22 February 1999: Accountability and the Cub Reporter

Well, tonight I had to cover a panel entitled "Whither Accountability? Are Lesbian & Gay Advocacy Groups Representing ME? A Community Forum," at the NYU School of Law, Greenberg Lounge.

It was sponsored by the Bisexual, Gay, and Lesbian Law Students Association at New York University School of Law, OutLaws at Columbia University School of Law, and the L/G/B/T Student Services Office at New York University.

What the press packet didn't mention was that all those law students are cuties. Believe me, they could have their own gay version of The Practice and believe me, I would be a loyal viewer. Perhaps I will give up the publishing world and become one of their secretaries. Bring them coffee, hold their calls, pick up their drycleaning, and oh, pick out birthday cards for their doctor boyfriends.

I keep forgetting to keep reality out of these daydreams. I will not wind up with a lawyer. As a bilious journalist type, I am fated to wind up with eitehr an equally bilious data-entry clerk, a computer programmer with odder hours than mine, or a few more cats.

I would tell you all about the event, but it's an article for LGNY and they sort of have copyright on it, and I would prefer you go get the paper out of the free newsboxes or racks around town.

In a nutshell, most of the represented groups were board- and mission-driven entities who at times were downright chilly when it came to intense questioning about accepting funds from questionable sources.

There were some very candid responses, and overall, I cannot think of one group in this country that is adequate enough to represent us all, because we are clearly divided between the social justice crowd and the assimilationist crowd. I am very much in the former while I appear, physically and sartorially, in to be in the latter.

Meanwhile, the gossipy parts. The audience was fraught with my past. There was the former fellow volunteer from the Center who is best described as a Blockhead. He is very intelligent, but his head is a cube, and he's a cruel bastard. Then there was the guy from Christmas who I asked out and who never responded. He seemed ultranervous. Luckily for him I have developed a short term on bile and disappointment and the expiration dates come and go quickly.

Then there was the guy who used to yell at me when I volunteered for the Center as if I was a decisionmaker. He raised a little hell in the form of pointed questions for the panel. And there were the assorted nutcases.

All in all, a complete success. I fulfilled my cub reporter role adequately. Still time to be a Muckraker and a Firebrand. Give me a few weeks.

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Copyright (c) 1999, Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021, sethbook@panix.com