We cannot shrink from the big ideas and bold action that will bring change.
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By Chuck Wolfe | Contact
Chuck Wolfe is the President and CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.
The Victory Fund is the nation's largest LGBT political action committee and the only national organization dedicated to increasing the number of openly LGBT elected officials at all levels of government.
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"Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do... And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
--Marianne Williamson
The peace activist Marianne Williamson’s quote is a gentle and inspiring reminder that all of us have a role to play in the hard work it will take to move our country toward equality for everyone. In 2006, a woman I greatly admire took Williamson’s advice to heart.
Patricia Todd lived in Alabama, a state that had been named the worst in the nation for LGBT people. Media reports about the ranking had many asking the state’s gay and lesbian citizens, “Why do you stay there?”
But Patricia thought that was the wrong question. She was one of the fighters, and she wasn’t about to leave a place where she had worked for 20 years on social justice issues like HIV/AIDS and poverty.
For years, Patricia and her friends made it a habit of driving from Birmingham to Montgomery, the state capital, to testify in front of state legislators about issues they were trying to solve in their communities. On one trip with colleagues from Equality Alabama, Patricia was to testify about a bill that would have banned any mention of homosexuality in books at state institutions. It was another hateful attempt to punish gay Alabamans and divide them from their fellow citizens.
They’d made this trip before. They’d grown used to being denounced from the floor of their own statehouse. As Patricia began to read her prepared remarks, she noticed none of the committee members on the dais were paying much attention. They were reading, talking amongst themselves and not looking at her.
Demoralized and frustrated, she stopped reading her prepared text. Instead, she looked at the assembled legislators and asked, in a firm voice, “Why do you hate us?”
The talking stopped. Legislators looked up from their reading material. Finally, they were looking into the face of the state’s gay community, and they had heard someone who meant to be heard.
“Why do you hate us?” That was the right question.
On the way back to Birmingham, Patricia and her colleagues were discussing what had just happened. In the car with her were her friends Howard Bayless and John Smallwood, fellow Equality Alabama board members. They agreed amongst themselves that until someone from their community was sitting up on that dais, with the same voice and the same vote as his or her straight colleagues, that they would never be able to move the state forward on equality and social justice issues. They had to find somebody to run for the state legislature. On that car trip home, they decided that someone should be Patricia.
After a long and hard-fought campaign, Patricia narrowly won a seat to represent District 54 in the Alabama House of Representatives, becoming the first openly LGBT person ever elected to any office in the state. Her election made national news and sent a shockwave through the LGBT community in the south.
In a place where fear and shame still held sway over many gays and lesbians, Patricia’s election became a transformative moment. In the words of Howard Bayless, people in the community began to “surface.” There was a spark of power, a hint of hope and one real, tangible victory.
A year later, Howard Bayless ran for and won a seat on the Birmingham Board of Education. He became just the second openly LGBT elected official in the state. Now, LGBT students in the city’s school system have a champion, and he has the power to make real change.
The truth about Birmingham, about Alabama and about America is far more nuanced and important than discounting one place or another as hopeless. When even one person is willing to stand up and do the hard work it takes to lead, there is always hope. Hope is awakened in others when there is a reason to hope.
In cities across America, openly LGBT public leaders are, as Marianne Williamson might put it, giving other people the permission to let their light shine. They are serving as role models for young people, teachers of their peers, champions for their friends and families, and workhorses for their communities. And in doing so, they are changing the debate, changing hearts, changing minds and yes, changing votes.
Many of their stories are less dramatic than Patricia Todd’s, but every one of them involves the courage to be honest and open and unapologetic about themselves, and that is making a difference. So much so, in fact, that nationally syndicated columnist Deb Price, surveying the pro-equality state legislation that seemed to come in an avalanche in 2007, noted the hard work of openly gay state legislators, saying, “Gay lawmakers are rocketing our country forward.” I couldn’t have put it any better.
We will continue to fight for the Patricia Todds out there who are willing to stand up and stand next to the powerful. We will no longer be content to sit on the sidelines and hope our straight allies do the right things.
And we’ll remember Marianne Williamson’s words. We will not play small and we will not shrink from responsibility in order to make others more comfortable with us. We are meant to shine, and we will shine. And we will win.
