James Credle
Co-Founder of Newark Pride Alliance
Circle of Friends, Scholarship for LGBT youth community activists

The major role that I see it playing is, being a voice directly to the leadership of the City, the mayor and the council. So much of the experience as the LGBTQ Bisexual, Transgender, Two Spirited people in our city has been divorced from the powers that be. Too many of us feel alone, don’t feel supported and don’t feel that we have a voice. This certainly gives that voice directly to the powers that be in the city. It would no longer be that we are wondering where that power is, where that connection is to the leadership. It is there through the commission. Now it’s just up to the commission to let people know that they are they’re voice. They can do so many things through them (the commission) to will benefit them. That will bring us closer together because we are one united voice.

The immediate agenda of the commission should be to decide as a group what are their priorities based on their experiences of the community as a whole and construct an agenda that would meet those priorities in a concrete way. I suggest they even go through the wards to solicit input from the community around what are the issues that the community perceives.

Andrew Todd Kunka
Co-President, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Caucus, Rutger School of Law, Newark, NJ

I think that the role of this commission is to bring to life a hope of equality in Newark. I think that this commission is here because so many of us feel unequal, so many of us feel afraid to walk the streets, so many of us feel that we can’t be ourselves. I think this commission is about bringing pride and bringing life to our stories, and creating a space where each of us can truly feel equal and truly feel a part of Newark.

Rooney Long
Board Member, Project WOW, North Jersey Community Research Initiative
Board Member, African American Office of Gay Concerns

What is the role of the commission?

The commission is here to bring insight and change within the community. We have to bring knowledge and understanding about LGBTQ issues that makes a bridge so that everyone can co-exist.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender youth is one of my biggest priorities. I help the youth, our future, have a better standing within the community.

Darnell Moore
Associate Director, Newark Schools Research Collaborative, Rutgers University - Newark

Board Member, Newark Pride Alliance

One of our first priorities will be to develop a governance structure and by-laws. Before we engage in the important work of community dialogue, we want to make sure that we build an infrastructure that is sustainable and that we develop policies and procedures that make sense. Rather than pull ideas out of the air, we are fortunate to receive the assistance of the Newark Pride Alliance who volunteered to develop a brief examining similar commissions from across the country. The brief will capture how other commissions are structured, how they are governed and their agendas.

I think it is fair to say that this Commission will go about setting its agenda by way of open dialogue with the community. Every member of this Commission shares the same urgency regarding community participation and collaboration. Every member also understands why we exist: we are here as representatives, voices for the communities we represent. Having said that, our agenda will be, in large part, the community’s agenda.

Unification is a need within the LGBTQ communities here in the city of Newark. I think that we can play to role of bridge builder, that is, working to ensure that every voice, from all segments, are represented and heard.

Margarita Muniz, Deputy Mayor, Community Engagement, City of Newark

This commission is now an authorized body. As an authorized, I know that we can go out and hold focus groups, hold events, where other people will come into that venue and share stories and share challenges and achievements as well. I think that as commissioners this body can make that voice heard not only on at the mayoral level but across the different levels of government.

Additionally, this body as an extension of the City of Newark, also knows the resources within our City. So whether a family or an individual is in need of certain services this commission can be that resource when they feel that for whatever reason, they can not obtain and / or have certain difficulties.

Look at other commissions at the national level and see where achievements have been made in not necessarily a quick way, but in a successful manner. We should see how we can mimic some of those procedures. I think it’s important that we not reinvent anything.

One of the single most important things is that we listen to our constituencies and we listen to the folks on the ground as to what are the real challenges and what are the priorities that we have to focus on.

Perris Straughter
Executive Director, Newark-Essex Pride Coalition
Employee, City of Newark, Economic Development Department

The key role of the commission is to formalize this community’s advocacy and serve as an intermediary body between the LGBTQ community in Newark and some extent, Greater Newark and the city government, particularly the mayors office and administration. What we are going to do is research, develop with the community’s input and then recommend to the mayors office and the administration and even the municipal council policy changes, strategies, approaches to improve the lives of people in the LGBTQ community and the people that care about that community.

We will take inventory through a lot of means. As commissioners we need to use our ties to the community to start to put the word out that this commission has been created, this is the purpose of the commission.

On two levels. On one level what Newark-Essex Pride Coalition tries to do is work with a lot of local businesses and make sure that local businesses see this community and realize that we are here doing business with those businesses and that they have a vested interest in taking an interest in our community.

On another level, an economic development level, you’ve seen across the country cities like Newark that are in a certain stage of their urban transformation and urban revitalization, that oftentimes the LGBT population or community is the driving force behind that revitalization.

There are of course a myriad of other ways because this community does give back. This community is heavily represented in the non-profit sectors, in the creative arts and design sectors in the private sector, and of course in the government, the public service sector.

Gary Paul Wright
Executive Director, African American Office of Gay Concerns

I think there are a lot of issues that aren’t defined as gay and lesbian issues. If there are hate crimes that are happening I don’t think that the police should be the only people who name it as such. There’s been examples of this in the last year. Our community needs to be heard and now we have an official voice. It will be heard.

I think just the fact that we are actually a valid piece of the puzzle in the City of Newark is gonna be good. A real identity that can’t be taken away. People who identify as gay, lesbian, trans, or questioning, they now have some faces that they can relate to and they may have some numbers that they can call with these issues.

I don’t think that the community of Newark is even aware that there is a an LGBTQ constituency out here. Once they know that there is a market out there, I think businesses are going to need our support and need our input.