March 7th, 2013
Historic
and Cultural Ballroom Institute, news update
Subject: First results from the peaceful protests and social media postings.
Dear
distinguished Council Member,
After two
peaceful demonstrations and after many posts on social media announcing the
“Latex Ball Boycott 2013” to the community at large, we are up to a good start
in 2013, to bring attention to our concerns and to bring positive change to our
community. We thank Jose Xtravaganza and the House of Ninja for contributing the
pictures on our promotional materials.
We educated
the public in person about our issues with GMHC and by doing so; we also heard
more disturbing stories about the GMHC agency from people we spoke to. We handed
out flyers, produced two videos by our council member Louis viewed 800 times,
posted our thirteen page report about the meeting with the Gay Men’s Health
Crisis at bloggerspot.com viewed 500 times and we educate members from the
house ball community who are unaware. These results show that we are starting
to have an impact and we need to continue the fight for justice.
We
contacted politicians, newspapers and non profits who are suppose to help the
community based on their mission statements. Some receive grant money from the
government and across the board they all have remained silent. We learned that
they are intimidated/corrupted by this AIDS agency and they won’t stand up for
what is right for the community. They are completely useless to the community
at the time when we need them the most, because they won’t live up to their own
mission statements. Can we hold the GMHC agency responsible for creating this self-destructive
community environment?
From our postings
on social media, we received one significant response we are sharing with the
council from a GMHC employee who is also an active house ball member, see below.
His response on Facebook is an example on how the GMHC AIDS agency was able to
corrupt a young adult from our community. As a result of the corruption it
reveals in his post on how they are able to use him to divide and hurt our
community. His choice of words was to defend the agencies best interest and he
spoke against his own best ballroom interest.
We
evaluate this post as a document on how GMHC actually corrupts young adults
from our community and we hold this agency responsible for this hurtful post to
exist. The post shows also how GMHC turns members from our community against
each other for the agencies best interest.
The information
from this health agency, which is receiving funding from the government, AIDS
funding institutions and the community is highly disturbing. It gives us more reason
and motivation to continue to expose this information and abuse to the public,
government, the media and to continue to educate the house ball community about
our concerns.
Facebook post by a GMHC
employee.
Because we
want to protect an active ballroom member who identified himself to be currently
employed at GMHC, we decided not to reveal his name. This individual is a GMHC Community
Health Consultant for Sexual, Social, Mental, Psychical, Spiritual and Environmental.
His post on Facebook is referring to
the council chairs Kevin Omni and Wolfgang Busch. This post is educating us on
how GMHC is using a young adult from our community to hurt and to divide us.
Below is a quote from his post we want to share with the council.
“As an
employee of GMHC.... I will not read my fellow legends however
you shouldn't pick
one known
for scandals to lead a protest, we all know she's only doing it for life,
a Lil coin
you might be offering, or a bag.”
We are a volunteer
organization and it breaks our heart to see how corrupted the GMHC agency has
become over the years and how much GMHC has corrupted this young adult from our
community. Because of the existence of GMHC this post exists. They use him to
do their “dirty work” and they use him in a way, so it reflects on a member
from our community rather than a GMHC board member or the executive director of
the agency. They use him to divide and hurt members from our community to serve
the agencies best interest. They corrupted him to the point, where he turned
his back against his own people and he spoke up against his best ballroom
interest.
We hope you find this
revealing report about the GMHC agency an example of importance and you see the
need to continue the protests if we want to bring justice and positive change
to the House Ball community.
We also want to be very clear
that we are not “knocking” the good services this agency is providing to our
community. But we have to be clear that this type of abuse on the ballroom
community has to stop. They lost their focus and they have to go back to their
roots. They have to stop to use their positive work to cover up and to justify
the abuse against us. Lets be very clear about this, they can not have it both
ways.
Feel free to submit your
comments and please stop by at the scheduled events, see below, and join us for
a good cause. You get to meet and talk to some great people in our community
who appreciate our protest against the GMHC agency. It is an uplifting
experience and it makes us feel real good inside, because we are supporting a
cause we strongly believe in.
Can you afford not to support?
Future action at the LGBT Business Expo:
On March 9th and
10th, we are sharing a table at the LGBT Business Expo at the Jacob
Javits Center in Manhattan with our council member Rob DeAnthony from Our
Youth. We will be handing out flyers about the Latex Ball Boycott 2013 to bring
more awareness to thousands of people about our concerns.
Three Peaceful protests: mark your calendar
Thursday, March 21st,
6:30pm at Cipriani, on 42nd
street, across from Grand Central. GMHC is hosting
a large fundraiser and we will be able to reach and educate many of the GMHC
supporters who are unaware.
Saturday April 6th,
5:50pm at Hilton Hotel, 1335 six avenue at 54th street in Manhattan, Night of a
thousand Gowns fundraiser, benefitting GMHC.
Sunday Mai 19th,
AIDS Walk
Artistically and respectfully yours,
Council chairs, Kevin and
Wolf
No comments:
Post a Comment