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Dear Friends at Ambush,
You always come through for us and we appreciate it! Your coverage of our recent event, "An Evening of Positive Voices," helped us raise nearly $6,000.00 for ministries including our AIDS crisis fund. Thanks for all you do to bring our community together.
--Pastor Don Clarke, Joie de Vivre MCC of Baton RougeDear Rip,
I read with great interest Jon Newlin's column, "...or, Old Yeller." It is a delight to have an occasional glimpse into Jon's rather remarkable humor and his use of our oft times stodgy language. This piece was of particular interest to me as I have several times in the recent past been a critic of Roberts Batson and his SELECTIVE history of our past.Jon notes that Batson is working on THE BOOK, a recording of New Orleans history of our GLBT community and suggests that he may well just knit his various columns together and publish them. While I have been critical of Batson's repeated failure to record the accomplishments of The Crescent City Coalition in his articles, knowing him as I do I believe that these will only serve as reference points for the finished product. Each are far too brief, undetailed to be considered as finished essays.
It is because of one of these articles that I have just been offered the opportunity of serving on the Advisory Board for ONE Institute's Southern Studies Collection. I have accepted.
In one of his articles earlier this year, Batson quoted John O'Brien, Executive Director of ONE Institute's International Gay and Lesbian Archives as saying "There are four important cities in the country in terms of gay history. The are New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New Orleans." As soon as I read this quote, I called Mr. O'Brien in Los Angeles, delighted because I had found at last a kindred soul, as almost those exact same words have been included by me in nearly every letter I wrote the past two years to GLBT activists.
"I would never say any such thing," barked O'Brien, adding "Besides, Kansas City is far more important in our history than New Orleans." He then went into a dissertation on port cities and homosexual development, Kansas City and its location during the twenties and thirties, etc. We talked for nearly an hour, during which I informed him that I had met James T. Sears when he was at Faubourg Marigny Books. Jim was there talking about his recently published LONELY HUNTERS, the first in a five volume set of oral histories of Lesbian and Gay southern life.
Mr. Sears was in New Orleans recently interviewing Batson, Alan Robinson, Stewart Butler and myself and others. These interviews are for the second volume, tentatively called REBELS, RUBYFRUIT AND RHINESTONES. This book will cover the years 1969 to 1982. The first book covered the years 1948-1968. (If you do not have a copy of LONELY HUNTERS in your library run down to FM Books and do so. It is a MUST for any serious collection.)
As an example of Batson's continuing selectivity in recording OUR history, try to find ANY mention of Johnny Towndsend in his Upstairs Lounge Fire articles. Towndsend's devotion to the fire and his extensive research over many, many years was of no importance to Batson...just as The Crescent City Coalition is NO importance to HIS recounting of OUR history. I criticize Batson for his short comings and not his shorts.
While being interviewed by Mr. Sears, I was asked if the Crescent City Coalition had been started by John Ognibene "because he wanted his own civil rights organization." As someone who was at BOTH meetings at St. Louis Community Center and ALL meetings that eventually gave birth to the CCC it was NEARLY ALL OF US WHO WERE THERE THAT WANTED A GROUP THAT WOULD BE MORE ACTIVE LOCALLY AND WOULD [BE] MORE ACCOUNTABLE TO OUR COMMUNITY THAN LAGPAC HAD BEEN TO THAT DATE. We wanted more activism, and not just backing of political candidates.
To those who would besmirch the name of John Ognibene by trying to imply he had more personal aims than community needs I say YOU DID NOT KNOW JOHN OGNIBENE. I had several disagreements with John. The most important was his absolute failure to back my proposed celebration of Gay Rights I called STONEWALL +15. He had his reasons. And I respected his reasons.
Let me tell our younger generation who know little of what really happened back then, JOHN OGNIBENE WAS THE MOST SINCERE AND ACTIVE REAL LEADER THIS COMMUNITY HAS EVER SEEN.
I hope we well be so lucky as to find another such as John in the future.
In a different vein, Jon Newlin will be happy to learn that I am also working on a book of our history. Mine will cover the years 1962 to date and will be drawn from PERSONAL involvement and will NOT be a POLITICAL HISTORY of our community.
I still believe that New Orleans is one of the four most important cities in our national GLBT culture. I hope to prove it. The struggle has not been won. The struggle has just begun.
--Roger NelsonTo the Editors and Readers of Ambush:
I feel compelled to write and offer a more comprehensive picture of Covenant House New Orleans than the one painted by Toni J.P. Pizanie in her Sappho Psalm column.Covenant House New Orleans has saved over 15,000 youth from lives of desperation on the streets since opening our doors in 1986. Tens of thousands more have accessed our services for youth and families in crisis at the Covenant House Ciaccio Community Center and via the toll-free Covenant House 9-line (1.800.999.9999). We are the largest independent child care agency in the region. All we do on behalf of young people is driven by our mission statement, which clearly "calls us to serve suffering children of the street, and to protect and safeguard all children." That emphatically includes gay and lesbian youth, and we do our very best to fulfill these responsibilities. The sexual orientation of youth is not a perquisite [sic] consideration for admission to Covenant House.
At Covenant House New Orleans our stance on the treatment, care, love and respect due to all youth, including gay and lesbian youth in crisis, is clear. It is a matter of policy, history, practice and fact that any staff member found to be mistreating, abusing, attacking or in any other way harming or showing disrespect to gay and lesbian youth is to be immediately disciplined and/or fired. Any staff member who is found to have permitted others to in any way attack or abuse gay or lesbian youth without intervening shall be immediately disciplined and/or fired. I have personally discharged staff for such infractions in the past, and I will continue to do so in the future should the need arise. I don't think I can state it any clearer than that.
We pride ourselves on the cultural diversity engendered by our staff. We actively pursue and hire people of all races, religions, and cultures regardless of sexual orientation to fill positions at Covenant House. It is, therefore, regrettable that the article referred to information on alleged "anti-gay activity" from unnamed and possibly unhappy or disgruntled "former employees". The term "anti-gay activity" implies some coordinated campaign of discrimination, and it is an unfair and unwarranted implication.
It is not clear in the article if the "information" was forwarded to Ambush or to the LGCCNO, but in either case I would welcome the opportunity to review any such information in order to take appropriate action to remedy such activity should it exist. It would have been nice to have received any such information and be asked for comment prior to publication of the article, but Ms. Pizanie chose not to contact anyone at Covenant House for a balanced, truly representative picture of our mission.
While the article does make clear that it was Covenant House who extended an invitation to Reverend Dexter Brecht and the LGCCNO, the erroneous timeline referred to implies that specific problems arose and our request to LGCCNO was based on dealing with these problems. In point of fact, we have continually reached out to members of the gay and lesbian community in the past in order to better serve our kids. We have done so in the natural course of our ongoing efforts to continue to train and retrain staff regarding gay/lesbian issues and sensitivity, just as we continuously train and retrain staff in all areas of service to all our youth.
It was also interesting to read that the LGCCNO had decided to take a three-pronged approach in working with Covenant House. As of the writing of this letter, we have not been informed of this by Reverend Brecht or any other member of LGCCNO. While the outline of the plan which appeared in the article appears to be very promising, we would hope that they would find it appropriate to share their ideas and concepts with us and collaborate in order to reach the ultimate goal, which is the best care possible for gay and lesbian youth in crisis. We do feel we have something valuable to bring to the table in this regard, and we certainly don't plan to have an adversarial relationship with our gay and lesbian friends.
A final revelation in the article was Ms. Pizanie's reporting that Reverend Brecht brought an allegation of an attack on a gay youth to the attention of Mr. Harvey Britton, Director of the Covenant House Ciaccio Community Center at a May meeting. Mr.Britton informs me that the first he heard about this was when he read the article. I can state categorically that Covenant House has certainly not received any other information about this from LGCCNO or anyone else since the May meeting.
Ms. Pizanie quotes Reverend Brecht as calling for accountability and then calls for it herself. We agree wholeheartedly. Who is accountable when a columnist delivers a one-sided story without even contacting for comment or for more complete understanding those against whom questionable charges are made? Who is accountable when information which is meant to improve the lives of gay and lesbian youth is shared with the press before being shared with those who would provide those services? We certainly have no objection to sharing such information with the press, but shouldn't we be in the loop?
We at Covenant House are not perfect. We are constantly seeking ways to better serve the thousands of young people who so desperately need our community's support and love. We are constantly seeking ways to improve ourselves as an agency and our staff as individuals. That being said, I must also say that we are very proud of our results and our record of service. I will stand by our thousands of successful cases and by our dozens of hardworking staff who labor tirelessly, and do not deserve to be painted in a negative light with one broad stroke.
We are held accountable, every day. We have an open, standing invitation to the public to visit our facilities and see what we do at Covenant House, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Not a day goes by that someone isn't visiting our facilities for the first time, seeing what we do, asking questions, meeting staff. This invitation continues to be extended to you and your readers. Just call [504] 584.1111 to schedule a visit and our staff will gladly show you every aspect of our agency whenever it is convenient for you.
I welcome this opportunity to communicate with your publication and its readers. Next time you run a story on us, please, give us a call. We might have something to say that's worth hearing. Sincerely,
--Maudelle Cade, Executive Director, Covenant House New OrleansTo: The Editor
I Shelita Ann Molett do not agree on what was said about Covenant House stereotyping my bi-sexual preference. Since I've been here at Covenant House, they have helped me get things together. When I leave here I will be better prepared to go back into the world and handle the ups and downs that are going to come my way in the future.I Shelita Ann Molett being 20 years of age, was not stereotyped by Covenant House for being a lesbian. In fact, Covenant House helped me get a strong mind on what I should be thinking about to better my future. So that is not what Covenant House is about. Covenant House is about taking homeless children off the street and trying to help them. Covenant House is not about stereotyping kids for what they are or what they do. Sincerely,
--Shelita A. MolettDear Editor,
Last year the Congress, with the support of the Clinton Administration, millions of individual Americans, and the pharmaceutical industry reauthorized the Prescription Drug User Fee Act. This law requires a drug company applying for approval of a new drug to pay a substantial fee to the FDA. The money raised is used by the FDA to hire additional scientists.More reviewers meant the end of the backlogs that used to keep applications gathering dust, and as a result somewhat faster approvals. Nothing in the scientific review process of the FDA has been weakened, but millions of Americans suffering from chronic and sometimes fatal illnesses are being helped by getting critically needed new medicines a little sooner. I am one of them.
Unfortunately, some critics claim that FDA standards have been weakened because it has been able to speed up approvals of new drugs. Such worries don't compute. If the review process hasn't changed, having more scientists at work will simply enable the FDA to handle more reviews at the same time.
This bit of common sense is born out by FDA statistics, which show that the percentage of rejections of new drug applications is the same today as it was 20 years ago. While some new drugs have to be recalled when exposure to the general public results in adverse reactions not uncovered in years of testing, we should keep in mind that more than 2.5 billion prescriptions are issued each year. Almost every one of them is both safe and efficient. Adding reviewers to speed up approvals of new drugs was a good move and should be applauded. Sincerely,
--James Swire[Letters and Comments should be sent to Ambush Letters, 828-A Bourbon St., New Orleans, LA 70116-3137; or, E-mail to webmaster@ambushmag.com]
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