Castro Camera Shop Letter

Harvey Milk’s camera shop is being considered for designation as an historical landmark by the San Francisco Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board.  Maria sent a letter on behalf of Interior GLOBE to the Advisory Board in support of the nomination.

Food and Friends Thank You

GLOBE received a letter of thanks from Food and Friends for the donations received during the Holiday Season.

Stonewall in the News

The National Park Service’s National Historic Landmark Program’s newsletter, dated Winter 1999, featured a photograph of the Stonewall Inn on the front page with an associated article.

New Policies

Two new Interior policy issuances were announced.  The Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service issued Director’s Order No. 117 to provide placement assistance and information to FWS employees and their domestic partners who are relocating to different geographic areas.

Department of the Interior Acquisition Policy Release 2000-1 encourages contractors, subcontractors and lessors to develop and enforce comprehensive anti-discrimination policies for their places of work that cover discrimination based on several factors including sexual orientation.

Detail with the Office for Equal Opportunity

Richard Nolan of the Bureau of Land Management in Arizona has been assigned to the Department’s Office for Equal Employment Opportunity in a job sharing arrangement with BLM.  He will be working with the EEO Office on issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Interior employees.  Several issues were suggested including monitoring of Interior vacancy announcements for inclusion of statements regarding non-discrimination based on sexual orientation, and recommending changes to the Department’s Strategic Plan for Diversity.

It was noted that not being included in Bureau recruitment plans has the effect of eliminating gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered employees who are not in a second minority category from consideration, since managers get no credit for promoting diversity if they hire these people.  There were also a number of issues raised by David Liboff (previously assigned to the EEO Office in the same capacity) that need further action. GLOBE officers plan to meet with Richard at the earliest opportunity to discuss issues to be pursued.

Meeting with Assistant Secretary John Berry

Maria, Bob, and Jim met with John Berry, Melodee Stith and Minnijean Brown-Trickey on January 31^st to discuss a variety of issues:

- Stonewall Signing Ceremony

John Berry is looking into who should be present for a signing ceremony for the naming of Stonewall as a National Historic Landmark.  A ceremony at the Stonewall site with GLOBE participation was discussed.  He will make some telephone calls to determine the level of participation from the White House.  Maria will also call Chris Thomson, who is now at the White House to see what the current status is.  The package containing the Stonewall decision was signed by the Assistant Secretary - Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and has been forwarded to the Secretary for signature.

- June Pride

John Berry will call Jim Colby, a gay Arizona Republican, to see if he will come to speak at a Gay Pride Ceremony to be held at Interior in June.  The June Pride Ceremony will be coordinated by the Department’s EEO Office, rather than by a Bureau EEO office, as it was last year.

- Interior GLOBE 2000 Agenda - Action Items for this Year

• GLOBE officers committed to looking for gay community organizations that can be used in outreach to the gay community for Interior job recruitment efforts, as is done for other minority groups.

• John Berry will send a letter to OPM on the lack of inclusion of sexual orientation in the statement on non-discrimination factors that is included with OPM job announcements.   It seems that not all announcements listed at USAJobs contain the appropriate statement.

Newsletter

An Interior GLOBE newsletter is planned to highlight the accomplishments of the past year.  Maria is serving as the primary editor, and Tami Heilemann has agreed to work on graphics and layout when items have been submitted.  Some articles have been submitted to Maria and members were encouraged to get them in as soon as possible.   We plan to include the newsletter on our Interior GLOBE web site and on a bulletin board in the Main Interior Building.

Review of By-Laws

The meeting to revise the by-laws for Interior GLOBE (canceled due to the winter weather) was rescheduled for February 16 in Room 6249 MIB at 12:00 PM.

Instructions for Implementing the Policy on Processing Discrimination Complaints Based on Sexual Orientation

An instruction booklet for implementing the policy on processing discrimination complaints based on sexual orientation has been distributed.  Questions were raised on how widely this was distributed and whether final corrections to the booklet have been made.  Maria will check with Melodee on the status.

OSM Diversity Training

The Office of Surface Mining has held some very good diversity training recently.   It included part of a film by Brian McNaught, a well-known sexual orientation awareness trainer.

EEO Office Information on the Status of Complaints Based on Sexual Orientation

Four openly gay/lesbian/bisexual EEO Counselors have been identified as available for processing complaints based on sexual orientation.  To date there have been 8 informal complaints that have been settled and 3 formal complaints with 1 settled.

It was suggested that the four counselors be listed on the EEO web site to better communicate their availability. It was also noted that union agreements should include statements on sexual orientation non-discrimination.

GLOBE Membership List

It was noted that a number of people are getting information from GLOBE second hand.   We would like to encourage those who would like to stay informed on Interior GLOBE issues to get on our mailing list.  To be included, they can send an e-mail to Robert_J_Veltkamp@nbc.gov.  They should state whether they would like to receive information announcing events to be held in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.  They should also indicate if they would like to receive e-mails as a blind copies.

GLOBE Reception to Coincide with the Millennium March on Washington

GLOBE will discuss at our next meeting a reception to coincide with the Millennium March on Washington the weekend of April 28^th.  The March takes place on Sunday April 30th.  Information on the March can be found at www.planetout.com/mmow.

Community Service Projects

Members raised the possibility of GLOBE participating in projects that will benefit Interior’s gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered employees or that will contribute to other communities.  This will be discussed at our next meeting.