Inclusion

So I'm on this committee, and we plan a few events for the City. I'm not sure how much I can write about it before this blog can be part of a records request. Anyhow, that is not the question I came here to wrestle with.

There is an awards ceremony, and we honor volunteers who have donated their time in certain ways for certain amounts of time. There are currently nine award categories. We are changing the format a bit and possibly expanding the number of volunteers who get recognized. One of the proposals was to double the number of awards by recognizing two winners per category- one male and one female. This seems problematic to me. For one thing, it discriminates along gender lines making winners conform to one or the other gender as a prerequisite for recognition. Second, it opens the awards for criticism that the winners were chosen only because they were male or female and not on merit. So I mentioned that maybe it was not a workable idea. People looked at me like I was nuts, like they did when I mentioned how inappropriate I thought it would be to have (evil corporation that abuses workers) donate money to sponsor the MLK Day celebration.

Myself, I'm comfortable with the gender I was born with, so it's not like I can make the inclusion argument from a personal perspective. There's tons of good reading materials, but again, I'm not sure I'm the one to do the sensitivity teach-in. Also, doubling the awards would double the ceremony which currently runs at two hours, so I don't think it's going to be an issue. I suppose if it is suggested again, I can ask the Rainbow Center for a pamphlet or something. "How to be sensitive to trans issues 101" or something.

The other thing we spoke/didn't speak about was inclusion of other groups in the ceremony. Apparently, some folks have been feeling left out. So cool, we need to do more outreach. But outreach where? Into which communities? I was trying to ask for a list without being a douche (church groups?) but I really wanted to be all- so we've been honoring a lot of rich, white people have we? And they love it but other people don't? Cool. What communities are we each a part of and how can we reach out?

So I'll start with myself. I am a student, I am a knitter, I am a stagehand. I should reach out to yarn shops; many people do a lot of charity knitting. Who else crafts for charity? People with time on their hands- retired folks, students. Groups who have a mission of caring for strangers- churches, food banks, shelters, advocacy groups, foreign aid groups. Maybe there are lots of ways that people donate their time but don't necessarily consider it volunteering. I think the point is to open people's hearts to the possibility of giving themselves and their talents to those in need, and showing the many forms it can take.