by Nakhone Keodara
Some white gays and lesbians have managed to piss all over the LGBT people of color once again today. This time it was at a forum held at the West Hollywood Park Auditorium sponsored by the City of West Hollywood LESBIAN AND GAY ADVISORY BOARD (LGAB) aptly titled “Where Generations Meet: COLLISION OR COALITION?” It was supposed to be a forum to debate the big issues facing the LGBT community. [Emphasis mine]
Needless to say, most of the panelists were white, except Carlos Sosa, a token Latino youth activist with C.I.T.Y. x1. The forum had roughly 60 people in attendance; most attendees were white with a handful of Asians and several Latinos and one African American male. A little weakly from coming down with a cold, I naively went to the forum with great hope that this mixing of the pot is a great step forward for our community. Sadly, I was disappointed and offended, yet again, that the LGBT people of colors have not even been invited to the table and are being shut out from the discussion of issues that affect our lives. This is a huge problem and a trend that needs to stop in order for us to truly become a unified movement. The LGBT civil rights movement needs to have its head screwed on straight because right now we are still a headless monster while the holy bullies are beating us with the Bible to justify their religious bigotry and heaving demonization onto our community and reducing us to a sex act, inciting violence against us and our family while stripping us of our Constitutionally guaranteed rights. The excuse for elitism and exclusionary tactics that the white LGBT community employs concerning their lack of consideration of diversity within our community discussions has got to stop.
I digress. This particular offense was committed by Dan Berkowitz, event organizer and Co-Chair of the City of West Hollywood LGAB in his response to my question as to why there isn’t a diverse representation of our entire community on the panel. Dan said, in so many not-so-subtle words (and I’m paraphrasing), “I’m going to say something controversial. I think sometimes we compromise when we sacrifice content and substance in the name of inclusion.” Completely unacceptable! Mr. Berkowitz’s comments are beyond controversial; they are simply offensive. It’s a new low that some of the white gays and lesbians have revealed for the world to see just how blatantly rampant their white supremacist and racist attitudes a majority of them really hold toward their people of color brothers and sisters.
Frankly, laced in Mr. Berkowitz’s slight against a group of people is an astounding allusion that the LGBT people of color communities lack substantive leaders capable of holding intelligent discussions in issues affecting our community, and, in effect, our lives. In short, Mr. Berkowitz and some factions of the white gay and lesbian population believe that by “allowing” the LGBT people of color a place at the table, they are settling for stupid, less than second-class citizens (rightly so, because the LGBT people of color are actually third-class citizens), who possess no content of character and lack depth or intelligence unlike our Caucasian masters. This is a trite attempt in keeping the status quo and an inexcusable lack of sensitivity to the people of color communities.
When pressed by myself and several other people as to whether or not the organizers have attempted to reach out to communities of color to invite them to the table, Mr. Berkowitz disclosed that he invited Phill Wilson of Black AIDS Institute, who subsequently canceled and several attempts were made to replace him with two other Latino activists. What was unsaid, and clear as day, is the lack of outreach to the API community to be represented as panelists on the forum. To Mr. Berkowitz and those white LGBTs that think like him, stepping out of your comfort zone and inviting the people of color communities to participate in a discussion that involves our lives is not settling. The white LGBT community would do well to forgo that stereotyping of their people of color brothers and sisters.
Even more despicable, however, is the fact that Mr. Berkowitz wasn’t the only one who managed to turn something so positive like this first ever intergenerational discussion into a white Supremacists forum. Robin Tyler, a gay rights veteran chimed in that she had to invite herself to the table in order for her to be included. Fair enough, I concede that it is as much the responsibility of the organizers (most of whom are white) to reach out and invite their LGBT people of color counterparts to the table as it’s the responsibility of the minorities to assert themselves into the discussion and in essence into the fight for our civil rights. However, given there exists a systematic glass-ceiling and, now, as we are being provided with more information into the psyche of some of the LGBT white community, there exists a white supremacist attitude toward keeping the status quo, the possibility of the people of color communities having a voice within the gay rights movement and getting a word in edgewise into the conversations on issues of tantamount importance in our personal lives is practically non-existent.
Truth be told, the organizers did an excellent job in bringing together people of diverse ranges in age, sexual proclivity and identity persuasion and with various level of experience within the gay rights movement. As a matter of fact, they even included (I’m happy to report) a Gender Queer person who conceded that he and sometimes she, depending on the day and how he or she feels, is still figuring it out. The other panelists include Ivy Bottini (LGAB Co-Chair, 40-year activist), Robin Tyler (Veteran Community Organizer), Malcolm Boyd (Bestselling author, Episcopal priest), Tom De Simone (ONE Archives, Roots of Equality), Madison Di Napoli (CSUN LGBTA Secretary), Tanner M. Efinger (Equality Across America), Don Kilhefner Ph.D. (Veteran Community Organizer), Sheila Kuehl (Former Calif State Senator), Robin McGehee (Meet in the Middle), Chris Angel Murphy (College Student, Activist), Sara Pollaro (Equal Roots Coalition), Carlos Sosa (Youth Activist, C.I.T.Y. x1), and Kip Williams (Community Organizer).
Fortunately, my mentor and legendary gay rights architect Don Kilhefner, Ph.D., agrees with me that he was upset seeing only a majority of white panelists when he first walked in. He was quickly shouted down by Mr. Berkowitz. To be sure, and to my surprise, Robin McGehee and Kip Williams, co-directors of the National Equality March expressed their concern about this issue of structural problem (read white supremacy and racism within the LGBT establishment). Robin even gave me an attempt of a smile. I think she was nervous that I was in attendance. I’m known locally in the California-centric grassroots community as Nakhone the Agitator. A self-appointed title I’m most proud of. Lest we forget, these are the same Robin McGehee and Kip Williams that were whisked away to a private and elitist retreat organized by the likes of Richard Socarides and Larry Kramer (of all people) and bankrolled by a rich white gay man at the Highlander Research and Education Center in the remote mountains of Tennessee just several weeks ago to plan a course of direct actions on our behalf without our knowledge or input. Talk is cheap they say, put it in your actions because they speak a thousand words.
Ivy Bottini, whom I personally look up to came up to me right before the session started to say hello and told me that she remembers me from the last forum, which was back in December of 2008 that Marriage Equality USA sponsored. Now, as it were, it seems that she was either afraid that I was going to start some trouble or she was genuinely making nice and attempting to reach out to befriend me as a fellow activist.
In the end, what was supposed to be a great beginning of an intergenerational dialog turned out to be a cluster fuck of white supremacists and racists gathering. I ended up walking out of the room because I just couldn’t sit there and take the excuses of these white gays and lesbians that would deny me and people who look like me a place at the table. In my own community, no less, during an epic fight for our lives just because they think that the LGBT people of color are not qualified or up-to-par with our white masters. Sounds a lot like colonialist attitude to me. When will they learn that they can’t win this fight without all of their brothers and sisters. Anyone listening? Anyone? Bueller?
Nakhone Keodara is a gay rights activist. He’s the founder and publisher of the SoCal Voice and founder of the Gays United Network based in Los Angeles, California. He can be reached at: nakhone@socalvoice.net
Just one correction: Jeanne Cordova was not on the panel. She was scheduled to be on it but had to cancel to attend her father’s funeral. Robin Tyler was on the panel because she was invited to replace Jeanne.
That aside, I completely agree with your commentary about racism. I don’t entirely agree about gender inclusivity: where were the trans activists, especially the trans activists of color who have done such awesome work here for years?
Jacob – I stand corrected. I will update the post accordingly. Yes, that was another faction of our community that has been missing. I’m extremely disappointed in the City of West Hollywood for this blunder. They did such an amazing job in symbolically welcoming the Transgender community into our fold with the unveiling of the Memorial during the recent Day of Remembrance. I saw one or two transpersons there but there were no representation on the panel. I didn’t want to exclude Chris Angel Murphy because he identifies as Gender Queer. You’re absolutely correct to note that the Transgender community did some amazing work in our community and they don’t get any credit for it and they get shunned by the gay community. Dan Berkowitz should resign because he’s obviously not inclusive of everyone as is apparent in his comments about the LGBT people of color community.
larry kramer had nothing to do with the activist summit meeting robin and kip and richard socarides and jonathan lewis organized in tennessee. robin and kip wanted to meet me and richard and jonathan brought them around to my apartment in new york city for a great exchange of ideas, and that was that.
also, i am not certain what the author of this column means, when referring to me, by “of all people.” it sort of sounds a bit insulting.
That’s good to know, Larry. You’re one of my heroes and I was sadly disappointed to hear (through Queerty) that you were somehow involved in planning that elitist and exclusionary meeting in Tennessee. I’m glad you weren’t a part of it. The truth of the matter is, you’re one of the reasons why I became politically conscious when I first came out at 21 years old and I look up to you because of your radical activism. I read one of your essays in college, and, especially, the piece about you dissing the celebration of the 4th of July was particularly poignant and you’ve been my hero since. I’m so glad you clarified for me that you weren’t that narrow-minded after all.
Yours affectionately,
-Nakhone
A few points from another attendee. Yes, Both Ferris and I are listening.
From my chair – a lot of people were hissing when the shouting poured out from the mic-ed moderator. I wonder if he WRONGLY thought it was AT you. It was clearly AT him.
I get that you left – I think I would have stormed out too. However, you did miss a teacher for UC Santa Barbara insisting he be heard, really making some intelligent points and his support from the audience was evident. He also mentioned (for the first time) including advocates. There is no movement without advocates. We queers already got the memo. Advocates are a part of “diversity.”
The readers should know that much of the anger fire in the room was put out by the “younger” people. They are experienced with the methodology of fair conversations that unfold through inclusivity. The modern day methods of positive inquiry and cafe conversations is not a practice that the hierarchical committees knew years ago. I wish there had been a trained neutral moderator.
With the exception of Heather – no women were included in the questions. BTW – asking AGE on the question form was archaic and maddening. I cannot resist mentioning the moderator’s patronizing tone pointed at the high school student on the panel who was so gracious.
I am saddened that you have transposed the bravery of publicly identifying as Gender Fluid as gender confused. I hope one day we can all be as frank about ourselves as Chris was; she/he is practicing a high level of self-discovery.
Why are we talking about intergenerational like its binary: OLD v. YOUNG . We don’t need another divisive polarity. I work with the people who have informed passion and who have a preference for diversity – however my idea of diversity includes more than race.
I recommend to anyone who is asked to participate on a panel that you insist that the panel is diverse. Please consider that diversity include sex, age, race, class and sexual orientation – which includes heterosexuals. You have the right to require diversity – it is another form of activism as the panel will demonstrates the final vision.
Zoe – Thank you for your accounting of what happened after I stormed out of there. Were there any other Asians in the room that got up and expressed themselves? As far as Chris’ sexual orientation is concern, I was being honest with the SoCal Voice’s readership that I got the impression and he/she actually said, when pressed by Ivy Bottini that he/she is still figuring it out. I’m completely with you on the diversity as far as sexual orientation and extending it to include our heterosexual allies. One point of clarification though is about the category OLD vs. New. I don’t think it was meant to be a divide but rather a coming together of the generations in linking up our heritage and having the younger people be blessed, in a ceremonial sense, by the elders and the ancestors of the tribe. This is attributed to my mentor and teacher Don Kilhefner, Ph.D., whom I took the Father Hunger Workshop with for over a year and it’s all about a rite of passage of honoring the different stages, age-wise, on our journey in life and it’s meant to help strengthen the generational bond of community. This work is based on Jungian psychology and the writings of many fine scholars that I can’t quote at the moment. At any rate, I would be interested in your recount of what exactly transpired after I left. Come to think of it, I should have stayed there and be a thorn in their side, especially the moderator but I got my feelings hurt and just couldn’t take it anymore so I walked out.
Yours,
-Nakhone
I can feel myself marching out if I had been treated as you were. We agree it might have been good to stay and see what happens. Don’t forget – it was taped. You can watch it. While identifying people as races is not my interest – I guess the UC Santa Barbara man is Asian American.
I too am respectful of my elders, as many of the NOW & NWPC founders are my friends – they are 20 years older than I – and they think of me as a youngster. However I believe that the movement leadership is newly defined with the advances of hooks, Friere, Greenleaf, Lorde, Wheatley, and the science of organic leadership – not electoral/hierarchical leadership. I am interested working with people of all races and ages who are on that path. Oh those pedestals – there is no air up there!
Keep on keepin on my new friend.
I can only really comment on what you said about me, so I will simply state I am not “Gender Confused”. What’s confusing is why I have to mold to societal standards and make it clear physically how I identify. I have so many other identities such as a student and passionate person that I don’t feel my gender or perceived gender needs to be such a fuss. I don’t have boundaries. No boxes. So what I meant in that I am still trying to figure it out is how to show people I identify as queer/androgynous/gender neutral. I play with gender and roles. None of them completely or accurately fit me in any given moment. People want me to check male or female or place me into other boxes, and there are none. I am Chris. I hope that makes it a bit more clear.
I also am really sad that you left the way you did but I also understand your frustrations.
Since you are complaining about bigotry, could you please explain the phrase “more like Gender Confused” to this transperson?
Zoe – Thanks for that information! I’m excited to know that other Asian Americans are insisting that we were heard. I can’t wait to watch the tape of the forum. Thank you for the recommendations for new reading materials. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into them.
I’m honored to have you as my new friend.
Cheers!
Hi Chris. Thank you for your clarification. To be frank, yesterday was really the first time I’ve heard the words Gender Queer and I was simply relaying to my readership that you came across as being confused when pressed by Ivy Bottini of (and I am paraphrasing here so please don’t quote me) what the defining moments are that makes you identify with either being a male and/or female. You stated, “I’m still figuring it out.” That’s what I was going off of. You didn’t come across to me, at least, that you were all that confident in what you were saying about your identify and I didn’t hear the convictions in your voice. Now, that’s not to say that older people like me are not reacting out of a fear that these other gender variances, gender identities or sexual orientations that seem to be popping up every other day and another letter of the alphabet is added to the LGBT soup are going to hurt our cause because the opposition could use it to advance their argument that this is a choice, especially in your case, especially when you haven’t figured it out yet. Please know that I support you and I’m glad that you were there on that panel yesterday being the voice for the transfeminist/gender queer/transgender community. I’m a big supporter of the Transgender community. Us old peeps are somewhat set in our ways and it’s up to you to step up to the plate and make a case for yourself and educate the rest of us so we can get on the same page.
Yours affectionately,
-Nakhone Keodara
Brandy – Please see my response to Chris’s comments.
first, I appreciate many of the points that you make, as well as the justified anger; I’m angry, too. I am grateful to know, though, that you are in this community, working tirelessly to make any improvements and provide any assistance that you can.
second, with hope, hurt and frustration, I would humbly ask you to read queer theory, to ask questions of those who identify as queer/gender queer/themselves without a label. I would ask that you look at gender as a system of oppression, to not belittle someone’s identity, to take away someone’s ability to self-determine(and then write about!), to accept even without understanding. please think of the ways that we oppress people, even within our own communities. We all make mistakes, especially without pausing. please please understand that unkind words like yours can make others fearful to step out of their boxes that society has handed them.
please do not be so quick to speak or write words like that, as you can hurt the love and acceptance that we can share with one another.
i hope to see you at another event soon.
h
Hi Heather. You have a great point. Like you, I am extremely excited to see Gender Queer, bisexuals and the Transgender community showing up for events that the gay and lesbian community has put together. It gives me great hope that LGBTQIA community is finally coming together. It all started with the Day of Rembrance when the gay and lesbian community has ushered in a new era of cooperation in welcoming back the Transgender community into the fold. I’m sorry if I offend you and I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings about what I said in my post about Chris. It was an honest moment and this comment thread serves as an opportunity for the Gender Queer and the Transgender or Transfeminist community to educate me and all of us on what it means to be self-determine to express self-identity. Thank you for the suggestion. I will look into studying gender theory and will do a follow-up post about what I’d found.
In the meantime, I would love to have a “Transgender Voice” columnist on this blog so would you be willing to join the SoCal Voice family? I think it’s probably better to have someone from the inside of that community write on issues concerning that particular community.
I’d be interested in having the Gender Queer, Transgender or Transfeminism begin the process of voicing your opinions. Quite honestly, and I take full responsibility for not seeking out the knowledge, but my ignorance concerning gender identity and expressions is compounded by a lack of Transgender representation in the overall LGBT media.
Lastly, I will update my post accordingly to delete the hurtful words in question. Thanks for holding me accountable. I am sincerely wanting to know more about the plight of Gender Queers, Transgenders and Transfeminism. I thought I knew a lot since I’d lived with several Transgender persons in my life. But, this goes to show that we can all improve in one way or another.
Well my agitator friend – I wish I had been there. I love the conversation you have engendered (no pun intended) here and by being true to your voice and your experience – as always. Oh the ache… that ache. Since I was not there, and because I must take more time to read through the comments, I will say only this:
I cannot believe you and Zoe have just not made acquaintances. Nakhone meet Zoe; Zoe meet Nakhone. Oh I get this intense feeling in my gut, my soul, when connections likes these are made. Powerful powerful serendipity synchronicity and yet it seems you must have known one another for you come from such similar cloth.
Peace homies. I love!
Laura Agitator Kanter
Thanks, Laura. Zoe is a great lady and I’m glad we met. xoxoxo
When it comes to leadership, I don’t care what your color is. It makes absolutely no difference to me. All–ALL–I care about is if you are EFFECTIVE.
The only way we’ll learn and correct such treatment, is to continue to bring to light the cold reality of such instances. Nakhone, I thank you for your continued pursuit of true equality through all barriers, whether it be race, gender, or ever orientation. You may be controversial…but you’re effective in what you do with raising awareness of such attrocities.
Tom Crowe
Thanks, Tom. There’s more than one way to skin a cat and God just made me to be an agitator and that’s what I do best so I will keep agitating.
This article was brought to my attention by the Out & About Newsletter and I would like to thank you Nakhone for putting this information out in cyberspace.
Dan Berlowitz event organizer and co-chair’s comment that “we compromise when we sacrifice content and substance in the name of inclusion,” is completely unacceptable. He should be removed from his position. Berlowitz, if I’m not mistaken, is a Jewish name and I’m abhorred that anyone, let alone a gay man with a background as such, could mutter those words in good faith; that any so called leader does not understand that content and substance are always sacrificed in the name of exclusion.
Nakhone, I understand your frustration and why you walked out, but you seem to be an intelligent young man with a voice that is absent from many discussions and panels. Please stay and fight. Be heard.
You’re welcome, Shantel. I’m glad the word is getting out!
Yours,
-Nakhone
Editor-in-Chief
I wasn’t sure that I should post here, as I hate to give this type of forum any greater sense of its own importance. But I found some of this so egregious that I couldn’t not post.
As “editor-in-chief,” it would appear that you purport to be a journalist. So why is it that you note that you’re paraphrasing Dan Berkowitz and then place the paraphrase in quotes as if the words come verbatim from his mouth?
What he said, taken from the video of the event, was this:
“This, I think, is one of the problems with our community, is that, while we do need to strive to be diverse, and to include as many different representations within the community as possible, I think that at times we are so fractured, and so concerned about our own part of the pie, that we concentrate too much on what a panel looks like and not about what they’re saying. And… [applause] and… and while I understand the necessity, not only the necessity but the reason for bringing as diverse a panel together, sometimes you just can’t be perfect.”
Your paraphrased interpretation seems to come from an agenda which is altogether disconnected from the actual words he spoke. The words do not state or imply that people of color are inferior or that somehow we sacrifice content by including them in the conversation, but rather that we need to listen to what people are actually saying, not pre-judge them by their skin tone (whatever it may be) or some other factor that labels them.
Further, just because someone is African-American or Latino or Asian or Jewish (et al) doesn’t mean he or she is the spokesperson for an entire group. Does one gay African-American male know the needs and views of everyone else who happens to share that sexuality and skin color? That completely dismisses people as individuals and just labels them as “types.” In fact, when Dan Berkowitz mentioned during the discussion that they lost several panelists of color because of personal issues prior to the panel, he also noted that while they tried contacting nearly a dozen people to replace them, that they were all unique individuals and irreplaceable. And sometimes, you have to apply a little common sense: a person is donating his time (read: giving up time when he could be earning money to put food on his table) to set up a panel. That panel loses some of its panelists, and despite numerous attempts to find new panelists, it just doesn’t work out as ideally as all would like. In the real world, sometimes things happen and not everything is perfect. Are you really going to crucify someone for not hitting your quotas?
And on that note, your repeated labeling of Dan Berkowitz as a white supremacist is extremely disturbing. I find it hard to believe that you understand what a white supremacist is, given that white supremacists are allied to the Nazi movement that killed six million Jews (or do you believe that the Holocaust didn’t happen?), and white supremacist groups in the US and abroad continue to have a hatred of Jews to this day. You claim not to be anti-Semitic–because you know a few Jews and dated one once–and yet you urge your readership to “Join us in kicking a white Jewish gay supremacist to the curb!” Why do you make a point of labeling Dan Berkowitz as Jewish? Why are you using such a violent metaphor that, quite frankly, could easily be mistaken by some as a literal incitement to actual violence against a person because he’s Jewish? Why would you fling such hate against another member of the LGBTQ community in any case?
And why, when challenged for your comments previously, did you resort to making a crude sexual suggestion, followed by a torrent of profanity directed at the poster? That’s certainly not journalism. It’s a childish temper tantrum.
You note that West Hollywood Council Member John Duran is investigating the “incident” and will address it accordingly. I’m curious as to whether he shares your views and endorses your comments here.
Of course API people need to be represented and have a voice, but you (specifically, as an individual, not as a representative of your race) are more likely to be included on the dais if you have something other than insults and threats to contribute.
What Jon said.
Nakhone–
You distorted the facts to your on agenda. You went in there with a chip on your shoulder, saw something you did not like and then broadcast your blatant emotionalisms as fact. You have committed every single mistake a journalist should not.
1) You should have been unbiased.
2) You should have remained unbiased.
3) You should have researched your story.
4) You should have used the correct quote; you’re looking down the barrel of a libel suit if Berkowitz decides to press charges.
5) You cannot admit your mistakes.
We HAVE watched the video. You’re looking for buttons to press, and to be honest, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter did it first, do it better, and is that really the company you want to keep? All of you are coming from the same supposed moral high-ground, spouting whatever you can to get a rise out of people. Never mind the facts of the case.
But then you shot whatever credibility you have out of the sky by engaging in anti-Semitism. You have become what you abhor! And you have used your position as a blogger to be judge and jury. You have engaged in tabloid journalism of the worst kind, and it puts REAL journalists such as myself in a terrible light. You have damaged the industry and your own reputation. Your post would not have even made it in rough-draft form if even ONE professional journalist had read it. And if you’re response to valid criticism is “suck my member,” you aren’t a professional journalist to begin with.
David Perry
Hey Nakhone. Can you delete my previous post? I should proofread before I hit post. Here’s the comment with the grammar corrections:
If you haven’t noticed, West Hollywood is, generally, a very white town so the ethnic makeup of the older panelists could be an indication of the ‘real’ gap between the generations that the organizers were looking to discuss. There may not be a generational gap in age but there could be a gap in ethnicity!
As you noted, the one person of color on the panel was from a youth group. I know that other youth groups tend to be more diverse such as Equal Roots, who sent a white person as their representative, through my own experience with them. I don’t know if it is because API Equality-LA and Latino Equality Alliance are relatively young organizations compared to the ‘old guard’ that they didn’t get invited as an ‘old activist’ but that their membership isn’t youth either that they were excluded from invitations to the panel as a ‘youth activist’ but it definitely caught some conversation amongst the Queer People of Color mailing list regarding their exclusion. Either way, as another commenter wrote, there was a patronizing tone to the youth from the organizers of the meeting but if the youth and their prospective groups are any indication of the future of LGBT activism, it will be a much more diverse landscape that will more closely mirror the minority majority state that CA is today. You just may have to hope that the ‘old guards’ ideals die faster than they do.
Whether it be the former, through the continued efforts of people like you, or the latter, thank you for fighting the good fight against the ‘old’ ideals of patronizing the youth and/or people of different ethnic background within the LGBT community or the discrimination of gender and sexual orientation within our society, in general, that we all fight for. It’s obviously been a much harder fight for all of us who have had to deal with more than one type of discrimination levied against us. We feel like we fit into one community but at the same time, we don’t because we’re ostracized by that same community for another part of our identity. The same is true of our other identity that we don’t quite fit perfectly into either. It’s difficult for others to understand the uneasiness of this burden.
Hi Alan. I’m glad you’re speaking up. It’s too bad API Equality were not more vocal in advocating for inclusion. For the record, Alan Chan is another active community organizer who happens to be of Asian Pacific Islander descent.
-Nakhone Keodara