March 14, 2001
Happy Hour
March’s 4th Friday happy hour is on March 23, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at Gabriel’s at the Radisson Barcelo Hotel, 2121 P Street, NW, Washington, DC.
GLOBE Monthly Volunteer Effort with Food and Friends
The GLOBE monthly volunteer effort with Food and Friends is on the evenings of our monthly meetings. This month’s effort (the evening of March 14) will be attended by Maria and any others who choose to join in.
June Pride Planning
Diane Wood-Medley, OSM member of the Department’s Special Emphasis Committee, came to present the status of the June Pride planning effort and to ask for some ideas and decisions so that she could proceed with event planning.
Regarding the Keynote Speaker
Secretary Gale Norton was GLOBE’s preferred speaker. Diane was informed that Gale Norton needs time to review Interior policies and procedures and have discussions with her management team (not yet in place) before participating in this and other special emphasis events. Diane was told that she should work with GLOBE to pursue other alternatives.
Lower level appointees, such as the Deputy Secretary or the Solicitor, (not yet appointed) will not be available for similar reasons.
We could have unofficial GLOBE events in June and invite political appointees to those events, but it was thought that chances of accepted invitations would be very slim for the same reasons.
Diane brought three other suggestions: Elizabeth Toledo, Tim McFeley, and Urvashi Vaid.
Elizabeth Toledo, Executive Director for the Gay & Lesbian Task Force (Former Vice President of the National Association of Women (NOW) was accepted as first alternative to Interior political appointees.
Tim McFeley, Political Director for the Gay & Lesbian Task Force was accepted as third choice.
Urvashi Vaid, Program Officer, Governance and Civil Society, Ford Foundation, was not accepted as an alternative.
Maria Wiseman suggested one of the attorneys that worked on the Vermont Civil Union case. This suggestion was accepted as second choice.
Some of the other ideas included speakers on AIDS. It was suggested and generally agreed that GLOBE members wanted to not make AIDS the June pride celebration focus, but to use World AIDS day for that purpose.
Other suggestions included Jim Graham, DC Council member and former Director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic (WWC); Tom McClure from the WWC who could provide some positive information on lowering AIDS infection rates; Barney Frank; and Jim Kolbe.
The target date is June
13, but we will accommodate the speaker’s schedule.
The Program, to be held in the newly renovated South Interior Auditorium, was reviewed and agreed to as follows:
A lively musical selection by the Not What You Think Ensemble from the Lesbian and Gay Chorus.
Introductory comments by emcee (Mary Josie Blanchard from the Office of Surface Mining or Wendell Sutton, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources)
Speaker
Lighting of Candles in Remembrance of Victims of Hate Crimes
A more somber musical selection by the Not What You Think Ensemble from the Lesbian and Gay Chorus
Comments from the President of GLOBE
Lively musical selection by the Not What You Think Ensemble from the Lesbian and Gay Chorus
(It was decided to omit the Honor Guard Presentation and National Anthem as complaints have been received that Special Emphasis Programs are too long, and we have been asked to trim the program down.)
Other June Pride Items
Costs for the event, funded by the Department, are estimated at $1,600 plus the cost for a speaker. Speaker prices varied from $75 to $3,000.
Diane asked for someone to lend holders for the candles. Please call Diane at 202-208-2997 if you have holders to lend for the ceremony.
Diane also asked for assistance in gathering exhibit materials, such as graphics and photos. In the past we have had photos of Jay as President of GLOBE, John Berry, Barney Frank, Jim Kolbe, and Jim Graham.
Diane will make available for other GLOBE sponsored events video tapes from Brian McNaught. Topics include gay and lesbian issues in the workplace and Gay/Straight - Can We Talk - Building Bridges. Showing of tapes will be scheduled sometime in June.
Spring Newsletter
Please get submissions in as soon as possible. Publication is set for sometime in April.
Stonewall Plaque
We are still checking to see where the existing plaque is so that it can be displayed. Otherwise we will get another one created and placed.
Report from Melodee Stith - Director of the Office for Equal Opportunity
Melodee reviewed a number of topics:
Responsibility for World
AIDS Day commemoration is being shifted from her office to the National
Business Center. NBC is responsible for a variety of heath, charity
and wellness issues, such as the Combined Federal Campaign and employee
health seminars, such as on women’s breast cancer.
Melodee reiterated the
position of the new administration on attending and speaking at Special
Emphasis Program events.
The Secretary has been
briefed and is reviewing a number of diversity-related policies, including
those regarding sexual orientation discrimination. There have been NO
indications of any changes at this point.
It is anticipated that
many diversity responsibilities will be delegated to lower levels. The
new administration does want to make progress on diversity issues.
The new administration
has met with John Berry twice to be briefed on a variety of issues. Those
meeting have gone well.
Interior is the federal
agency leader in establishing procedures for handling discrimination
complaints based on sexual orientation.
Quite a few complaints
have been resolved at the informal level. There are 6 active formal
complaints. 5 of these involve other discrimination factors, such as
age, race or religion. For these, there is a dual process, one for the
sexual orientation issues and one for the other factors. The split
occurs at the hearing stage. Sexual orientation related complaints
stop at the Department level. Others can go on to the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission. Cases are across the country, including DC,
Minnesota and Montana.
After decisions are made,
briefings will be provided to communicate what has been learned from the
cases.
The EEO process is favored over the grievance process by many complainants because it provides for reimbursement of attorney fees and for back pay. It also has a lower threshold for legitimate complaints.
Revised: 03/21/01
Robert_J_Veltkamp@nbc.gov