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FEATURE ARTICLES

RICK GARCIA AND THE ST. LOUIS TASK FORCE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

(from Prime Time, May, 1977, pp. 9-12.)

Their first effort was the beer blast on April 24 to raise money for the struggle in Dade County: 150 people attended, and the St. Louis Task Force for Human Rights scored its first success. Three weeks later, another beer blast to raise more funds for the same cause: nearly 200 people this time--a greater success. Then, three days later, on May 18, the benefit showing of A Very Natural Thing at the Maplewood Theater: this time nearly 1000 gay people and friends of gays turned out to fight homophobia. Many of you who attended these events must have felt as I did: at first, curious but somewhat doubtful, then increasingly hopeful, enthusiastic, excited, a bit amazed, grateful to the people who had organized them, and curious about who they were. The St. Louis Task Force for Human Rights? Who were they? Where had they come from so suddenly? How had they managed to organize three major events so close together? What would they do next?

With these questions and others in mind, I went to see Rick Garcia, spokesperson for the Task Force. We spent several hours talking, and I came away impressed, enthusiastic, and more hopeful than I have ever been before about the future for gay people in St. Louis. Rick Garcia is an impressive person--bright, articulate, politically sophisticated, energetic, dedicated, and characterized by a creative combination of idealism and realism at the same time. His goals are long-range, far-reaching, and radical; his means are practical and down-to-earth, and proceed step by careful step.

My first question to Rick was about the Task Force: Who are the people behind it? How many are they? And when did they begin working together? "It's a very informal group," Rick replied. "It's hard to say how many people are part of it, because it's open to anyone, people come and go, and we have no offices and no rigid bureaucratic structure. But there is a core group of six people, all in their early twenties." Rick stressed that while he had been asked to be spokesperson for the group, neither he nor anyone else was officially its head, and no one individual could speak for the entire group.

"And when did you first get together?" "In early April." Rick replied. "Did you plan then to form a permanent organization with long-range goals, or did you organize only for the temporary purpose of raising funds to fight Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade?" Rick's answer, in brief, was that the initial and immediate goal was to help combat Bryant, but that the group very quickly realized that it also had other, longer-range purposes. I asked what their long-term goals were. The answer Rick gave amounted to nothing less than achieving a kind of—revolution within the St. Louis gay population--not a political revolution, but an internal, spiritual revolution, a higher consciousness among gay people themselves of their own identity, and a greater sense of unity and community.

Although the Task Force is composed of gay people, and has concentrated so far on the struggle for gay rights, it does not advocate any kind of gay separatism and does not want to foster a gay-ghetto mentality. The dedication to gay rights, Rick emphasized, is only effective when it is part of a broader dedication to human rights in general; and that means equal rights for women, blacks, chicanos--everyone. Hence, the name: "St. Louis Task Force for Human Rights." Although the Task Force is in no sense a religious group, and welcomes people of all beliefs, Rick Garcia's personal dedication to human rights, I learned, has a religious foundation. For Rick, political activism in behalf of human rights is an inevitable consequence of his religious beliefs. It began years ago, when he was still a student at a Catholic elementary school in south St. Louis, with participation in the Civil Rights Movement and demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Since then, he has worked in the Farm Workers' Movement and the Women's Movement, and has visited Jefferson City to talk with state legislators on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment. Although he is barely into his twenties, Rick Garcia has years of political experience. As I listened, I began to understand how he and the Task Force had accomplished so much so quickly: they knew from the start how to get things done.

Other questions popped into my mind: "How much money did you raise altogether?" "After paying our expenses and setting a little aside for future activities, we sent about $800 to the Dade County Coalition." "Have you had any problems as a result of your public gay activism or your letter in the Post-Dispatch?" "Not so far, no," Rick said; "I kind of expected some, but nothing has happened: no threatening phone calls, no one has burned down the house--nothing." (That was, I suppose, too good to last. A few days later, Rick told me that his little sister had been harassed about her big brother's activities by some of her classmates in elementary school.)

The Task Force has found, Rick told me, that some of the owners of gay-oriented businesses are much more helpful than others. Both Herbie's and the Club Baths helped to publicize the beer blasts and the film benefit by distributing leaflets. The Potpourri took a small ad in the film program, but would not help with publicity. Rick singled out one person as particularly deserving of the gratitude of the gay community: Adalaide Carp, the owner of Herbie's. Unlike the many people who are willing to take gay people's money, but show little or no interest in their welfare, Rick said, Adalaide has contributed funds, time and energy, sympathy and love to the liberation of gay people.

Discussion of gay-oriented places and their owners led naturally to talk about the somewhat limited social opportunities available to gay people in St. Louis. Rick said that one aim of the Task Force is to get gay people together in new places, outside the usual meeting spots, to provide relaxed and pleasant social events where gay people can see one another as people first, and gays second. By breaking out of our ghetto and becoming more visible both to one another and to the "straight" world, he suggested, we will enhance our self-respect and our sense of community. Promoting gay pride within the St. Louis gay population is one of the major goals of the Task Force. And in pursuit of this goal, the Task Force is planning a series of outside-the-ghetto events. The film showing at the Maplewood Theater was an example of the kind of event the Task Force hopes to provide regularly. The next occasion, Rick told me, will be on July 10, on the Promenade at the Mansion House Center. (For further details, see the announcement, "A Gay Evening on the Riverfront," in the social events section of this issue of Prime Time.) At present, Rick said, the Task Force hopes to schedule at least one special social event for the St. Louis gay community each month: picnics, dinners with entertainment and dancing, and other films are among the possibilities. This does not mean, Rick stressed, that the Task Force is about to become a purely social organization. Behind these social events lies a serious purpose: the creation of a new sense of community and pride in the St. Louis gay population. Nor does the Task Force plan to abandon direct political action after the Dade County referendum on June 7. Once the rights of gay people in Dade County are upheld, the task will remain of guaranteeing the rights of gay people here in St. Louis. Perhaps, Rick suggested, the time is near when we will be able to get a gay rights ordinance passed here.

Rick invited anyone wishing further information and anyone interested in joining the St. Louis Task Force for Human Rights to call him at 652-3139. The Task Force, he stated, is not, and does not ever want to be a sharply-defined, exclusive organization with people who are "in" and other people who are "out." It welcomes ideas, suggestions and participation from everyone, and hopes to be a flexible, adaptable instrument for use by the entire gay community. "We also want," Rick said, "to help other local gay organizations in any way we can--with publicity, fund-raising, or whatever they need." I assured Rick that I would carry this message to MLSC, and that we at MLSC, and on the staff of Prime Time, would work with him. Sometime in mid-June, representatives from MLSC, the Task Force, and all the other major St. Louis gay organizations will meet to explore ways we can help one another.

After spending an afternoon talking with Rick Garcia, I felt very optimistic about the future. Something new and very important, I felt, had emerged in the St. Louis gay community.

Paul I.