No PRIDE

This is an article written for The Altitude, a published Americorps*NCCC Newsletter.

No PRIDE
By: David Edelman

Last week, June 19-26, was gay pride week. In cities around the world, millions of people took to the streets to enjoy events celebrating GLBT awareness. Such a weekend festival took place in Minneapolis, an event that many members of our team, Shuffle Earth 3, thought would be a great ISP opportunity. Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case. Campus denied our request for ISP. This is hard to understand when many gay pride events, and especially the festival in question, met all Americorps qualifications for approval. Americorps’ policy states that for an event to be an acceptable it must be with a non-profit organization, fall into one of the five service areas and participants must be involved in activities unrelated to influencing state and national government. As a volunteer and observer of the event, I can say with confidence that the Pride street festival in Minneapolis fulfilled all of these conditions.

Pride is “a not for profit organization or group whose purpose shall be to organize Pride events.” In terms of area of service, a Pride event is an education-oriented festival. Pride outlines this in its mission statement clearly. Pride’s mission is “…to validate the existence of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and/or Transgender persons on an international level through education and awareness.” At the event in Minneapolis, educational stations relating to GLBT specific issues were meshed with the majority of booths unrelated to sexual preference/identity. These included information on topics like smoking, cancer, STDs and home ownership. There was even a booth to check your carbon monoxide intake and inform you about the risks of exposure. The Red Cross had a booth. The YMCA had a booth and numerous other organizations that Americorps actively partners with participated in the festival.

In addition to the education offered, the festival services the Americorps*NCCC mission by helping to strengthen communities. Pride draws an incredibly diverse group of people, organizations and businesses from the community together for a similar purpose and experience. GLBT individuals are often misunderstood by people in their community as being different in ways totally unrelated to sexual preference or orientation. One of the purposes of the festival is to highlight the world of things that are the same. Regardless of whether you are gay or straight, we all like to be outside on a nice summer day, eat good food, listen to live music, we are in need of banking, higher education, financial services and free pens offered by the various information stations sprinkled along the park. As volunteers, we helped by conducting a survey of festival-goers. Many of the questions revolved around community issues, including if there is a need for a GLBT community center in the Twin Cities.

In terms of this event being politically charged, the Pride festival is a cultural festival, no different than any other ethnic or cultural celebration. It was no more political then any other festival that has been deemed acceptable. Last May, as part of their ISP requirement, Americorps members volunteered at The Cinco De Mayo festival in Denver, a cultural street fair with food and festivities similar to the Pride festival. The organization that ran the event, NEWSED, specifically lists promoting politics and developing political leadership as part of their central purpose.

It is easy to dismiss a highly visible event as being political and avoid the chance of criticism, but this is only a superficial perception. The Pride festival in Minneapolis is not just a parade of drag queens and half naked men dancing upon floats. The festival is a fun and informative street fair that serves as a reminder that people must be themselves if they are going to thrive as a community. It is disheartening to see such an idealistic organization, which places so much emphasis on diversity itself, disregard not only the right, but also the need for Americorps participation.


After writing this article, Americorps director Barbara Benner published this response.

David:
First, I want to applaud you for conveying your thoughts and feelings regarding this issue in a well-written essay. Your comments are researched, provide documentation for background information and are heartfelt. You have a clear understanding of and commitment to the mission of NCCC and the valuable resource we can provide in communities as well as a logical, questioning spirit.

As any organization that is committed to continuous improvement, I have determined that our policies regarding ISP approval for gay pride activities are too narrow. I have directed the Unit Leaders to consider more carefully the approval of ISPs that relate to gay pride activities. As you know, the Corps Member Handbook states that members are prohibited from engaging in political activities. This means that we need to limit our activities to those that cannot reasonably be construed as advocacy by objective observers. We need to focus on the ISP activity itself to consider the issues involved. Helping to set up or tear down a Pride Festival, provide logistical or security support, conducting surveys of community issues, or staffing booths for other non-profit or government organizations are acceptable ISP opportunities. We should make the decision to approve or disapprove based on the activity and not focus on the cause unless it is blatantly illegal or inappropriate. I would not classify gay pride activities in those categories.

With that said, the issue of gay awareness is a deeply divided one with many people on both sides of the issue who are earnestly committed to their opinions and ideas for correct behavior. In addition, the media can often focus on those who are gay or lesbian as deviant, or exhibiting behavior outside of the norms of society. We would have our heads in the sand if we did not realize this in our present society. Therefore, I will direct the Unit Leaders and yourselves who will be serving at these events in the future to be mindful about how you are being represented. As the Code of Conduct states, your conduct (and those surrounding you) should always be in the best interests of the AmeriCorps*NCCC.

Again, thank you for asking good questions and modeling a character filled with integrity. These are traits that I have grown to know and admire in this Corps.

Sincerely,
Barbara Benner