Showing Spirit on October 20, 2011

Victory comes From the Courage to step up – and out.

 I’ve just completed a year long campaign to serve my city of Nashville TN as a Metro Council representative.  It was the first time an openly gay women has run for this office.  My partner Joan and I live in was was once considered are strongly conservative area of town.  When redistricting occurred in the middle of our campaign and had us suddenly facing an incumbent when before it was an open seat. We continued on and gathered the support of hundreds of fellow Nashvillians and from dozens and dozens of new friends and supporters through The Victory Fund.

 In  2003 the city of Nashville tried to pass a nondiscrimination ordinance for its employees.  It was a dramatic time. Some of the council members that supported it received threats. It did not pass because of a tie-breaking vote.  We were disappointed and waited for change once again, because of the promise that “It Does Get Better”.

 In  2008 I made the commitment to never work for a client or an employer that does not have a fully inclusive nondiscrimination policy.  In 2009, friends and colleagues began asking me if I had any interest in running for office.

I knew that I would only run if the new nondiscrimination ordinance offered that year, passed. -It did.  “It Does Get Better”.

It takes courage to step up fearlessly.  It takes time to gather that courage and to find and build the support system that will keep you from harm.  It Gets Better because of all of these things.

Let me say again, I would have never run for office in 2011 if the 2009 Metro Nondiscrimination Ordinance had not passed.  I received 44% of the vote. I am now looking toward taking what I learned about my community and serving it in other ways.

It gets better when you step out.  It gets better when you step up.

It gets better.

itgetsbetter.org

victoryfund.org

The White House issued a memo. In it was this:

“Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides — whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives — unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.”

Each May the Human Rights Campaign releases the Health Equality Index — I am guessing they are ‘hitting palm against head’ and working on a supplement now.

Joan and I were quoted four years ago (2006)  for the the  the 2007 report:

Examiner reporter Kelvin Lynch helps sort out the new policy –

Power of attorney and healthcare proxies will be honored, regardless of sexual orientation, which also applies to unmarried heterosexual couples. Take special notice of the stipulations in the order – legal documentation is still required for non-immediate family members to visit or make healthcare decisions on behalf of their partners.  That means everyone should have an advance directive, power of attorney, and healthcare proxy carried with them at all times on a USB drive or CD.  If you show up at the hospital without these documents, you can still be denied visitation rights. The importance of this cannot be understated.  Hospitals may still prohibit visitation with out this.

Look at this helpful legal kit from LambaLegal or  This  Family Tool Kit from HRC

We have our documents on file at all the hospitals in our city, however, my project this month to celebrate the new national policy is to scan them all and put them on flash drives so that we both have a copy everywhere we may be.

If you were unable to speak for yourself,  do you have the papers that will speak for you?  In what way does this new policy effect you were you are?

More on this painting:
Bayard RustinNancy VanReece Acrylic and ink © 2009 Contemporary Expression, a div. of Carpe Diem Copyright Management Inspired by photographs in the J D’Emilo book Lost Prophet, The Live and Times of Bayard Rustin
$300 Call 615-830-8158

What: Nancy VanReece’s “The Pride Portraits” of LGBT faces in history including Del Martin, Phylis Lyon, Urvashi Vaid, Jane Wagner, Lillian Faderman, Lucy Burns, Bayard Rusting showing throughout the month of October as part of LGBT History month along with a Gallery Talk with the artist.

When: Exhibit open October 1-30,
Gallery Talk Thursday, October 8 at Noon.

Where: Office of LGBTQI Life in the K.C. Potter Center.
Euclid, 312 West Side Row

FACEBOOK EVENT RSVP

PRESS :
While many of her contemporaries may be currently obsessed with looking to the future in their expressions, Nashville artist Nancy VanReece has chosen to ground her art steadfast in the present, while looking to the horizons of the past to guide her—and her work—into the future. Meant as a celebration of the 40 year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Nancy’s 2009 Pride Portraits Series is not only a snapshot of where she is as an artist and a person but also the long and bumpy road that brought her to this place. With this work Nancy is showing homage to the fact that throughout history there have always been lively souls who lived boldly for the rights and privileges that we enjoy today. With each portrait in this series Nancy is acknowledging that in the landscape of her life, there is color, texture, movement and light because of the contributions of these seven individuals (Del Martin, Phylis Lyon, Urvashi Vaid, Jane Wagner, Lillian Faderman, Lucy Burns, Bayard Rustin) and many more just like them. In viewing Nancy VanReece’s expressions of abstract portraiture, she hopes to draw the viewer into a story or narrative continuity with her subjects and herself as the artist. “These are people whose unique courage and foresight have influenced not just how I view my world but how the world views me.”
No matter what phase of life she may be in Nancy has learned to always apply a basic principle to her approach to art: She needs color, texture, movement and light or she loses interest.
These fundamental elements form the cornerstone of how Nancy expresses herself and have their origins in her work on the canvas. Nancy began her career in contemporary and abstract expression in the mid- 90′s focusing on elemental and nature themes until a hand injury left her without the ability to paint for over 18 months. A retreat to Santa Fe, New Mexico in spring of 2003 renewed her body and mind with inspiration and guidance from other respected expressionists. This renewed period in Nancy’s life produced many changes in her approach to expression on canvas by encouraging her to create energy and movement in multimedia spaces through multi-layered acrylic and series of antique photographs. Nancy also adopted the method of using water in differing streams of force as well as natural texture elements with acrylic on canvas. These techniques allowed her to more fully express new ideas and inspirations through the use of movement and texture along with color and light. In 2004 and 2005 Nancy applied her new found dedication to these four essential elements to any art to several popular series on behaviors, whimsical animals and large scale landscapes. 2006 saw her interpreting show places in her memory or places she wished existed. Nancy is currently focusing on abstract expressions of people and places of import to her personal continuity and sense of history. Without what she feels to be the essential elements of expression-movement, texture, color and light-Nancy’s art would be severely handicapped. History moves us forward in time. The texture of culture, fashion, ethos and ideas make up the fabric of all history. Color has always been a powerful interpreter of emotion and light has shaped all things by shades throughout recorded time. It is Nancy VanReece’s sincere hope that her approach to the idea that a person is the sum total of all the events, people and places that went before them will resonate in these expressions. If someone walks away having learned that their own journey is an artful one, then she will have accomplished her goal. She will have helped by creating an object that tells us all the story of what has gone before in the past that made us what we are and will continue to shape us as we move forward – by F. Daniel Kent.

 

 

panoramic of portraits at the K.C. Potter Center

 

addthis_url=”; addthis_title=”; addthis_pub=’NVanReece’;