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The Art of Politics

Rape on Winslow Street

By Judy Osborne

The transgender community was a kinder, simpler place only a decade ago. Our idealism was pure and simple, we had begun to realize our power to change things, and our institutions were shiny and new.

The same idealism permeated the atmosphere in Chicago House on Winslow Street in Provincetown, Massachusetts at the time. The season was late October, and Fantasia Fair was in full swing. A small group of transwomen, mostly wealthy and astute business people in their other lives, met to create yet another new and shiny institution. They named their creation after the street in front of Chicago House. The Winslow Street Fund was born.

The new organization brought hope that our community could grow in creative ways by having an endowment fund. The goal was a million dollars, the income from which would be granted each year as seed money to support a variety of new and needy projects of value to our community.

Still another new and shiny institution at the time was the International Foundation for Gender Education. IFGE had been formed a few years earlier as a national transgender center to connect our community together, guide our progress, and give us a face to the outside world. IFGE's chief vehicle for this purpose was Tapestry, a glossy magazine which gave substance to our personalities and activities in a proud and prestigious manner.

The Winslow Street planners looked for an organization which could hold and guard the new fund and decided, under certain conditions, to place the Fund within IFGE. The conditions stipulated that the Fund would have its own separate trustees, who would have sole authority over all money in the Fund; that the principal never would be touched; and that none of the income would ever be used for IFGE operating expenses.

IFGE fell on hard times as time went on, but the chronically-broke organization never touched the Winslow Street money. They couldn't. The faith of our community was at stake. Donors sent in their money knowing the Fund would be a permanent asset for our community, the income from which would be available forever to help start worthwhile transgender projects. People named the Winslow Street Fund in their wills. Ellen Summers, one of the giants and dearest spirits of our community, named the Winslow Street Fund as her memorial. Those of us who loved her made large donations to honor her life's work for us after she passed away.

The Fund eventually grew to $80,000 dollars, far short of the planners' goal but significant nevertheless. Many worthwhile projects were supported over the years from the Fund's income.

But ideals, promises, even sacred obligations, have ceased to mean very much to the current trustees of the Winslow Street Fund and to IFGE's employees and board. Two keepers of the Fund are the same people who have assumed primary responsibility for keeping IFGE solvent, and they need to balance their budget. To do so, they have rammed through a $15,000 dollar loan from the Winslow Street Fund principal to bail IFGE out of its latest crisis.

There is nothing illegal with the above transaction. The Winslow Street Fund is an asset account of IFGE. It is not, as some people think, a trust fund or a separate foundation. The trustees had the power to move the money, it is the ethics of their actions that are in question.

I have attempted to contact Linda Buten, Chairperson of IFGE, and Abby Saypen, Chairperson of the Winslow Street Fund, for updated information and confirmation. Neither has responded. In the absence of their input I can only offer my understanding of the terms of the loan and the current situation. I ask the reader to allow for small inaccuracies and for events which have happened since the information came to me. What I do know has been gleaned from several diverse sources, and I feel confident of the basic accuracy of the following information:

  • $15,000 was transferred from the Winslow Street Fund to IFGE without the concurrence of all the Winslow Street trustees, and without a loan instrument having been signed.
  • Proposed terms include a one-year loan at eight and one-half percent interest. Winslow Street Fund dividends will be used to pay a portion of the interest by means of a complex calculation.
  • There is no repayment schedule, although two people have promised to raise enough money next year to pay off the loan and still meet IFGE's operating deficit.
  • No announcement will be made to those who donated their money to the Winslow Street Fund after being assured that the Fund would never be used to pay for IFGE's operation.

The last item is important. Laura Caldwell is a member of IFGE's Budget/Finance Committee and a Winslow Street Trustee. All fund raising in the last few years has been oriented toward IFGE's operating deficit, but even as recently as mid-1995 Ms. Caldwell was soliciting Winslow Street donations by saying, "But one very important fact must be emphasized. That (Winslow Street Fund) money can never be used by IFGE for any other purpose. And it certainly can not be used to soften IFGE's budgetary needs! In fact, this organization (IFGE) could be free of its financial difficulties if it had that money. Instead, IFGE has put that amount to work in an investment plan to benefit the community, and at times finds difficulty in securing adequate income to meet its monthly expenses. I ask you, is this service to the community? -- I think it is."

What are the realistic prospects that the loan will be repaid or worse, that more of the Winslow Street Fund will be taken? It's necessary to examine a little bit of the history of IFGE to reach an accurate estimate.

As noted earlier, one of IFGE's early goals was to foster cohesion within our widespread community so we could come to know each other, understand how our community was developing in other places, even catch a glimpse of our successes so we could repeat them in our own home towns. By building on the knowledge it gained in the process, IFGE could begin to offer a realistic view of our community's people and issues to the professionals who treat us, to academics, to the government, and to the public.

During a rancorous session at an early IFGE convention in Texas, egos were bruised and IFGE decided it would not be the vehicle to collect the successes and failures of the clubs across the country and then reflect them back for the further guidance of each. The Foundation did feel it should continue to represent our community to the outside world, but sometimes it did so with less than complete information about what was going on in the hinterlands. The members of clubs in the hinterlands soon forgot what the initials meant, and donations dropped off.

IFGE had accumulated by then a paid full-time office staff of four or five transpeople. When rent, travel, and other expenses were added in, the budget became substantial. A succession of generous and deep-pocketed benefactors stepped up to balance the budget. IFGE staff talked the IFGE board of directors into acquiring, at a very substantial long-term cost, a shiny new headquarters building reflecting the prestige of our community. Two "angels" on the board promised to make large annual contributions to offset the cost of the building. However, these "angels" became disaffected by subsequent events within IFGE and removed themselves and their money after disagreements with other members of the board. The first one left in early 1993, a scant year after signing the lease. The second left in late 1994.

IFGE lost momentum in other ways. In an era of participatory management, IFGE clung to a top-down management style. Many potential supporters, and even staff, felt they had little or no input. In an era during which we eagerly swamped the Internet, finally to begin to know each other and air our issues, IFGE all but ignored that far-reaching development.

IFGE simply fell behind. Other organizations filled the vacuum, and support waned.

IFGE does three main things. Their publication, now called Transgender Tapestry, is one of these. The others are an annual convention and a bookstore. All three were planned to be at least self-sustaining, which, when you think about it, they should be.

If you ask what other services IFGE offers, representatives inevitably begin describing the hundreds of telephone calls they receive and the referrals they give. Valuable, yes, but hundreds of "hot-lines" all over the country perform a similar but much larger service in the aggregate using volunteer help. There's not too much else, although the organization does continue to perform a few other fairly inexpensive services.

It's hard to figure out what the full-time paid staff actually does. The magazine comes out on an irregular schedule, and subscribership is down. E-mail is routinely ignored, the web page is rarely updated, and books that are ordered don't get shipped. As of this writing, the top of IFGE's home page contains a slick, glossy promotion for the IFGE convention which happened last April in Long Beach.

One has to ask whether or not IFGE should continue to be allowed to drain the community's resources. The organization is deeply in debt and in arrears to many of it's service providers. Money is owed to IFGE, but much of it appears to be uncollectable.

IFGE has been chronically broke and living beyond its means for years. Not having a deep pocket to look to this year, IFGE has turned its sights toward the Winslow Street Fund to bail itself out. Will IFGE turn the corner next year, balance its budget, and pay off its obligation to the Winslow Street Fund? The promise of solvency is made annually, but history says no. Or will it once again suffer a deficit and siphon off gobs of community money that instead could be applied in dribs and drabs to lift worthy projects off the ground? Or, worst of all, will IFGE be found lurking on Winslow Street once more, hoping to rape again?

Comments, including critical ones, are most welcome. Please e-mail your thoughts to me at heyjude@eskimo.com.

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