In the last installment of Fall Quarter’s Athens Activist Spotlight, Ashley Ante and Damon Krane of The InterActivist spoke to Erika Hedin. This month we chose Erika because we thought it was time to give credit to one of Athens’ very own radical activists. She was excited to be spotlighted in this issue and her interview proves to be genuine and honest. If you’d like to catch up with Erika you’ll be sure to find her volunteering at The Wire or gracefully riding her bike around town.
The InterActivist: How did you first become involved in social justice activism here in Athens?
Erika Hedin: Activism became a major part of my life shortly before the war in Iraq “began.” [Though severely underreported in U.S. media, the U.S. continued to bomb Iraq from the end of the first Gulf War in 1991, throughout the Clinton years, right up to the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq in 2003, in what amounted to the largest U.S. bombing campaign since the Vietnam War. –ed.] I wasn’t just involved with anti-war activism though. I became involved with Positive Action and Feminist Coalition, which were two groups that were working towards redefining the world and the ways in which people interact. Most of the work I was doing was anti-authoritarian, pro-feminist, anti-capitalist, and environmentalist organizing.
IA: Has growing up in Athens influenced your activism?
EH: Growing up in Athens has definitely had a huge impact on my political and social beliefs, and the experiences that I’ve had. Athens, being a hub for radical activism since the 1960’s, provided me with so many awesome people and events to learn from.
There wasn’t really any one moment when I realized I had to change things. I was raised with values that were obvious; that no, it is not okay to oppress other people. No, it’s not okay to take more than what you actually deserve.
There are definitely people who influenced my life and decision making. Jaylynne Hutchinson was definitely, and still is, a huge and awesome part of my life. She’s really involved in the program I’m doing in school now.
There are a few events that were definitely very influential for me. Attending the Institute for Democracy in Education’s annual conference in Athens when I was still in high school was a defining event. I attended as a pre-service teacher, which was a pretty awesome experience as a student and as a future teacher.
The Second Annual DIY (Do it Yourself) Fest in 2002 was a really big changing experience for me as well. The DIY Fest didn’t happen the past couple years, but we’re resurrecting it this year, which I’m really excited about because it was such a big part of my life. It’ll be happening this upcoming spring, and it’s going to be hosted by a new group called the OU DIY club. The OU DIY club is a group that is pretty much bottom lining that project and other types of workshops and activities around DIY culture, beliefs and values.
The DIY festival focuses on the idea that you should be able to do things yourself; the idea that everyone has the capabilities, or should have the resources and the knowledge, to be able to provide for themselves. Everything from being able to fix your own bike, brew your own beer, heat your house with solar power, sew your clothes, and make your own food. Our culture is taking those things away from us and teaching us that we should just consume. DIY is an idea that we should do it ourselves or do it together.
IA: What kinds of issues, campaigns, and projects have you been involved with since then? Which ones have been successful? Unsuccessful?
EH: I’ve worked with groups to try to stop the Marathon Ashland Pipeline in Ohio, to save Dysart Woods from being undermined, to attempt to make Athens a more bike-friendly community, to open The Wire and on a variety of other projects that have been both small and large.
The campaign against Marathon Ashland Pipeline was in a lot of ways unsuccessful because they ended up putting the pipeline through the route we thought was the most destructive. It was the route we were most opposed to. It was really effective in the sense that it brought a group of people together in Athens, and for most of us it was our first experience doing radical environmental work. Most of us had done environmental work from more of a mainstream perspective, but we had never really considered the options of direct action. I actually didn’t do any direct action during that campaign because the weekend we were having the direct action training was also the same weekend they cut out a huge path for the pipeline. It was really one of those moments where you feel like you lost. However, it was the first time that such a solid group of people got together, and it was an awesome opportunity for networking and building a sense of community. In that respect, it was really successful. It’s import to recognize that just because you haven’t met all of your goals for a project there are often times underlying benefits to it.
People are still fighting to prevent mining under Dysart Woods. It’s a real struggle because it’s been ongoing for so long. In that respect, it’s really hard to find hope in it; that’s what the companies are doing – the tactic of drawing things out.
The Wire is a really awesome project that is doing amazingly well. We’re moving forward. We’ve come a really long way in the past three and a half – four years. There are really only two of us that have been involved from the very beginning and there are about three or four people who have been involved for a long time. So now, it’s really a huge group of new people. Projects like that, that can have new people but keep the same values, are definitely a sign of success.
IA: What are you currently focused on?
EH: Right now I’m mostly working on The Wire, volunteering in the bike shop and coordinating volunteers. I’d really like to get Hock-Hocking Earth First! back on it’s feet here in Athens. Athens is definitely in need of a radical environmental group with a “no-compromise” mindset. Riding bikes is also super important to me, and I want to see more people in Athens riding and feeling confident and safe on their bikes.
IA: Do you identify with any particular worldview or ideology? Are there certain basic values that motivate you? In the long-run, what exactly is it that you’re striving for?
EH: I am an anarchist. I want to live in a world that is free from hierarchy. I don’t believe in electing other people to make decisions for me but would rather work with people in small groups and make decisions by consensus. I think that everyone can bring valuable thoughts to the table, and it is important to hear all of those voices. I believe that civilization is destroying the earth, and is destroying itself, at an ever quickening pace. In order to live sustainably and healthy—both physically and mentally—we all need to work towards dismantling the gears of civilization.
Civilization is not only Western Culture but the existence of government and institutions that rely on hierarchy. It is also the empowerment of some people and the disempowerment of others. I think a lot of people aren’t really willing to say they’re “anti-civilizationists.” Although I would say I am an “anti-civilizationist,” I think it’s important to say that I don’t see this civilization falling in my lifetime. I would love to see that happen, but I don’t think it’s going to. However, at the same time I think it’s important to acknowledge that civilization is not something that I find value in or that I find to be a good thing for the earth or humanity. If we acknowledge that it’s not necessarily a good thing then we can step back from our role within civilization and look at it with more of a critique. In order to dismantle civilization, we need to do whatever is possible to work against it by creating relationships with each other, with the environment and with our non- oppressive and non-controlling allies as much as possible.
Even though I am for the dismantling of civilization, civilization is destroying itself. It’s obvious when you look around, and you see how much is happening everyday – the statistics about global warming and about the climate change. There’s going to be a point of no return and eventually civilization is going to collapse on itself. We’re getting closer and closer to that point. The fall is going to come much more so from natural disasters. Events like Hurricane Katrina and all the other earthquakes and natural disasters proves that. The people that were hurt from those disasters the most are the minorities. We, as activists, need to help civilization fall, but we also need to help those who are going to be hurt by the fall the most.
IA: Has your outlook on the world changed in response to your experiences as an activist?
EH: My activism and my experiences in traveling the U.S. have only reconfirmed and strengthened my beliefs. I’ve gone and seen so many awesome community projects. Some are very similar to The Wire, and some are really different. I’ve gotten to see how those groups have been successful and how they’ve failed. A lot of times, people feel that Athens is a bubble and that we’re the only ones that feel this way, but if you look around there are people all over the place doing the same thing, even people in southeastern Ohio. Meeting the people in West Virginia, during my time with the campaign against mountain top removal (Mountain Justice Summer), who were also, in their own way, “anti-civilizationists,” gave me the sense that I’m not alone. There’s an amazing community bike shop in Tucson, Arizona, Bicas. I would love to see The Wire’s bike shop learn from projects like that one.
IA: What inspires you as an activist? What depresses you?
EH: Seeing new people becoming involved is one of the things that excites me and inspires me the most. Seeing my friends who brought me into radical activism get burned out and leave activism is one of the most depressing things for me. When people drop out, they’ve said that they need to work to make their personal lives as sustainable and as healthy as possible. Although they might not be as active in the larger community, they’re still doing amazing work by creating relationships with their families and close knit communities. They’re still being completely radical in their concepts even thought they might not be as active. Maybe their politics have changed a little in what they view as most important.
I took a year off and lived in Detroit for a year, learning how to grow food with my friends and neighbors. But still the underlying message for me was I wanted to be an activist. I still have time to burn out, but I’ve taken an active enough role that I learned I can take little breaks. Burning out is not something I want to do.
Riding my bike is my favorite thing to do when I’m feeling stressed. A friend and I went on a bike trip this summer from Detroit to southwestern Virginia. It was one of the most rewarding vacations from activism that I’ve ever had, and yet I was still doing something that I think is important. Wouldn’t it be amazing if someday there were no more cars and all of our travel was human powered?
IA: You’ve left Athens for an extended period of time and then returned. How has that transition been?
EH: Leaving Athens and coming back has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. I love Athens with so much of my heart, but there are so many other things in other places that I’m so glad I’ve gotten to experience and learn from. It’s been so awesome to return and put all of that learned material into action in a place that is so important to me.
IA: How has being a woman grassroots organizer affected your issues, campaigns and projects?
EH: I guess it has affected the way that I perceive the world and the issues that are most important to me. I used to work blatantly on events and programming that was meant to empower women, and now I’ve more so brought feminist politics into all of my organizing. I think it’s important to look at the work that we do; to look at how it may be leaving out others, or be harder for women, people of color or other underrepresented people.
IA: What would you like to see happen in the local progressive community that’s not happening now?
EH: I’d like to see groups working together better on projects. So often I’ll be flyering for an event and see a flyer for another event on the same night on a similar topic hosted by another group. Athens is a small town. I don’t think that it should be as hard as it has been to keep from double booking the radical community.
I’d like Athens to be more open to political theory. A lot of times we move away from terminology that might be frightening to people. But I think it’s important to use terminology such as “radical,” “anarchist,” “feminist” and “anti-civilizationist.” They’re strong terms, and it’s important to understand what they mean to individuals. It’s important to use words and language because it strengthens our community so we can push ourselves further.
At the same time, I’m really interested in making spaces comfortable for everyone. The Wire is not an anarchist space. A lot of people have that misconception because some of the volunteers call themselves anarchists, but not everyone is, and that’s not the intention of The Wire. The intention is to be a community space for progressive thought and progressive politics. Just as you can be a multi-issue activist, you can be a multi-perspective person.
I think people are worried sometimes about labeling themselves for fear of getting put in a box. I worry about that too, but at the same time it is important for me to openly acknowledge that I’m a feminist, anarchist and environmentalist. Using labels can create a community. People who have the same thoughts and politics hear those words and then have a way to talk about those thoughts, along with another person’s face to go with the labels. It’s the realization that there are other people that are trying to live similarly. I don’t think many people realize that Athens hosted the North American Anarchist Convergence in 2004. There are a bunch of people in Athens who I would never have expected to come out for that. Community members came out, and they were definitely blown away about what that word may mean to individuals. It was really awesome to be an organizer for the Convergence and have a bunch of people come up to me and whisper in my ear and tell me, “Hey, I think I might be an anarchist.” •
Showing posts with label Activist Spotlight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Activist Spotlight. Show all posts
Feb 23, 2008
Veteran LGBT rights activist reflects on time at OU - Activist spotlight: Mickey Hart
A tireless activist for peace and justice since coming to Ohio University in the early 1990s, Mickey Hart now runs OU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center and sits on the board of statewide LGBT rights organization Equality Ohio. Earlier this month, Hart spoke to The InterActivist’s Dana Stewart and Damon Krane about issues facing LGBT people at OU and across the US and how he got his start as an activist.
The InterActivist: What led you to become a social activist?
Mickey Hart: Beyond getting an education, I came to Ohio University to come out of the closet. That was a large reason why I left my hometown of Laurelville, Ohio, a small town in Hocking County about an hour from here. I had opened a restaurant in Laurelville at age 18, and I ran it for its first five years. My mom still owns the restaurant now with my former business partner. But I needed to come out of the closet, and didn’t feel like I could do it there. I knew I could do it in Athens.
So I came to OU in the early 90s, which was a very politically active time here. Before I really focused on coming out, I got my start in social activism protesting the Gulf War. In the process, I got to learn from some of the greats, like Pete Hill and Art Gish. It was a phenomenal experience and one of the only times I’ve seen strong collaboration between student and local activists. We would have meetings with 100 people, and I would co-facilitate some of these consensus-based meetings. I learned lots of activist skills: meeting facilitation, peacekeeping, affinity groups, civil disobedience—just so much, so many great things.
In addition to all of the anti-war activism during this time, there was also a big surge in LGBT activism across the country. It was great to ride that wave. In some ways it’s been kind of a let down since then. Nationally, there’s not quite as much activism now, and some of the groups have become more mainstreamed—still working towards making change and progress, but probably not as bold and in-your-face.
IA: How did you then get involved in LGBT activism at OU?
MH: At the time there was only one student group for LGBT people, Open Doors, which has existed under different names at OU since the 70s. It started out as the Gay Liberation Front, then the Gay People’s Alliance, the Gay and Lesbian Association (GALA), and in 1988 it became Open Doors. But during the early 90s, there was also a takeover of Student Senate by an amazing group of student activists.
As the Minority Affairs Commissioner of this activist Student Senate, one of the first things I did was to push for the creation of an LGBT Commission. At the time, a very wide range of different groups of students affected by very different issues were all lumped together under one Commission of Minority Affairs—including military veterans, LGBT students, and non-traditional students. My proposal to establish a separate LGBT Affairs Commission took some doing to create and get passed, but eventually it was passed with I think only two “no” votes. These came from the more conservative members of Senate, one of whom we all knew at the time was gay. (laughs) He’s since come out… He’s still a Log Cabin Republican, though! And with him, his best girl-friend also voted against the proposal. But they were it, and since then I think the existence of the LGBT Commission has helped open the door to creating additional Commissions to better represent other groups of students.
IA: What are some problems facing the LGBT community at OU?
MH: There have been some reported assaults on LGBT people, but not the kind of violence that’s happened in other communities. Right now most of the negative experiences LGBT students have are things like hateful or threatening messages being written on bulletin boards and on dry erase boards on people’s doors in the Residence Halls. Stuff in the Residence Halls is particularly difficult because it happens in such a personal space. It’s where these students live. Residence Life at OU has been very supportive in dealing with this throughout the years, but because the dorms are such a personal space for students, the students in these situations aren’t always satisfied with the results they get from Residence Life.
Most of the problems we see tend to happen uptown, on Court Street, when people are drunk. It tends to be name-calling and sometimes physical threats and intimidation directed at LGBT students, as opposed to actual physical violence. But to me, the potential for actual physical violence is just below the surface at all times. So I always caution students to always be aware of your surroundings no matter where you are, no matter how safe you feel. I’m not saying walk through your life ready to be victimized or being so on-alert that you’re overwhelmed by it. But don’t get so focused on what you’re doing that you’re not aware of the impact beyond your group or circle of friends.
IA: How have you seen the situation of LGBT students at OU change over time?
MH: Even though Athens is relatively safe for LGBT people, I do think there were times when we were better off here than we are now. OU is a very different place than when I came to school here. Because you need better grades and more money to go here now, we’ve had a class shift here at OU in recent years. I refer to it as the Miami-ization of OU. In an effort to become more recognized, we have become more mainstream, and have declined in some ways by becoming Any Mid-West University. At the same time, the US has become more conservative and probably less open to LGBT issues. Both of these things have happened simultaneously to create a chillier climate than there used to be for LGBT students at OU.
At the same time there is a real base of open-minded people in Athens County. Athens, after all, was the only county in the state to vote against issue #1. So even as there has been this class shift at OU and the country has gotten more conservative, Athens has held its ground. Years ago I wanted to make bumper stickers that said “Athens: We just think we’re liberal,” because even though there is this idea that Athens is some bastion of liberalism, a lot of folks here aren’t really working for social justice. I don’t think I could make those bumper stickers any more, because as the nation has gotten more conservative, I don’t think Athens has. So we probably are liberal now, but not in the way that we would have defined “liberal” ten years ago.
IA: In Ohio and states across the country, gay marriage has been the big LGBT issue on the agenda. What’s your take on this?
MH: It’s not the LGBT community that has pushed to make gay marriage an issue. The Right raised this issue because they knew it would work in their favor as a wedge issue and would turn out more conservatives to vote. It’s no coincidence that marriage amendments were on the ballot in 11 states during the last presidential election. Of all the things that the LGBT political movement could have pushed for, marriage would not have been the first priority. But now that marriage is an issue, it raises some very interesting questions.
A lot of people don’t want LGBT people to be able to marry, but maybe they’ll accept civil unions. Well, we know that separate but equal just doesn’t work. All of the laws recently passed don’t talk about “civil unions,” they talk about “marriage,” So legally, “marriage” really means something. There are over 1000 laws, rights and obligations that come with “marriage”.
Looking even deeper into the issue, we have a separation of church and state in the US, but when clergy pronounce a couple married, they say “by the power vested in me by the State of Ohio...” So we’ve had the church doing the state’s job for years, certifying marriage. Given the idea of separation of church and state, we probably should have always had civil unions for all couples. Beyond that, you want to go to church? Have it witnessed by your family and God? Then you go do that as well. That’s my perspective. But for people who want both legal and religious recognition of their commitment to one another, it’s definitely a troubling issue.
Some more radical folks in the LGBT community really wouldn’t strive for marriage at all, because they think it’s not such a great institution and they’d want something better than marriage. But for other folks, it’s just a real basic idea: I just want to be part of the American dream, with marriage and maybe children and a household and all those kinds of things.
IA: You’re on the board of the statewide LGBT rights group Equality Ohio. (see www.equalityohio.org - ed.) What does the group strive for?
MH: Equality Ohio came about after issue #1, the so-called marriage amendment, passed in Ohio. Initially, there was this sort of kicked-in-the-gut reaction that many LGBT people had, that our neighbors had done this to us. Our neighbors made us feel like second class citizens. They made us not feel at home in our own state.
But we knew we couldn’t just have a reactionary kind of effort. We knew we needed a long-term effort over the next few years aimed at changing the hearts and minds of voters. So a pretty representative group of 60 prominent LGBT activists from throughout the state came together for Equality Ohio’s first meeting and began formulating our plan.
Our mission essentially comes down to creating an Ohio where everybody feels at home, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. And one of the things we’re saying is we’re tired of being the Right’s wedge issue. We’re not going to let them use us that way anymore.
IA: How did you come to be Director of LGBT Programs at OU?
MH: Well, I’m actually not a director. People often think, “Oh, of course there’s a director of LGBT Programs at OU,” and this raises a very important issue.
For years I had the title of LGBT Programs Coordinator, which in hindsight, was a way to have someone doing the work of a Director without paying the person at that level. Currently my title is Assistant Director of Campus Life for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Programs. There is some concern in the LGBT community here about being incorporated into Campus Life as part of recent restructuring at OU. Most recently, though, I’ve been raising the overall question about how the university addresses diversity.
There are five operational areas of Ohio University that focus on diversity: International Student and Faculty Services, Multicultural Programs/Lindley Cultural Center, the Women’s Center that’s going to be opened in the new Student Center, Disability Services through the Office of Institutional Equity and, lastly, LGBT Programs. As a result of recent restructuring, the first four divisions now fall in the domain of he President and the Provost and are each headed by people who have the title of Director and/or are paid at that level. These divisions also have budgets reflecting the higher priority attention they’re receiving. In contrast, LGBT Programs is not within the area of the President and Provost, and it’s not funded at the Director level. LGBT programs also received a budget cut this year, which was to be expected given decreased funding for higher education, but the cut was larger than I expected. So there is a huge discrepancy here that raises a big question about equity among the different components of diversity at OU, and for me personally, the issue of equal pay for equal work.
IA: You’ve worked for change at OU from both outside the bureaucracy as a student activist and within as an administrator. What are the pros and cons of each position?
MH: It is really interested that when you become part of a system or structure, it changes the way you approach things. My approach is as a professional. I try to be really thoughtful about it. I understand both sides of these issues. I understand why LGBT Programs hasn’t been able to grow the way we want to grow. I understand budgets and those kinds of things. But at a certain point the understanding needs to stop, because-- wait a minute, there are some real inequities here. LGBT Programs hasn’t grown the way other areas have grown, and what’s that really all about? In part, I think our growth has not being a priority; it hasn’t really been on the radar of upper level administrators. How do you bring those issues up? It’s different on the inside than it is on the outside.
When students have concerns I try to point them in the right direction. But I’m also cautious, because I think some people have this notion that I’m planting these ideas in order for students to carry out my agenda. More importantly, it’s my job to make OU feel safe for all LGBT people. I strive to create harmony within the community, among those who are politically active and radical and those who are only beginning to come out. The reality is that doing something pretty radical, that makes a lot of noise and gets a lot of attention, can advance a cause or a group. But it can also create a lot of turmoil within the community. Just being LGBT in this society is hard, and a lot of people aren’t looking for more difficulty.
At the same time, I’ve probably been too cautious. I’ve done things to appease students and told them to take a more cautious route to raising concerns. And in recent years my own cautiousness has probably hampered some efforts for change. On a college campus I think change happens very slowly. But over and over again, at OU and other college campuses, it’s when students organize and speak out and call attention to things that more sudden change and progress is made. •
Sidebar:
What’s in a name… err.. label?
“LGBT” is short for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender. As in LGBT people or the LGBtT Community. Some misuse LGBT as a noun. There is not such thing as “The LGBT”
In addition to LGBT you could also add “A” for Ally “Q” for Queer or Questioning , “I” for Intersex, “TS” for Two Spirit, just to list a few.
It’s easy say “LGBT,” but to sensitize people to what those letters really mean, in public and in print, it’s important to say the words “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender.”
The term “queer” is interesting. Some like “queer” because it’s easier to say than the alphabet soup mentioned above. However, others do not like it because it has negative connotations as a hateful, derogatory term. Still others like “queer” as it speaks to their political identity, which has to do with being different, being queer, in a hetero-normative society, where we’re all taught that we’re supposed to be heterosexual.
Some people aren’t happy with any of these terms, and some don’t even want to be labeled anything. So, as much as possible, it is best to let people label themselves to define who they are.
The InterActivist: What led you to become a social activist?
Mickey Hart: Beyond getting an education, I came to Ohio University to come out of the closet. That was a large reason why I left my hometown of Laurelville, Ohio, a small town in Hocking County about an hour from here. I had opened a restaurant in Laurelville at age 18, and I ran it for its first five years. My mom still owns the restaurant now with my former business partner. But I needed to come out of the closet, and didn’t feel like I could do it there. I knew I could do it in Athens.
So I came to OU in the early 90s, which was a very politically active time here. Before I really focused on coming out, I got my start in social activism protesting the Gulf War. In the process, I got to learn from some of the greats, like Pete Hill and Art Gish. It was a phenomenal experience and one of the only times I’ve seen strong collaboration between student and local activists. We would have meetings with 100 people, and I would co-facilitate some of these consensus-based meetings. I learned lots of activist skills: meeting facilitation, peacekeeping, affinity groups, civil disobedience—just so much, so many great things.
In addition to all of the anti-war activism during this time, there was also a big surge in LGBT activism across the country. It was great to ride that wave. In some ways it’s been kind of a let down since then. Nationally, there’s not quite as much activism now, and some of the groups have become more mainstreamed—still working towards making change and progress, but probably not as bold and in-your-face.
IA: How did you then get involved in LGBT activism at OU?
MH: At the time there was only one student group for LGBT people, Open Doors, which has existed under different names at OU since the 70s. It started out as the Gay Liberation Front, then the Gay People’s Alliance, the Gay and Lesbian Association (GALA), and in 1988 it became Open Doors. But during the early 90s, there was also a takeover of Student Senate by an amazing group of student activists.
As the Minority Affairs Commissioner of this activist Student Senate, one of the first things I did was to push for the creation of an LGBT Commission. At the time, a very wide range of different groups of students affected by very different issues were all lumped together under one Commission of Minority Affairs—including military veterans, LGBT students, and non-traditional students. My proposal to establish a separate LGBT Affairs Commission took some doing to create and get passed, but eventually it was passed with I think only two “no” votes. These came from the more conservative members of Senate, one of whom we all knew at the time was gay. (laughs) He’s since come out… He’s still a Log Cabin Republican, though! And with him, his best girl-friend also voted against the proposal. But they were it, and since then I think the existence of the LGBT Commission has helped open the door to creating additional Commissions to better represent other groups of students.
IA: What are some problems facing the LGBT community at OU?
MH: There have been some reported assaults on LGBT people, but not the kind of violence that’s happened in other communities. Right now most of the negative experiences LGBT students have are things like hateful or threatening messages being written on bulletin boards and on dry erase boards on people’s doors in the Residence Halls. Stuff in the Residence Halls is particularly difficult because it happens in such a personal space. It’s where these students live. Residence Life at OU has been very supportive in dealing with this throughout the years, but because the dorms are such a personal space for students, the students in these situations aren’t always satisfied with the results they get from Residence Life.
Most of the problems we see tend to happen uptown, on Court Street, when people are drunk. It tends to be name-calling and sometimes physical threats and intimidation directed at LGBT students, as opposed to actual physical violence. But to me, the potential for actual physical violence is just below the surface at all times. So I always caution students to always be aware of your surroundings no matter where you are, no matter how safe you feel. I’m not saying walk through your life ready to be victimized or being so on-alert that you’re overwhelmed by it. But don’t get so focused on what you’re doing that you’re not aware of the impact beyond your group or circle of friends.
IA: How have you seen the situation of LGBT students at OU change over time?
MH: Even though Athens is relatively safe for LGBT people, I do think there were times when we were better off here than we are now. OU is a very different place than when I came to school here. Because you need better grades and more money to go here now, we’ve had a class shift here at OU in recent years. I refer to it as the Miami-ization of OU. In an effort to become more recognized, we have become more mainstream, and have declined in some ways by becoming Any Mid-West University. At the same time, the US has become more conservative and probably less open to LGBT issues. Both of these things have happened simultaneously to create a chillier climate than there used to be for LGBT students at OU.
At the same time there is a real base of open-minded people in Athens County. Athens, after all, was the only county in the state to vote against issue #1. So even as there has been this class shift at OU and the country has gotten more conservative, Athens has held its ground. Years ago I wanted to make bumper stickers that said “Athens: We just think we’re liberal,” because even though there is this idea that Athens is some bastion of liberalism, a lot of folks here aren’t really working for social justice. I don’t think I could make those bumper stickers any more, because as the nation has gotten more conservative, I don’t think Athens has. So we probably are liberal now, but not in the way that we would have defined “liberal” ten years ago.
IA: In Ohio and states across the country, gay marriage has been the big LGBT issue on the agenda. What’s your take on this?
MH: It’s not the LGBT community that has pushed to make gay marriage an issue. The Right raised this issue because they knew it would work in their favor as a wedge issue and would turn out more conservatives to vote. It’s no coincidence that marriage amendments were on the ballot in 11 states during the last presidential election. Of all the things that the LGBT political movement could have pushed for, marriage would not have been the first priority. But now that marriage is an issue, it raises some very interesting questions.
A lot of people don’t want LGBT people to be able to marry, but maybe they’ll accept civil unions. Well, we know that separate but equal just doesn’t work. All of the laws recently passed don’t talk about “civil unions,” they talk about “marriage,” So legally, “marriage” really means something. There are over 1000 laws, rights and obligations that come with “marriage”.
Looking even deeper into the issue, we have a separation of church and state in the US, but when clergy pronounce a couple married, they say “by the power vested in me by the State of Ohio...” So we’ve had the church doing the state’s job for years, certifying marriage. Given the idea of separation of church and state, we probably should have always had civil unions for all couples. Beyond that, you want to go to church? Have it witnessed by your family and God? Then you go do that as well. That’s my perspective. But for people who want both legal and religious recognition of their commitment to one another, it’s definitely a troubling issue.
Some more radical folks in the LGBT community really wouldn’t strive for marriage at all, because they think it’s not such a great institution and they’d want something better than marriage. But for other folks, it’s just a real basic idea: I just want to be part of the American dream, with marriage and maybe children and a household and all those kinds of things.
IA: You’re on the board of the statewide LGBT rights group Equality Ohio. (see www.equalityohio.org - ed.) What does the group strive for?
MH: Equality Ohio came about after issue #1, the so-called marriage amendment, passed in Ohio. Initially, there was this sort of kicked-in-the-gut reaction that many LGBT people had, that our neighbors had done this to us. Our neighbors made us feel like second class citizens. They made us not feel at home in our own state.
But we knew we couldn’t just have a reactionary kind of effort. We knew we needed a long-term effort over the next few years aimed at changing the hearts and minds of voters. So a pretty representative group of 60 prominent LGBT activists from throughout the state came together for Equality Ohio’s first meeting and began formulating our plan.
Our mission essentially comes down to creating an Ohio where everybody feels at home, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. And one of the things we’re saying is we’re tired of being the Right’s wedge issue. We’re not going to let them use us that way anymore.
IA: How did you come to be Director of LGBT Programs at OU?
MH: Well, I’m actually not a director. People often think, “Oh, of course there’s a director of LGBT Programs at OU,” and this raises a very important issue.
For years I had the title of LGBT Programs Coordinator, which in hindsight, was a way to have someone doing the work of a Director without paying the person at that level. Currently my title is Assistant Director of Campus Life for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Programs. There is some concern in the LGBT community here about being incorporated into Campus Life as part of recent restructuring at OU. Most recently, though, I’ve been raising the overall question about how the university addresses diversity.
There are five operational areas of Ohio University that focus on diversity: International Student and Faculty Services, Multicultural Programs/Lindley Cultural Center, the Women’s Center that’s going to be opened in the new Student Center, Disability Services through the Office of Institutional Equity and, lastly, LGBT Programs. As a result of recent restructuring, the first four divisions now fall in the domain of he President and the Provost and are each headed by people who have the title of Director and/or are paid at that level. These divisions also have budgets reflecting the higher priority attention they’re receiving. In contrast, LGBT Programs is not within the area of the President and Provost, and it’s not funded at the Director level. LGBT programs also received a budget cut this year, which was to be expected given decreased funding for higher education, but the cut was larger than I expected. So there is a huge discrepancy here that raises a big question about equity among the different components of diversity at OU, and for me personally, the issue of equal pay for equal work.
IA: You’ve worked for change at OU from both outside the bureaucracy as a student activist and within as an administrator. What are the pros and cons of each position?
MH: It is really interested that when you become part of a system or structure, it changes the way you approach things. My approach is as a professional. I try to be really thoughtful about it. I understand both sides of these issues. I understand why LGBT Programs hasn’t been able to grow the way we want to grow. I understand budgets and those kinds of things. But at a certain point the understanding needs to stop, because-- wait a minute, there are some real inequities here. LGBT Programs hasn’t grown the way other areas have grown, and what’s that really all about? In part, I think our growth has not being a priority; it hasn’t really been on the radar of upper level administrators. How do you bring those issues up? It’s different on the inside than it is on the outside.
When students have concerns I try to point them in the right direction. But I’m also cautious, because I think some people have this notion that I’m planting these ideas in order for students to carry out my agenda. More importantly, it’s my job to make OU feel safe for all LGBT people. I strive to create harmony within the community, among those who are politically active and radical and those who are only beginning to come out. The reality is that doing something pretty radical, that makes a lot of noise and gets a lot of attention, can advance a cause or a group. But it can also create a lot of turmoil within the community. Just being LGBT in this society is hard, and a lot of people aren’t looking for more difficulty.
At the same time, I’ve probably been too cautious. I’ve done things to appease students and told them to take a more cautious route to raising concerns. And in recent years my own cautiousness has probably hampered some efforts for change. On a college campus I think change happens very slowly. But over and over again, at OU and other college campuses, it’s when students organize and speak out and call attention to things that more sudden change and progress is made. •
Sidebar:
What’s in a name… err.. label?
“LGBT” is short for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender. As in LGBT people or the LGBtT Community. Some misuse LGBT as a noun. There is not such thing as “The LGBT”
In addition to LGBT you could also add “A” for Ally “Q” for Queer or Questioning , “I” for Intersex, “TS” for Two Spirit, just to list a few.
It’s easy say “LGBT,” but to sensitize people to what those letters really mean, in public and in print, it’s important to say the words “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender.”
The term “queer” is interesting. Some like “queer” because it’s easier to say than the alphabet soup mentioned above. However, others do not like it because it has negative connotations as a hateful, derogatory term. Still others like “queer” as it speaks to their political identity, which has to do with being different, being queer, in a hetero-normative society, where we’re all taught that we’re supposed to be heterosexual.
Some people aren’t happy with any of these terms, and some don’t even want to be labeled anything. So, as much as possible, it is best to let people label themselves to define who they are.
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