Starting with the February-March 2010 YMCA GLBT Newsletter, Scott Umbel, ed. started a column titled "First Person." We are looking for stories that we can include in future newsletters as well as post here on our website. Please send your personal story, insight to Scott at newsletter@ymcaglbt.org
Neil Nicoll, CEO YMCA of the USA
As we traveled from city to city in March to discuss brand revitalization, governance and membership standards with YMCA leaders, I was reminded time and again that Y staff and volunteers are truly wonderful people who love our movement and will spend generously of their time to help in any way asked.
The YMCA needs leaders with passion and dedication as much as we ever have. Our constantly changing society will continue to demand new and different responses from us, because what works today may not work a few years from now. Tomorrow’s children and their parents will continue to want—and need—the YMCA. But only if they feel welcome. Our heritage suggests we are up to the task.
Although not a theological scholar, I know that the YMCA was founded on and follows the teachings of a radical Jewish rabbi named Jesus—a rabbi who spent his career with the outcasts and infirmed of society, and who arguably surrounded himself with 12 men who lacked the background and education to lead the effort they undertook. He challenged the social norms and class systems of his time. When dinnertime came for 5,000 hungry listeners, he gave instructions to feed them all—no litmus test was established to determine who could partake.
The teachings upon which we are founded—to love, care for, accept and support one another—are not ours alone. Every member, every volunteer, every employee of the Y is a blessing. That they may be from traditions different from ours only enriches us.
There is a place in the YMCA for everyone. It is the knitting together of our individual gifts that makes this such a special movement. The teachings upon which we were founded, and which sustain us today, won’t fade. In fact, they are the driving force that calls us to open our doors more widely. To omit some is to weaken the potential for good that is part of the YMCA’s DNA.
As YMCA leaders, we must continually renew the commitment that created our legacy more than 160 years ago, and further apply it to broadening opportunities for all in our communities. We have reason to be proud of the work we’ve done, but more work remains. To believe we can thrive by looking only inward is naive. A healthy, vibrant YMCA is an inclusive YMCA.
Sincerely,
Neil
Monica Grant, VP of Resource Development YMCA of Honolulu
I am:
PROUD that the YMCA is seeking to be more proactive and accountable to the queer communities it serves.
SADDENED that is has taken the YMCA so long to make what feels like little progress in this area.
PROUD to be serving on the first YMCA GLBT Steering Committee.
DISTRAUGHT that so many of my queer brothers and sisters within the YMCA do not feel safe and are not “out” in their lives.
PROUD of the person and professional the YMCA helped shaped me to become.
ASHAMED of the anti-gay messaging and practices that still exist in the majority of YMCA’s and communities today.
PROUD to have spearheaded the effort to pass domestic partnership benefits at my local YMCA association.
TROUBLED by the reality that I am the only “out” staff member in an association of nearly 800 employees.
PROUD to be an “out” lesbian woman in the YMCA.
ANGERED that there are many YMCA positions in communities that appear “off limits” to me because of my sexual orientation.
