Petrelis Files

Tides Center Cleans Up Fiscal Mess
of Cleve-Apalooza March on DC

Let's all give a round of much-needed accountability applause to a San Francisco activist who has pursued answers about the falling apart of Cleve Jones' march on DC last October and his temporary org that sponsored it, the Equality Across America entity. Attorney Stephen Zollman had dogged the fiscal sponsor of EAA and the march, the Tides Center, for answers:

No communication for months...if it is defunct...how is Tides wrapping up this fiscal project and accounting for the now less than 100,000 that was raised?

Roseanne Stead, the governance program director for Tides, sent this reply to Stephen, clarifying how they're cleaning up some of the mess leftover by Jones and his sloppy crew of colleagues and minions. Roseanne can be reached via rstead/at/tides.org:

We’ve engaged all interested parties to determine the final resolution of EAA, through conference calls, several follow-up calls and emails with those who continued to engage us from the ENOT board and previous board members. As you know, EAA came to Tides as a march and after that was completed, the future focus became unclear.

Tides waited for clarity and leadership to evolve, encouraged collaboration among those remaining interested, and finally, based on the information we gathered, concluded that there isn’t sufficient collective leadership or a clear mission focus.

Tides Center will disburse the remaining funding according to IRS regulations, and to serve causes aligned with Equality Across America.

The web site for EAA looks like it hasn't been updated since May and there is no listing of any directors or board members associated with the group. At this point, one year after Cleve-Apalooza indulged the massive ego of a single gay leader, and not much benefit came back to the larger gay community, I'd sure like to see some genuine follow up to the mess of the October 2009 event.

Has anyone asked Cleve what came of his big schemes? Why did the EAA org fall apart? Whose responsibility was it to properly disburse the left over money, which I understand is between $90,000 and $100,000? Should we ever go along with another corrupt effort that doesn't lead to lasting change or a viable network of activists?

I'd sure like to hear from all the Gay Inc entities, political leaders, and Cleve groupies such as Robin McGehee and Kip Williams, about what exactly went wrong with their plans for a collective of 435 district captains in every Congressional district.