By hiring a Midwest Field Organizer with an office in Chicago, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network joins the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund as one of the few national GLBT groups which recognizes the significance of placing offices outside of the East and West coasts.
It is rare for a national gay organization not to be based exclusively in either Washington, D.C. or New York.
But GLSEN and Lambda both realize the significance of regional offices and staffing. GLSEN has four Regional Field Organizers, plus three support staff for the Field Organizing program, all based in New York at GLSEN's national headquarters.
Kristen White, a labor organizer who most recently was office manager at the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women's Network, is GLSEN's full-time Midwest Field Organizer. Her three years as a union organizer for the Service Employees International Union made her a logical choice when GLSEN was looking for someone to start their midwest outreach efforts. She started her work June 12.
Originally from Dallas, White attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and received her BA in Social Thought and Political Economy and Economics in 1994.
An open lesbian, she said she came out of school and "wanted to get a job working in the social justice movement. I felt, and still do feel, strongly about the rights of working people and the right to organize."
Her SEIU job involved travelling to help workers, predominantly healthcare workers, organize unions.
White's Midwest Field Organizer post will also have some administrative assistance within a few months.
White's fellow Field Organizers are in the Southern ( based in Atlanta ) , Western ( San Francisco ) , and Eastern ( New York ) United States. The Midwest office is in charge of Illinois, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Ohio.
Covering 13 states, 6,068 school districts, 27,422 schools, 11 million public school students ... that's a big task for one Midwest Field Organizer, according to John Spear, National Field Director. Spear spoke with Outlines from a national GLSEN training in California, and expressed his enthusiasm for White's skills.
White's goals primarily include working with existing GLSEN chapters—and the Chicago GLSEN is seen as one of the nation's top chapters. White will also work with individuals seeking to create a GLSEN in their hometown.
"There are thousands of school boards in the midwest, so one person cannot change a thousand school boards by herself, but instead Kristen will focus on building local chapters, increasing their size and strength so that local organizers can have that impact," Spear said.
Why is GLSEN one of the few national groups to realize having an office in the midwest is critical to serving a diverse community? Both Spear and GLSEN spokesperson Jim Anderson said the same thing: that schools in the U.S. are locally run. To effect change, it's important to be in every city and town, every county and state.
"It is GLSEN's philosophy. We're doing work to change K-12 schools," said Anderson. "That means we need to be organized at the local level because for the most part federal and state governments don't have very much power over local schools. For us to have any real impact, we need to be organized at the local level. That's what our 85 chapters do. Right from the start, chapters were a fundamental strategic decision, dating back to 1993 to 1994," when GLSEN began.
"The primary reason GLSEN has gone this local route is that it makes good organizing sense to be located outside of the national office in New York," Spear said. "One, you are closer to people in the communities you're helping. And two, it's also a credibility issue. Kristen's been organizing in the midwest for many years, and to bring her into New York to organize folks in Michigan, it doesn't make sense logically."
GLSEN was started by Kevin Jennings, who is still its executive director. The next two positions filled were field staff, according to Spear, who was one of those two people.
Why is Chicago the homebase for the Midwest office? Spear said there were many variables considered in deciding where to open a regional office, and Chicago had all of them. "First, it has a strong, thriving GLSEN chapter—a flagship chapter," he said. "It is also centrally located, has two airports, several hubs, is convenient and low-cost to fly in and out of, and it has a thriving LGBT community."
In addition, GLSEN is hosting their national conference in Northwest suburban Arlington Heights Oct. 6-8 this year. Comic Marga Gomez will present key national Pathfinder Awards, and many high-profile people will be attending the conference, Anderson said.
"This issue is becoming more and more important to members of the LGBT community, in communities around the country," Anderson said. "We'll often hear from a handful of activists in a community, who want to be involved in issues. So we help connect people to people. Our issue is so decentralized so it's important to have grassroots activists at the local level to make change."
GLSEN overall has 17 staff members, and seven of those are dedicated to supporting grassroots work, Anderson said. "This reflects our basic philosophy, that grassroots change and school change in particular, has to come from the grassroots. Ours is not a beltway issue. You're not going to change Chicago's schools from D.C. You need local teachers, librarians, etc., making changes thru those relationships. Ours will always be a community-based issue."
Of the 17 staff, 10 are women, three are people of color, and four are former teachers.
Anderson was also excited to discuss the conclusion of a long process to involve more youth in the organization's decision-making structure. The GLSEN board just completed the first step of their Youth on Board Project, after a study to determine how to bring young people on board in a meaningful way. Four young adults were elected to the national GLSEN board in June.
"It was really important to us," Anderson said of the election of the youth to the national board. "We're an organization that tries to tap into the strengths that are the stakeholders—teachers, parents, students, community members at large. We took a look and recognized that we hadn't created at the national board level a meaningful place where young people could get involved."
While GLSEN's grassroots work is critical to the group's mission, they also will continue to do national coalition building around education and youth issues. These efforts include studies about harassment of youth in schools, and public education campaigns including the one featuring Judy Shepard on MTV, which reached millions of young people in 1999.
GLSEN will also open a D.C.-based public policy office, with a director of public policy starting in September.
GLSEN also provides resources to schools. And, after five years of "banging our heads on the doors," schools and teachers are now coming to GLSEN for materials, Anderson said. "We're giving teachers tools to incorporate LGBT issues into their curriculum. Obviously we hope to grow that and add staff—it's really where you can make tremendous change, you can teach all young people to respect one another."
Spear sees GLSEN's continued role as locally based. He said the American Family Association and other anti-gay groups will increase their focus on anti-gay ballot measures aimed at the schools. "It's only one or two election cycles before they are targeting schools, and we're going to have to get organized. A lot of midwest states may also be able to consider statewide student protection legislation, on sexual orientation and gender identity," Spear said.
GLSEN donates to FUEL
This past year GLSEN/Chicago was recognized by the gay Catholic group Dignity/Chicago for their support to the GLBT community. This award comes with a $100 donation that is given in the name of GLSEN to any organization of GLSEN's choice. They selected to give this check to FUEL, an alternative club for GLBT youth. For details on the club, e-mail fuelyouth@aol.com
The GLSEN Midwest Office can be reached at 5443 N. Broadway, Chicago, or call ( 773 ) 271-8710, e-mail GLSENMidwest@GLSEN.org . Or visit www.glsen.org .
