About Michelle
Michelle Brown is an author, activist & public speaker who believes in common ground for all people.Appearances
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Recent Posts
- The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice welcomes Michelle Elizabeth Brown to the BRCSJ Board of Directors
- Ode to Kamala Harris/Our Vice President
- Updated poetry for TDOR 2020 (Monica on my mind)
- Living in the Shadow of COVID 3: Getting Back to Work, Because There’s SO Much Work to Do
- Living in the Shadow of COVID 2: Caring for Our Communities
Archives
Category Archives: lgbt
My latest POV on CherryGrrl.com
As we count down the last days of 2012 time to think about how we should allocate our time, talent and tithes in our fight for equality. My latest post in Cherry Grrl
http://cherrygrrl.com/pov-nows-the-time-to-find-the-band-for-your-different-drummer/
POV: Now’s the Time to Find the Band For Your Different Drummer
December 16, 2012 · Op-Ed, POV · 0 Comments
Who hasn’t been asked to join a group, sit on a committee, or participate in some function where you knew you didn’t quite belong?
In our politically correct world of diversity and inclusion, everyone says, “But that’s ok. We need a different viewpoint. We need that energy.” And, having also taken a sip of that same Kool-Aid laced with a bit of ego and the honest belief that we can make a difference, we avoid all the warning signs and dive head on into the fray.
Sometimes it works out but more often than many of us care to admit, it doesn’t, and the experience taints our opinion about the effectiveness of our movement.
Time and time again when sitting around the diversity campfire I hear the same story. “We try to be inclusive and have reached out to (youth, people of color, transgender, southerners, mid-westerners, tall people, red heads – fill in the group of your choice) but it just hasn’t worked out. They come to a few meetings then just drop out.”
On the flip side, I hear from the other folks (youth, people of color, transgender, southerners, mid-westerners, tall people, red heads – fill in the group of your choice) that although a seat was offered at the table the menu remained unchanged.
Decisions, strategies, new initiatives and governance remain the same – as one Latina sister told me “Adding Habanero sauce to the condiment tray but still serving peas and white rice ain’t inclusion!”
So what do we do to be really diverse and inclusive in the LGBT community facing some homogeneous attacks against our families, our right to work, our lives but consists of individuals/communities as diverse as the rainbow flag we wave?
Let’s face it, if we can’t get it together in our LGBT house our work will continue to be an uphill battle in the state and federal legislative houses.
I have experienced different paths to this dilemma and quite frankly am still looking for a solution.
One path, which is truly not for the faint of heart and is tinged with varying doses of passive/aggressiveness and masochism, is the road of “being the first.”
You know the one. He or she takes that first seat at the table, bringing their own habanero sauce and keeps pouring it liberally over that rubber chicken until one day fried chicken shows up on the menu.
They are the standard bearer for their community (youth, people of color, transgender, southerners, mid-westerners, tall people, red heads – fill in the group of your choice) always called upon to explain every action of every member of their unique community.
If those of us who have walked this walk had a dollar for every time we had to explain that all African Americans aren’t Baptist, every Trans-person isn’t a drag queen/king and every lesbian doesn’t have a collection of Birkenstocks and flannel shirts at home in lieu of lingerie there’d be a whole lot of happy activists sitting on a sunny Caribbean beach working on our novels.
Another path requiring thick skin, unflappable determination and commitment, often involves working solely within our own communities to organize, educate and mobilize without access to the resources that seem to be designated for the more mainstream, big organizations where our community (youth, people of color, transgender, southerners, mid-westerners, tall people, red heads – fill in the group of your choice) is underrepresented.
Those taking this path are “Trail Blazers” but their trail is not the tedious, aggravating and frustrating road of explanation. They come to the trail blazing not asking to be included in the conversation or accepting crumbs but demanding there place at the table even if it means bringing a bag lunch.
You know us as the angry (fill in the blank – black woman, lesbian, trans-activist etc.) ever vigilant to avoid being marginalized or thrown under the bus for the sake of political expediency.
I still remember ENDA when the LG was willing to leave the T waiting at the train station just to keep the equality train rolling.
If those of us who have walked this walk had a dollar for every time we had railed against the power organizations, the political machine, Washington insiders and other establishment types, we could buy a damn cruise ship to take us to that island and party with those happy activists sitting on that sunny beach.
There’s a whole lot of gray area in between and finding a way to fight for our common goals while respecting the unique strengths and cultures our diverse communities will always be a tight rope we will have to walk. And sadly our internal LGBT squabbles have left many in our community holding on to the dollars needed to continue our fight for full equality.
It’s year-end and if you’re like me you’ve received tons of requests asking for not only year-end donations but continued support in the New Year.
I have thought long and hard on where I am going to give and commit my time, talent and tithes and found inspiration from a post by the Women’s Rights Network.
It said “Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you or makes you happy.” I respect myself enough to walk away from the status quo and what will make me happy is nothing less than full EQUALITY.
To borrow from Robert Frost, we have promises to keep – to our families, to our youth and to the lives of the LGBT community worldwide – and miles to go before any of us can sleep.
So as you look over those year-end requests and where you will commit your time, especially over the next four years (hate to say it but we still have two elections to be working on now) reinvest in our community. Maybe it’s time to switch your support from organization A to organization B, from locally to nationally, from established to emerging but don’t say no say yes to equality
Because we have promises to keep, and miles to go before we sleep.
More Poetry from my new book (out 2013)
ROCK STAR
It’s safe to open the blinds now
The sun has gone down
I’ve had a vampire kind of day
The sun’s rays could not disperse the fog
Surrounding my thoughts
So it was banished.
I see that you have called
Written messages
Messages saying you understand
Feel my pain, my sadness
You send me healing energy, love
A shoulder to rest on
You are a faithful friend.
But I need a Vampire rock star
I need to be loved fiercely
I’ll take that healing, that love
I may even rest briefly on that shoulder
But I need a fucking warrior princess
Yes I’ve been through a lot
But I didn’t do it crawling on my knees
Whimpering, looking for pity, asking for handouts
I scratched, I clawed, I survived.
Yes, I am tired now
And some days the fog hides my path
But right now I need a vampire rock star, a warrior princess
Because I need to bring it
With a god damn vengeance
This time it’s a battle for my life
And I need a Warrior princess,
Vampire rock star
Cuz I’m ready to feed.
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NEW POETRY For a new season
3 Layers and a Brassiere
By Michelle e. Brown
I’m not worried about the cold
The frigid wind from the north
Signaling the end of autumn.
I’m not worried about the change of season
Snow covering the remnants of pollenthat made me sneeze
I’ve got three layers and a brassiere
To keep me warm.
The winter winds signal the change
Herald the beginning
A change of season
A wave of emotions.
Holiday cheer
Gatherings of days gone by
Joy tinged with melancholy
Memories fade
Families spread out
Ancestral hearths abandoned
Growing cold
I’m not worried about winter’s chill
I have three layers and a brassiere
To keep my body warm
But my hearth
My heart
They shiver
(Big thanks to Gwen Rapoport for the inspiration)
WE’RE KEEPING IT REAL – SO CALL US MAYBE!!!!
Here’s our number, so call us maybe! 347-214-8985
Show time is 9:30 pm central time/ 10:30 eastern time
WE’RE BACK ON THE AIR & KEEPING IT REAL
BLOGTALKRADIO “Can We Talk for REAL”
When you hear “HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP” what do you think. Let me guess..We don’t fight much! We seldom go out without each other! We seldom now have sex! My partner does not want company at the house! I wish she wouldn’t nag so much! If any of these you say in your head..or you have said out loud.
Join us as we speak with Dr. Anthony Oltean as he defines HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS. Listen and find out how healthy your relationship is or it isn’t? Join Terry Boi Adams, Ina Anthony and Me Michelle Brown as we begin November talking healthy relationships in a relationship and friendships.
Call in 347-214-8985 and Press 1 if you would like to talk. Show time is 9:30 pm central time/ 10:30 eastern time
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Five Things to Get Us To Equality
It was suggested that this might be a good time to repost this so here you are:
“So how are we going to get from here to there- to the day when we no longer have to say “It gets better” because it is better?
It’s going to take more than just talking about it. So here are five things, I believe,if we each do, again and again over the next five years will get us to that mountain top.
Michelle’s Five steps to Equality
1. Be OUT – not just at the clubs or in the safe places like at PRIDE but over the fence in your back yard talking to your neighbors, at community meetings, in church, at work. When you here a mis-speak about our community set the record straight. Be OUT about things other than LGBT issues – Don’t let politicians pigeon hole you to only LGBT debates. Yes we want marriage equality but we want good schools, paved streets, jobs, good government the same thing as every citizen.
2. Touch five people – it doesn’t have to be strangers. Go for the low hanging fruit – those friends and family who say they love and support you and ask them to be warriors for YOUR equality. To not laugh when they hear the “gay” joke or sit silently when someone makes a homophobic or ignorant remark about our lives. Ask them to be a “Warrior for Your Equality” and shut the bigotry down.
3. VOTE – Vote at every election. We are not turning out to vote and look at what has happened. Those who want to take away our rights show up at each and every election. Look at North Carolina. We are waiting for the big dance in November and/or every four years while they are showing up each and every time, and are filling up the legislative dance card. If we don’t start coming out to the polls when the big dance gets here only the ugly dancers like Mitt will be left on the dance floor.
4. Be self- sufficient. We have entrepreneurs, artists and money in our community. Support our businesses. Support our organizations. If they don’t want to hire us or are ready to fire us for being gay then it’s time we start taking our time, talent and treasures and investing it in our own.
5. Teach the children! Teach the children! Teach the children! Children aren’t born with hate. Teach the children the value of each and every person. Teach the children the beauty of diversity. When the daughter of a lesbian couple I know started school she talked about her family. A little boy commented that she couldn’t have a family because she needed a father and that two mommies couldn’t make a baby because “you need sperm.” She looked at him and said “you can buy that.” And from that day on the entire schools perspective on family changed. Six years later – a family is a family. Teach the children our lives, our loves, our families are just that our lives, our loves, our families – nothing more nothing less
I have a dream this and every day that we will all one day live in a nation where we will not be judged by what makes us different or who we love but by the content of our character and what ultimately makes us all the same – our humanity.
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