Video Interview, Ove Overmyer, May 23, 2012
- CREW: I am rolling.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.
- So Ove, just for soundcheck, give us the correct spelling
- of your first and last name.
- OVE OVERMYER: The name is pronounced Ove Overmeyer, O, V,
- E, O, V, E, R, M, Y, E, R.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: My main focus with you
- is going to be the work that you've done with labor unions,
- and how that transformed into getting things
- like gay marriage passed, all that stuff.
- But we need to set that up a little bit.
- How did you start getting about politically?
- And I think from going over our pre-interview,
- one of the things that really stuck out
- was getting involved with Tim Mains campaign.
- OVE OVERMYER: Yes.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Tell me a little bit about that story,
- about how that was maybe one of the first initiatives of you
- getting involved politically and getting involved with Tim.
- OVE OVERMYER: Well, 2005, in Rochester,
- was a very exciting time.
- We were about to elect a new mayor in Rochester,
- the city of Rochester being a primarily democratic city.
- We had three extraordinary people
- who were running for office, Tim Mains, Bob Duffy,
- and a twenty-year city councilman
- named Tim Mains, who, incidentally,
- was the first openly elected gay official in New York State.
- We vetted the candidates--
- the party, the Democratic Party--
- vetted the candidates extensively.
- They all got on the petition.
- I did not join Tim's campaign until much later in the year.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Hang on a second.
- Playing tricks on you.
- There's a plug in the wall, you just unplug it.
- CREW: It's off.
- OK, then.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: It's just recycling through condensation.
- OVE OVERMYER: Should I start over?
- KEVIN INDOVINO: No, we can pick it
- up to where Tim was a twenty-year veteran at the city
- Council.
- OVE OVERMYER: OK.
- In any event, they spent a lot of time going to forums,
- and I went to about forty forums that year.
- I remember it very well.
- But I didn't join a campaign until I
- was convinced that one of these guys
- was going to be the best mayor.
- And I have to say that I certainly
- believed with all my heart that Tim Mains was the best
- candidate in 2005, and if he was elected,
- he would have been a great mayor.
- It had nothing to do with Tim being openly gay
- as a candidate.
- I supported him because I truly believed he
- would have been the best mayor.
- When we look back on that election,
- I certainly believe that it certainly
- put to rest the notion that gay people could
- serve in higher office, especially in Rochester.
- We have people in the State legislature.
- We have Supreme Court justices.
- We have all sorts of people from Rochester
- who serve in higher office.
- Tim's race really was a benchmark for local history,
- with regards to people understanding collectively
- in the community that, absolutely, gay people
- can serve.
- And it was really a wonderful time, a very exciting campaign,
- and something I'll always remember.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Well, and there's
- one thing I want to touch upon here, too,
- that even when Duffy threw his hat in the ring,
- you stayed with Tim.
- Can you talk to me a little bit about that, and why?
- OVE OVERMYER: It's true.
- In September, when the primary rolled around,
- Wade Norwood was the endorsed candidate for the party.
- Bob Duffy did win the primary, but Tim Mains
- received the Working Families endorsement,
- so he was on the ballot in November.
- I still believed in my heart that Tim
- was the right candidate for the city of Rochester.
- No one thinks quicker on their feet.
- He was on the Finance Committee for City Council.
- New He was just the most remarkable financial mind
- I've ever met.
- So for those reasons, and more, that I just
- thought that he was the best candidate, so in my heart
- I knew I was doing the right thing.
- Regardless of the way the party went,
- I knew that Tim was the best candidate.
- And again, it had nothing to do with his identity
- as an openly gay candidate.
- If you looked at the makeup of the people who supported him,
- people from all walks of life.
- I mean, there were all ages, all races.
- It was just an amazing collection
- of people who supported him.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: And you hear a lot of people
- say that, we're not supporting him
- because he's a gay candidate, we're supporting him for what
- he can do for the city.
- But yet, at some point, or a small percentage
- of that support, needs to be a little bit
- about a sense of pride, or the sense of coming out,
- that we have a gay candidate running.
- Can you talk to me a little bit about the personal feelings
- about, OK, you're not supporting him because he's gay,
- but yet, there is that factor that he is gay.
- Any feelings regarding--
- OVE OVERMYER: Sure, I think that was certainly an element that
- made it a little more exciting.
- There's no question to have someone
- on a stage for an office as important of mayor
- be able to deliver the goods on a daily basis, was incredibly
- exciting.
- It proved to most people that--
- he changed the perceptions of maybe some people.
- He changed hearts and minds.
- There's no question in my mind, because of his visibility,
- because he was confident in his performance.
- I think for all those reasons, it really
- was an important race besides just the fact
- that he was a gay candidate.
- It was just more significant than that.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: That, then, kind of prompted
- you to start realizing that you can start making changes
- in legislation and have some sort of political influences
- by working through the labor unions.
- OVE OVERMYER: That's correct.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Let's set that up a little bit first,
- how you came to the realization that maybe this is
- the direction we need to go in to make changes
- in this society.
- OVE OVERMYER: OK, well, I moved to Rochester from New York City
- in the mid-'90s.
- I became employed at the City of Rochester
- at the public library downtown.
- I immediately recognized that colleagues and friends
- were struggling with workplace rights issues.
- I had, for some reason, and I'm not quite sure
- why it is the case, people felt comfortable confiding in me,
- whether if it was something about the dress code
- or something about the contract language
- not being inclusive to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender
- people.
- A light went off.
- I knew I had an opportunity.
- I had the ability and the desire to make changes
- in the workplace, because the contracts weren't inclusive.
- There was no language for sexual orientation in a lot
- of the policy handbooks.
- So I knew that there was an opportunity
- there to move the ball forward in the greater movement.
- In 2004, I became a local officer in Monroe County,
- and I'm also the president of my local,
- where I've negotiated more than three contracts to make sure
- that contracts are inclusive with this kind of language.
- So 2007, friends of mine, Bess Watts and Tom Privitere,
- we got together and created a chapter of Pride at Work.
- Pride at Work is an organization that bridges the gap--
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Hold on to that thought for a second.
- We'll pick it up from there.
- Are these the-- that's the twelve bells.
- We've got to wait for twelve bells here.
- OVE OVERMYER: OK.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: For the development of private work.
- OVE OVERMYER: OK
- KEVIN INDOVINO: How did you get into that?
- I don't remember.
- OVE OVERMYER: I don't, either.
- I was rambling.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: You became president.
- You both read contracts.
- OVE OVERMYER: Right.
- OK, I'll just dive right in there.
- In any event, I found great opportunity in order
- to effect positive change.
- The city of Rochester was always a great employer.
- As far back as 1994, we had domestic partner benefits
- legislation that was written into the City of Rochester
- language that, actually, City councilman Tim Mains,
- is responsible for.
- So the City of Rochester as an employer
- wasn't much of a fight, but certainly
- at the county level for all the twenty-one units
- that I represent in Monroe County,
- it is still a huge issue.
- They still, to this day, do not have domestic partner benefits.
- So we still have a lot of work to do.
- In 2007, I joined some friends of mine, Bess Watson and Tom
- Privitere, and we formed a chapter of Pride
- at Work, which is a national organization affiliated
- with the AFL-CIO.
- It's an organization that bridges labor
- and gay folk who want to make changes in the workplace.
- The agendas that we pursue, obviously,
- deal with the workplace.
- NDAA, as a national policy, we're
- looking to overturn, or to actually get passed,
- and, of course, repealing DOMA, which
- is the Defense of Marriage Act.
- The great thing about Pride at Work
- is that it was instrumental in making marriage equality happen
- in New York State.
- It's not to say that I don't want
- to minimize the contributions of all the other organizations,
- because social change doesn't happen in a bubble.
- It doesn't happen in a vacuum.
- It is the confluence of many, many people
- in many organizations coming together in a perfect storm
- to create social change.
- And that's what happened when we passed
- marriage equality in 2011.
- But I would like people to know that we should never
- underestimate the connection that labor had
- in getting marriage passed, because the politicians who
- actually voted for that bill knew damn well that they better
- support union's position on this issue,
- or they probably wouldn't receive the support of labor.
- And it's pretty hard to get elected in the Rochester area
- if you don't have labor support.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: So I'm going to pull that back a little bit.
- How did you get the labor unions, or labor,
- to come to the realization that gay marriage is a good thing
- to support?
- OVE OVERMYER: The challenge of getting
- into my own union, with regards to the issues
- that I care about, that I think most workers care about,
- which is equality in the workplace, it was really,
- really a difficult challenge.
- I look back in the mid-2000s.
- You could not find the word gay anywhere in any document,
- in Civil Service Employee Association, website,
- handbooks, anything.
- They didn't even say the word.
- So we knew we had a difficult fight.
- But I think visibility is the most important thing.
- When we formed Pride at Work, we were everywhere.
- We were at every church, every street
- corner, every conference.
- We were talking about our issues and changing hearts and minds
- at these venues, and explaining to people, look,
- this is what we look like.
- I have a family.
- I need to take care of them.
- I need workplace rights.
- And over time, people began to understand that their fight was
- our fight, that the labor community
- and the LGBT community really have the same issues in mind,
- and we need to collectively fight
- for equality for all people.
- Hold that thought.
- This is where we have to go through
- their musical entourage, right?
- CREW: Camera's ready.
- Camera's rolling.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Let's just go back just a little bit
- to reiterate, the importance of getting the labor unions
- to understand that gay rights, equal rights for gays
- and lesbians, is a workplace equal rights issue.
- Just talk to me just again a little bit more about that.
- OVE OVERMYER: Well, the argument for me,
- when I went in front of a lot of people
- that necessarily didn't agree with everything that I
- represented or what I stood for, the conversations
- went something like this.
- If you look at the mission of what labor unions represent--
- inclusiveness, and injury to one is an injury to all,
- the idea of everyone contributes and everyone succeeds.
- All of these notions that drive labor unions was
- consistent with the idea that marriage equality, that
- equal rights in the workplace, regardless of how you identify,
- are really important values that any union,
- any progressive union, would honor.
- And it was in our best interest, in order
- to form a coalition, to make positive change happen
- in the lives of the people they represent.
- When you talk about an injury to one is an injury to all,
- it really matters to the people who you sit next to at work.
- And because they're heterosexual,
- they can get a good pension, and their economic security
- is stable.
- But yet, the person next to him who's doing the same job
- doesn't have the same rights.
- It's just not fair.
- And I think people began to see the discrepancies.
- And until you make an awareness of the problem,
- there's going to be no action.
- There's going to be no movement on these issues.
- It took a long time to convince people
- that there was an issue here, that gay people needed
- to stand up, be visible at work and say, hey, you know,
- we've got to fix this.
- There's a problem here.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Talk to me about some of the conversations
- you've had to have with some of these people.
- I mean, you're talking about union leaders here.
- They're kind of rough and gruff, and you
- had to go out and have beers with them.
- OVE OVERMYER: Yes.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: And talk to me about some
- of these conversations.
- OVE OVERMYER: I'll tell you an interesting story.
- In 2009, I actually went to the region's Women's Committee
- to try to get a resolution passed,
- along with some friends of mine, Bess Watts who
- is a good friend of mine in Civil Service Employees
- Association.
- And I wrote some language, two resolutions,
- to produce before our annual delegates
- at a meeting in Buffalo.
- There was about 1,500 people there,
- and I wrote language for dignity for all students,
- and a marriage equality resolution
- for the collective body to support these issues.
- Now, most of the people who know me well
- said, you're out of your freaking mind.
- There's no way that the entire body is
- going to support these issues.
- But doing a little politicking behind the scenes,
- I have managed to convince the statewide officers
- that this was something that they needed to do.
- When I stood up on stage and started
- talking about these resolutions, I
- was expecting eggs to be thrown at me.
- I was expecting to be spit at.
- That didn't happen.
- People sat and listened to the testimonies of the friends
- that we lined up all throughout New York state,
- in Syracuse, in New York, on Long Island.
- They all stood up very proud and explained who they are
- and that they deserve equal rights, and it happened.
- It was an amazing thing.
- It really was.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: But you had to lay some
- of the groundwork for that.
- OVE OVERMYER: That's right.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: So talk to me a little bit
- about that, about laying that groundwork with these people,
- one-on-one, having a beer with them.
- OVE OVERMYER: Yeah.
- It was difficult, because most of the time they
- said, oh, they're here again.
- They're going to be talking about the same issue.
- And again, I think if I could explain it in simple terms,
- activism is about showing up.
- Advocacy is about being there.
- When the conversation happens, you have to be present.
- 90 percent of a good activist is showing up and being there
- and having that conversation.
- That's where the work happens.
- And oftentimes, people don't want to hear your message,
- but you have to be persistent.
- And I think at some point, when people understand your passion,
- they understand who you are, that you're just
- trying to support your family like anybody else,
- that we have more things that are in common that make us
- different, that they begin to realize that, hey, this
- is something I need to do.
- Most of the people that I interact
- with in the union movement represent other people.
- They get it.
- They understand that to be a good officer,
- to be a good labor leader, you need
- to represent all people, not just some of the people,
- regardless of how they identify.
- And I think it took a long time.
- It took a lot of repeated exposures and conversations,
- but soon it happened.
- The tipping point came around 2009, 2010
- when the New York State AFL-CIO sent out
- a document stating that all the central labor councils in New
- York support marriage equality.
- And that's when the snowball happened.
- And it wouldn't have happened without the people
- in Rochester.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Let's talk a little bit, specifically
- about changing the mindset of an individual,
- and I'm speaking specifically about Alesi.
- Talk to me a little bit about how that came about.
- How did we get him?
- How did you get him, not we.
- OVE OVERMYER: Well, convincing the state legislators,
- especially a Republican majority in the Senate,
- to support this issue, I knew going in on the previous vote
- that it wasn't going to happen.
- There were some issues about how it would play out.
- But there were even Democrats that
- did not support the bill when it first came up
- for a vote in the Senate.
- When it passed in 2011, I think everybody
- that voted yes really began to understand the issues.
- And it really took a collaborative effort.
- Again, a perfect storm of not only labor,
- but of every community group, of every right-minded person,
- to call their legislators, especially in the Rochester
- area, that this is a good thing.
- There's no downside to equality.
- It's something that I think Senator Alesi probably--
- I don't want to speak for his mind,
- but I certainly believe that he wanted to vote
- yes the first time around.
- Having several conversations with him after the fact,
- he knew he did the right thing.
- And it just was a matter of time.
- It was persistence and trying to explain to them our family
- dynamics that were no different than any other American family,
- and we need the rights and protections
- like any other citizen.
- And I think they got they got the message.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: But you also got the message
- through to him because of that union support that you now had.
- OVE OVERMYER: There's no question
- that unions play an important role, in politicians becoming
- incumbents or getting elected.
- It's very difficult in Monroe County,
- or the City of Rochester, or this district,
- whether the assembly seats or the Senate
- seats, to actually win without labor support.
- We put tons of people on the street.
- We donate financially.
- We make the phone calls.
- We make the connections.
- If you're going to run for state assembly, or for state Senate,
- in this area, if you don't have labor support,
- you're going to have a hard time winning.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: So wrap it all up for me then
- with what you just said, if you want to win,
- you've got to have labor support, labor support
- and gay marriage.
- Bring that all together for me.
- OVE OVERMYER: Well, and this was the great part,
- that when the labor community finally
- got on board with supporting resolutions
- that we crafted back in 2009, a light went off
- in my head saying, you know what?
- Marriage is going to happen, because I
- know this will be the tipping point, when I can convince,
- or when the community can convince,
- our state leadership to not just sign on to a resolution,
- or not just say, OK, we support it, to actually be champions,
- to go to press conferences, to talk to the people who
- and make it happened, to talk to the donors
- to get the advertising dollars to get on TV.
- I have to give a shout-out to Mary Sullivan and Danny Donohue
- from CSEA, two of our statewide officers.
- CSEA is the largest public employee
- union in the New York State.
- We have well over 300,000 workers.
- We were very instrumental in getting marriage passed,
- and without the leadership of these folks,
- I just don't think it would have happened.
- And again, when it comes time for people
- who want to serve in public office at the State,
- in the State capitol, they come to us.
- They want our endorsement.
- And I think when we sided with what fairness means,
- or what equality means, they realize that they've
- got to move to that side.
- I'll say this, not everyone has come that far,
- but we're still working on them.
- And that doesn't mean that they won't support
- gay and lesbian issues or equal rights issues in the future,
- because we're still working on them.
- We have a lot of work to do.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Let's switch gears a little bit,
- because you're also a librarian, a historian,
- you've done a lot of work with The Empty Closet.
- OVE OVERMYER: Yes.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Let's just start from there.
- How did you get involved in writing with The Empty Closet,
- and why?
- OVE OVERMYER: OK, well, when I moved here in the 1990s,
- I was really happy to see, at a coffee shop I stopped in,
- and I saw The Empty Closet.
- And I go, what is this thing?
- And I picked it up, and I said, oh, it's an LGBT newspaper,
- what a novelty.
- And I was fascinated with it.
- And there was an article about something political.
- I can't remember exactly what it was, but I picked up the phone
- and I called the editor, Susan Jordan.
- And I said, you know what?
- I have a really huge need to complain,
- so is it OK if I send you a letter in response
- to this article that's in the newspaper?
- And she said, sure, go right ahead send me something.
- So it began a relationship with Susan Jordan that began,
- I think, in 1993 or '94.
- After I wrote the letter, she asked me
- if I wanted to be a reporter.
- So I said, well, I'm really busy,
- but I'll see how I can manage my time, and I will go ahead.
- The first thing that I reported on
- was the third year of the Image Out film festival.
- And I interviewed Susan Soleil on Monroe Avenue
- in her book bindings shop, and it was a great experience,
- and I'll always remember it.
- It was a wonderful experience.
- And I began writing consistently as a columnist
- and as a reporter and a photographer
- for The Empty Closet since 2000, and I've
- been writing ever since.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: And from your point of view,
- talk to me about the importance of documenting month to month
- the things that are going on in our community,
- about documenting that.
- Every month, there's history being made.
- OVE OVERMYER: Yeah, it's been a huge privilege to witness
- and to report the news that happens in our community.
- People say that's a lot of work, the newspaper.
- I said, yes, it is, but it's important work.
- And I explain to them that the gay press is
- so important in our community.
- Not only our community, but in the nation, in the world.
- The last thing we need are conservative talk show
- hosts, mainstream media, defining who we are.
- We need to tell our own meaningful stories
- and to make sure that our community understands
- who we are, and we need to be telling those stories.
- So it's been a huge privilege to be
- able to do that for the past twelve years.
- I have reported on deaths, beatings of people.
- I have reported on political events that have been
- just spine-tingling at times.
- It's been a remarkable ride for the past twelve years
- to see so much history happened in Rochester,
- and it's just been a privilege to report on it.
- I just hope I have done justice to the people
- that I stand on the shoulders of.
- And hopefully the people that follow us can do the same,
- because there's a huge, huge labor-- or I'm sorry,
- there's a huge history arc that we're only--
- can I start over again?
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Mm-hm.
- OVE OVERMYER: OK.
- That right now, we are only stewards of a short period
- in history here in Rochester.
- I stand on the shoulders of people
- who came before me who kept this paper going for thirty years
- before I got here, and I just hope
- I'm doing justice telling the stories of the people who
- live in this community.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: And expand on that
- and the importance of doing that for future generations.
- OVE OVERMYER: Well, I think it's so important to get it right.
- And I often tell people that when
- I put my fingers on the keyboard,
- and when I start writing about a story about a person
- or about an event that's happened in our community,
- it's really important to get it right,
- to bring out the human qualities of the people who
- live in this community, because we are a remarkable place.
- I've done a lot of traveling in my life,
- and Rochester is such a progressive community.
- There are so many unbelievable people
- who work and live and play here, and those are
- stories that need to be told.
- It's part of who we are culturally,
- and how we identify it and in what makes Rochester work.
- We are so interwoven into the huge fabric of what Rochester
- is, the gay community, whether if it's culturally,
- our university centers, our history.
- It's everywhere.
- And it's just a blessing to be able to meet
- the people who are the newsmakers in our community.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Can you give me a short sound bite of, again,
- same type of question, but the importance of documenting
- these stories, so that these stories are available for--
- OVE OVERMYER: Generations?
- KEVIN INDOVINO: For generations, to look back at our history?
- OVE OVERMYER: Sure.
- Oftentimes, when I'm reporting or doing a story,
- I absolutely write for perpetuity.
- I write for the idea that future generations
- are going to look back on this time
- and say, hey, that was a huge time of social change.
- And I know historians in the future
- will want me to get it right.
- They'll want to say, hey, that was great reporting,
- and I have all the information I need.
- This told the story of what was going on at the time,
- and I appreciate what that writer did for me.
- So again, as a librarian, as a researcher myself, I mean,
- I can appreciate the fact that stories
- are told in a concise and meaningful way.
- And I can't think of anything more important
- than recording and documenting Rochester's history.
- It's just been a huge privilege.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Now I want to move into your work
- at the library, because I remember talking to you about
- you will have people come into the library, and come to you
- and ask you about resources available
- for the LGBT community, the resources
- available for that person to try and figure out
- what's going on with them.
- OVE OVERMYER: Right.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Again, talk to me about the importance
- of having a resource like the library, here in Rochester,
- and how fortunate we are to have our library
- and what it is, because not every city has
- a library like our central library system.
- OVE OVERMYER: Well, I have to say,
- I came to the library profession as a second career in life,
- and I am so fortunate to be able to land
- in an urban library like the Central Library of Rochester
- and Monroe County in downtown Rochester.
- It's no secret that I'm an openly gay person.
- In the community, I'm kind of well-known,
- so it's not uncommon for people to come up to me at work,
- while I'm working in the library,
- and ask me incredibly sensitive, personal questions
- about identity issues, about a problem they're having at work
- or with their family, or legal issues,
- especially youth, transgendered youth.
- And they're looking for resources.
- They're looking for companionship.
- They're looking for someone to connect with.
- And where else can that happen but the public library?
- I know we have great resources in Rochester
- with the Gay Alliance, the MOCHA Center, and a lot of other--
- they're doing just phenomenal work.
- But for some reason, people like to congregate
- at a public library.
- And I think it's so important to have someone there
- that they can connect with, and for some reason,
- it just happens to be me.
- People seem to come and look for those resources.
- And again, I consider it a huge privilege
- to be able to provide information
- to affect such positive change in people's lives.
- And I'll tell you a small story.
- I've worked with a woman who was well
- into her '60s at the public library,
- and I've known her since I began there in the mid '90s.
- And it took her every ounce of courage
- to come up to me one day and explained to me
- that she thinks that she is a lesbian,
- and she didn't know the next step,
- but she wanted to make sure that I knew.
- And I merely picked up the phone and called my friends
- at the Gay Alliance, and we put her in a coming out workshop,
- and she's really doing wonderfully.
- She's living a very happy life right now.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: I want to touch upon something that you touched
- upon in what you just said, the importance of being
- out of the closet at work.
- OVE OVERMYER: Yeah.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: And your situation, it's
- out of the closet in a public venue.
- The importance of that because other people
- can then have someplace or someone.
- OVE OVERMYER: Yeah.
- I think if I was to impart any kind of--
- my experience walking this earth with being an openly gay person
- with high visibility in a place like Rochester,
- I would have to say that a couple of things come to mind.
- One of them is be confident in the fact
- that you need to be true to your authentic self,
- that you need to be confident that your opinion matters.
- You need to find a sense of peace
- in your life, where you can be comfortable in your own skin.
- All of those personal qualities matter,
- because it's really hard to navigate this world
- without a sense of confidence.
- And I think people perceive that when they see you,
- and they understand that you're a happy, functioning person
- in a family, in a community.
- I think that's something that they like to look up to,
- that they feel confident their own ability that maybe I
- can do that, too.
- So in a way, I mean, certainly for the younger people
- that I interact with at work, it's important to me
- to be a good role model.
- It's important for me to be able to perform
- at work in a competent way, where they can say,
- I can do that, too, that I can be a contributing
- member of society.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Before I lose this train of thought,
- Susan Jordan.
- Susan Jordan is certainly someone shoulder's
- who this whole entire community has stood
- upon for many, many years.
- You're a perfect person to speak about Susan.
- Talk to me about Susan.
- Who is she?
- Why is the work that she does so significant for this community?
- OVE OVERMYER: Susan Jordan and I have a really interesting
- relationship.
- I can't quite describe it, but it's not
- like a sister or brother.
- I'm not quite sure how to define it, but for the life of me,
- I could never let the woman down.
- If she asked me to do something, I would absolutely do it.
- I think we both understand.
- We have this understanding and relationship,
- about how important the work we're doing right now.
- Recording, documenting the history of our community
- at this time in history is so important.
- She's kind of an enigma.
- She's kind of hard to pin down, like in adjectives,
- or to describe her.
- But she's just this bundle of knowledge and energy
- and deadlines, and just an incredibly competent person
- who has done a remarkable job, just pumping out stories month
- after month and doing some great job editing,
- especially when I do sloppy work,
- and she kind of cleans up the mess
- and she makes me look good.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Yeah, you work in the unions.
- You work at the library.
- You work with The Empty Closet, all of that.
- And this is an unfair question to ask,
- but if you were to single out one particular thing, what
- are you most proud of?
- OVE OVERMYER: The single most thing I guess I'm proud of it,
- and I automatically have this defense mechanism where
- I think about my family.
- I think about my kids, and the people
- that are important in my life, being a good role
- model to them, being a good provider,
- that's what I'm most proud of.
- If I can say anything to future generations
- about getting older, or are getting on,
- I would say, be true to yourself.
- Be confident.
- Be visible.
- Be active.
- Act up.
- Be proud.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Along those lines,
- what do you think the challenges are that still lie ahead?
- OVE OVERMYER: I think the challenges that lie ahead
- for our community is really to address the complacency,
- that some people may think that we have arrived,
- and we have not.
- There is so much more work to be done.
- We need employment nondiscrimination
- in the entire country.
- We need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.
- We need rights in the workplace for all Americans.
- It's not happening right now.
- The last thing we can do is be complacent.
- We have so much more work to do, and everyone
- needs to sacrifice in order to make this happen.
- It doesn't happen with just a bunch of activists in a corner.
- This is going to require everyone
- to go out into their community and talk to the people that
- may not agree with them.
- Change their hearts.
- Change their minds.
- Tell them who you are, and explain to them
- why these things matter to you.
- That's the way we'll get full equality.
- That's the way we're going to change the world.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: And that will call it a wrap.
- OVE OVERMYER: OK.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Thank you.
- OVE OVERMYER: How did I do?
- KEVIN INDOVINO: You did excellent.
- If you didn't, we'd still be talking.
- OVE OVERMYER: OK.