Blind Prophecy

“The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.”
- William Shakespeare, from The Merchant of Venice (V, i, 83-85)

Thursday morning started way too early for someone who’d been up late the night before. Our opening plenary, with Chrissy Gephardt, was the first event where we had the whole ballroom open, and I arrived about an hour before we opened the doors.

After rushing the night before to put together our organization’s statement regarding ENDA, our ED showed up a few minutes before opening the doors and told me it was “too long” and a “downer” to start our conference with. This was the first of many clues that I’ve outgrown this organization. Where I see a chance for us to take a firm stance (which we did) and make a bold statment (which we did), she felt the whole mess interfered with her Pollyanna view of LGBT equality activism.

So, while she gave her happy “isn’t it great we’re all here” speech, I passed around my draft of the ENDA statement to our board–who held a emergency board meeting and voted to read the statement in the afternooon plenary.

Anyway, the best part of the opening plenary was the entertainment. As west coast attendees coped with being awake at the equivalent of 5 am with coffee and cantaloupe, the door at the back of the ballroom suddenly opened and theMajestic Marching Knights of Ballou High School paraded into the room.

The crowd loved them–a local success story of a troubled school with an outstanding arts program–and I heard a lot of people commenting on the band throughout the rest of the conference.

Chrissy Gephardt’s speech wasn’t bad, but I felt like it could have been given by almost any professional LGBT activist. Frankly, I could have given that speech–except for the parts about having a father who ran for President. I suppose I’m a bit more exposed to the “you should vote” and “you should support ENDA and Hate Crimes” speeches than most people, and for some folks in our audience it might have been genuinely needed advice, but I felt it lacked depth or originality.

Between our opening plenary and our afternoon plenary, my time was spent in walk-through meetings, using photos from Kodak to create the walk=in slideshow for our next plenary, and trying to touch bases with other LGBT organizations in the founding moments of the United ENDA movement.

Our afternoon plenary involved a musical presentation by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon (founder of Sweet Honey on the Rock) and her daughter Toshi Reagon (lesbian singer/songwriter). Although the plenary was more concert than keynote speech, it was deeply moving and I enjoyed it a lot.

Durng the Q&A, someone asked Dr. Reagon about the gay community’s use of black civil rights anthems. She gave one of the most thoughtful responses I’ve ever heard. She admits that when a white artist gets paid more than a black artist for the same song (usually sung better by the black person), it’s wrong and it’s racist… but that’s a racist system. As an artist, however, she puts her music out there and it means different things to different people. If the gay community finds meaning in her songs, she welcomes the opportunity for us to learn from one another. The money quote, “It may be appropriation, but that does not mean it is not also appropriate.”

I would have liked to go to any of our 7 networking receptions in the late evening, but I got tied up with creating yet another powerpoint slide show, more ENDA drama, and printing out what may have been the 5th version of the same document for our ED.

The evening ended with our Thursday Night Entertainment. The Dakshina dance troupe was interesting, but I felt as though they went on too long. The Capitol Steps were every bit as hilarious as I was told to expect. Their Larry Craig number (involving a guy in a stall singing “Knock three times for love”) got the biggest audience reactions of the night. The show closed out with BETTY (of The L Word fame), which didn’t thrill me. I’m afraid that I’ll always be more of an Indigo Girls and Lilith Fair kinda honorary lesbian–the rock/punk/screamer grrrl bands just don’t do much for me.

I took lots of pictures, but in an act of stupidity (or drunkeness) I connected my camera to the computer, got distracted, disconnected, then erased all the images off my camera. I blame Abercrombie for distracting me, so instead I’ll end this post with a picture of him I’ve stolen from one of his online profiles…

Filed under: DC, queer rights, work by Jere Keys