The Bush Mellon Institute
Irwin Rothenberg in 2011
The Bush-Mallon Institute for Social Justice is celebrating it’s 15th year as the
premier educational program and outreach activity of the NABWMT. Our original
name was the Multi-Racial, Multi-Cultural Institute (MRMCI). From the very
beginning, our objective for the Institute has been to realize the mission of our
organization to fight homophobia, racism, sexism, and other isms by providing
information and resources, both internally to our membership, as well as externally to
the greater LGBT community, and to society at large. Our strategy has been to utilize
interactive workshops to educate and activate our participants to understand the
history, rationale, and destructive nature of these prejudices, as well as to impart
strategies for fighting them.
To achieve this, several workshops were developed that involved participation
ranging from a half day to a full weekend; from being part of conferences and
conventions, such as the NGLTF Creating Change, and the NABWMT Conventions, to
all weekend Retreats, such as one held at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.
The workshops included “Finding The ‘I’ In The Middle of RacIsm”; “Looking Beyond
The Single Issue Lens; Understanding The Intersection Of Oppressions”; “The
Intersection of Racism and Homophobia”; “Learning to Walk the Talk: Mobilizing
Your Organization to Do Long-Term Antiracism Work” ; and “Healing the Isms as We
Heal Ourselves” . These workshops were gauged for audiences based on their prior
levels of experience and knowledge of the issues discussed.
Our growth and acceptance by the greater LGBT community was impressive: by our
10th anniversary in 2006, we had accomplished the following:
· 48 workshop presentations during 44 events in 33 cities to over 1,700 people;
· Presentations to chapters and at conventions: 25
· Presentations to other organizations and conferences: 23, including 9 at Creating
Change; and 14 to 14 other community groups;
· Cinema nights sponsored at NA conventions: 5
· Creating Change accounted for 616 of our total attendance; NA membership
attendance: 575; all other outside groups: 518.
· Average attendance per workshop: 35.6 including the mega Creating Change
workshops; and 28.0 without Creating Change; 37.0 to outside groups only; and 23.0