Preventing Burnout and Divisions Among Activists the Subject of “Creating Change” Workshop

Author of Scared Straight to Lead Session in Portland, November 9

(Kansas City, MO, October 21, 2002) “Community centers are closing around the country, activist leaders are being criticized from within, and many are tired, and worn. Still the fight for equal rights must continue, but with new models of leadership.” That’s only the first words on the subject from Robert N. Minor, author of Scared Straight: Why It's So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It's So Hard to Be Human (HumanityWorks!, 2001). Dr. Minor will be leading a workshop on being healthy leaders Saturday evening, November 9 at the 15th Annual Creating Change Conference in Portland.

The author of the book which in 2002 was both a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and Independent Publisher Book Award Finalist will provide models of leadership that are more in tune with progressive change movements than those developed for organizations meant to maintain the status quo. Dr. Minor is also the author of a series of pamphlets for activists, the most recent, not surprisingly entitled, “Burnout, Blowout and Braking Up: Navigating the Hazards of Activist Leadership.”

“Workaholism and self-sacrifice are not healthy activism. They do not provide the models of leadership our movements need. They not only result in burnout but in the inability to respond in a healthy fashion to the inevitable criticism leaders get in our country, particularly criticism from within victimized groups.”

“We also need to deal with the issues that cause division and splintering. It’s a lot to look at, but all these issues are related. And we need to see leadership as a chance for personal growth for the leaders themselves.”

Dr. Minor, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas, has been conducting workshops for communities of faith and others for ten years. The workshop to be held at the Doubletree Jantzen Beach Hotel at 7:45 pm will mark the third annual “Creating Change Conference” at which he will be presenting the “Burnout, Blowout, and Breaking Up” workshop.

“It’s crucial that activist leaders take care of themselves. It’s so easy to use activism as an addiction. We fight the good fight instead of facing our own issues. Our leadership replaces our own growth. And when we do that we not only destroy ourselves but we have a difficult time holding on to a healthy perspective on what happens to leaders.”

“We’re leading groups of people who have been hurt deeply by our society. We forget that. And our groups have spent little time healing and more time in frenzied activity.”

“Victimized groups act out their unhealed issues on their leaders. It’s easier than critiquing the larger society and it’s conditioning. We’ve got to remember that.”

Dr. Minor’s book, Scared Straight, is an eye-opening and penetrating analysis of that larger society. From the criticism of our universities as purveyors of hopelessness to the dynamics of "getting laid," it lays bare why accepting the full humanity of gay people divides people and organizations.

The White Crane Journal calls it “a brilliant book” that “ought to be required reading for every human being.” The Greenwich Village Gazette, describes it as “an extraordinary journey” that takes readers “right to the core of their most pertinent personal problems.” Brother says Scared Straight is both “subversive” and “eloquent” in its call for all people, including heterosexuals, to “come out” into their full humanity.

Reviews are appearing throughout the world and the University of Kansas Religious Studies Professor has appeared as a guest on talk shows such as the “Kathleen Dunn” show on Wisconsin Public Radio, September 4, and the Greg Freeman Show, “St. Louis on the Air,” October 17 on public radio’s KWMU

.Professor Minor makes a lively, insightful guest. For a media kit and copy of the book contact the distributor, “The Fairness Project,” at the above address email or fax number, check out www.fairnessproject.org, or contact the author directly at rminor@ku.edu.