We thought we would let the Reverend Dr. Bruce Havens, Pastor of the Arlington Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, tell you in his own words why he joined the ‘We Are Straight Allies’ campaign:
I am a native of Florida and grew up in the years where schools were just beginning to integrate. To me it was normal, natural and “cool.” As a student at Harvard University, I learned about Martin Luther King, jr. and the principles of seeking social justice for people – no matter who they were: people of other races, nationalities, different abilities, WOMEN! and those who were from many different sexual orientations. I learned about the pain people suffer when they are discriminated against. Since then I have been ordained in the United Church of Christ which has an historic record of inclusiveness: we were the first primarily European – American denomination to ordain an African – American pastor, the first to ordain a woman and the first to ordain an openly gay man. I am proud of that history and proud to represent that here in Jacksonville. I am also a husband and a father of 2 boys and a girl and I want them to be proud of their community and its commitment to social justice and equality of opportunity for all people. Every Sunday at our church we say to people, “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey you are welcome here!” I want that to be true for Jacksonville too. We can disagree about how we practice our faith and still be for justice and against discrimination. That is the legacy of all faiths. If the business community can stand for justice and what is right, then the faith community should surely not lag behind. That’s why I am a “Straight Ally,” for the Human Rights Ordinance.
The Chartrand Family proudly joins the “We are Straight Allies” campaign in support of their son and brother, Jeffrey, and for the entire LGBT community. In their own words, they describe the importance for why they are ‘coming out’ as allies:
We joined this movement as a family to send an intentional message regarding family acceptance, love, and support for the LGBT families. Family rejection is one of the biggest issues contributing to LGBT youth homelessness and drug abuse. According to the National Alliance To End Homelessness (NAEH), roughly 1 in 5 youth who are homeless self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT). LGBT youth are more likely to run away from home or be rejected by their families if family members have difficulty accepting their sexual orientation. Once homeless, LGBT youth face disturbingly high rates of physical assault, sexual exploitation, and mental health problems.
Our son and brother, Jeff, identifies as a gay man. We were unaware of the suffering Jeff experienced growing up in Jacksonville but since have learned that his suffering was most caused by the messages that were sent directly and indirectly to him about who he was and is. He was not protected then and is not protected now.
We joined this effort to pass the Human Rights Ordinance on behalf of human rights, human dignity, and equal rights for the LGBT community. Not additional rights, not different rights just equal rights. The decision whether or not to pass a Human Rights Ordinance is to decide whether we are humanizing or dehumanizing the LGBT community or more simply are we treating people with the dignity and respect that they deserve?
We invite the larger Jacksonville community to break through fear, silence, despair, complicity and indifference, and follow the truth by joining in the struggle for justice for all our LGBT brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. We need to speak out publicly, become engaged for what is right. Equal rights for all is the only way of correcting this injustice.
We love this city and it is our hope that together we can send the message of love and acceptable to all who reside here.
Gary Chartrand is the Executive Chairman of Acosta, a leading full-service sales and marketing agency, providing to manufacturers in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. He has been the pivotal force behind quadrupling the company’s geographic coverage, transforming Acosta into a leading full-service sales and marketing company in the U.S. and Canada. Gary received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the State of Florida in May 2001, and has been an extraordinary leader in his industry and his community. From 2003 to 2009 Mr. Chartrand was recognized as one of the 50 most powerful leaders in the grocery industry by Supermarket News.
Mr. Chartrand also has a passion for educating our children in Duval County. In April 2007, he led a community effort to help bring Teach for America to Jacksonville. Jacksonville was the second city in Florida to have attracted Teach for America to its community. Because of his passion for education, coupled with his business and leadership experience, Mr. Chartrand was appointed to the State Board of education in 2011.
Gary currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation; St. Vincent’s Hospital, The Jacksonville Public Education Fund, and a director on the board of the KIPP schools in Jacksonville, FL. He previously served as a member of the Board of Directors for the I. M. Sulzbacher Homeless Center in Jacksonville. Gary is actively involved in raising funds for The Wounded Warrior Project, headquartered in Jacksonville. He is also an enthusiastic supporter of the Catholic Charities, Guardian of Dreams Catholic schools and the Diocese of St. Augustine.
Gary is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire. He resides in Ponte Vedra Beach with his wife, Nancy. They have two children, Jeffrey and Meredith.
Born Nancy Jane Piecuch in 1954 to first generation Polish immigrants, Frank and Jane Piecuch. Nancy’s birthplace and home was Manchester, New Hampshire where her value of volunteerism took hold. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Science and teaching degree. In 1982, the Chartrand family migrated to Jacksonville, Florida where they have made their home. Continuing with the values instilled in her during childhood, Nancy served on the Parent Teacher Associations at her children’s schools and the family’s local parish, Resurrection Church. Her devotion to the Catholic faith has inspired a deep belief in social justice.
She has served throughout the community on numerous boards including The Ronald McDonald House, St. Vincent’s Hospital. PACE School for Girls, and Birthright, Inc. Currently Nancy sits on the board at PACE, St. Vincent’s Healthcare Foundation where she is the chair the cultivation committee, and Chairman of the Board at The Chartrand Foundation which focuses on equal opportunities for all.
Their daughter, Meredith graduated from Florida State University in 2003, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Family and Child Sciences. After graduation, she moved to New York City, where she taught art at a Montessori school. In 2006, Meredith moved back to Jacksonville to help to improve the lives of Jacksonville’s children and work with her family to establish The Chartrand Foundation. She currently serves on the board of The Chartrand Foundation, Discovery Montessori School, and The Women’s Giving Alliance. While raising three young daughters with her husband Mark, she has spearheaded initiatives in Early Childhood Development with specific interest in the JCCI Children 1-2-3 Study and the Healthy Start Coalition. Meredith believes that children in Jacksonville can reach their full potential when they are born healthy and their early stage development is nourished, and invests her time in ensuring these outcomes are available to the greatest number of children possible.
Mark Frisch is a Jacksonville native. He graduated from Bolles High School, then attended the University of Florida, where he graduated in 2003 earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in management. After graduation, Mark joined his family business, Beaver Street Fisheries Inc. where he currently serves as the Executive Vice President.
In 2010, Mark was a recipient of the Jacksonville Business Journal’s 40 and under 40 awards.
He is an active member in the community, serving on the board of Trustees of Jacksonville University, the Board of Directors of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, and the Board of Directors of Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
Most recently, Mark has bought a soccer franchise in the NASL which will begin to play in 2015. Mr. Frisch’s Hobbies include, playing golf, watching sports, and finding time for his love of automobiles.
Over the past few months, we have been highlighting Keith Haring Ghost’s (KHG) work, from around the city. Some believe the artwork to be vandalism – we do not agree. Throughout history, art has been used as a means for expressing the things that we cannot or are not always allowed to share through spoken word. Keith Allen Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s by expressing concepts of birth, death, sexuality and war…concepts that were considered taboo at the time.
Keith Haring was an openly gay man and a strong advocate for safe sex. However, his life was cut tragically short on February 16, 1990, due to AIDS. Before his death, he established the Keith Haring Foundation in 1989, its mandate being to provide funding and imagery to AIDS organizations and children’s programs, and to expand the audience for Haring’s work through exhibitions, publications and the licensing of his images. Haring enlisted his imagery during the last years of his life to speak about his own illness and generate activism and awareness about AIDS.
Inspired by his advocacy work, KHG told Queerty, he “has been beautifying the electric box eyesores of Jacksonville, Florida with images inspired by the late, great Haring as protest to the city failing to pass an equal rights ordinance that would have granted workplace protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
KHG’s work can be found all around Jacksonville, we have also highlighted his pieces on our Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest pages, but the artwork is now being called into question by some city leaders as vandalism. These officials have demanded the removal of the murals, from around the city, with the possible arrest of KHG. As allies of the LGBT movement, and proponents for full equality for every person in our community, we stand in solidarity with Keith Haring’s Ghost. Furthermore, we implore our city leaders to leave his artwork in place and focus their energy, instead, on passing a comprehensive Human Rights Ordinance in Jacksonville, Florida.
Ally Update: On March 19, 2014, Keith Haring’s Ghost was arrested by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for ‘felony’ vandalism charges for the beautiful ‘graffiti’ he has created around the city of Jacksonville. Keith, aka Chip Southworth, was later released on bond, but he has an arduous road ahead as he has to answer in court for the work he has created to not only beautify the city, but to help get the message out about being more loving and tolerant of others. We Are Straight Allies will be advocating on Chip’s behalf for charges to be dropped, but in the meantime, there are legal (and medical) expenses his family will face – his wife is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment. Great minds are coming together to not only help Chip, but also send a message to the city that intolerance will no longer be tolerated. Beautifying the city of Jacksonville is a necessity, both physically and in the hearts and minds of its citizens. We hope you will join us and donate to the ‘Chip in for Chip’ fund.
I am Hope McMath. I am an arts administrator, an artist, a wife, a sister, a daughter, an aunt, a friend, and someone who is passionate about my community.
I am a Jacksonville native and had the great fortune of growing up in an Arlington neighborhood where my schools and “my block” were diverse in every way. It was a world of connections rather than divisions. There was also the strong influence of my mother who has always been a nurse. so care, compassion, humility and hard work have always been the expectation.
I have been involved in the arts since I can remember. From being the kid always designing the classroom bulletin boards to being a student of art and art history in college I knew that I would work, live and breath art. I have been fortunate to have worked in the arts for over 20 years as an educator, connector, creator, and community builder. To make sure my immersion was complete, I fell in love and married the most amazing artist, art educator and human being. I live a fulfilling, love-filled, artful life.
Why does all of this matter to me in my role as a straight ally? My childhood and my path through the arts has taught me that an inclusive, compassionate community is the only way to go. There is no room for hate, intolerance, or discrimination. No room for closed doors.
The arts are an example to learn from. The fields of music, visual art making, theater, and literature have historically embraced diversity and individuality. Even in times of incredible injustice those individuals sharing their personal expressions through the arts could find acceptance. More importantly art has always provided a platform to share the world through new and varying lenses. I think about James and Rosamond Johnson writing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” or the great jazz musicians playing on stages in the segregated south or the painters of the Harlem Renaissance creating a new way of seeing…all find acceptance within the artistic community and changing the world through their art.
I also think of LGBTQ artists who haved shared their life experiences with all of us and made our world more beautiful, more interesting. Painters like Cy Twombly, Frida Kahlo, and Keith Haring…photographers like Adi Nes, Gilbert & George, and Annie Leibovitz…mixed media masters like Hannah Hoch and Robert Rauschenberg…ALL have been accepted and celebrated. As an artist it is hard for me to imagine a world without the presence of their creative bodies of work.
Throughout my life, I have been surrounded by, been loved by and have loved LGBTQ inidividuals. Best friends, colleagues, fellow artists…I can’t imagine my life without. Many now live too far away as the moved to places that would embrace them as full citizens… a personal loss and a loss for my city. I have an incredible desire for everyone to have all of the same rights, privledges and recognitions that I have in the eyes of the law and in the heart of our city. Again, there is no room for hate, intolerance, or discrimination…not in my life or the life of my city. It is essential to follow the road to love and acceptance that the arts have paved and pass a fully-inclusive Human Rights Ordinance, opening the doors for all of our citizens. When we do our city will be more like the environments of my mother’s living room, my elementary classroom, artists’ studios, theater stages, and the galleries of our great museums…caring, dynamic, compassionate, beautiful, creative, hard working, loving, and moving forward.
Darnell Smith is Florida Blue’s market president for the North Florida Region. In his role, Smith is responsible for Florida Blue’s business market growth, as well as customer and community engagement across 36 North Florida counties, stretching from Palm Coast through Pensacola.
Prior to his current role, Smith was group vice president, Service Organization and Business Process Management Organization (BPMO) where he was responsible for leading a team of approximately 2,000 people who provide service to more than 3 million customers each year. Within BPMO, he oversaw the company’s business process management strategy and deployment of Continuous Improvement and Six Sigma methodologies. Prior to that role, Smith was vice president of Virtual Office where he helped transform operations by streamlining services for providers and members. In 2003, virtual office and private business operations combined to form what is now known as the service organization. Smith assumed leadership as group vice president and helped the Company achieve a market leadership position in customer satisfaction.
Throughout his career, Smith has been very active in the community serving on the board of directors for the PACE Center for Girls in Jacksonville, the Otis Smith Foundation, Ritz Theatre & LaVilla Museum, Communities in Schools-Florida (CISFL), and the Cathedral Arts Project. Smith also serves on the board of directors for Incepture, OptaComp, YMCA and the Florida Blue Foundation, Florida Blue’s philanthropic affiliate. Darnell states it quite simply:
“I am an ally because every human being is a child of our God and, therefore, deserves the same basic human dignities and rights afforded the rest of us.”
Smith holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Florida State University. He is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, the Advanced HR Executive Program at University of Michigan and Leadership Jacksonville.
We Are Allies 