A-LISTS community spotlight by david vera
“…I don’t want to be ‘tolerated.’ I want us to be accepted and valued.”
THE VIGILANT VOCALIST
TOM LUHNOW, CEO OF GSDBA
Born and raised in the warm glow of San Diego, Tom Luhnow emerged a SDSU alumnus and went on to explore LGBT opportuni-
ties in the Pacific Northwest for a couple decades. But with roots here stretching back several generations, it would only be a matter of time before he came home. Now, Tom has secured a place in the community where he feels he can grant the LGBT community the power it needs to reach its potential. And he has the experience to back it up.
“In the 1970s, I was an active participant on the committee that defeated Proposition
13 in Seattle shortly after the Anita Bryant fiasco in Florida. Prop. 13 was an attempt to roll back the rights our city council had extended to the LGBT community; we defeated it with a resounding 66-percent no-vote.” Tom also served as president of one of the few gay men’s organizations at that time
in the Northwest. His time there allowed him to enjoy a gay men’s summer volleyball group in the park and enlist in a gay bowling league. “Very bad left hook, but it’s better than Obama’s!” he admits. Fittingly, he got his chance to contribute his voice to LGBT affairs by…literally con-
tributing his voice! As a member of Seattle Men’s Chorus, Tom got to work closely with Louise Chernin of the GSBA (Greater Seattle Business Association) for 12 years. “The GSBA in Seattle is one of the four largest LGBT organization’s in the Northwest,
as is Flying House Productions, home of Seattle Men’s Chorus—the largest gay men’s chorus in the world. In Seattle, we didn’t have an LGBT Center like we have here in San Diego, so the GSBA there filled many of those functions. We frequently partnered on projects and helped each other whenever and wherever possible.” It was this kind of partnership that allowed Tom the experience and opportunity to
explore community leadership on a larger scale—applying for the position at which he now excels. “I immediately met Louise for coffee and grilled her about the financial status, the
environment, the membership, the programs and staff of GSDBA. Everything she reported encouraged me to apply. Serving as the CEO of a non-profit requires a unique set of skills. These include public speaking, effective writing and editing, vision, ability to convince others, working with a variety of personalities (running a chorus of 280 gay
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RAGE monthly | MAY 2010
men certainly honed that skill)!” Always with an eye out for new opportunities, Tom has also done much legwork writ-
ing grants to fund workshops for GSDBA members. “I knew it would mean a lot more work for the committee that oversees the classes we
offer as well as the staff. So we involved the committee, the staff and our new members in giving us their ideas as to what they most wanted help with and developed a series of 14 workshops covering such areas as social online skills (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter); building your own business plan; time management; salesmanship; effective networking and public speaking. All those came from the input of our members, staff and board.” A self-proclaimed optimist even in the darkest of times, Tom has never found the need to dwell on the negativity of others. Instead he looks for the good in situations. “We always have hope, though I wouldn’t suggest anyone adopt “hope” as a strategy! It’s more of a guiding value. I see a world that values its citizens for who they are, not relegating them to categories. The same goes for businesses: I want GSDBA to be known as a force for strengthening all businesses. Since more than 95 percent of the businesses in San Diego are small ones, we have a great potential to help others.” The GSDBA’s Annual Awards Luncheon is June 25—an opportunity to recognize outstanding businesses and individuals who contribute to the community. All mixers and workshops planned in the coming months are viewable at
gsdba.org. When he’s not fortifying bridges with an optimistic outlook at GSDBA, one of the
ways that Tom and his partner of 29 years love to relax is gardening. “I’m always looking at the incredible variety of flora in San Diego and dreaming of the
day when [my partner] finishes working on our house in Seattle and joins me here so we can buy a place and work on a new garden.”
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