell L eaders A re L ovinq “You can’t lead with a heart filled with hatred." ■ Reported by HOLLY PRU ETT —Kathleen Saadat by Holly Pruett • photos by Linda Kliewer len years ago, several dozen lesbians gathered at the Bijou, a bistro in downtown Portland, to celebrate one of their own who was headed to the state Capitol to represent the Lesbian Community Project and more than 70 other feminist groups as the lobbyist for the Women’s Rights Coalition. At 2 6 ,1 was that person. In the decade since my rites of passage in Salem, I have raised thousands of dollars, organized innumerable meetings, and taken the mike at rallies, marches and vigils. My photo appeared in The Advocate and my words in The New York Times and The Washington Post. I devoted my life to the orga nizations I led—the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, Support Our Communities PAC, the No on 13 campaign—and met with both success and failure. These days, I work mostly behind the scenes, contributing advice occasionally, money more often, and every now and then turning out for a demonstration or bulk-mailing party. I don’t have a formal role in an organization. I don’t have a following. I don’t lead anything in a traditional sense. I often wonder if I’m still a leader. w of leadership traits that have built our movements and con tinue to redefine culture and community. Wo, if in fact leadership is alive and well in Oregon’s queer community, why is it so hard to identify.7 For some, the answer lies in our broader culture, where the media and a growing cynicism marginalize organizational leadership and glamorize individual stars. The typically short attention span in this culture only intensifies the idealistic desire among activists for immediate hat is a leader in today’s diverse sexual minorities com munity.7 Do we have the leaders we need.7 Do we support the leaders we have.7 Perhaps we need fewer “leaders” as tradi tionally defined, and more people with leadership skills and responsibilities. To investigate these questions, I spoke with 16 leaders whose experiences range from the gay liberation movement of 30 years ago to today’s catch-all queer rights movement that lacks a language creative enough to describe all of its manifestations. Most agree with Eric Rofes, author of Dry Bones Breathe: Gay Men Creating Post-AIDS Identities and Culture, who says, “Leadership Lx>ks different today.” But Rofes, who has been the director of the Los Angles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, San Francis co’s Shanti Project, and Boston’s Gay and Lesbian Political Alliance, has little patience with those who think we no longer have effective leaders. Pointing to the proliferation of “queer-identified commu nity-based organizations of every stripe and color” across the country that now number more than 20,000, he concludes: “They couldn’t have come about or continue to exist without Diana Courvant leadership.” Suzanne Pharr, a longtime social justice organizer who spent part of the last decade in Oregon, concurs. results that Lesbian Community Project founder Cathy “We have a world of leaders,” she says. “Scads of low- Siemens characterizes as “Paradise, Now!” profile, hard-working leaders.” Those doing the nuts-and-bolts work of moving issues Pharr’s evidence includes the National Gay and Lesbian along or building organizations may not be recognized as lead Task Force’s annual Creating Change conference. ers because they don’t deliver instant gratification. “Go there and you’ll see over 2,000 people who are lead The other side of the urgency coin is that some members ers of some sort, though you wouldn’t recognize the names of of the community are feeling very little pain and are therefore more than 50 of them," she says. less motivated to either lead or follow. A leader, most agree, is not the same thing as a celebrity, “There’s the perception that the wolf is not at the dtxir,” a talking head or a personal crusader. says Terry Bean. Some, like human rights leader Kathleen Saadat of Port Bean, Don Powell and John Baker, three of the communi land, assert that “leadership is not a personality—it’s a func- ty’s longtime political activists, all agree that our battles are far from won. tion. »» According to Pharr, “we need a definition of leadership But the increased material and emotional comfort level of that includes roles for people who are great visionaries, fund some community members leads Baker to conclude, “We raisers, managers and organizers, instead of looking for one dynamo to do it all.” What emerges from these conversations is a constellation Continued on Page 21