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Facing Serious Issues Troubling Nation's Activists Tom Ammiano & Jewell Gomez Hosting Meeting |
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Compiled By GayToday
Jewelle Gomez, award-winning author, and Tom Ammiano, President of the San Francisco City and County Board of Supervisors, will open the meeting. Gomez and Ammiano have long histories of activism in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community and have joined the more than 600 signers on the Ad Hoc Committee's Call for an Open Process. Criticisms of the now-faltering Millennium March on Washington have highlighted the need for creative new directions in the movement. The November 12th Community Forum will bring together activists from around the country to discuss concerns about the state of the national community and ideas about the future of movement building. The Community Forum will take place at Local 285/SEIU, located at 560 20th St. in Oakland, from 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM, Friday, November 12. It is free and open to everyone. The Ad Hoc Committee has also organized "Queer Futures," a workshop at the Creating Change conference on Saturday, November 13 from 6 PM to 7:30 PM. The workshop will address the values and perspectives guiding our vision, how social and economic justice movements have won basic gains even in conservative times, and how globalization shifts our understanding of civil rights. According to AHC member Leslie Cagan, "The Millennium March debacle is but a symptom of a far-reaching and more serious set of issues facing the movement. "The Community Forum and our workshop at Creating Change will be opportunities for further exploration of what needs to be done as our movement looks to the future." Background:
The AHC has asked the MMOW organizers to put their proposed event on hold and cancel the April date so an honest discussion about how to organize in the lgbt movement can take place. The Ad Hoc Committee for an Open Process is a volunteer, grassroots group that formed in the spring of 1998 shortly after an announcement was made public for a "Millennium March on Washington." In June, 1998 the AHC members authored a call "for an open process to engage our movement in a serious, national discussion on whether or not we want to go to Washington-what's the purpose, when do we want to go, what would we be calling for, and how do we insure the maximum, most diverse participation in any planning process?" The group's Call for an Open Process has created discussion throughout the lgbt movement and is now supported by over 600 movement activists, including organizers of the three previous marches on Washington. In Pittsburgh in November 1998, the AHC convened a community meeting that was attended by more than 150 people, many of whom were in the city for the Creating Change Conference. In a standing-room-only meeting movement activists added their voices to the growing chorus urging a halt to the work on the MMOW and supporting the opening of the process. Recognizing the critical issues at stake, leadership from NGLTF, the National Youth Advocacy Coalition, the Human Rights Campaign, the Names Project and LLEGO attended the 1998 meeting. |
