As I review the findings of The Center’s latest *community-wide surveys and interviews, I’m struck by the apparently contradictory views held by different portions of the community. And by the common goals and values shared across even the disagreements.

While we are not as monolithic as some would like to believe – in fact, our differences and our struggles with them are part of our community’s distinctive signature – we are not as divided as others believe.

One of the challenges for the LGBT Community Center locally, and for Centers across the nation, is the actual execution of the mission to help to build and serve the entire GLBTand allied community – in all its incredible diversity. Centers are often described as places where the rubber of reality meets the road, where all the talk about community building and community organizing are tested in the real and often-times messy world. That means searching for differences to make sure all voices are heard while simultaneously searching for whatever common ground exists. Easier to talk about than accomplish.

For those who aren’t sure that the diversity of views really exists in ways that can make it challenging to find solutions, below are just a few excerpts from the comments section of the recent surveys:

(Approximately 25 percent of more than 2,000 respondents offered comments.)

“Why is The Center, and the gay movement, so willing to accommodate and work with all of the fly-by-night grassroots organizations who don’t really do anything except march, scream and shout? They don’t reflect the real community and can’t accomplish much except marching.”

“The Center and our whole community need to re-evaluate our commitments to the traditional, incrementalist strategies that get us nowhere. The Gay, Inc. identity just won’t work anymore and there has to be a greater commitment to the grassroots.”

“Why aren’t we all as a community working to strengthen our infrastructure? Have we not seen the infrastructure that works against us everyday - their wealth and their power? Strengthening our organizations like HRC, EQCA, NCLR, the Victory Fund and The Centers should be our first priority. When will we learn what it takes to win?”

“I really appreciate all the changes at The Center and in the whole community in the last five or ten years. It feels more like a real reflection of us all, but sometimes it still seems too focused on the ‘boys club.’ It’s getting better, but our community still needs more representation and activities for people of color, women, kids, seniors and families. We need to wake up to the changing faces of our community”

“The Center and our community have become too focused on families, kids, women and people of color. We need to re-focus on the men, they are being pushed out.”

That’s just a sampling of the divergent views. Taken at face value they seem contradictory, and to some degree they are. They reflect differing strategies and different tactics. The challenge is to find ways to give voice to those opinions and perspectives and find the common ground, places where we have a unity of purpose.

The surveys also tell us about that unity. More than 60 percent of respondents strongly agreed or very strongly agreed with the following. “Moving forward, The San Diego LGBT Community Center and our San Diego GLBTcommunity at large should expand our focus upon:”

Both providing real, actual services to our community and focusing upon political gains and achieving equality – 90 percent agree

Building a community where many approaches are respected and the dialogue is less petty, less divisive and less driven by the politics of personality or needs of the media – 78 percent agree

Building meaningful relationships and collaborations with progressive, mainstream organizations – 80 percent agree

Building meaningful relationships and collaborations with communities of color organizations – 78 percent agree

Building meaningful relationships and coalitions with progressive and moderate faith communities – 60 percent agree

The results suggest that the common ground we find may not be in the specifics of tactics or strategies but at the level of coordinated broad goals and values. They suggest that we agree upon the values of increasing inclusion, civil dialogue, understanding that a variety of opinions and tactics are useful and even necessary, and investing in the work of increasing collaborations within and outside our community. Despite our disagreements on one level, we can find the common ground in our unity of purpose and decide to do the hard work of collaboration. We don’t all have to do that work in the same way or using the same tactics, but we can find ways to appreciate all who do the work.

*[More than 2,000 diverse community members responded to on-line surveys, paper and pencil surveys and interviews in the last 140 days. The full survey report will be available next month.