LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Summer Love 1999 (or deep in the heart of CAMP) |
by Murray Archibald |
Its summer...again. And on top of that its the last summer of the nineties, and the 20th century and the millennium. We live in a time of enormous change. A time when we as gay and lesbian people are more than ever called to "come out, come out, wherever you are," and ask ourselves who we are as gay people, as human beings. I love the summer. It is a time when everything grows. Creatively it is an especially rich time for me and I feel myself growing like a vine in the warm sunshine and moist air of the season. Rehoboth is a place where people come to relax, to socialize, to be free of the daily grind of modern life. It is a place where friendships and connections are made. It is a crossroads, as Ive said many times over the past ten years. It is the kind of place where we can take time out of our busy lives to sit down and talk about our hopes and dreamsthe kind of place that allows us to dream. Long summer evenings, eternal dinners with old and new friends, dancing, playing, laughingin the midst of it all, our gay spirits awake and we reach out to touch, to share, to grow, to be refreshed. CAMP Rehoboth grew out of the summer. It grew out of the hearts of people who met in this special place and understood that here was fertile ground, here was a good place for positive, affirming creativity, here was a place we could call home. Here was a place where the vision of the rainbow could be nurtured and loved. Indeed we do live in tumultuous times, in times of change. Homophobia is rampant throughout our society, and the closet culture that it breeds is an open wound within the body of humanity. CAMP Rehoboth grew out of a desire to heal that woundto "Create A More Positive" world. As a gay man I find myself continuously asking who I am. As an organization, CAMP Rehoboth continuously seeks to understand who and what it is. Over the years we have provided a place where questions could be asked and hopefully answers could be found. We cannot be all things to all people, but we have striven to meet the needs of our community. Sometimes we do that better than others. Sometimes we fail, but even in failure we learn a little more about ourselveswe come a little closer to understanding what CAMP means. When asked by strangers to Rehoboth I say, "We are a non-profit, gay and lesbian community service organization." But what does that mean? It means that we take part in the community. It means that we find whatever ways we can to affirm one another. It means working with the city police and government to create a safer environment for us to live, work and play. It means establishing a place where connections can be made, where issues can be discussed, where resources can be found. It means raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the care of persons with AIDS and for the advancement of human rights. It means developing and implementing a safe sex campaign geared at gay men. Most of all it means celebrating, discovering and creating who we are as gay and lesbian people. As gay and lesbian people and as an organization we are at an important crossroads in our development. Our answers to the questions we ask about ourselves in this last summer of the millennium will determine who and what we become in the 21st century. Somehow we must celebrate and nurture the beautiful gift that our gayness brings to the world and at the same time work within that world to make it a better, healthier and more loving place. In his column in a previous issue of Letters, my life partner Steve Elkins mentioned some of the issues that we feel fall under the umbrella of CAMP Rehoboth, and need to be addressed. Womens health issues stand out. Over the years so much energy has been directed at surviving the AIDS disaster that we have thought of little else. Now, though we cannot give up on the fight against AIDS, it is time that we broaden our efforts. It is our hope that this summer we will be able to implement a program geared toward gay and lesbian youth and more and more we are beginning to talk about the aging and what it means to be elderly within our all too often youth oriented community. Perhaps most important of all is Steves idea of creating a process for providing grant money to other groups or individuals who are creatively seeking to meet the needs of the gay and lesbian community. We are, as the great gay visionary Harry Hay says, "a separate people whose time has come." Gays and lesbians are a vital part of the human tapestry of life. Finding out and accepting what that means to each of us is the challenge and the joy that we must face. Coming out is a deep process and I believe that it is more than simply saying, "I am gay." It is saying, I am gay and I am open to all the possibilities that come with it and to all the possibilities of the universe. We gay people have many gifts to offer the world, but first we must find the positive ways of healing the hurt and homophobia that dwells within us and in which our culture is steeped. We are, I believe, like the T-cells within a human body, capable of providing great healing within the collective soul of humanity. Unfortunately, all too often, we fall victim to the ever-present homophobia and sickness within our society. We internalize it and we become like the T-cells within the body of an HIV+ personunable to do the job that we are intended to do. It is for that reason that CAMP Rehoboth exists. It is for that reason that we must dig deep into our hearts to find creative ways to bring about healing. Our enemies call us sick, but it is the world that is sick. It is a world where racism, sexism, homophobia, disease, war, poverty and crime all too often cause us to live and create our lives based on fear instead of love. This summer, this last summer before the year 2000, I call upon us all to take an active interest in creating our future. Its not just creating a more positive Rehoboth, its creating a more positive world. Its reaching out and touching one another, heart to heart. Yes, I love the summer. I love the growth that comes in the summertime and I pray that this is a great one. Happy CAMPing. Murray Archibald, an artist living and working in Rehoboth Beach, is one of the creators of CAMP Rehoboth and serves as President of the Board. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 9, No. 5, May 21, 1999 |