.U.1.2?’s Executive.Director . RChristopher Kaufman has announced hat Matt Foreman will be the keynote speaker at the Community Center’s annual fundraising dinner on April 11. Foreman confinned his commitment to address the Vermont organization’s sup- I porters. “I am honored to be invited to speak in Vermont,” he said. ~ Foreman, who reportedly always wears cowboy boots, has been the director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force since last May. Before that he directed Empire State Pride Agenda for six years, dur- ing which there were significant advances toward legal equalityfor gay men and les- bians in New York. Foreman alsophas done a six-year stint with the New York City Anti- Violence Project. ’ _ “NGLTF is a leader in the national queer community working on issues that we care about and that affect our lives. Matt’s- voice will be very important in the coming year,” said Kaufman. “NGLTF has-a local organizing focus, and I look forward to see- ing what Matt’s message is for us, especially regarding how we can support others around the nation.” Another area Kaufman hopes Foreman will address is how to mobilize the lgbtq community to vote in the upcoming _ elections. Kaufinan added that there is already an initiative begun by the National Association of LGBT Community Centers called “Promote the Vote.” Foreman’s recent statements have been calls for both caution and increased activism in response to such celebrated legal advances for the lesbian and-gay communities as the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court deci- sion and the ruling on gay marriage in Massachusetts. A Asked about this trend in a phone interview, Foreman said, “It’s a persistent problem of our own movement and the way that non-gay people look at our communities that there’s a huge disparity of where we actually are and where they think we are. The vast majority of lgbt people have no rights, much less relationship protections. People tend to over-value symbolism.” For example, he said, “People com- NGLTF’s Foreman toKeynote R.U. Mgtt Foreman pletely missed what the Lawrence decision said at its core: that police could not come break down the door to your bedroom and ' grassroots organizing around gay marriage, - I ‘ "appearing at county fairs, talking to people, is ' 1 .2? Dinner arrest you for having sex. And half of Americans disagreed with the decision.” Foreman said that with the Lawrence decision and the Massachusetts rul- ing, the extreme right now has “the best wedge issue” it could have wished for in order to stay in power. Celebrating is fine, he ' added, as long as we recognize that there’s a lot of work to do to implement those deci- sions. I-Ieheld up Vermont as a model of even though the effort fell short of that goal and resulted in civil unions. “The amount of grassroots organiz- ing you did in Vermont, plowing the fields, light years ahead of anything anyone has done in at least 48 other states,” Foreman declared. “We are in serious trouble: never, outside of Vermont, have we won a marriage ‘ fight.” v Information on the R. U. 1.2? Community ‘E Center fundraising dinner is available from the Center: call 802-860-7812 or check the web site, www. TheCenter@rul2. org. Unity Project Meets Goal; Three Levels ofGrants Offered he Unity Project, a collaborative I fundraising effort between the Vermont Community Foundation and the Samara Foundation, has reached its goal of raising $200,000 outside the lgbtq community in Vermont. Meeting the goal releases a $100,000 matching grant from the national organization Funders for Lesbian’ and Gay Issues. I Once administrative costs and an endowment grant are deducted, $230,000 is , available for lgbtq projects and organizations in Vermont. “All the commitments are in hand, although some are pledged over time,”'said Bill Lippert, director of the Samara Foundation. “The fi.1nds were raised outside the, lgbt com- munity,” he emphasized. “What that means is that we’ve opened new doors, received new » dollars from new donors.” ‘ The project aims to have those new donors build relationships with the Vermont lgbt community and continue their giving. “The Unity Project gave us the oppor- tunity to talk about the needs of our community with people we’ve not_ met before,” Lippert continued. Under Unity Project guidelines,'there are three levels of grants: under $1000, which can be applied for at any time until June 3,’ 2005; program grants of up to $10,000; and strategic partnership grants of over $25,000. The larger two categories of grants can be applied’ for in 2004 and/or 2005. The smallest grants are designed to support high school Gay-Straight Alliances and anti-harassment projects. Outreach to existing and emerging GSAS to publicize the mini- grants and review of the applications will be done by Outright Vermont, with support from I the Unity Project. , Lippert stressed that the Unity Project funds were not intended to “create new pro- grams that would need continuing funding.” Another important aspect of the Unity Project, according to Lippert, is that its grant guidelines are based on a community-wide self-assess- ment. ' “The collaboration between the Samara Foundation and the Vermont Community Foundation is not new,” declared Ann Jones-Weinstock, Vice President for Donor Relations and Communications at the Vermont . Community Foundation. What is new, Jones- Weinstock said, is that “The Vermont Unity Project goes beyond our own quiet grant-mak- ing. It’s more public and higher profile.” The Vermont Community Foundation is made up of 485 constituent funds, some of which made donations to the Unity Project. ‘.‘While the formal fundraising phase i is over for this project,” Jones-Weinstock added, “our continued engagement isn’t ending.’ . It’s the end ofa project, but not of the mission.” Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues Executive Director Nancy Cunningham said that Vermont is one of 33 community founda- 1 tion partners,and, she said, it’s one of the most successful. Eleven projects have lgbt partner- ' ships, including VCF and Samara. "Vermont is a really, really good model." It’s unique in that it’s the only statewide partnership,” said ' Cunningham. Most are either city- or county- based projects. ' ' Among the national granters involved I in Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues are the Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, the Aaron Diamond Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the David Geffen Foundation, the Gill Foundation, the _ Levi Strauss Foundation, the M5. Foundation for Women, Open Society Institute, and the l‘ Philip Morris Companies. V Guidelinesfor Unity Project grants are on the Samara Foundation and Vermont Community Foundation web sites: ' www.SamaraFoundation.org or www.veI'- montcf org. v*—v. .«v_:-gr . .