Dallas Project Leader:
No LGBT Credentials?
In looking over the names of the lucky 24 LGBT leaders who attended the invitation-only and closeted organizing and strategizing meeting in Dallas from May 15-17, the name of Allison Duncan, of San Francisco, stood out. Who?
I've never heard the name before and Googling "Allison Duncan, lesbian, LGBT, gay" turned up an Alison (one-"l") Duncan, who's a lesbian and a Green Party politician. No hits for the SF one, and every local gay person I asked if they knew her or her name, said no.
If she was one of the very lucky few, out of millions of LGBT Americans, to attend the Dallas meeting and create principles and a call to action to inspire gays like me to get behind their effort, then surely there would be a trail of details about her involvement with the community. I'm trying to find that trail.
Here's the info from her bio page at Amplifier Strategies, the political and social change consulting firm she founded and is the head of:
Allison Duncan is the founding principal of Amplifier Strategies, Inc. She is recognized for her ability to aid organization leaders in developing the operational frameworks and internal capacity to successfully carry out their strategic purpose. She is widely known for her unique expertise in financial and operational risk management, program portfolio management, and defining creative strategies for increasing program success.Cool, but I don't see anything about lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender persons mentioned here.
Before launching Amplifier Strategies, Allison held various executive positions at the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. She led mission-critical initiatives including designing and implementing the foundation’s strategic program finance practices, directing one the foundation’s environmental programs and serving on the executive committee to guide the foundation’s day-to-day operations. Allison also has extensive experience managing large-scale global environmental initiatives. She was the Foundation’s program director for the Conservation International & Global Conservation Fund, operating in Brazil, Guiana, Madagascar, Andean countries and countries of Melanesia. Allison worked with colleagues to finance comprehensive, science-based environmental outcomes and broker multi-lateral partnerships with key stakeholders including international economical development banks and numerous South American NGOs and state agencies.
Certainly sounds impressive, but, um, has she done a thing about LGBT persons, anywhere in the countries listed?
Prior to joining the Moore Foundation, Allison was a client service manager at Deloitte & Touche, LLP. At Deloitte, Allison was chosen for high-profile assignments in Russia, New York and Silicon Valley. Her positions ranged from managing complex business transactions to researching emerging accounting issues for mergers and acquisitions, stock compensation, derivatives and hedging activities, and internal controls. She worked closely with lead research partners to implement strategic solutions for clients.
Okay, I give up trying to find out anything about this Dallas project meeting attendee and her possible LGBT political experience from her firm's site.
Allison contributes frequently to national trade journals and has developed several technical training modules. She routinely leads implementation and facilitated technical training for professionals of all levels nationwide and internationally.That's nice, but I'd like to know if Allison has a gay resume of any significance. Other than being a lesbian, potentially with bucks, what are her LGBT credentials? What were her qualifications for helping draft the Dallas Principles?
Allison and her cohorts want me to find inspiration from their secretive gathering, and I'm just not feeling inspired to support the group.
When I spoke with another Dallas meeting attendee, Jon Winkleman, a man I know from back in the day of the height of ACT UP/NYC, I told him how I and a few of my SF friends simply couldn't believe the hard, losing and disastrous organizing lessons behind the debacle of the No on 8 executive committee were not being heeded.
As one queer Californian, who for seven long months watched in frustration as the right to gay marriage slipped way, mainly because of the invitation-only, closeted nature of No on 8 campaign leaders refused to be transparent and inclusive to the larger community, I simply can't abide or support any new efforts that gets off on the wrong foot.
With the Dallas meeting and those behind it, I am in agreement with their frustration at the lack of urgency and engagement from HRC, NGLTF, GLAAD, SLDN, Stonewall Democrats, and the rest of Gay Inc.
But starting off on the right foot, to me, to correct the injustices being perpetrated against us by our professional organizations and the well-compensated executives running them, means beginning any new serious effort to change the situation for us with full transparency and a welcome mat at an open door meeting.