A-LISTS community spotlight Sometimes, no matter how hard we work, nothing seems to go right. But then we’re
reminded how important persistence can be, remembering that things do actually get better. Jim Brady personifies this kind of persistence in labor as the co-chair of member- ship and community events at Human Rights Campaign – San Diego. A member since 1989, Brady has served on the steering committee since it began
here three years ago. Since starting on the committee, Brady spent a lot of time on the No on 8 campaign—volunteering even before Prop. 8 had a name. It was initially the Decline to Sign campaign. “I’ve lived here since 1987 but I grew up in North Carolina and finished school in
Boston,” said the fine arts major. Freelance, architectural and interior photography are Brady’s bread and butter today. But among his passions are putting together the year’s HRC events. “The big one is Bowling for Equality at the end of February. The planning has cer- tainly gotten easier. The first year, we had to invent the whole thing. Now the biggest part is attracting business sponsors and getting bowlers to fill the lanes. We structure it so that there are teams of five. Bowlers who would like to be lane captains can let us know when registering. Then when someone who would like to be on his or her team visits the site to sign up and buy a ticket, there’s a listing of the lane captains’ names.” Even if bowlers aren’t affiliated with any captain listed, the event serves as the perfect
opportunity to mingle with fellow “lane-iacs” and make new friends. “We’ve got 200 people showing up to bowl simultaneously, so our system had to
be very efficient. The first year, we didn’t know what to expect. We ended up selling out. We even oversold by a little bit. So we had the entire bowling alley to ourselves. That had an interesting effect. We had a comedian who also emceed. He could tailor his jokes to us without having to worry about other people who were there. It was a tremendous achievement to pull something off like that in such an organized fashion. We were recognized by HRC National for having put on the best inaugural event in the country that year.”
by david vera Aside from trying your hand at winning, entertainment and door prizes await lucky
participants. But there is a bigger prize to be won here: equality. “My long term hope is for there to be no need for HRC—for HRC to accomplish all its
goals, for there to be national work protections for LGBT people, for all companies to offer equal benefits, for DOMA to go away and for there to be marriage equality across the nation. It’ll be a long time coming, but there is a lot of work to do in the meantime. If everybody got involved with something—anything—whether it’s HRC or Gay for
Good, it would make a difference. Donate time, money…get out and do something! I’d always find it very discouraging when we would go to bars looking for volunteers or donations and people there would say they didn’t have any time or money to donate. I thought, ‘Wow, you’re sitting here drinking, there’s your time and money.’ With all our hopes and goals, for them to be carried by only part of the community just doesn’t make any sense.” After Prop. 8 passed, Brady attended the huge march from Hillcrest to North Park. “All the people who showed up for it, they weren’t just gay. There were all kinds of people there. I remember wondering, ‘Wow, if all these people could maintain this level of involvement and interest, how far could this energy take us?’ While Maryland is moving toward marriage equality, Wyoming is in the process of passing a bill to restrict marriage to straight couples. But we’re making a lot of progress. Things we’re talking about now are not things I could ever have dreamt of when I was a teenager. When my boyfriend and I were in North Carolina visiting my parents about a year and a half ago, we went to dinner with a childhood friend of mine. We were there, my friend was there, and his friend and his boyfriend were there, along with my parents and his parents. If I had known when I was 15 that a wonderful day like this was to come, it would’ve made life a lot easier—something along the lines of the ‘It Gets Better’ Project.”’
HRC’s Bowling for Equality is scheduled to be held on Saturday, February 26! For more information on the event and on HRC San Diego, visit
sandiego.hrc.org.
For the Love of the GAYME
BOWLS FOR EQUALITY
“If everybody got involved with some- thing—anything—whether it’s HRC or Gay
for Good, it would make a difference. Donate time, money…get out and do something!
With all our hopes and goals, for them to be carried by only part of the community just doesn’t make any sense.”
14 RAGE monthly | FEBRUARY 2011 JIM BRADY
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