Recently a blogger wrote about how it seem that his local LGBT community is invisible,
If XXXXXXXXX hopes to move forward on local LGBT equality, our community will have to step up our public visibility. After all, if our own community and its leadership doesn’t care enough to make a stink over our treatment, why would the general public? It isn’t as if LGBT rights are on the forefront of an average citizen’s mind, you know.
Well that quote could mean just about any local community in North Carolina. There seems to be a lack of cohesiveness and public advocacy present in many of our LGBT communities. This is not a new problem that popped up over night, however its problem that has decide to hang around for a long time, and we have grown custom to it.
In many of our communities, the members are allowing our local LGBT businesses to fail, ie,our LGBT bookstores, simple because the community would rather shop online then in these bookstore, but once they close the same community bitches about not have such store or business in the community.
It seems to me that the only time our community comes together is after some event or action that effects us. Like losing the right to marriage in CA, or the death/murder of a LGBT person. It seems for those events we can come out in numbers, but after we do very little for our own community. So I ask what gives?? Why is it we can support other communities but not our owns? Do those communities matter more then ours?
Here in NC there is another problem as well, Its deal with our LGBT community leaders or the lack of. The lack of our local news publications to cover our events. When we do make such publications we stand only a 50/50chance the article will be a positive one.
Then there our LGBT publications, not just statewide but country wide. Many of these publication are no longer running, the lucky ones have merge with another LGBT publication. When that happens coverage in many areas do seem to pick up, while at other times coverage seems to die. Those citizens in those area often feel left out or simple fell they don't matter.
When many community members writes and share events it seem that the nearest publication either pick and choose which ones to run or simply just 86 them in the oval filing cabinets, or just hit the delete button. This is one reason why many LGBT community goes invisible, no coverage= no community to care about.
So beside sharing events and stories how do you get your local community paper to pay attention to the whole community of the selected state?? How do you get notice on a state publication in a positive way?
