Race Does Matter in More Ways Than One

I applaud the Wisconsin Gazette for the June 3 article on race and the LGBT movement as it gives me an opportunity to discuss diversity and inclusion at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center.

The Community Center is one of the most diverse and inclusive LGBT organizations in the city.  Our board of directors is diverse (38 percent people of color) and the center’s staff is equally diverse (38 percent people of color), representing African-American, Latino, and Native American people. The board and staff are also very diverse in orientation and gender identity.

Across our programs, participants are overwhelmingly people of color with varied orientations, gender identities, ages and many of these people are of moderate-low income status. In fact, the majority of the funding received by the community center directly benefits LGBT people of color. The result is our programs are very responsive and relevant to the estimated 8,000 people we serve.

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Dear president

The following letter was sent by Marquette students to university president Fr. Robert A. Wild:

You taught us to listen to reason, to be open to discourse and to show concern for all on whom our actions will have impact. You taught us to respect the dignity and the inherent, unassailable value of every single human person. You taught us to love learning and to value the free and open expression of ideas. You taught us to be responsible and loving men and women for others. You taught us to follow our hearts and our consciences. You taught us to be the difference. You taught us well, and we will live these lessons, even when you fail to do so. We are who you taught us to be. We are Marquette.

Concerned Students

Maria Cadenas applause

Maria Cadenas of the Cream City Foundation must be applauded for her recent opinion piece in the Wisconsin Gazette. She eloquently notes the ongoing issue of addressing race as we seek to create healthy and supportive LGBT communities. Cadenas goes on to observe that race is used to limit power and protections to large groups of people, including LGBT people.

The intersection of race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and age present all of us with an important opportunity and challenge when broadening our goals for social justice. These factors, long used to separate and disempower us, can help us as we build coalitions within and across the LGBT and other community organizations we support.

In Milwaukee we have much collaboration about which we can be proud. For example, FORGE has provided consistent outreach to transgender people of color by offering assistance to SHEBA (Sisters Helping Each other Battle AIDS), an African-American transgender group at Diverse and Resilient. The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center boasts a majority of youth of color in Project Q and in Q Block. The center’s health promoters for HIV prevention, tobacco cessation and alcohol abuse prevention involve African-American and Latino youth and adults as paid staff. The Milwaukee Health Department, United Migrant Opportunity Services, Sixteen Street Community Health Center – as allies – employ LGBT people of color in prominent positions that make a difference in our daily lives. Important contributions are also being made by Carol Calvin, Charles Daniels, James Pekrul, PrideFest, Pathfinders, Aurora Family Service, Jewish Family Service, ARCW, Milwaukee Women’s Fund, Greater Milwaukee Foundation and the Brico Fund.

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Defer action

The following letter was sent to Wally Mason, director of the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University:

At its May 14, 2010 meeting, the Wisconsin Arts Board voted unanimously to defer action on the Haggerty Museum’s application for a fiscal year 2011 Creation and Presentation grant until our meeting Sept. 11.

The Wisconsin Arts Board members expressed unanimous concern that serious questions suggesting discriminatory hiring practices at Marquette University had been recently raised in the press and remained unresolved. Board members asked for more time to investigate and ensure that any grant approved was consistent with our mission as the state agency which “nurtures creativity, cultivates expression, promotes the arts, supports the arts in education, stimulates community and economic development and serves as a resource for people of every culture and heritage.” Our clearly stated values include “freedom of expression” and “respect and appreciation for all cultures and people.”

We welcome any materials you believe may be instructive as the Wisconsin Arts Board studies the situation and weighs their decision. I will inform you of that decision immediately following the September meeting.

Barbara Lawton, Lieutenant Governor