A local man was recently elected to the board of directors of the political arm of one of the nation’s leading LGBT organizations.
Duane Ingram, a native Philadelphian who recently moved back to the area, is the newest board member of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, a 501 (c)(4) grassroots community-organizing agency.
Ingram, a native of Overbrook Farms who got his sociology degree from Villanova University, recently moved back to the city after about 15 years in Washington, D.C. Ingram originally moved to the nation’s capitol to work as a legislative aide to former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford (Pa.) and later served as the director of correspondence and constituent affairs for the Democratic National Committee.
In addition to his legislative work, Ingram also was a national field organizer at People for the American Way; a project manager for a public-information campaign that focused on underprivileged students; served in the public-housing sector of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation; and was a board member of Florida youth-advocacy agency Future-Point and a founding board member of the D.C. chapter of the Do Something Fund, a social-change grantmaking organization.
Ingram said that shortly after moving to D.C. and getting involved in grassroots organizing efforts, he began to see that the more comfortable he was with his own sexuality, the easier it would be to work as an advocate on behalf of the LGBT community.
“During my time in Washington, I started to come into my own and accept and embrace my sexuality. That’s when it hit me that this is important and that you can’t affect change unless you’re willing to put yourself out there,” he said. “I started to identify myself as a gay man and work with allies and foes alike to make sure that gay and lesbian people were afforded full and equal rights and to inform and engage people about some of the issues that we deal with.”
Ingram returned to Philadelphia in 2007 to take on the position of vice president of programs and planning at the Urban League of Philadelphia and, during his two-year tenure with the organization, was the editor-in-chief of research publication “State of Black Philadelphia,” which he resurrected after a 10-year absence. The report examined disparities local African Americans face in regard to health, education and other areas.
Ingram said that, as a member of the board of the Action Fund, he’s hoping to use his experiences working with the LGBT, African American and other minority communities to bridge what he sees as a gap among these populations.
“There is a tension between African American and LGBT communities,” he said. “This is something that’s often pervasive in minority culture, this homophobia, and a lot of it may be based on popular culture and hip-hop culture, where those kind of thoughts are acceptable.”
Ingram noted that his passion for breaking down the barriers among sexual and other minority communities was reinvigorated after the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which was thought to have been widely supported by African Americans.
“I think with Prop. 8, we didn’t go about it as well as we could have. [Actor] Samuel L. Jackson was the narrator for one of the commercials, but we need to do more than that,” he said. “There’s this wedge that people who don’t have either community’s interest at heart use time and time again: It’s the divide-and-conquer idea and it’s very successful. It was at that point that I said we have got to get beyond this cycle in which we’re just not talking to each other.”
Ingram and fellow Action Fund board member Hans Johnson earlier this month co-authored a column in the Philadelphia Inquirer — published the day of the National March for Equality — that paid homage to West Chester native Bayard Rustin, the late openly gay, African American civil-rights activist, community organizer and senior advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In the piece, Ingram and Johnson praise Rustin’s ability to build coalitions of people from different communities who work together, despite their differences, for a common objective, which they asserted is the best way to achieve equal rights for all people.
“Grassroots organizing and coalition politics hold the potential for winning prosperity and equality for all Americans, irrespective of race, class, religion, gender or sexual orientation and gender identity,” they wrote. “Bayard Rustin knew that our democracy’s founding promises of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were meaningless unless they were redeemed in application to those whom society scorns. Particularly in the state that gave him to the world, it is time for society to know and celebrate the name of Bayard Rustin.”
Ingram said he’s hoping to use his position on the Action Fund board to create an ongoing and meaningful dialogue to bring together people of all minorities to stand up for one another.
“I want to engage minority communities in the LGBT fight. We need to start having more conversations between minority and LGBT communities. If we address it head on with open lines of communication, more than just one event or one happy hour, but some real conversations that may not always be comfortable for everyone, in the end I think you can come out with some real common trust and common agendas.”
Ingram said he will also meet with local LGBT leaders to assess how the Action Fund can assist with LGBT issues closer to home, such as the passage of a statewide LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination bill.
“I’m hoping to put something together here within the Philadelphia community that can bring national resources together with state and local resources, and I think the Task Force is an ideal group to do that. I think we all have a role to play in this discussion and the task force can bring people to the table so we can all collectively work together around common goals.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].