I am a committee member of the Dyke March Organizers and also an
employee of the Gay and Lesbian Center of Orange County and my
response to Steve Smith's column: I just wanted to share that I found
it very interesting and agreed with many of the points that Smith
made about how respect is not something that you can demand (Family
Time, "Respect cannot be demanded," Aug. 31).
Sometimes, seeking respect is not an easy path and not something
that can be sought out; it's something that is earned. I did also
want to comment that there was a misquote about Libby Cowan's
involvement.
The organizers -- all of us -- wanted her and many other
politicians and women in the community that have a lot of experience
to be involved with this as a women's event and offer us their
expertise. We were not choosing specifically based on sexual
orientation. So I do think that is a misquote.
Also I wanted to respond to the tone of the column. I think that
it's a wonderful thing that parents in Costa Mesa apparently are
teaching their children about diversity and discrimination and
respect and issues like this. As a social worker/student in the
master's program, I feel very strongly about those issues, however
the column seems to group all of the marchers into one generalization
about demanding respect.
I think that there's just too much of a generalization made about
the individuals marching; as any other marginalized group, lesbians
are very diverse. Some were carrying signs that said "dikes are
nice," "lesbians have feelings too," things to that effect, so I feel
that it was unfortunate that the tone generalized a marginalized
group when Smith seemed to want to promote education about
discrimination, and the first thing about discrimination is when you
start to categorize and label people.
I just found that contradictory and unfortunate because there were
some very, very interesting points in the column.
NICKI TOBIAS
Orange
