illume 27. Number 6
Serving the Carolinas For Over 25 Years!
March 17,2006
the Movement
By bod Roenr
Contributing Writer
Rodger McFarlahe has never been
the shy retiring type. At 6'6", a
shaved head, and jug-ears, he'd stick
out in any crowd. Then there is his
speech; the manic pacing, aggressive
"candor" of a New Yorker; overlay
ing the honeyed drawl and
metaphors of his native Alabama.
And the company he has kept -bud
dies with Larry Kramer, a founder of
the Gay Men's Health Crisis and
ACT UP, and executive director of
Broadway Cares - he's held his own
among some colossal egos.
So it was a bit of a surprise two
years ago when he decamped for
what any dedicated Manhattanite
would consider the sticks, in this
casg. Denver; to become executive
director of die Gill Foundation, the
largest single funder of gay and les
bian activities in the country. »
The Foundation is die creation of
Tim Gill, a Colorado native who
made a fortune in computer soft
ware. The battle over Colorado's
1992 antigay Amendment Two, ulti
mately struck down by the US
Supreme Court in the landmark gay
rights case Romer v. Evans, was the
catalyst that turned Gill into a social
activist. Since then he has written an
estimated $100 million in checks
supporting LGBT causes through
the Foundation and direct political
contributions.
"What drew me here was Tim
Gill's bankroll Simple, simple, am
ple," McFarlane says in an exclusive
interview in his spartan office at the
Foundation. "I had always know,
from day one, that you snake very
different decisions when you are
talking about what can I afford to do
as opposed to what needs to be done
and how.much does that cost. I was
going to come out here and show
them what to do with that money."
He says the Foundation always
has been supporting worthy activi
ties, but it often was reactive and
spread so thin that it had little lasting
Ted Trimpa: Colorado gayactivist, Democratic lobbyist and political
advisor to Tim Gill and the Gill Foundation
impact. "Tim was not entirely satis
fied with the return on investment"
McFarlane spent a lot of time that
first year leading the ' Foundation,
friends, and allies through a process
to identify the problems and define
what success would look like. ;
"Our snapshot of the movement
was this. We don't have a common
vision and coherent plan between
organizations and funders, they're
all all over the place. Grassroots par
ticipation, die ability to swing an
election, or campaign contributions/
until recently, was not djere. We
don't have die capacity to do legisla
tive wcnrk in the states, those organi
zations are fragile as shit and con
vulsive, they rim from cycle to cycle.
We expect too much from one
' national organization. And we don't
know how to talk to the swing vote."
He says the Gill Foundation
"defined what equality looked like
epidemiologically, what it looked
like economically, those sorts of
things. Endpoints. And then we
backed in, like a classic business plan
and what do you need to achieve
each of those things."
McFarlane took a lesson from die
far right and the sea tide of change
they had wrought in the country
over the last several decades, which
has come about in large measure
because of the organizations that
they have funded. He says the right
gives general operating grants, on a
large scale, and over a sustained
period of time. The organizations
that they support are not bogged
down with detailed program guide
lines for relatively small sums of
money.
The result has been a significant
reorganization of the Foundation's
priorities, as well, as the creation last
August of tire companion political
action committee, the Gill Action
Fund [see the second of tins two part
series of articles].
The focus is on gaining recogni
tion and protection for LGBT rela
tionships and ultimately marriage,
first at the state level and then the
national level; along with employ
ment protection.
"The Foundation simply does not
have enough money to do all,"
declares McFarlane. "So a big piece
of our work is influencing other
continued on page 8
m
Right Wing
Homophobe
Arrested for Theft
By Bob Roehr
Contributing Writer
p- The Germans have a word for it,
Schadenfreude—taking pleasure in the
'misfortunes of others—and that is what
many in the gay community surely are fed
I ing over the news
that a major archir
tect ojf antigay
policies has been
arrested on
charges of theft
from local stores.
Clau de Allen,
45, served as
press secretary to
Sen. Jesse Helms;
was the number
two person at the
Department of
... Health ana
Human Services
™ Allen
numan services
(HHS) for die first
four years of the Bush administration; and
until recently was the chief domestic policy
•' advisor in the White House.
According to a statement released on
March 10 by the Department of Police for
Montgomery County, Maryland, the afSu
J ent suburb of Washington in which Allen
' lives: "On January 2, 2006, a Target store
A toss Prevention Manger observed an
g unknown man [later identified as Allen]
l enter the store...with an empty Target bag
|jjfi a shopping cart The man was then seen ;
« selecting merchandise throughout the store
; and placing items in the Target bag. He put J
additional items in his cart The man then ,':
went to guest services where he produced p|?f