Gay Obama appointee talks LGBT leadership, upcoming OUT for Work Conference by OUT for Work

ama 9/14/12 appointee talks LGBT leadership, upcoming Out for Work Conference - Chicago Phoenix Photos

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Gay Obama appointee talks LGBT leadership, upcoming Out for Work Conference by Tony Merev ick on Septem ber 1 2 , 2 01 2 in News · 0 Com m ents

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As a rev erend, V ice President of Strategic Partnerships at the V ictory Institute and an openly -gay appointee to President Obama’s Board of Adv isors on Historically Black Colleges and Univ ersities, George Walker said the key to successful LGBT leadership is “being y our authentic self.” “Y ou can do it with ex cellence when y ou get to do it as y our authentic self,” he said. Walker, 43, is set to speak at the upcoming Out for Work Conference at Univ ersity of Illinois at Chicago Sept. 28-30, where hundreds of LGBT students and allies will attend talks about LGBT leadership, the job market, and attend a job fair. Headlining the ev ent is Joe Solmonese, the former head of the Human Rights Campaign. In his current role as head of strategic partnerships, Walker ov ersees efforts to increase partnerships that adv ance div ersity goals among corporate or nonprofit organization partners. Before strategic partnerships, he was the v ice president of leadership initiativ es at V ictory , dev elopment director at American Constitution Society of Law and Policy , major gifts officer at HRC, as well as other roles in major LGBT and political organizations.

Search the Bar Guide With the Out for Work Conference approaching, Walker shared his thoughts on LGBT leaders, LGBT people entering the workforce and his personal ex periences in political and leadership positions.

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Chicago Phoenix : For those who don’t know a lot about the V ictory Institute and V ictory Fund, what ex actly does it do? George Walker: The V ictory Fund is a PAC that endorses LGBT folks to run for office all across the country — from small offices to U.S. Senate. We support them in a couple of way s, fundraising and capacity building. Capacity building is done through our non-profit 501 (c)3 work. Legally , they work separately , and in practice they work separately , but there is

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ama 9/14/12 appointee talks LGBT leadership, upcoming Out for Work Conference - Chicago Phoenix ov erlap in the work. My work is strategic partnerships. CP: What ex actly does that entail? GW: Last y ear, I wanted to do more in the realm of building deeper relationships with strategic partnerships with some of our funders. I work with the Bank of America Foundation — they hav e a student leadership conference and about 250 students come to Washington for it. I do a couple of presentations around leadership. Another big project is the Dav id Bohneett LGBT Leadership Fellows program and send two cohorts to Harv ard for the summer and learn about being a senior ex ecutiv e in local gov ernment.

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CP: To y ou, what does it mean to be an out-LGBT professional and what is the message y ou want to share with students about that? GW: What does it mean to be an out professional? What do y ou do? What does it look like? I want to tell them that it has to do with who y ou are. Y ou can do it with ex cellence when y ou get to do it as y our authentic self. The way I’m looking at the speech is to do a bit more on the intersections — as someone who is openly -LGBT and someone who is religious and deeply rooted in the African American ex perience. Those three things are some of the big things this country struggles with. My work in the political and religious spheres are informed by my ex periences as a religious African American form the South. CP: What is a particular personal ex perience that taught y ou the importance of being y ourself? GW: When I was a Peace Corps v olunteer, I’d become more gay , more Christian and more Black than any other time in my life when I was liv ing in South America. [laughs] I wasn’t just coming out, I was certainly alway s religious — I was also in a country that was v ery Catholic. I’m definitely a Protestant. I can’t push that down or submerge that — it feels v ery different when y ou are somewhere where there are v ery few other people walking around y ou of the same ty pe.

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If y ou go into a career thinking y ou’re a minority , that may not come out. CP: What do y ou think about the concept of LGBT people being in a minority ? How does that affect the potential for LGBT folk to take on ex ecutiv e careers and leadership in gov ernment? GW: I think that the whole “minority status” in general is negligent. All of us hav e been in the majority segment at some point in our liv es. I present as a man, so I certainly do not appear in perception that I’v e had to struggle like someone who is trans or a woman. I don’t mean degrade or disrespect those people.I think about priv ilege and what that means. I definitely want to say that. I think that it’s not just about empowerment, it’s also about — there’s a place in which it feels like when y ou tell how y ou can be y our best self — I’d like to suggest that it’s not just about the point of empowerment but that it’s really liv ing as who y ou are. Y ou talk to people in their 80s and they tell y ou that they don’t really care what box they fit in.CP: Why do y ou think that is?

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GW: That becomes a lot less necessary . There’s a part of it liv ing y our most authentic self and then there’s a part where there are tactical tools to do that. CP: How necessary are ev ents like Out for Work. Hav e y ou ex perienced other ev ents like this throughout the country and should there be more like it? GW: Y es, this is necessary . It should ex pand. It should get bigger. One day , we’ll be in a place where these conferenes won’t hav e to ex ist and ev ery student there will be able to get what he or she needs. We’re not there y et. Too many y oung people liv e in fear because of their sex ual orientation. Honestly , many folks don’t come to the reality of their sex ual orientation until they ’re much older. There are plenty of places where that doesn’t happen because of fear, but also because people don’t come to that

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ama 9/14/12 appointee talks LGBT leadership, upcoming Out for Work Conference - Chicago Phoenix realization. There are other LGBT leadership ev ents — we run an LGBT leadership conferecne ev ery y ear that is geared toward elected officials and it offers the a little bit of the same things, but not quite. How it means to be LGBT in a space that might not be as open to them… I applaud them for their work. CP: When y ou participate in ev ents like this and share y our ex periences with y oung LGBT folk, what do y ou take away from it? GW: The one thing that I alway s take away is the opportunity to learn about other peoples’ ex periences. As someone who is v ery deeply committed to social justice, it’s about learning. I hav e to be part of the community that is listening and learning. Meeting folks will be interesting to me. I hope I become a bit more contemporary . I’v e been out of college now for about 20 y ears — there are new ideas, fresh one sabout how the world should operate. What’s y our reality , how do I hear about that? I’m also hoping to hear Joe’s speech. CP: What do y ou think about Chicago? GW: I grew up in Memphis. Chicago is a city that I hav e a great respect for. I alway s enjoy being there. I hav e some friends that I’m planning to see. I hav e another speaking opportunity at Univ ersity of Chicago Law School. I am looking forward to being in Chicago. Find out more about the V ictory Fund and Out for Work Conference 201 2.

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