News :: GLBT
Cambridge mayor honors community leaders at annual Pride Brunch by Dana Rudolph
contributing writerWednesday Jun 17, 2009 "I want to stand with you as a group of lions," Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons told the crowd of more than 50 at City Hall on June 13, "advocating, struggling, fighting, so that no one has to pretend that they are other than who they are."
Serious words, but the overall tone at the 19th annual Pride Brunch hosted by the mayor’s office was celebratory, as Simmons presented Community Pride awards to several citizens who have made notable contributions to the LGBT community.
Sue Hyde, director of the Creating Change Conference for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the event’s emcee, reminded the crowd of the many positive changes over the past year, including the expansion of marriage equality to a total of six states. Despite the progress, however, Hyde, a Cantabrigian, noted that Massachusetts still needs an LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying law and anti-discrimination laws that include protections based on gender identity and expression. She also encouraged people to join one of the canvassing trips MassEquality will be making to Maine each weekend this summer as part of the effort to defeat an anti-gay marriage referendum in that state.
Hyde then introduced Simmons to great applause as "the nation’s one-and-only lesbian, African American mayor of a major U.S. city."
Simmons reiterated Cambridge’s position as a leader in gay and lesbian rights. "We were the first city to have what I call ’New Year’s in Mid-May,’" she said, referring to the first legal marriages of same-sex couples in the country. The mother of four and grandmother of three continued, "That’s an achievement we can all enjoy, but most importantly, our children can enjoy. What we do today ... is not just so that we can be comfortable in our own skin, it’s so that our children can be comfortable and their children can be comfortable. As we continue to move forward, we have to bring them along so that they can continue to be leaders." She then proudly acknowledged her spouse and two of her children who were in the audience.
Other members of the City Council also offered good wishes for Pride, including Councilor Marjorie Decker, councilor and former mayor Larry Ward, and councilor and former mayor Kenneth Reeves. State Rep. Alice Wolf, also a former Cambridge city councilor and mayor, did not attend, but sent her regards.
Reeves, who was the first openly gay, black mayor in the U.S., had recently returned from a trip to Jamaica. He reminded the audience that in that country, people are killed if they are merely suspected of being LGBT. He urged them to spread equality not just across our country, but across the world.
Two of the event’s honorees gave weight to that international, multi-cultural approach. Stephanie Guirand and Amanda Stephens were the lead organizers of "Homophobia in the Haitian Community," a public forum held at City Hall last December. Both alumnae of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS), the women were motivated by the suicide of a gay, Haitian, former classmate. They enlisted city leaders to help, including Simmons, who moderated the discussion of more than 100 people. They now want to continue the project to "help build communities and families that love, support, and accept their children, straight or gay, bisexual or lesbian, gender-conforming or binary-busting."
Two current CRLS students received the Rose Lipkin Award, given each year since 1995 by former CRLS English teacher Arthur Lipkin, a member of the Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth, and his partner Robert Ellsworth. It goes to the graduating senior from CRLS "who has done the most to advance the cause of justice and dignity for GLBT rights at the school during the course of their time there."
Winner Shannon Lynch received the award for her leadership in Project 10 East, the school’s gay-straight alliance. "She really listens to her peers and incorporates their thoughts and feelings into her guidance of the group," Lipkin explained. "Shannon never missed a meeting. The group could always count on her steady presence and gentle leadership." Lynch intends to become a teacher of special needs students.
Winner Amanda Mariani, who was not present, is "a multi-lingual, artistically talented student leader who came here several years ago from Brazil," Lipkin said. She learned a new language and culture while also helping provide for her family and taking care of her younger sister, and "has shown courage in confronting homophobia and other biases within her own family and at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School."
Another Community Pride award went to CRLS faculty member Kathy Keegan, coordinator of Project 10 East since 2005. Among her accomplishments, Keegan worked with other faculty and staff in support of the hundreds of students who protested against Rev. Fred Phelps and his rabidly anti-LGBT Westboro Baptist Church, who demonstrated at the school in March.
Keegan noted that despite much progress at CRLS, however, there is still more to be done, as students from different backgrounds may have a mix of experiences with LGBT people and LGBT rights.
After Keegan, the entire CRLS student body received an award for their actions versus Phelps and his group. "[The church] may have thought they could vent their spleen at CRLS, and students, faculty, staff, and community members would somehow be cowed into silence. No way, no how," Hyde read from the City Council resolution. "Hundreds of students turned out in their lunch hour to peacefully overpower the hate with their voices, their message of love and support, and their firm commitment that Cambridge and their school will never be places for hate." The students also helped gather donations for every minute Phelps protested at the school, raising $3500 to support Project 10 East and the Welcoming Schools program of the Cambridge Public Schools.
The lone non-CRLS honoree was Michael McKenzie, an "out transgender citizen and community servant extraordinaire," in the words of the City Council resolution. McKenzie, a former union carpenter, was discharged from National Guard training in 1993 for unspecified reasons, which he assumes were related to suspicion of being a lesbian. He later became the first female-to-male person to serve on the Board of Directors of the Tiffany Club of New England, the country’s oldest organization for transgender and transsexual people. He resigned when he could no longer go up the flight of stairs to their meetings because a disabling neurological condition confined him to a wheelchair.
He was later able to leave the chair, and joined the Civil Air Patrol, the auxiliary branch of the United States Air Force. He gave full disclosure about his transition and National Guard dismissal, and served four years with distinction, earning a promotion to second lieutenant. While there, Hyde said, he undertook a "quiet campaign to ensure that transgender persons would be protected under all policies of the organization." He has also served in the Cambridge Police Auxiliary and is now a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. Having both served his country and the LGBT community, Hyde said, "He never wants to see his two venerated flags struggling against each other."
Several speakers and honorees mentioned the tragic death of 11-year-old Springfield resident Carl Joseph Walker Hoover, who took his own life in April after repeated anti-LGBT harassment. State Sen. Anthony Galluccio, former city councilor and mayor, was on hand to talk about his anti-bullying efforts in the Legislature.
Galluccio, once a student of Arthur Lipkin at CRLS, admitted his political history around LGBT rights has evolved. "I voted the right way, but I was never as far out in front as I should have been," he explained. As lead sponsor on an LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying bill, however, he insisted, "I’m out in front now." He said he hopes that aside from its legal impact, the bill will motivate people to have conversations at the school level about how to prevent bullying.
To close the event, John Gintell and Sarav Chithambaram of the Cambridge GLBT Commission gave an update on their group, which worked with city officials on the response to the Westboro Baptist Church. They have also conducted LGBT sensitivity training with the Cambridge Police, and will do so with the fire department and EMT.
After the brunch, the mayor, her staff, and many of the audience rushed across the river to march in the Boston Pride Parade, a "group of lions" inspired, perhaps, by the impressive acts of their fellow citizens.
Dana Rudolph is the founder and publisher of Mombian, a blog and resource directory for LGBT parents.
Dana Rudolph is the founder and publisher of Mombian, a blog and resource directory for LGBT parents. She can be reached at drudolph@mombian.com.
|
|
|
Email
Print
Share
