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December 1996 (Vol 5, No. 1)

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Reflections
Leonard P. Hirsch
President, Federal GLOBE

Federal GLOBE's first annual congress was held on November 7, 1996. This event brought together GLBT federal employees from around the nation for a day-long training conference. Federal GLOBE and its affiliate GLOBE organizations shared strategies, networked, heard status reports on hot topics in the Federal workplace, and attend various workshops and presentations.

We met in conjunction with NGLTF's Creating Change Conference. The synergy during the day and then during the weekend was wonderful. Our communities are vibrant and growing in maturity and strength. I was at the First Creating Change Conference and have watched it also grow over the years. It is now large and welcoming of all in our movement and a wonderful place to learn and share with our colleagues around the country as we all struggle to make this land one of opportunity for all of its inhabitants.

We hope that this newsletter will enlighten you and make you want to join us next year for our Second Congress to be held Thursday November 13, 1997 in San Diego again with the Creating Change Conference. Look for registration materials forthcoming.

At the conference we gave the Second Annual Kameny Award to Craig Howell, Department of Labor, whose years of service in so many organizations provides us all with a foundation of knowledge, expertise, and continuity that has helped Federal GLOBE enormously, as it benefits the whole community.

To everyone who worked hard to put together the panels and presentations, thank you. To our special keynote speaker, Chai Feldblum, a very strong salute for your continued work to improve the daily lives of all people, and particular your work on the rights of LGBT people. To Robert Raben who ran out to give us a wonderful talk in the middle of a very busy day on the hill—thank you for that and all of your tireless work. All of the panelists were first rate—as you can see for yourselves in the following pages.

This newsletter is devoted to summarizing the presentations and discussions of the congress. Enjoy, learn, join, and grow.

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Welcome and the State of Federal GLOBE

"Federal GLOBE is poised to achieve much in the next four years with President Clinton," proclaimed Melinda Paras, then Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), in opened our conference.

Len Hirsch, President of Federal GLOBE, attributed our position to the fact that "we have worked carefully with the White House for the past four years and have developed a sound working relationship." He added that "we've conveyed to the White House that domestic partnership is a key issue for us now," and that we are examining the costs and experiences of companies that offer domestic partner benefits (DPBs). While company health care costs generally increase 2.5% as result of DPBS, this seems to drop after the first year.

Len announced that Federal GLOBE has received an offer from a Webmaster to donate his time to creating a Web site for GLOBE. We plan to have the site up and running this winter. Also, the Hollywood Supports organization is offering a 3 1/2 day course to prepare some of our members to conduct workshops on sexual orientation workplace issues. Through this, Federal GLOBE will develop a cadre of about 24 educators for the federal workplace.

Addressing the issue of procedures for redress, Len mentioned that the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 prohibits discrimination based on "non-merit factors," and that a 1980 OPM interpretation includes sexual orientation as a non-merit factor. While not full Title VIl protection, it's very strong. Unfortunately, the Reagan and Bush administrations effectively buried this interpretation for many years.

He concluded by providing some perspective on our progress to date. "We're just starting. Blacks, women, and others have had legal protections for 30 years—do you think they feel no discrimination? We are focused on workplace issue—appropriate behavior in the workplace. We are not trying to change people's beliefs."

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Participant Introductions

As participants introduced themselves, many expressed the key issues on their minds. Common themes were:


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Coalition Building Through Community Service Projects

"Your group's activities should tie directly to your mission statement, and your mission statement should implicitly acknowledge your stakeholders," according to Jeffrey Brooke, Federal GLOBE board our organizations growing? member and IRS GLOBE co-chair. Jeff discussed key stakeholders that GLOBE organizations should build relationships with, and how community service projects can help build these relationships.

Each stakeholder can be latent, supportive or hostile, and you must always remember that any one of them can have influence over the others.

In planning your activities, consider how they might help you build strong relationships. Considering how each stakeholder may relate to you, and what preconceptions they may have will be useful in planning activities:

Agency Executives: Make the decisions that help or hinder you. Typical first reaction to GLOBE: Another employee group with a list of wants.

Managers/Supervisors : Opinion leaders, who influence employees. First line of enforcement in a hostile work environment. Typical first reaction to GLOBE: Do I have to give employees on-the-job time and resources for their involvement?

Employees: Grass roots support or opposition. They contact Congressional Representatives. Typical first reaction to GLOBE: Why do you need to bring sex issues to work? Isn't sex what brings you together?

GLOBE Members and Potential Members: join and/or support. Typical first reaction to GLOBE: Will I get fired for joining? What's in it for me?

Union: Can go to bat for you, especially with contracts. Typical first reaction to GLOBE: Is GLOBE going to usurp our role as employee representative?

Congress: Positive/Negative legislation and influences. Typical first reaction: how will my voters react?

General, and Gay and Lesbian Public: Grassroots support or opposition, and may contact your agency or Congressional Representatives with support or opposition. Typical first reaction: see you as part of your agency.

IRS GLOBE's community service projects include: Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and on-line support for People with HIV/AIDS, AIDS Walks, "GLOBAL Warming" clothing drive, Federal Women's Program Book Drive — proceeds donated to child care center, Cultural Awareness Month participation, Atlantic City Trip — fund raiser for pediatric AIDS.

Communicate your successes to as many stakeholders as possible. Communicating to IRS executives about our tax assistance for people with HIV/AIDS proved invaluable. Looking for points with the gay community, the IRS decided to pitch the story to the Washington Post, which resulted in significant publicity.

IRS GLOBE has seen its community service projects yield these results with its stakeholders:

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Building Common Ground

Barbara Brenkworth & Rob Sadler
Commerce GLOBE

On the desk of the Secretary of Commerce sits a table tent with an inverted pink triangle wrapped in a green circle. This is the symbol used by employees in the Department of Commerce to let people know it's OK to discuss sexual orientation issues with them. Gay and lesbian employees know that they share a common ground with those who display this symbol. The symbol identifies the Common Ground Program—a program designed to educate Commerce employees about sexual orientation issues in the workplace.

The Common Ground education is provided by Commerce GLOBE employees workshop during lunch- time sessions with employees. Modeled on AT&T's successful Safeplace program, the department opened the door for GLOBE to provide the education—but with no financial support. Commerce GLOBE pays the costs associated with the program.

The goal of Common Ground has been to create grassroots employee understanding of sexual orientation issues in the workplace—"at the coffee pot level." The workshops accomplish this through their interactive format, by dealing only with workplace issues, and by breaking down common myths about gays and lesbians. The workshops al ways bring discussions back to workplace issues, and emphasize that managers aren't being asked to talk about sex—but rather how sexual orientation issues dramatically impact people's working relationships and productivity.

The results have been impressive. Commerce has experienced an increase in workplace discussions, providing people a forum to get real information and break through myths. Feedback is positive and people dialogue in the class. Most attendees say they learned some thing new. In general, it has helped create a more open, empowering environment which has allowed many to come out in the workplace. This important lesson for other departments who, after securing non-discrimination policy statements, get bogged down about where to go next.

Finally, managers and executives at Commerce have diversity accomplishments as part of their annual appraisals, and support for the Common Ground program is a creditable accomplishment toward this objective.
For more information, contact Rob Sadler at 202-482-8045, or Barbara Brenkworkth at 301-713-0262.

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Keynote Speaker
Chai Feldblum

"The progress federal employees have made has laid the groundwork for most of the progress made by gays and lesbians in other workplaces," said Chai Feldblum, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Federal Legislation Clinic at the Georgetown University Law Center. In fact, Chai went so far as to say "you have created the building blocks to allow for ENDA. This is because all early workplace gains were in the federal workplace, which always leads the way for the private sector.

With the book Sexual Orientation and the Law, by Bill Leonard, as her touchstone, Chai blasted through thirty years of case law with a spirited discussion of sexual orientation issues in the federal workplace.

One foundation of our ability to gain safe workplaces is that Constitutional protections of free speech do not extend to the workplace. People are not free to vent bigoted views that create a hostile, unproductive work environment—if the employer chooses to prohibit this.

Beginning in the 1950's, the government actively hunted down gay and lesbian employees. One of the first cases for gay and lesbian federal employees was Norton v. Masey, in 1969. The notorious Washington, DC police "Morals Squad" arrested a man for picking up another man. While interrogating the man in the middle of the night, the police invited the man's employer in the federal government to participate. The man was subsequently fired for "immoral conduct," which made him "unsuitable for federal employment." The courts overturned this dismissal, stating that the federal government cannot control the private lives of its employees. The man's sexual orientation did not have any effect on his job performance.

Then, in 1978, the Civil Service Reform Act added that employees cannot be fired for "non-merit factors, " which in 1981 OPM ruled included sexual orientation. Despite this, Chai feels it's key to have more explicit non-discrimination statements at each agency, because they provide additional legal avenues of redress. Likewise, she feels ENDA will provide protections well beyond those of the various agency non-discrimination policies.

Chai discussed a number of current workplace—rated gay and lesbian court battles, some military, and some of which are linked to the Bowers v. Hardwick case. She clarified that Bowers resulted in allowing states to make oral and anal sex illegal, not gay sex. Only 3 or 4 states have laws specifically against gay sex, and these have not been tested in court.

For those interested in keeping abreast of court actions affecting gay and lesbian rights, she recommended becoming a member of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the ACLU Gay and Lesbian project. Both of these groups' newsletters cover virtually every relevant current case.

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Buidling Relations With Unions

Susan Lander, liaison to the gay and lesbian employees for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), and Gene Sexton, IRS Assistant Director of Personnel and IRS GLOBE co-chair, addressed the importance of building an effective relationship with your union.

Susan noted that when AFGE began its gay and lesbian project, the union received some complaints from members. The response "all people should have a workplace free of discrimination" stifled virtually every one of these. Starting this project was not a leap for AFGE, with protecting gay and lesbian employees already on of its objectives as well as its existing resolution supporting ENDA.

FGE is securing sexual orientation non-discrimination language in many contracts. "You can get power and get things done with collective bargaining rights. I also see great sharing of information between GLOBE groups and unions. And if you don't like your union's level of support for your issues—join the union and change it from within.

Gene Sexton explained that the IRS/NTEU (National Treasury Employees Union) Contract included sexual orientation non-discrimination in 1989, as a union proposal. Earlier this year, IRS GLOBE presented a list to management and union of other clauses in the contract that were "inconsistent" with the non-discrimination clause. IRS GLOBE did this in anticipation of the mid-term negotiations—the halfway point in the four-year contract when both sides may propose changes to a very limited number of clauses. The effort was successful, with the most critical change—extending hardship transfers to situations involving "life partners" rather than just to spouses."

He emphasized that unions are very good at listening to their constituents. A good reason to focus on agency/union contracts is that they are more permanent than an agency head policy memo. This Lives us more protection from a Potentially unfriendly future president.

Gene suggested a number of tips in working with your union:
"Understand that management and the union each prepare a short list of priorities. "We won't be at the top of anyone's list without getting in and talking with them and pushing it. Do it on both sides."

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Outreach to Your Agency Field Offices

Jeffrey Brooke discussed techniques to let your field organizations know you exist, and tools to help chapters get off the ground. Ron Coleman, board member of Federal GLOBE and Agriculture GLOBE, discussed how to build lines of communication to maintain a healthy organization.

Jeff said that the first step is to craft your message. Create a short statement that your GLOBE organization seeks to open field chapters. It should explain your recognition status, mission and recent accomplishments, and point them to contact person for more information.

Getting your message out will depend on what's available in your agency, but consider: E-mail, local newsletters, national newsletters, EEO/Diversity Officers—through any of their communication tools, forums (training, conferences, etc.), Union newsletters, and brochures.

Build support before going forward. Let your stakeholders' field counterparts (EEO, Public Affairs, etc.) know that the communication to their employees is coming, and give them additional information. Send them all a copy of your brochure, with an introductory memo from you.

When you are contacted by people from your field organizations, give them tools to get started. Make sure they have all the necessary documentation about your group: by-laws, mission statement, the last several newsletters to understand what various chapter are up to, refer them to talk with several other active chapters, memos from agency executives providing official recognition of the GLOBE organization, non-discrimination policies of the agency/department, union contract, and applicable portions of the Civil Service Reform Act, and any other relevant memos, etc.

Help them develop an outreach plan, which should include:

1. Get managers on-board. A head's up memo, e-mail or voice mail from the head of office to all managers letting them know that a GLOBE chapter is forming, that a memo will go to all employees, and the director expects managers to support the organization. If they have any questions, see the EEO officer. These people need to be onboard because they are often the first to hear employee complaints. The sooner such complaints are effectively responded to, the more likely it is that they will quickly resolve.

2. Plan a Communications Campaign. Prepare an announcement that a chapter of GLOBE is forming, and direct people to you. Make the biggest blitz possible: an article in the local newsletter, e-mails, letter from the head-of-office to all employees, posters, fliers, union communications, etc.

3. Meet with your stakeholders. Discuss your plan with local management, EEO/Diversity/Civil Rights Officer, and union representative, Public Affairs Officer. Note any support from their counterparts at headquarters. Prepare the EEO Officer and PAO to answer incoming questions (usually negative) from managers or employees. Get their supportive Counterparts to talk to them.

4. Execute Communications Campaign: Expect positive responses from people wanting to join- including supportive heterosexuals. Expect complaints from employees as well. These will almost always go to the PAO or EEO officer, sometimes the Director or congressional representatives. You, the organizer sticking your name out there, will almost never receive any calls. Expect cautious calls from curious, but frightened, gays and lesbians. Pay attention to these—they provide feedback that you can communicate to management about real problems.

5. Prepare for your first meeting: As people call you, propose a first meeting time and location. At your first meeting (and all meetings) have an agenda. Give out copies of the organization's documents (mission, by-laws, newsletter, non-discrimination statement, etc.); see if anyone's had any particular problems with discrimination or seen others (including taxpayers) being discriminated against; talk about the activities and projects of other chapters and see what your folks are interested in doing; decide how you'll communicate; determine who is interested in helping out. Plan to hold elections at some point in the future (3-6-9 months). Give yourselves time to get to know each other.


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The Next Congress

"Clinton was the first president to treat us like humans," stated Robert Raben, counsel to Representative Barney Frank. "He eliminated the bar on security clearances by executive order and put non- discrimination policies in place in all civilian organizations except Defense. And for its part, Federal GLOBE has made great strides in the workplace—you are the model for the private sector workplace."

With Republicans remaining in control of Congress, we will likely face more of what we've seen over the past two years. These are the people who brought us DOMA (the antigay "Defense of Marriage Act"). The majority controls the process of Congress, the Rules Committee and decisions about what amendments get attached to legislation. And each year's 13 appropriations bills are a possible vehicles for riders to deny funding to a gay related issue.

Raben said "I go to bed at night worried about whether the Republican leadership will have the courage to stop the gay bashers. With no communists to hate, we have been the next best group to hate. And I think custody and adoption issues may be their next targets." We are particularly vulnerable since some of these representatives are entirely uneducated about gay and lesbian issues. For example, Rep. Nichols, on the house floor recently denounced bisexuals as being the most promiscuous—doing it "with men and women at the same time."

While we've lost a few champions—Studds, Gunderson, Schroeder—he sees Tom Coburn in the House as an up and coming gay basher. And while Kolbe, who is openly gay, was re-elected by a strong majority, we have yet to see him stand up on civil rights.

"We—Barney Frank, GLOBE and Clinton—have a challenge to breathe life into the policies that protect us. We need to get DOD on board, and get the procedures for redress working," Raben said. He sees getting our field offices on board by educating our field EEO officers as a priority.

We need to test all the field organizations to ensure they understand our protections. "Where there is a gap between policy and enforcement, I want to hear about it."

In other issues, he noted that the line-item veto is focused only on funding issues, and may not be very useful to us. We must also try, through executive policy, to address other areas' non-discrimination, such as contractors discriminating against their employees. GLOBE will work with Raben to examine current Request For Proposal (RFP) coverage.

Regarding security clearances, the FBI wrote wonderful guidelines—they are the model for how investigators should handle these circumstances. As a matter of law—they shouldn't ask about sexual orientation unless they have a reason.

In response to Len Hirsch's question "what course should we take regarding support from our agencies?" Raben said (1) be sure to be treated like all other employee groups, (2) follow the rules, (3) do it—be a presence. "You have an opportunity, to perhaps be the only voice for a co-worker who hears all negatives images, except yours." He also added that "there will be times when the agency or congress will hurt you. See these as an opportunity to show others what we're up against."

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Second Annual Kameny Award Presentation

In announcing the second annual Kameny award, Len noted that "Frank Kameny has given his life to our cause. He was fired for being gay in the federal government and turned this into a tool and built so much of what we have today."

"Craig Howell is this year's recipient," announced Hirsch. "Craig retired last year from the Department of Labor, and is now secretary of GLAA (Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance). He was the keeper of our Rosetta stone. Kameny awardees leave something lasting. Craig identified and under stood the Campbell memo that got us in the door to begin our organization." The Campbell memo first set forth OPM's determination that the reference to "non-merit factors" in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 extended to sexual orientation.

In accepting the award, Craig said "I got involved in GLAA in 1973, and the first thing I got involved in was federal employee rights, which I worked on with Frank Kameny. It was very satisfying work. I had the materials—the buried executive decision memos that we could build—and was waiting for the people to come along to put it to use."

Frank Kameny was also present for the award, stating that "GLOBE continues to be a source of ongoing joy for me. I think my early experiences injured me more than I sometimes realize. The whole movement was sufficiently traumatized by the 1950's witch hunts to keep gay and lesbian federal employees down for many years. The issues in my time were bedrock—you were employed or you were fired. Now you're at administrative issues of making it work. Getting to this point was unthinkable ... un-dreamable in the 1950's. You people are far more adept about where you should go next than I can say. All I can say is take on the issues, never compromise on fundamental issues. Keep it up with all your energy and vigor."

Kerry Lobel, Executive Director Designee of NGLTF, closed by stating that "when we knew we would do the Creating Change Conference in Washington, we knew we had to have Federal GLOBE. We have to come up with a blueprint for the President, and you are key to our doing that."

Remarks by Rep. Barney Frank

Barney Frank gave a rousing speech to a roaring audience, closing the Federal GLOBE Congress and opening the NGLTF Creating Change Conference.
Rep. Frank began by conveying his thoughts on the importance of coalition building. While he has supported the Congressional Black Caucus and Japanese American Citizens League because it was the right thing to do, there have been times when they have supported our cause in response to Barney's support.

"I believe we are in a position to tell the President that there are some things left undone. While the administration made a good push for ENDA, we must push again." He also sees more opportunities in the House than last term, with the "ice cracked on some closet Republicans." "Since the Republicans feel the federal government should be run like a business, he said, "let's start by giving federal employees the same benefits package that IBM and GM give there employees. This includes Domestic Partner Benefits."

"When I talk with constituents about their fears, they talk about job security, paying for college, Medicare. I have yet to hear anyone say that one of their fears is two lesbians in love. The radical right claims that giving gay and lesbian couples the same workplace benefits will somehow cause heterosexual marriages to collapse. We now have an opportunity to test this theory at IBM—let's see if the heterosexual divorce rate goes up at IBM as they allow DPBS."

He urged the audience to focus on getting deeply involved with the political processes of our democracy to address gay as well as other social issues. He feels we will have much success since "most Americans are much less homophobic than they think they're supposed to be, but more racist than they'll admit."