In 1984, a group of gay members in San Francisco applied to form a social club within the larger organization for gay and lesbian Sierrans. It made sense since there were already social groups for both single and married straight members, but the San Francisco-based Board of Directors disallowed it on the grounds that having such a group might cause them to lose donations and non-gay members, that old familiar defense for practicing discrimination: “We’re-Not-Bigoted-but-Our-Sponsors-Are”.
The gay community fought back hard and the fight, which lasted a year and a half, received lots of media attention. They took it as far as it could go in the courts and at city hall, but in the end they lost and there was nothing they could do. The result was both humiliating and shameful, especially since the gay community in San Francisco was reeling in pain, fear and grief in the jaw of the AIDS holocaust at the time. Many queer members and their friends left the organization in disgust and defeat. That was 1985.
The following year the Sierra Club president, “Ms. P”, arrogantly ran for re-election on her success of defeating the country’s largest and most organized gay community. A public campaign was organized to disgrace her but she easily won re-election with most gay members gone. It was just more salt in the community’s wounds.
Ah, but her shiny Anita Bryant moment in the sun was short-lived, and she didn’t see it coming.
The Sierra Club has chapters in most parts of North America but the executive is based in San Francisco. Executive Board members must live near SF to attend the meetings, so once elected they choose which area they would like to represent, then head off to have the local chapters ratify their status as their representative on the Executive. The president naturally get to choose an area first, and the “natural” choice in most cases is the largest area with the most natural resources – Canada. If Ms. P had known anything about Canada or Canadians at the time she probably would not have chosen it, but she did, and so off she went to Toronto to get ratified by Canada’s only chapter.
At the time, I was serving as secretary for the International Gay/Lesbian Outdoors Organizations (IGLOO) and part of my role was to receive newsletters of gay/lesbian outdoors organizations from member clubs from other cities and promote their larger events to other clubs. Through a local SF newsletter, I had followed the demise of the Committee for Gay/Lesbian Sierrans’ bid with great interest.
I was also activities coordinator for Out & Out, a large gay outdoor recreation club based in Toronto. Five of the local Sierra Club chapter executive were members of our club. When I heard Ms. P was headed in our direction I quickly sent letters to the local chapter president and other gay members on their board explaining what had recently transpired in SF and asking them to do the unspeakable, to refuse to ratify her as their representative.
I wasn’t sure if it would work. I only had the acquaintance of one of the local executive but it was worth a try. Generally, any local chapter would be thrilled to have the president as their representative, but there are rare moments in time when going against the establishment accomplishes more than embracing it. This happened to be one of those moments.
I received no response from my letter before Ms. P arrived but I learned two days later that she, in a most-Canadian way, was thanked for her expression of interest but clearly and firmly told that because of her stance against gay Sierrans she would not be either an appropriate or acceptable representative for Canada. For the first time in Sierra Club history, the Executive president was quietly, shamefully sent home without being ratified, knowing that the next nine best areas had already ratified the other Board members as their representatives.
I will never know how that crisis on the Executive resolved itself or exactly how much loss of face Ms. P suffered, but it must have had a strong impact on both her and the Board. Within a couple years, a Gay Sierrans group was established and, as far as I know, it has existed ever since. I wonder too, how the about-face was received by the SF gay community. After losing their loud and public fight, aided by both politicians and media, their crushing defeat was politely reversed with the quietest and most subtle of acts. Perhaps that was one of the first times liberal Americans began to echo that now-familiar chant, “Thank God for Canada”.PHOTO: Me, on my last hike up to Black Tusk meadows, August 1997
1 comment:
Pushback, blowback, consequences, domino theory, whatever but all it takes is just one little step.
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