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Our
History
[Our Mission Statement / Our Philosophy / Our
Goals]
From Creation to the Year 2000
as told by Marc Handler,
former president of Straight But Not Narrow
SBNN
was founded in 1991 by a married couple in Atlanta, who moved to New England several years
after starting the group. Since then, it was been run by Diane Fisher, and several others
have been a part of the leadership.
I went to the LeaderShape
Institute with about 50 other UGA student to make a difference on campus. While at this
week long development program, we were to come up with a vision of what we wanted to bring
back to campus. Creating SBNN was the fruition of that. When I went to submit the
paperwork with student activities to start the chapter, they asked if i wanted to renew
the organization. ???? What??? is what I thought. There was a chapter that existed for
several years, but the majority of the leadership graduated, and decided to let another
group of folks start it back up if there was interest. To my understanding, the majority
of the activities was discussion among the group with current issues and societal views.
Of couse, "straight for now" was also a problem with the group of members using
SBNN as a halfway house to LGBSU (now Lambda).
We've participated in a signature drive
to raise awareness of discrimination of LGB issues on campus, a showing of Pricilla,
Queen of the Desert at Tate, a panel discussion including a lawyer, public policy
activist, author, and Sean Sasser (boyfriend of Pedro Zamora from "the real
world"), and the last 3 Day of Silences.
I applaud the group changing the name
of the organization. I am partial to SBNN, and was very aware of the misinformation the
name led to, and am happy to see that the group is making it what it wants to be.
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2000 and beyond
as told by Sara Keslensky,
current President of Allies & Friends
When Marc
graduated, SBNN was at a low point. Only a handful of people would attend the meetings and
even knew Straight But Not Narrow existed. At the time, I was a new member, however the
goals of SBNN were not new to me. I had learned first hand what someone's bigotry could do
to a person if they were gay. I had a good friend that has been thrown out of her home due
to her mother's fear of her being a lesbian. At the time, a group of us decided to take
over when Marc graduated and plan a community event to raise conciousness about gay issues
in the news. This turned out to be harder than anyone thought, especially when it fell on
only two people to make happen. That would be myself and Rachel Dubois. We decided
that since SBNN had no leadership, we would need to do something about it. We became
co-presidents.
Our first annual Speak Out
was a success. From there, we had the strength to get out in Tate Plaza and get people's
attention, soon we doubled the enrollment of members in SBNN and the attendance at
meetings. Unfortunitely with SBNN came the "Straight But Not For Long" comments
and the questions "Are you a bisexual group?" and the one that really got my
attention "Do you have to be straight to join?". Inadvertently, we had made
ourselves inclusive and didn't mean to.
After the Day of Silence
and campuswide recognizition, we decided it was time to think about several upcoming
changes, including the departure of one of the presidents. We wanted a new name, something
non-inclusive and without stigma of "Straight But Not For Long". During the
planning of Day of Silence, I found a group in New York that called itself Allies &
Friends. Their goals were the same as Straight But Not Narrow. The members of SBNN seemed
to be in favor of the name change and on June 10th of 2000, Straight But Not Narrow
officially became Allies &
Friends
Starting in the Fall of 2000, we hope you
can be part of that history too.
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Our
Mission Statement
Allies & Friends exists to encourage heterosexuals to actively promote
fairness and equality for all regardless of sexual orientation and identity.
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Our
Philosophy
Equal
rights should not be denied to anyone, regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual
orientation and identity. Opponents of gay civil rights exploit the silence of straight
people as an endorsement of their actions; therefore, it is a moral imperative for us to
counter homophobia visibly and vocally.
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Our Goals
The Goals of Allies & Friends are:
To provide an opportunity for heterosexuals to declare themselves proponents of gay civil
rights To demonstrate to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals that there
are hetero- sexuals who believe in their right to fair and equal treatment To educate and
activate the public about issues pertaining to gay civil rights.
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