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Thrills! Chills! Lambert House!
Feb. 28th, 2012 03:50 pmI went to Lambert House for the first time in nearly two months last night for the trans support group. I picked a bad night to be low on sleep, because this was my first time flying solo as trans group facilitator. (Facilitatrix?) There's a youth who's frequently disruptive, and this time was nasty enough to drive another one out. I can't even remember what the disruptive one said, dammit, but that's probably for the best, because the disruptive one left to apologize.
The disruptive youth has issues that Lambert House isn't chartered much less set up to handle. As other queer youth see their options multiply, I worry that we're going to see a higher proportion of youth with capital-I Issues.
I lost even more sleep by staying at the house until 11 with the director, Ken Shulman. We spent a few minutes working on the database, but then for two hours we were alone in the house as I listened to him tell horror stories about the wormy underbelly of running a little TBLG non-profit while dealing with the Seattle city council.
I've dubbed it the Ken Shulman effect: the guy makes you want to listen to him, which is an absolutely vital skill for keeping the house funded. He has no partner, which is for the best considering the degree to which the house is his life. His job is often a political grind with crazy hours; I'd rather break rocks than do what he does, even if I thought I'd be any good at it. I think Ken is like most policemen, though: he's in it not for money but for job satisfaction. Where he differs from policemen, though, is that he doesn't get to shoot or even arrest the bad guys he encounters. (And the bad guys he deals with aren't at all the usual suspects. Inquire offline.) It leaves me feeling a little powerless, and I told him so, but he points out that I'm doing my bit with the trans group.
Oh yeah: I mentioned what happened in group to Ken. He's going to Do Something. So maybe I'm not powerless.
The disruptive youth has issues that Lambert House isn't chartered much less set up to handle. As other queer youth see their options multiply, I worry that we're going to see a higher proportion of youth with capital-I Issues.
I lost even more sleep by staying at the house until 11 with the director, Ken Shulman. We spent a few minutes working on the database, but then for two hours we were alone in the house as I listened to him tell horror stories about the wormy underbelly of running a little TBLG non-profit while dealing with the Seattle city council.
I've dubbed it the Ken Shulman effect: the guy makes you want to listen to him, which is an absolutely vital skill for keeping the house funded. He has no partner, which is for the best considering the degree to which the house is his life. His job is often a political grind with crazy hours; I'd rather break rocks than do what he does, even if I thought I'd be any good at it. I think Ken is like most policemen, though: he's in it not for money but for job satisfaction. Where he differs from policemen, though, is that he doesn't get to shoot or even arrest the bad guys he encounters. (And the bad guys he deals with aren't at all the usual suspects. Inquire offline.) It leaves me feeling a little powerless, and I told him so, but he points out that I'm doing my bit with the trans group.
Oh yeah: I mentioned what happened in group to Ken. He's going to Do Something. So maybe I'm not powerless.
