Lynn Greer
legacies and legends: lynn greer
by Elliot Fishman
When Lynn Greer and I first met, we should have known that we’d spend the next quarter-century fighting the good fight.
It was WAR that brought us together.
Greer’s remarkable legacy of national advocacy, local organizing, and political chutzpah will be honored by The Legacy Fund, the LGBT endowment fund she founded, at a public tribute on May 25.
“Lynn has advanced the work of the human rights movement like few others, and in the process has inspired a new generation of advocates throughout Central Ohio and the country,” said Susan White, Co-Chair of The Legacy Fund.
Bill Brownson, the fund’s other co-chair, said, “Lynn’s impact on the national stage is widely unknown in Columbus. Unlike most others, Lynn has worked in the most basic of grass-roots ways to advance equality, like working for HRC and participating in three marches on Washington. Lynn has tapped her national relationships to advance our cause here and around the country time and again, and largely in very quiet ways.”
I’m not sure “quiet” is an adjective I’d use for Lynn. But back to the WAR.
It was the WAR Conference, actually – one of the first meetings of LGBT leaders from across the country – held in Washington in February, 1988, and borne out of the October 1987 March on Washington.
That march was attended by hundreds of thousands and accompanied by the first display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt on the Capital Mall. It was virtually ignored by the national media. But for Greer, “it radically changed my life,” she said.
Having lost her brother, Michael Greer, to AIDS in 1986, Lynn Greer was invited by one of her brother’s friends to join him at the March and the Names Project display.
The friend was an up-and-coming organizer named Steve Shellabarger, now a long-time and well-known local and national LGBT leader.
“I was living in Florida, and Steve called me and said, ‘why don’t you meet me at this march in Washington?’” said Greer. “It was a transformation. I knew I needed to get involved in politics.”
Inspired by the March, Greer in 1988 left her promising career as a professional golfer (she was only the second woman to be admitted to the Professional Golfers Association), and took an internship with a fledgling national organization called the Human Rights Campaign Fund (now HRC). There, she was assigned to work with an HRCF lobbyist on the comprehensive AIDS legislation being authored by Sen. Ted Kennedy.
The internship brought her to the WAR Conference. Steve Shellabarger brought me and several other Columbusites and introduced me to Lynn. The conference produced few tangible results, but Columbus had begun to make its mark on the national LGBT political scene – a mark which Greer would soon make indelible.
After her stint at HRCF and the passage of the AIDS bill, Lynn returned to Columbus and threw herself into local politics. The memory of her brother led her to volunteer with the Columbus AIDS Task Force and head the HIV/AIDS Community Advisory Coalition. Her political instincts propelled her into the local and state Democratic Party, where she became an insider, a go-to leader for candidates who wanted support from the increasingly powerful gay community.
“My friend Jerry Mayer introduced me to Cindy Lazarus, who I learned a lot from – about politics and community.”
But her politics weren’t always partisan. One of our first collaborations was working with then-State Senator David Hobson – a Republican, and later a prominent U.S. Congressman – on Ohio’s HIV/AIDS omnibus legislation. The “Hobson Bill” was a national model for smart health policy and compassion for people with AIDS, and Lynn returned the favor by temporarily shedding her party stripes and raising money for the bill’s sponsor.
Washington soon came calling again. Greer was asked by HRC’s Vic Basile to attend a national meeting to find ways to provide financial support for openly gay and lesbian candidates. By the end of the meeting, Greer had been elected the founding co-chair of the national Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.
“I think they took a look at me and said, ‘ Aha! A new face who’s not tired!’” said Greer, laughing. She soon found herself traveling the country, raising money for the Victory Fund and encouraging promising LGBT leaders to run for office. National leaders inside and out of the LGBT community took notice of this young, charismatic woman from Columbus, Ohio.
One of her national colleagues, David Mixner, introduced her to then-Governor Bill Clinton.
“Life was again never the same after I met Clinton,” she said. “I became totally possessed with gaining our civil rights. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to get Clinton elected, and because I was from Ohio, my presence was noticed.”
Columbus, however, kept drawing her back. She threw herself into raising money for the YWCA, serving on the Victorian Village Commission, and eventually chairing the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission.
Elective politics came calling, too, and along with it, one of Greer’s great professional disappointments.
Tired of gays and lesbians being shut out of local office, she decided in 1994 to run in a primary election for City Council. Her candidacy meant a contested primary, which the local party leaders would seemingly do anything to avoid. The result was a classic example of rough-and-tumble local politics and a lesson in political integrity – or the lack thereof.
“I remember the newspaper headline. It said ‘Greer to Cost City a Half Million Dollars,’” she said. “That hurt. I thought that primaries were part of what democracy was all about.”
A closed-door meeting resulted in a deal: if Greer would withdraw from the primary, she could have the next appointment for a Council opening. She withdrew, and council leaders reneged on their promise. It wasn’t until Mary Jo Hudson’s 2004 appointment to City Council that Greer would finally see her hope for an LGBT “place at the table” fulfilled.
Greer was disappointed but not deterred. She worked tirelessly for others’ elections. She added more community involvement to her portfolio, and in 1998 was selected as a YWCA Woman of Achievement.
“One of the things I’m most proud of,” she said of the YWCA award, “I was being recognized not for being a lesbian, but for the things I’d accomplished. My being gay was just something everyone had to recognize, and that was important.”
That same year, Greer attended OutGiving, an LGBT philanthropists’ conference sponsored by the Gill Foundation. Much as the 1987 March on Washington had inspired her early career, Outgiving inspired the latter part.
“I learned that there are a lot of us in our community who can be the engine for our movement – the leaders, the policy makers, the advocates. What I also learned, however, was that there wasn’t enough fuel for our engines – there wasn’t enough money to fuel our movement,” she said. Greer became determined to change the culture of philanthropy in the central Ohio gay community. After nearly two years of planning and community discussion, Greer became the founding co-chair of The Legacy Fund of the Columbus Foundation.
Her years of experience in local and national politics moved her to create Legacy: “What had always held us back in Columbus was no money. When the AIDS crisis hit us, we didn’t have enough money to help ourselves. When we faced opposition to domestic partnership rights, when we faced the anti-gay marriage amendment, we didn’t have the resources to meet the demands against us. We don’t even have the money to keep the lights on and the bills paid at our essential organizations. That’s why we have the Legacy Fund.”
Greer is often known for her forthrightness, her persistence, her passion, and her fearlessness. I suspect much of that comes from her struggle with alcoholism. She has been sober since her brother died.
“Michael’s gift to me was my sobriety,” she said. “Sobriety helped me understand my passions, my commitment, my sense of community.”
Now retired and living at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Greer still calls Columbus her home. “Columbus is amazing. Are we blessed or what? There is richness, a sense of civility and understanding, a wholeness here. You can be a complete person in Columbus as an out person,” she said.
What would she say to young queers in Columbus? “Follow your heart and do what you’re passionate about. You can always make a difference – every day – even in little ways.”
In our recent interview, I asked Greer to reflect on her legacy and tell me how current LGBT community activism differs from her past work. She said, “there was a sense of urgency to break those barriers as quickly as possible. I felt that sense of urgency. I don’t think that’s there now.” Perhaps, she allowed, a more measured, persistent approach is better suited for the current times.
In other words, there may be battles to fight, but the WAR in which we met is ending.
“The Legacy Fund Honors Lynn Greer,” a tribute ceremony and reception, will be held on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at The Columbus Foundation. The Columbus Foundation is located at 1234 East Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43205. The reception begins at 5:30 p.m. The short program will begin at 6:15 p.m. The event will conclude at 7 p.m. Tickets may be purchased in advance at www.TheLegacyFund.org. Tickets are $30 in advance and $40 at the door. Space is limited.
