On Sunday afternoon (March 13, 2011), the LGBT Center in Manhattan held what it called a forum on the guidelines for the renting of space. It was billed as a way to go forward after the Center had cancelled the fundraiser for Israeli Apartheid Week. In its various attempts to explain, describe and defend its actions, the Center and its Executive Director, Glennda Testone, seemed more intent on saying as little as possible about the specifics and deal in generalities.
The meeting was moderated by Ann Northrop who claimed that her style of facilitation was based on her work with Act-Up and that she was just going to call on people in the room to speak rather than stacking the deck by having people sign up to speak.
Ann asked Glennda to start the meeting with her comments about the meeting and the decision to refuse the room rental to Siegebusters. Glennda stuck to the wording in her press release regarding the decision to rescind the decision to rent the room to Siegebusters based on the Center’s right to refuse anyone they chose to and because the event was not LGBT-themed and in the Center’s determination was controversial. At some point she also read through the Code of Conduct for the Center which basically had nothing to do with the matter at hand but certainly did eat up more time.
Ann then moved to finding out what the room wanted to discuss. There was a pink sheet of paper that had been distributed prior to the meeting titled, “Letter to participants at the LGBT Community Center public forum–March 13, 2011” that Bill Dobbs requested be read before the discussion began. This was objected to by the faction that had been opposed to the room rental. A great deal more time was allocated to discussing how much time would be allotted for this reading, who would read it and at the end of it all, it got lost in the general chaos and confusion of trying to run a meeting without a set agenda or at least a set of talking points that must be addressed. As one person in the audience quipped, “How did Act Up ever get anything done?”
It became increasingly clear to me that neither Glennda nor the two members of the Board of Directors who came to the meeting knew what the political issues were that had caused this explosive situation to occur in the first place. The President of the Board, Mario J. Palumbo, Jr. made it clear that he was also of Lebanese descent as if that answered any of the questions relevant to the discussion. Tom Kirdahy also spoke up as a member of the board to inform us of his own personal reasons for coming to the Center and that none of his experience spoke to the issues at hand was again testimony to the fact that board and its Executive Director were as unaware of what was at stake here as they could possibly be.
Had Michael Lucas, a gay porn entrepreneur, not threatened to withhold funds from the Center and not organized his wealthy gay friends to threaten the same, it is doubtful the Center’s Board or its Director would have ever been aware of who Siegebusters were or why they were in the building.
This speaks to a much larger problem that Glennda and the Board Members in attendance refused to speak to. In fact, in her opening remarks, Ann Northrop made it clear that this was not to be a political discussion at all.
So, in refusing to discuss the one topic that has polarized the community and to allow the Center to hold to its non-specific charges of non-LGBT-themed event and the controversial nature of the event, and their refusal to name who they called to cancel the event, it appeared nothing could possibly be accomplished that Sunday afternoon.
When others, not members of Siegebusters, or from Michael Lucas’ coalition, spoke of their problems with being welcomed fairly at the Center, such as Chelsea Johnson-Long, who represented the Audre Lorde Project, Glennda sat stonefaced throughout Chelsea’s speech. Yet when anti-war activists talked of their being welcomed at the Center without any of this kind of drama taking place, the only response came from Michael Lucas who shouted out, “Where would you be without our money?”
Michael Lucas was content to mostly allow his friends to voice his concerns to the group because whenever he chose to speak, it was in such a condescending tone and with such obvious distaste for this open meeting that it was frightening to think that this is who the Center has had to turn to for funding.
As Michael claimed that his money allowed him free speech and to say whatever he wanted, Bill Dobbs responded to that by saying to Glennda and the Board that they of course could take anyone’s money but it was their job to educate the funders when their values were in opposition to what the Center stood for.
At one point after we had all been sitting there for well beyond the allotted time of the meeting, Sarah Shulman was called on again to speak and as I interpreted her words, that the Center was going to die due to these types of decisions, I heard the utter frustration of trying to get a clear and straightforward answer to a number of serious questions that the Center has avoided answering.
When Michael Lucas stood up to say that he spoke for all Jews, most of the Jews in the room were offended by that. And yet, had anyone been paying attention to the supposed purpose of the meeting, to determine room rentals and to speak to LGBT-themed events, by his own admission, Michael Lucas isn’t particularly concerned about the LGBT aspects of this or any other topic and I just take my information from Michael’s website.
Where did any of this time lead us? It led to nowhere at all. The meeting concluded basically with a stacked deck as Ann called on Bruce Anderson (an emeritus president of the board) who had hired Glennda Testone as the Executive Director and assailed the room with his brilliant comment that of course the Center cared or why else would we all be there? And then Ann chose to call on Glennda’s partner to give her another glowing reference and shout out.
If my retelling of the events on March 13th seem brief in comparison to the length of time we sat there, it is because there was so little said of consequence by those representing the Center that it became a farce.
Asked repeatedly for specifics, Glennda declined to answer the questions. Asked to explain why just because something is controversial this should disqualify it from the Center, again there was no answer given. Asked to name the person they contacted to cancel the event, again no answer was provided. Asked to name who had made the decision to cancel the event, no names were provided.
Even when a list of proposals came from the room, by Leslie Cagan, which ended with a request that Siegebusters at least be able to return to meeting at the Center, again, no answer.
In all instances, the Center dropped each and every ball that was handed to them in this case.
- They refused to explain or list who had been consulted in regards to their decision to refuse Siegebusters the use of the space they had rented.
- They refused to explore how they could have made that decision more transparent. Even though that was the supposed reason for the meeting we attended on Sunday.
- The fact that there was no agenda for the meeting and thus no way for anyone to use the time constructively as it took half the time allotted just to determine what was going to be discussed.
- Having convened an open forum for setting the new guidelines for the renting of space, this topic got short shrift with no plans to discuss it further.
- My final remark is this: You don’t end the meeting by calling on the Executive Director’s partner to give a character reference or the previous president of the board who had hired Glennda to give her another vote of confidence. This is called stacking the deck, something Ann Northrop had proudly claimed was not going to happen.
