Looking back, moving forward. Tonight we celebrate Wingspan’s 20 years of service to our community. After watching that incredible video, I look back on what enabled Wingspan to deeply affect so many lives, including my own, and I know that moving forward is dependent on one simple word, “you.”Tonight is not just a celebration of Wingspan, it is a celebration of you, because you make our work possible. When I first walked through Wingspan’s front door nearly 14 years ago, it was you volunteering at the front desk who greeted me with a welcoming smile. It was you who facilitated the Saturday youth group and provided a safe and welcoming space for me to accept and love ALL of myself.
And, it was you who gave the time and resources that made Wingspan a nationally recognized community center. You made a difference in my life and in the lives of countless others. Thank you so much! As Bill Kruse said in the video, over the past 20 years Wingspan has grown to meet the needs of our community. From our Youth and Families programs to our Anti-Violence Programs. From the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance to our Health and Wellness Programs. From the Community Center, our home, to our public advocacy and education efforts.
Wingspan continues to grow to achieve our mission of promoting the freedom, equality, safety and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. And, where will our community center move forward to in the future? How about into our own building? The time has come for our community to stop only dreaming about having our own building and start moving toward that goal. With your help, we will make that happen!
Of course, it takes quite a team of dedicated staff and volunteers to continue moving Wingspan forward. Every staff member is here tonight to celebrate with us and I’d like to ask them to stand so we can thank them. Amidst all of these wonderful programs, I don’t want to lose sight of the individuals, the people that you enable us to support. Last month I had what I call a “stop the presses moment,” one of those experiences that smacks me in the face and reminds me about the reason behind our work. A mother and her 16-year-old gay son came to the center asking for help. Our youth and families program staff were out of the office, so I met with them and listened as she told me that she had to pull her son out of the Amphi School district because he was being harassed and physically assaulted. She was searching for a charter school he could attend safely, but her son was being rejected from other schools because he stood up for himself and was labeled a “problem student.”
I could tell her son was feeling a little uncomfortable during the conversation, so I joked that he was probably happy not to have to go to school right now. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “No, I really want to go to school.” In that moment, I had a flashback to my own experience, to being teased and tormented at school nearly every day. I looked at his mother and I thanked her. Choking back tears, I thanked her for being there to protect her son in a way that my own mother was not there for me. I gave her contact information for our youth program and the local GLSEN chapter, and in that moment I was reminded of another reason why Wingspan is here: to provide resources and to support families like hers.
But, I also became really angry. How is it possible that 15 years after I graduated from high school, LGBT youth are still being teased and tormented to the point that their education, their future, is threatened? Yes, Wingspan was there to provide resources to that mom, but there must be something more. There has to be something more! Well, there is something more: we have a vision for the future that goes beyond healing wounds.
Through the public advocacy and education conducted by Wingspan’s programs, we work in solidarity with Equality Arizona and other partners to prevent those wounds from happening in the first place. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the forces of bigotry who demonize our families in pursuit of their political objectives. This election year, the anti-LGBT industry in Arizona is alive and well. However, because of you, Wingspan is here to expose their lies and fight for our families. When they cite bunk research to support so-called ex-gay or “conversion therapy” programs, Wingspan is here to offer scientific truth that brings families together, instead of breaking them apart.
When they claim that our families are unfit to raise children, Wingspan is here to remind them that every mainstream medical and mental health professional association supports policies that enable our families to legally protect their children. Friends, It’s time for us to come together, drawing strength from a righteous anger to say, “For far too long extremists have run amuck in our state and we’re not going to let them hurt our community anymore!” One of the best ways for us to do this is to work together to defeat Proposition 102, the so-called “marriage amendment” - again! Wingspan is proud to partner with No on 102 and Arizona Together. However, we need your help to spread the poll-tested messages that can produce a victory for our community in November. Vote NO - keep Phoenix politicians out of marriage. Arizona has a budget deficit of over 3 billion dollars. But, what does the state legislature spend their time debating? Marriage—even though we voted on this two years ago. Tell the Phoenix politicians to get to work on real issues that matter to Arizona families, like health care, energy policy, and the economy. Vote NO - tell the Phoenix politicians that we aren’t dumb. Why won’t they listen to us? In 2006 we voted no, now they are back at it, putting divisive issues on the ballot. Vote NO - leave marriage alone. Marriage in Arizona is already defined in state law. There’s no reason to change the Constitution. Vote NO - again and Trust the people. Voters made their views known on this issue two years ago. Forty-nine legislators shouldn’t be able to overturn the voters on this issue.
Now, I know that’s a lot to remember, so I encourage you to please stop at the No on 102 and Arizona Together tables in the lobby to pick up the literature they have. Distribute those pamphlets and buttons to your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers and sign up to volunteer. Please join me in thanking the incredible volunteers running these campaigns for helping our community to defeat the anti-LGBT industry in our state, again. We’ve been hearing the words “hope” and “change” a lot in this election year. Next month, a new film will be released about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States. Harvey brought hope to our community nationwide at a time when bigotry, homophobia and anti-LGBT violence was even more of threat than it is today. I want to share with you something he said in a speech in 1978 that made me think about my own personal connection to Wingspan. He said: “And the young gay people...who are coming out and hear Anita Bryant on television and her story. The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be all right.”
For 20 years, Wingspan has been providing hope and a home for people like me and countless others, and it couldn’t have happened without you. Together we look back on Wingspan’s incredible history and move forward, hand-in hand, into the next 20 years. This is your community and Wingspan will always be your center. Thank you and enjoy the rest of our 20th anniversary celebration!
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