Queen City: musings on gay Cincinnati

Gay people are fine.

I’m going to keep reiterating that until it sticks.

This seems a strange case to have to make in 2009. Iowa (of all places) and Vermont have recently legalized gay marriage, joining the ranks of Massachusetts and Connecticut. California’s fate could be decided any day. “Milk,” the biopic about the first openly gay man in public office, won Oscars this year for Best Screenplay and Best Actor. Cojo still has a job.

Gay is, once again, the new black.

But here in Cincinnati, progress and awareness on this subject comes slowly… too slowly. Citizens of our great American city are still largely polarized on the issue of homosexuality. It seems we exist just below the surface with our straight and gay denizens living largely separate lives in the same Cincinnati neighborhoods.

One of the reasons for this lies in the fact that my gay and lesbian compatriots aren’t exactly clamoring to help stir the pot. There exist but a few banner events per year that help remind Cincinnati that there is, in fact, a consistent gay movement in Cincinnati. These include the LGBTQ Youth Summit, the Pride Alive weekend, the GLSEN Prom and Gay Day at King’s Island.

While these events are certainly important for gay visibility, they fail to make up for a year’s worth of ostensibly wasted time. Three events a year is hardly worth getting dressed for. Three events come up short in adding any real zest to the cultural cobb salad that makes up what is, in actuality, a diverse gay community that is only now beginning to realize its potential.

In addition, two of these three events don’t do anything to affect or diminish the divide between gay and straight Cincinnati. Drag queens are fun and all (really, they are) but they’re not exactly the best emissaries to the straight world. Aren’t there any gays left willing to pull Cincinnati clear of nascent, backward homophobia?

Consider this as a call to action if there are: Cincinnati has just passed a new policy at the Butler County Children’s Services Agency which encourages case workers to give preference to legally married, opposite sex couples.

Is all our indignation gone? Is the fight out of us? Has the Cincinnati Gay movement been ground to a complete halt?

No. It hasn’t.

To paint a portrait that casts Cincinnati as a city without a rainbow would be disingenuous. There exists a groundswell of new energy in the LGBT corners of the city. There is new blood, new energy and a renewed sense of purpose that is beginning to take shape.

This was evidenced by the mass rally that occurred on March 19 near the University of Cincinnati Law School. Brandishing signs that declared “I am Gay,” or “I am a Lesbian,” queers young and old rallied to protest the felonious assault of a gay student on campus a few nights earlier. The protest was largely organized on Facebook only a day earlier by the groups IMPACT CINCINNATI, The Cincinnati Guerilla Queer Bar and Equality Cincinnati, all local LGBT organizations that have an active organizational presence on the web and in the community.

This is exactly the kind of verve required by Cincinnati gay groups to invoke change. It’s representative of what the community can do in record time with the aid of social networking groups and a little moxie. The hope is that spirit will continue to build to take on the issues that affect gays and lesbians daily.

Can the gay community stand up for fair adoption rights? Can the gay community come together against agents of ill will in powerful offices? It certainly appears so.

Consider the following: The NAACP recently appointed Chris Finney –the lawyer that drafted the dreaded Article 12– to its board. While I am not pleased by this seemingly outrageous turn of events, this is a perfect opportunity to reach out to another community that might not be as concerned with LGBT issues as we would like them to be.

 IMPACT CINCINNATI responded to the Finney fiasco by diplomatically creating an alliance with the local NAACP; last Wednesday at City Hall, they joined members of the NAACP in protesting the existing inequities in the awarding of city contracts in Cincinnati. This let the NAACP know that we are here for them.

Now they have a reason to be there for us,

This was the most judicious move that could be made by a gay rights group because to plainly argue that Finney should lose his job because of his link Article 12 is ludicrous.

Helping the NAACP and other organizations understand why this appointment flusters the gay community is tantamount. Through positive engagement with others, we can best get the message across. Perhaps this level of comprehension will prevent other gay foes from being supplanted into seats of power in the future.

So to every gay group in town that sits idle when there’s work to be done, it’s time to get to work. Apathy and lethargy are not part of the recipe for social change and should no longer be tolerated by a population that wants something better, something more for the City of Cincinnati.

We have seen from recent events that being seen and heard is far more effective than incessantly bitching about how Cincinnati has nothing to offer.  

Offer Cincinnati something instead. Many are.

We have seen there are several organizations and dynamic individuals that are poised to adorn the sash of queer leadership. The folks at IMPACT CINCINNATI, the Cincinnati Guerilla Queer Bar and Equality Cincinnati are taking charge over an ostensibly failed community and I want them to succeed marvelously.

So get your act together ineffective gay advocates! Don’t have enough money in the budget? Have a fundraiser. Is your LGBT group largely ineffectual? Join another more proactive one. Interested in living a marginal, yet comfortable life in the shadows of non-confrontation? Get out of the way.

LGBT Cincinnati’s prerogative is the same as my own and nothing should keep us from letting the rest of the city know what we –above all else—really understand:

Gay people are fine.

Ryan McLendon graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2008 with degrees in Journalism and English. He is a National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association scholarship winner, a Fulbright scholar, and a gay enthusiast. He is currently a graduate student in Journalism at NYU.

Lead Photo by Joe Lamb – Proposition 8 rally, Cincinnati City Hall
Photography by Scott Beseler
Bronze, Be Yourself bud
Bronze dance club
Matthew Dayler, Killing the Game Panel 2
Simon Says, Johnnie’s Memorial