The recent transgender protest at Creating Change in Denver, led by activist Bamby Salcedo, created quite the stir at the event and in the media. Salcedo cried from the stage “We are here demanding intentional, meaningful investment in our community.” The uncovered story is what was going on behind the scenes and how it sheds a light on the Task Force.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is African-American, supports same sex marriage and has a solid LGBT record. The mayor’s family included a gay brother who passed away from AIDS in 1996. He was the first mayor to record a video for the You Can Play project, which is focused upon full inclusion of the LGBT community in sports. Needless to say, the mayor gets the LGBT community. Mayor Hancock was backstage waiting to address the crowd when the conference was taken over by the transgender protest.
One of the issues highlighted by the protestors was the tragic death of Jessica Hernandez at the hands of Denver police and by association Mayor Hancock. A week ago the Denver mayor responded to the death of the queer youth by saying “The death of Jessica Hernandez is tragic, and my prayers are with the young woman’s family members and friends during their time of mourning. My thoughts are also with the police officers who were involved in this incident. This is difficult for our entire community. Let us summon our collective compassion and work together to heal the pain of such a heartbreaking loss.”
What is troubling is that the protestors and organizers of Creating Change knew that Mayor Hancock was the opening speaker for Thursday night’s program. Why would you invite someone to speak to protest him? Why not simply avoid the confrontation? The simple answer, it creates political theatre to advance an agenda.
Many feel that the transgender community gets short shrift from donors and leaders within the broader LGBT universe. Whether that is a correct assertion is a debate for another time. The protest at Creating Change was designed to maximize media exposure of this concern and to elevate the transgender voice within the overall LGBT community. It is not credible when Rea Carey, Executive Director of the Task Force, says “We knew that there would likely be protests, but we didn’t know about that specific protest until it was happening.” Funny, many activists on the ground who were not involved knew about the planned protest early Thursday morning. An activist who I spoke with indicated that the whole protest was very well “orchestrated” backstage. Both activists called into question the Task Force’s formal involvement with the protest.
There is nothing wrong with an orchestrated protest, but not by the organizers of an event. Task Force Deputy Executive Director Russell Roybal thanked the protestors. Really? I don’t care how much Roybal, and the Task Force, support the transgender point of view; you don’t thank protestors for interrupting your event. Worse, Mayor Hancock was waiting backstage, being openly criticized onstage and then he hears a leader of the event thank and support the protesters for criticizing him. Tactless. Even more so when the Task Force treats an avid, African American supporter of the LGBT community in this way.
A simple ask to the Task Force from the transgender community to not have Mayor Hancock speak would have resulted in the canceling of the mayor’s remarks. But that doesn’t sell tickets. It is a much better narrative to say that the transgender protest prevented Mayor Hancock from addressing the crowd. Carey said “The mayor was scheduled to speak [during that plenary], he saw the protests, and he made the choice not to.” What politician would choose to walk into a hostile room without proper security?
In the end, Carey and the Task Force think that creating political theatre is one of the things that Creating Change is all about. Carey said “We’ve certainly known, because it’s happened almost every year, that if there’s an issue that needs to be brought to the fore for the LGBTQ community, and there are people who feel it’s not being attended to, it almost always shows up in a very powerful way at Creating Change. And that’s what we saw this year.”
Creating political theatre. In this case, too bad it was summer stock…with discounts tickets available.
I loathe these activist camps for all of the reasons mentioned above. They’re full of rude pushy damaged people who think their group and issue is the only one that counts. I recently suffered through a Wildfire indoctrination camp that combined with this whole scene confirms I never want to go to one of these again.
As one who has attended most of the Creating Change Conferences those of us who are veterans always joke “Who will take the stage this year?”. I think I recall one year when some group did NOT interupt a plenary session.
So I do believe that Carey, Roybal et.al. did not know the particulars of the protest. Protestors at Creating Change are like, as the Scripture points out, like the Lord: “We do not know the day or the time…”
Nonetheless, I have no taste for interrupting or standing in the way of someone who has an outstanding record of moving our community forward.
Protest. Speak the truth and speak it boldly but do it in strategic ways. Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face and please don’t act like self-entitled spoiled brats who are having a tantrum.