I recently received an invitation to a book signing and reception for a new book edited by Mitchell Gold (of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams) about the struggles of "growing up gay in America." The book is called "CRISIS: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social, and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing Up Gay in America." I haven’t heard much about the book yet, but I was impressed to see that Mitchell Gold is expanding on his already extensive efforts to engage in the community by editing a book focused on telling the stories of our lives.
We’ve written a lot about corporate engagement on this blog (particularly lately) and yesterday Laura reminded us that words can hurt. I’m usually impressed when business leaders take an active (and genuine) interest in our community and Mitchell Gold strikes me as a solid example of a business leader who really understands the power of engagement and the impact of negative and harmful words and actions that too many of us have suffered in our lives. Of course, Mitchell is gay so his involvement in our community is personal. But I don’t think that makes his actions any less powerful. Frankly, he should be involved in our community and the fact that he is speaks volumes about all of those openly gay (and not so openly gay) business leaders who are not and who profit from us but do little or nothing to help our community.
Granted, storytelling is but one facet of communications, but it is an often overlooked tool. The personal stories of people we recognize and admire are often much more resonant with the public than one more press release about this or that program. When we humanize LGBT people’s lives, we make connections with others and we put our experiences in a context that others can understand.
The book features a foreword by Martina Navratilova and stories by Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and Congressman Barney Frank, actors Richard Chamberlain and Alec Mapa, LGBT community leaders Neil Giuliano, Jody Huckaby, Kevin Jennings and Joe Solmonese and religious leaders Bishop Gene Robinson and Mel White among many other dynamic and interesting individuals (although it seems heavily weighted toward men’s stories). I haven’t seen the book yet, but I’m already intrigued. I hope it’s as good as it sounds and I hope it adds to the often underreported conversation about our lives.
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