Community members gathered Thursday evening for a social justice forum in the community room of the Mansfield/Richland County Public Library.
“The purpose of tonight’s forum is to identify ways to accept each other as individuals and communicate our differences in a kind and considerate manner,” said Bill Baker, organizer of the event.
The forum included three speakers: Aurelio Diaz, an advocate for individuals with disabilities and support specialist for Richland Newhope’s Adult Services department; Jeanne Heald, relationship manager for the United Way of Central Ohio’s PRIDE Council and PRIDE Gives, the first United Way LGBT affinity group of any United Way in the nation; and Deanna West-Torrence, the executive director of the North End Community Improvement Collaborative.
“The hope is that we encourage a good dialogue,” Baker said to an audience of about 30 people. “And I hope we make some good connections on how we move forward in equality and solidarity in our community.”
Diaz handed out a paper containing facts and statistics about people with disabilities.
“People with disabilities constitute the nation’s largest minority group and the only group any of us can become a member of at any time,” Diaz said.
Terms people use to describe people with disabilities have gotten better over the years, he said.
“When I first started, we would refer to the individuals as clients or residents,” Diaz said. “Now it’s more individual.”
Diaz did praise the community for accepting people with disabilities in the community and in the work place.
“I think the community has hugely embraced Newhope throughout the years,” he said.
Heald explained the differences between sexual orientation, gender identity and sexuality. She also went over some of the terminology used in the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, and Gender Queer (LGBTQ) world.
“I think the one thing that we all share in common is the idea about educating, but really it has been a journey,” she said. “So we talk about political correctness and what was proper in the early days…and I think it’s really about how we talk to each other and how we accept each other.”
Heald said it’s not about being nice or correct when speaking about different lifestyles, different people or equality.
“It’s about moving all these movements forward so that when we talk about equality in 20 years this discussion doesn’t need to happen again,” she said. “It’s just there.”
The Rev. James Cosby attended the forum and respectfully voiced his opinion against homosexuality.
“Isn’t it true that most people who object to homosexuality, it’s not necessarily the individual it’s the actual act?” he said. “I think that we have downplayed – from a biblical standpoint – the act of adultery, we’ve downplayed the act of fornication and all this is tied in, scripturally, together. We can’t say one of them is wrong without saying all of them are wrong.”
Baker encouraged everyone to listen and respect all opinions.
“We have to understand that for a lot of the work that I do, when we come into a decision making process, sometimes it’s the one dissenting voice that has the most important thing to say in the room,” Baker said. “I think it’s really important to recognize that.
“Until we really have open, serious discussions about what everybody does believe and what their feelings are, we are not going to make progress. And as long as it’s done in a way that is not attacking…that’s America and that’s the freedoms that we express here.”
West-Torrence rounded out the conversation by talking about race and the community.
“This community has supported me a lot,” West-Torrence said. “In terms that I didn’t have to hold my head down and I felt like the adults involved in my life, no matter of the race, were like, ‘go, Deanna, go.’ But I did not see them doing that to other kids who looked like me.”
West-Torrence said she got involved in politics to extend the same kindness that was extended to her as a child and adult in this community.
“People are really not that bad and that’s regardless of which group I’m talking to,” she said. “We have a (heck) of a community and it’s a shame that we’re so divided.”
For more information, those interested in the discussion are encouraged to contact organizer Bill Baker at billworld2@msn.org.
