A Different Angle: a random collection of essays and observations, mostly about lesbian/gay/bi issues. © Todd VerBeek, Radio Zero(tm)

Closets In The Network

In among all the exciting good news about the lesbian and gay community in western Michigan (and more coming soon) there's a dark cloud floating: the resignation last month of the Network Board's president. It's not that we've "lost" her executive skills, enthusiasm, and leadership. Anyone who's had an opportunity to get to know her, knows that she will continue to contribute a great deal now, in her new position as vice president. She can't help it.

What's troubling is the reason it happened. She didn't resign because she no longer thought she could perform the job. She didn't resign because the Board had changed its mind about her. She didn't resign because the general membership had called for her to step down. Any of those would have been good reasons to resign ... if they had happened. But what happened is this: She began to fear that she might be forced out of the closet by someone who didn't like her being president.

I've heard her reasons for deciding not to be "out" to the media. In her judgment, it's not worth the financial price she expects she'd have to pay. Maybe she's right, maybe not. But it's her call. Politically, I'm "pro-choice", and I think that philosophy applies here as well. If it's not my life, then it's not my place to decide. Period.

The duties of the Board president are established in the Network's by-laws, and a good "in" person can perform them as well as any good "out" person can. If that's the case, then restricting this position to "out" individuals would be just another form of unjust discrimination. It would send a clear signal that "in" people are second-class members of the Network ... that they can perform certain jobs, but that the important jobs - even if they don't really need to be - are arbitrarily reserved for "out" people.

But that's not what the Network is really like. The Network is charged by its by-laws to give everyone - male or female, light- or dark-skinned, Christian Reformed or Pagan, completely closeted or nationally recognized - an equal chance to contribute where they can. For example, we now have a vocally "out" president serving in partnership with a carefully "in" vice president. That's the way the Network has worked as long as I have been associated with it, since that day in early 1988 when I, a just-emerging "closet case", stumbled upon the just-emerging Network.

Both the Network and I have changed a lot since then. We are both a lot more secure and self-confident, and we are much more visible and "out" to the larger community. However, I still support the right of every single member of the lesbian/gay community - from Board president to the person who has yet to even hear of Pride Day - to choose their own public profile. And as I look around at Network events and activities, seeing the wide range of people comfortably and energetically participating, I can only conclude that the Network still does as well.

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