Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: RE: that was lame

[Maggi Rohde (maggi]

On Wed, 30 Jan 2002, Jayne Kulikauskas wrote:
> I'm interested.  Since Whole Village is still in its development
> phase, I'm also interested in ideas on how to indicate that a
> community will welcome GLBT members.  Our brochures and website talk
> about valuing diversity.  Is that clear enough?

I think that's a good (and necessary) step, but more important is the
attitude of members to prospective new members.  First impressions speak
volumes to LBGT folks.

If I were a prospective member of an existing community, there would need
to be some visible, obvious welcoming symbols in the common house or on
the literature for me to be convinced "diversity" is actually a working
value of the community.  When I see a rainbow "ALLY" sticker, I know I'm
in a place where someone felt it was important enough to take the effort
to display that symbol, and it makes me feel great.

In a forming community, I think I would do my best to push for inclusion
and visible symbols of support, but I would feel anxious about pushing "my
agenda" on the group if no one else is speaking up in support.  If only
the LBGT people care about including LBGT people, it doesn't feel very
inclusive, you know?  =)

In any case, I have always felt able to be very open and out about who I
am as a bisexual woman at cohousing communities, and never had concerns
about moving into cohousing with a partner of any gender.

-Maggi Rohde, cohousing wannabe in Ann Arbor, MI

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l