A year ago I interviewed with Covenant House for a coordinator
position of a program that was designed to educate, inspire, and unify gay
youth with regards to all matters facing this troubled segment of the
population. The organization is all about safe sex education and aiding those
afflicted with HIV and AIDS as well as helping the homeless. The program director
and I had different visions of this program. He saw my being in a relationship
and reluctance to spend a majority of my time in bars promoting as problematic.
He was rumored to use the youth program
as his dating pool. I felt that in encouraging the youth to avoid unsafe sex and
practices prominent in the gay bars (heavy alcohol and drug use) that can
impair one’s judgment, it was necessary to promote activities and a lifestyle
outside of that setting. For many in this particular gay community there seems
to be no life outside of the gay bar because it is one of the few places where you
can truly be yourself. Many burn their way through one night stands and drugs
to grapple with their often closeted daytime identities. I wanted to promote and showcase a positive
way of life where one didn’t have to hide in the bar and that included
long-lasting relationships.
The
interview for this position was unsettling. The program director asked if I had
been tested for HIV (are we dating?) and later mentioned how disgusted he was
by seeing people he knew with HIV at the bars picking up other people. He said
he wished he could call them out for the disease they had and let everyone know
about it. There are of course varying opinions on the matter of whether or not
such status should be public or not. However, no one knows what conversations
are taking place and what actually goes on behind closed bedroom doors. It’s no
one’s business. He did not know whether or not these individuals were being
responsible or not. I thought this was a program that offered care and kindness
to the HIV and AIDS afflicted community. But many of the organization’s messages
I was getting from Facebook and the horse’s mouth seemed to shame this group. It
was only after this interview that I learned the director wasn’t even able to
drive himself to work due to his multiple DUIs. This guy was hardly the mentor
needed for a group of individuals struggling with their identity.
I
always had respect for this organization and had Covenant House in my focus
long before college graduation. I feel very strongly about gay youth’s need for
a sense of belonging in a positive environment consisting of social connections,
public spaces, role models, and achievable goals. I was very disappointed about one
of the most inappropriate job interviews I’ve ever had. So it gives me satisfaction to learn that the individual
who many felt was a disease on the community is no longer with Covenant House.
Of course stories abound as to what happened, but I do not think of this as
DRAMA. I call it the word it rhymes with.
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