“I know of only two organizations that refuse to allow a gay man to join: the Boy Scouts and Indy Pride.” –Bruce Seybert

But these activists, and several others in the gay community who have joined in similar discussions over the past year and a half, are not talking about how they can participate in Indy Pride. They are asking why they have been shut out. “I know of only two organizations that refuse to allow a gay man to join,” says Bruce Seybert, one of the people gathered here. “The Boy Scouts and Indy Pride.”

Seybert, the publisher of OUTlines, a local gay and lesbian newspaper, applied last year to be a member of Indy Pride, only to see his application rejected. Katelyn Macri and Scott Abel, sitting across from Seybert, have also applied unsuccessfully, as did several others in the past year. Indy Pride board members have confirmed that they have closed their membership to all but the 10 board members themselves.

Why would people care about an organization that clearly doesn’t want them around? To the people gathered around this table, being shut out of this organization is an ironic replication of the larger society’s historical exclusion of gay people. “If you are going to be a non-profit and collect money from the gay community, you have to open yourself up to the gay community,” says Macri angrily. They also say they feel a sense of ownership of Indy Pride because it is so prominently associated with their community. “The GLBT [gay lesbian bisexual transgendered] community created Indy Pride, we purchased the tickets, we supported its events,” says Seybert.

“The name ‘Pride’ itself implies they owe something to the community.” –Scott Abel

“The name ‘Pride’ itself implies they owe something to the community,” says Abel.

So why is Indy Pride a closed organization? Is it trying to conceal the inner workings of a corrupt regime? Is it a move designed to keep these troublemakers out? Or is it nothing but a logical way to operate a non-profit business? The answer varies depending on who is asked.

The charges

Although Indy Pride actively solicited new members as recently as 1998, the board voted last year to no longer accept new members after Seybert, a vocal Indy Pride critic, applied for membership. Indy Pride Treasurer Eric Munsch says the timing was no coincidence. “Bruce’s membership was denied because of a technicality, and the membership was then closed to keep his friends out,” he says. Munsch says he thought the membership closure was too exclusionary, but he went along because he feared that Seybert and others would join the organization only so they could gain sufficient votes to legally dissolve it. “I just didn’t want to see it get dissolved, because I had put a lot of work into it,” says Munsch.

Seybert and others deny they wanted to dissolve the organization, but they admit they were upset about Indy Pride’s leadership, and intended to join so they could have a say in the group’s operation. Before applying for membership, Macri, Seybert and others had spent several months asking Indy Pride for corporate and financial information, and they weren’t satisfied with the response. Macri even lodged a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service that chronicled Indy Pride’s secretiveness and relayed donors’ complaints that the organization’s leaders were promoting it as a 501(c)(3) certified non-profit organization before legally receiving that status. (Indy Pride eventually received the 501(c)(3) status from the IRS in August 2000. The IRS will not respond to inquiries about its action on Macri’s complaint.)

The spurned applicants were also upset because they were unable to get information about discussions of a possible merger between Indy Pride and Justice, Inc., discussions that both organizations say have since been abandoned.

“I didn’t want to be getting into a battle with Indy Pride,” says Macri. “But if they are going to decide what happens in the GLBT community and coordinate pride events, then they need to let people in the community be a part of it.” During an extended gayindy.org list serve discussion of Indy Pride matters, Macri sent all of her e-mails under the heading, “We Want Our Pride Back.”

The criticism of Indy Pride inevitably focuses on its president since 1997, Linda Batchelor-Ballew. Batchelor-Ballew is described by her detractors as “divisive,” “controlling” and worse. Former Indy Pride Vice President Brian Moore says he was removed from the organization’s board because he questioned Indy Pride’s business practices, and Moore says he heard Batchelor-Ballew vow to get and keep “full control” of the organization. Indy Pride Treasurer Munsch praises Batchelor-Ballew’s work ethic and acknowledges she probably saved the organization when she assumed the presidency in a time of financial crisis. But even Munsch says that Batchelor-Ballew’s strong personality has led to the current unrest. “I think the dissatisfaction people have with Indy Pride is more about Linda than the organization,” he says. “The problem was between Linda and Bruce and Linda and a lot of people.”

Indy Pride’s exclusionary policies further rankle its critics because, although Batchelor-Ballew has spent years leading an organization entrusted to run a highly visible pride event, she herself is not gay. “It’s hypocritical that a straight woman is keeping us out of a gay organization,” says Seybert.

The defense

Indy Pride’s leadership says the decision to close membership last year was a logical reaction to events of the preceding months, including disappointing membership renewals and the merger discussions with Justice, Inc. Batchelor-Ballew says her support for closing the membership had nothing to do with Bruce Seybert’s nearly simultaneous application. “I was more concerned about the lack of renewals and the uncertainties because of the potential merger with Justice,” Batchelor-Ballew says. Batchelor-Ballew and other Indy Pride board members say that even after general membership was closed, active volunteers who have “a committed spirit to our ethical and moral goals” can and have been voted on to the board. The board members say that their critics could have shown their concern for Indy Pride by volunteering for the organization, an option they say was offered and declined.

“Pride celebrations aren’t determining the direction of the community. If the critics don’t like the way Indy Pride does their business, they should organize their own Pride event and do it themselves.” –Marla Stevens

Further, Indy Pride supporters say, closed membership is allowed by the organization’s by-laws and is a completely legal and common way to operate a non-profit business. Although Justice, Inc., the 20-year-old organization that both lobbies the legislature and sponsors the June PrideFest, did not end up merging with Indy Pride, its board members show support for Indy Pride’s business practices. “There is an assumption that if a group is a corporation, you have to open up to the public. That is not true,” says Kathy Sarris, vice president of Justice. Sarris also defends the secrecy of the Indy Pride-Justice merger talks. “It’s no different than if GM or Dow discussed merger,” she says. “They aren’t going to discuss their business with the public either.”

As to the allegations of financial secrecy and misrepresenting the organization’s non-profit status, Batchelor-Ballew pleads innocent to the former charge but no contest to the latter. She says she provided financial and membership information to Seybert and others when requested, but acknowledges that she falsely told donors that the organization was a 501(c)(3)

before it was. “Yes, I did tell people we had it, but I was told myself we had it,” Batchelor-Ballew says. “Then when our lawyer told me differently, I had the horrible duty of telling those same people we had to reapply for the tax-exempt status.”

As for Batchelor-Ballew personally, she portrays herself as a reluctant leader of Indy Pride, drafted into the position at a time when the organization was thousands of dollars in debt. She says she has persevered in her role despite serious illness and in the face of personal attacks she believes were motivated by anger over her being straight. (Batchelor-Ballew says one Indy Pride critic told her, “I know you have cancer and I hope you die, bitch.”) She denies having either the desire or ability to single-handedly control Indy Pride’s activities. “I never had more than one vote, and there’s a whole board full of members,” she says.

Batchelor-Ballew has her defenders in the local gay and lesbian community. “She helped take the organization out of debt and helped them obtain their 501(c)(3) status,” says Justice’s Sarris. “Those are significant accomplishments.

”Some members of the gay community who are not affiliated with Indy Pride turn the tables on Batchelor-Ballew’s critics, saying the controversy is much ado about nothing. “This is just an issue of power and control,” says Marla Stevens, a longtime gay rights activist and lobbyist with an organization called LGBT Fairness. Stevens says she is sensitive to the problems of a straight person running a gay organization, but she has no issue with Batchelor-Ballew’s leadership of Indy Pride because it is not a political organization. “Pride celebrations aren’t determining the direction of the community,” she says.

“There is an assumption that if a group is a corporation, you have to open up to the public. That is not true.” –Kathy Sarris

“If the critics don’t like the way Indy Pride does their business, they should organize their own pride event and do it themselves.”

The future

It appears that the future direction of Indy Pride will not be determined by the controversial Batchelor-Ballew. Earlier this month, the organization announced that she has stepped down as president and been replaced by Ivan Howard, a gay man. Although critics of the organization say they fear Batchelor-Ballew will still exercise control over Indy Pride, she insists she is glad to relinquish her post and intends to resign from the board entirely by Jan. 1.

Will the newly elected Indy Pride board open its membership to the community? New President Howard says that the board will review the issue before the end of the year. Board Treasurer Munsch says he supports moving in the direction of open membership. So does the outgoing Batchelor-Ballew. “My recommendation is that they throw out any concerns they have and re-open the membership,” she says.

But back at the conference table where Indy Pride’s longtime critics lay out their version of the last year’s conflicts,

emotions still run high. Will a new Indy Pride administration be able to put an end to the conflict? “I believe that Indy Pride — no matter who the president is — owes the community an apology, an explanation for what has been going on and a description of their vision for the future of Indy Pride,” says Macri. The others nod in agreement.

But they also agree that they welcome the possibility for change with the new leadership. “I truly hope things improve,” Bruce Seybert says. “It’s never been our intention to destroy this organization.”

fquigley@nuvo.net
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