June 5, 2008.
As probably only one of two living people who were there and parties to the separation of ONE, Inc., into two parts, starting in May of 1965, I am shocked that supposedly responsible people active in efforts to save the history of this civil rights movement would be sounding like anti-gay bigots and would still be attacking my integrity without ever seeking the facts, which are here on our website and in print.
Why would CLAGS believe the lies of Joseph Hawkins and the other incompetents at ONE Institute, and why would USC support the group that attacks on another homosexual archives/library? Hawkins, nor any other person at ONE Institute, which is NOT ONE, Inc., since about 1965 have ever known the facts, nor apparently read the legal documents giving HIC the material we possess. And why would anyone believe that material acquired obviously since 1965 be subject to false claims by Hawkins, et al.?
It is curious that CLAGS would be trying to act “legally” where no other Internet groups or service is including Yahoo, Google, etc.
I want to state clearly, that Hawkins is a liar, everyone who claims that HIC material is theirs is a liar, and if there ever was any question of material belonging to ONE, Inc., Dorr Legg would have taken legal steps to get it back, as he did to keep control of the name “ONE, Inc.”
USC’s ONE Institute cannot legally or otherwise act in the name of ONE, Inc. It is not ONE, Inc. ISHR owns the name, just as The Tangent Group owns the name Homosexual Information Center, Inc., even though the “group” is the dba.
I knew ONE, Inc., and the Institute for the Study of Human Resources, as I was a paid staff member of both at the time of the separation in 1965. And I can tell you that the present people at ONE Institute are not ONE, Inc. people. Dorr would never have had them around more than a month! It is a disgrace that the wonderful work of Jim Kepner and W. Dorr Legg has ended up with such incompetent and unethical people, and USC should think about its association with the organization.
But it is a serious question of how the homosexual community/movement will continue to stand aside and ignore the lies of one and the attacks of one organization on another.
This very issue is mentioned in the book coming from Chicago, Tracy Baim’s Out and Proud in Chicago. If we can’t support the honest work of groups, then we can hardly wonder why anti-gay people and groups find us unreliable.
It is not the integrity and work of the Homosexual Information Center and me, as co-founder and vice-chair, that is in question. It is the competent and ethics of the rest of the homosexual community and academia.
